Reviews, Series

Generation War

imageshol0lpq5Recently, I watched Generation War again. It’s German-made series about World War II. There are three episodes, each one lasts an hour and thirty minutes.

I think it’s a good picture, but there are a couple things that I don’t feel are accurate, most notably are the partisans in Poland being anti-Semitic. That put me off. I looked into it and found out that, yep, the Polish partisans were most definitely not anti-Semitic. They are credited for rescuing many Jews from the Holocaust.

But otherwise, I really enjoyed this series. First time I watched it was about a year ago. I watched it again a month ago.

Generation War is about five friends from Berlin. Two are brothers and they’re in the German army. One is a nurse, one becomes a singer. One is a Jewish man who attempts to flee Germany, but finds himself swept up in the Holocaust.

So, each of the five have their own story. They thought the war would be over by Christmas and they would all reunite at their bar in Berlin. But the war dragged on much longer.

On Writing, Writing

Novel Wrapped Up

Yesterday I finished going over that one novel again. I finished writing the thing a couple years ago. Some months back, I started reading it, because I needed to make notes for the second book of the series.

While reading it, I ended up making changes and corrections. So, it became a long process. I had already gone over this novel several times before, but there were still some mistakes that I missed the last time I went over it. Also, there were scenes that I decided to change to make them fit better. I think the story has a better ring to it now.

The whole thing is 91,278 words and 431 pages.

Today I’m stressing over which publishing company to send it to first. Most of the big publishers will only accept agented submissions, but I can think of couple that are open to unagented submissions and I’m leaning toward one of them. I’m also considering some small press publishers.

I’ve shopped this novel around to agents, but haven’t landed one yet. So, I decided to change my game plan a little and see if I can land a publisher, and then maybe I’ll be able to win over an agent.

We’ll see what happens.

Guns

Heritage Manufacturing Rough Rider

20161207_093705Yeah, I got one of those too. My Heritage Manufacturing Rough Rider came with two cylinders, one for .22lr and the other for .22 Magnum. Though, I confess, I haven’t used the .22 Magnum cylinder yet and have only run .22lr through the pistol.

My Rough Rider is my primary target pistol. I bought it because I wanted to learn to shoot like Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. I might get another one eventually, so I can do two pistol shootings. I think that would give me equal practice with both hands and it would be fun.

Heritage Manufacturing has several different versions of the Rough Rider. They come in different calibers, colors and grips. You can also buy different grips, to replace the ones you have, if you want something more fancy. I have an eye on a couple different grips. I also like the holsters they have. It’s all available on the Heritage Manufacturing  website.

My Rough Rider does everything I expect it to do. It must shoot straight, because I can hit the target with it.

Football, NFL, Sports

In case you didn’t know, the Lions are in first place

Yep, that’s right. The Detroit Lions are the top NFC North Team. Their position on the list looks secure enough for the time being. The Lions are 8-4. The Vikings and the Packers are below the Lions and tied with 6-6.

The Bears are hanging there at the bottom with a 3-9. So, I’m not too worried about them. But if they beat the Lions this coming Sunday, that would royally suck.

So, what this means is, if the Lions can hold their place through the last four games of the regular season, they’ll be in the playoffs for sure. The Packers or the Vikings would have to win two and the Lions would have to lose two for the Lions’ first place standing to be lost.

Hey, the Cubs made it to the World Series this year and won it. Can the Lions make it to the Super Bowl and win it? Please.

Books, Reviews

Horns, by Joe Hill

514s2pnk3zlSo, I finished and reviewed Joe Hill‘s Heart-Shaped Box a few weeks ago. I believe Heart-Shaped Box is the first novel Hill published. Yesterday, I finished Hill’s second novel, Horns.

Heart-Shaped Box and Horns are two completely different stories, but both were deep in music. Judas Coyne, the rock star who bled all over the pages in Heart-Shaped Box is criticized by a character in Horns. I guess not everyone is impressed with Jude’s music.

I like when writers pull that trick, mention a character from a completely different, unconnected story. It makes that character feel more real, alive, and it makes me feel like I’m being reminded of an old friend.

Okay, so… Horns. It’s a rather strange story, dipped in dark fantasy. Ig Perrish wakes up after a night of drunken raging and discovers he has grown horns. Now everyone is telling him their darkest secrets. Because of this, Ig starts to hear the truth of what happened to his girlfriend, Merrin, a year ago.

As usual, a good read and entertaining, even though the story touches on a highly sensitive subject. Hill showed very clearly how brutal and ugly rape is. I was uncomfortable as I