GRADUATION

           It’s that exiting, fun time of the year for a number of our young people.  School is winding down except for the dreaded final exams.  Proms are happening and graduations are being prepared for across the country.  Times of change.  Times of commitment.   

            A lot of these young people will be looking at their last summer of freedom to spend with friends they’ve known since they were but single digit ages.  Others will struggle with how to keep relationships of a more romantic leaning alive over the distances some of them may travel to continue their education.  Life can get complicated.

            Scores of these graduates will be entering the work force for either the first time or will be moving from a part time position to a full time slot,  hoping to make enough dough to support themselves in “the real world.”

            I remember when Jerry and I were at that point in our lives.  The Viet Nam War shadowed so many choices that had to be made.  The draft was in full swing and young men in college were easy pickings as well as those in non-essential jobs.  Some were able to change their career choices to try to avoid the draft, some were drafted and were given the option to learn other skills and some, well, some just never made it back home.  For most of us, if we really wanted one, a job was out there for us.  I came home each week with my take home pay of about $40.00 and feeling like I was rich.

            A lot of us did manage to get through school if we could find a way of affording it which for many, were those jobs we had.  Some who went right into the job market found that there was the opportunity available to succeed if one tried.  Technology opened up new prospects that we had never dreamed of, giving us many new career choices for both men and women.  We started families, settled down, hoped for the future, just like our parents did before us.

            Today’s young people will face the burden of a poor economy, high unemployment and staggering tuition costs.   Leaving high school will not be analogous to “spreading your wings;” it will be more like “throwing you to the wolves.”  I believe each generation has had obstacles to overcome in order to make it in this world but that doesn’t make it any easier for the next one coming up.  They have their own tough decisions to make.  Being realistic is a hard road for ones so young.  Let’s remember what roads we took and the consequences we suffered and give them some slack.  Life has never been about just black and white reality; there’s gotta be a rainbow of dreaming and hope tagging along.

            All the best to those of you who are starting this new road in your life and a special thanks to your parents and family members who have and will continue to encourage you to keep trying.  Learning never stops; we do it until the moment we stop breathing.  Do both for a long, long time!

Sharon

SPRING: A TIME OF CHANGE

            I guess it’s safe to say that spring has finally sprung over most of the United States.  We’ve progressed from a horrible, rotten, stinkin, cold winter (did I say enough) to above normal temperatures so rapidly that most of us can’t even remember yet where we stashed our hot weather clothing.  Cool weather gardens couldn’t be planted when they should because even they don’t like hard freezes and hail.  Now these crops think they’ve been transported to the middle of the Sahara Desert.  Not a lot we can do with some things, I guess.

            Winter set some us back in terms of our lifestyle.  Excuses were abundant for not going out for walks or for playing outside with the kids.  Healthy foods were easily replaced by comfort foods. “Salads too cold but pasta warmmmm.  Chocolate my friend!  Fuzzy, warm blanket just right to wear in front of television while snacking.” 

            OK, some of us have been bad; some of us have just been perfect, yeah.  Now is the chance for us imperfect ones to get in gear and make some positive changes.  I promise I will as soon as I think about it some more.  You go first.

            Seriously, one thing I’m going to start doing is spending more time on this website.  I’m sure you notice the date of my last blog.  I’m going to try to put something up at least once a week and if I start lagging, please let me know.  Even if you don’t want to read what I write you’ll at least have the satisfaction of keeping me to task.  I’ve got lots of things to say and writing it down is easier than talking to myself about it.  Maybe then, people will stop staring at me.

            Another thing I’m going to establish is putting stuff on the WHAT’S NEW page instead of pretending that we’ve seen it all.  If you followed Jerry’s writings in outdoor/gun magazines, you know that he usually had a column about neat stuff that had just come onto the market or deserved a second look or books; both fiction and non fiction that he thought deserved your attention.  He started this way back in the mid 1970s with a column called Terrain and Situation which appeared in Soldier of Fortune magazine and he had similar columns in both Dillon’s Blue Press and Gun World magazines until his death.  Help me out here.  I’ll be looking for stuff that I want to share with all of you but, if you know of something cool, let me know about it and we can all share information.  Get in touch with me through the website.

            I’m thinking about some other changes too but too much thinking all at once can give anyone a headache.  Right now I think I’ll go out for a walk and maybe water the garden if there’s anything that hasn’t burned to a crisp.

Sharon

Update on Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at 12:04PM by Jerry

I just want to add something some of you may have not heard about.  Harlequin/Gold Eagle/etc. was bought recently by News Corp. which is part of Harper Collins.  With the entire book publishing world standing on shaky ground, I do hope that all the authors who have contributed so much to our reading enjoyment come out of this new deal unscathed.  We did a few books for them ourselves such as the TRACK series and two TAKERS novels.  Let's try and keep an eye on what happens.

Sharon

THE ATLANTA BLAME GAME

As some of you may have heard, the South got hit with a major catastrophic snow storm Tuesday.  I know what some of you are thinking.  “How can that little snow cause so much trouble?  Don’t those people know how to drive?”   Yes, we do know how to drive.  Haven’t you ever watched THE DUKES OF HAZZARD? 

Seriously, when you only encounter the white stuff every few years, your snow driving skills may get a little rusty and the southern states and cities try to spend their money on more necessary items than snow plows and anti-icing mixtures that may sit in warehouses for many seasons to come.  But when we know that the snow is coming our way, we do expect those in charge of such weather related incidents to have a plan and then to implement said plan.  Unfortunately this did not happen in Atlanta.

State and city officials, once the snow was already seriously coming down, put out the word that businesses should close down and schools, which many say should have never been open in the first place Tuesday, should dismiss early.  If aliens decide to invade Atlanta and its citizens try to evacuate, I know what it will look like – GRIDLOCK.    The aliens can just hover over the interstate and scoop us up.

By 1:00pm this Wednesday afternoon I heard on the local news that there had been over 800 accidents reported.  How many more accidents occurred that were not reported by then or, that never will be, is anyone’s guess.  School buses could not get to some schools to pick up children and hundreds of kids were forced to spend the night camped out.  Some Atlanta school buses carrying children home couldn’t safely navigate the hilly streets or they got stuck behind 18 wheelers that were having similar problems and waited for long hours until they could have the children rescued and brought to safety.  The interstates became parking lots. Drivers were in some cases stuck in their cars for 12 to 18 hours!  Vehicles were piled up on the medium strips because they ran out of gas; some that couldn’t get that far just parked on the side of the road.  National Guardsmen were out in force this morning checking to see if some of these stranded vehicles were still occupied and to offer assistance.

Both the governor and the mayor of Atlanta are under attack for not handling the situation better.  People feel that the root of the traffic problems stem from the fact that there was no staggering of the shut downs; everyone, schools, government workers and Atlanta business were all told to shut down at basically the same time.  This caused way too many motorists out there traveling the always busy roads.  In perfect weather, this would have overloaded the city’s streets. Also, the officials had promised that they were ready for the potential storm and had equipment and de-icing trucks in place. They said this on television and you don’t lie on tv!  They then proceeded to wait on clearing until the congestion on the highways made it impossible for the roads to be cleared.

The blame then shifted to the truckers who couldn’t get enough speed up to manage the steep inclines associated with Atlanta’s bridges and exit ramps.  They were stuck and had no particular place to go, blocking those behind them.  The truckers turned the blame back on the government officials who had held off too long on clearing the roads.

Then I heard the most creative blame of all.  The meteorologists were the ones to blame because they said the major path of the storm would not affect Atlanta much and would drop the greatest amounts further away.  Local meteorologists stood up and defended themselves, pointing out that on Monday, almost 24 hours before the snow started to fall, they had given the city fair warning that snow was on the way and could be several inches in accumulation.  Even weather man Al Roker from the TODAY show defended them and their forecasts.

The only one not getting blamed for this mess is the snow!  We can’t stop it from falling but maybe with a little common sense we can learn to live with it, know when to stay home and off the streets and throw some snowballs before it all melts away.  And now is the time that those in charge make promises as to how things will be done better next time - just like they did last time.

PS  As some of you know, I don’t live in Atlanta.  I live in a town in Georgia far enough away from the big city that we don’t deal with traffic jams unless you count the Fourth of July or Christmas parades.  It snowed here.  The sun came out.  Snow is melting.  A simple life for sure.

 Sharon

FYI  A little girl was born on I-285.  Her parents couldn't get to the hospital in time.  Her name is Grace.

THE REAL SURVIVALISTS

John Thomas Rourke, the main character in the SURVIVALIST series, is to many people the epitome of true survivalism.  Here you have a man who comes out basically unscathed from a nuclear holocaust and then travels across the United States on a Harley Davidson motorcycle, fighting kill-crazy brigands, radiation disease, cannibals and whatever else crosses his path in order to save his family and bring them to a safe haven that he had planed ahead and created for just such an occurrence. 

            There are a lot of you who do try to plan ahead.  You stock food and supplies for that SHTF day, hoping it never comes but wanting to be ready, just in case. Many of you learn the basics of first aid and CPR, knowing that in an emergency, medical help may not be forthcoming.  Skills such as setting up a safe, comfortable shelter in the out of doors without the “necessities” of electricity and running water are learned and passed on to others who have like interests as well as the skill of obtaining fresh meat and the art of preserving it for later consumption. 

            All the above are abilities that will serve well in any situation and are useful to all of us in order to survive in this constantly changing world. But, some of us have taken the essence of survival to a whole new level; a level few of us are capable of obtaining.

            As many of you know, Jerry was an inner city High School teacher in Chicago, many long years ago. At this one particular school he taught at, he was accepted into the teaching community and made some good friends.  One of these friends, Jerry Buergel became a mentor to him as well as a friend.  Jerry - we just called him Buergel, knew how to fish and work on guns, and understood electricity; skills not all of us had acquired.  The school had a teacher’s bowling team and we were both involved.  My Jerry had never bowled before and Buergel and the rest of the teachers took it upon themselves to instruct him in the fine art of the game.  Jerry never got beyond dangerous to himself and anyone else near by.  Jerry loved it and the bowling teams knew to keep their eyes open for flying objects.

Buergel and his wife, Judy welcomed us to their home regularly and we rarely turned them down.  We were the young, just married ones and they were the mature folk with two kids and dogs and ducks and ferrets and.....

          When we moved to Georgia in the very late 70s, the Aherns and the Buergels managed to stay in touch.  We called to let them know how warm and sunny our weather was when we knew Chicago was in the midst of its usual deep freeze.  They would call us to see if we had floated away during one of our springtime floods.  Later the calls turned to the exploits of our grown children and still later, our grandchildren. Jerry and Judy made it down here a few times over the years and we would camp or just get lost up in the mountains.  Sometimes, they came down with all their clown paraphernalia and put on shows for the local kids of all ages.  Yes, they became professional clowns!      

Life wasn’t always easy for the Buregels.  Just like most of us, they’ve had their ups and downs with health, retirement and the almighty quest to stay afloat in life.  They have survived all that has been thrust upon them.  They have survived because the one thing they always have had, no matter what, was their love and respect for each other. 

Jerry and Judy Buergel have spent the last 50 years honing survival skills that are the most important for us to remember.  Treat every day of your life together like a sip of good wine.  Don’t waste it! 

HAPPY 50^TH ANNIVERSARY

Sharon

TALES FROM THE TAKERS

I’ll cover questions about other books in later blogs but I received the most requests for more information about THE TAKERS.   So, here it goes. The three books in the series, at least so far, are THE TAKERS, THE TAKERS: RIVER OF GOLD and THE TAKERS:  SUMMON THE DEMON.  The first two books have been reprinted and are available from Speaking Volumes and the third book, SUMMON THE DEMON will be available sometime late November.  This installment is all about Zombies and Devil Worshipers and Voodoo and Nuclear Submarines.  SUMMON THE DEMON was done as an audio adaptation but this will be the first time ever that it will be available in print or e-book format,  I’m looking forward to seeing it myself!

            The TAKERS books were by far the most fun to write.  We had characters that --at least to us -- seemed perfectly normal who we could throw into completely outrageous situations and know that they would somehow stumble through and save the day.  Did we see them as counterparts of Jerry and Sharon?  Looking back, I think we took little pieces of ourselves and gave those pieces to Josh and Fanny but we pushed them way beyond our comfort zones.  They also had a lot more money to play with.

            You don’t see a lot of Josh’s house on Georgia’s Lake Lanier until the third book, SUMMON THE DEMON and the short story SIEGE PERILOUS where Father Damascus Santini, a major character from RIVER OF GOLD, finds refuge from a bunch of bad guys.  Of course the house is gorgeous right down to the great room with the fireplace and the bearskin rug on the floor in front of it.  We had a mounted bear’s head once.  A friend’s wife wouldn’t let him bring it into the house so he gave it to Jerry.  I hated that thing.  It kept staring.  It also shed and when I found its nose on the floor I made him take the semi-balding, noseless bear head out of the house.  He found someone else to give it to.  I sometimes wonder where he lives now. If you walk up three steps from the great room to the kitchen you can pour yourself an inch or two of Myers’s Dark Rum which was a staple in our house during the winter months.  Our house lacked central heating at that time and some nights some extra warmth was necessary.

            We also housed graveside recording that were sent to us that were very interesting (more like they scared the sh-- out of us) as well as Zuni rain dance music.  We did interviews with a real vampire hunter and had an extensive tape collection of interviews with experts on Voodoo and the Occult.  In other words we had the typical home library that everyone in a small town in Georgia had, not to mention a Rolodex with some of the cards listing fake names.    

            The multi-million dollar house that they share overlooks Lake Sidney Lanier, named for the poet. It is a Mecca for outdoor recreation. Some of the rowing and canoeing events for the 1996 Summer Olympics took place there.  Josh and Fanny don’t live in a really secluded area since 7.5 million people visit this lake each year, most during the summer months.  Of course when they stand out on their balcony, all they see is the lake and the surrounding mountains.   When we had severe drought conditions here two years ago, they could see boats stuck in the mud with no chance of coming ashore until the rains came along.  Something you may not be aware of is that if things get really rough, they’re pretty close neighbors to the Rourke Retreat.  Lots of adventure in Northeast Georgia! 

            The idea for the first book, THE TAKERS, came about while doing research for something else.  I can’t even remember what the something else was but I came upon a reference that William Gladstone who served as the British Prime Minister four times between 1868 and 1894 had, based on the findings of a lawyer named Ignatius Donnelly, gone to Parliament asking for funds to send out an expedition to find Atlantis. Gladstone was turned down.  I told Jerry and we started kicking around the idea that what if Gladstone had gotten the ok and an expedition had been sent off.  That was all it took to get started.  Going from there to ancient aliens with horns really wasn’t much of a stretch. Nazis and crazy psychopaths just naturally followed.

            Josh Culhane spends a lot of his time trying to live up to his fictional adventure hero. When Josh is in a tough spot he wonders what Sean Dodge would do.  He usually comes up with a plan and occasionally feels elated that he’s one upped Sean.   Jerry related to Josh’s character in that he was the one who always tried to be sensible and was usually ignored. Jerry would try to work out a problem and look at it from all angles then find out that someone solved the problem using a hammer or baseball bat or whatever.  Josh has a lot more money and got to travel extensively but Jerry was happy to have a family and pets and friends and a load of interesting characters.

            If there is something I’ve missed that you would like to know about the TAKERS, please, feel free to ask.

Sharon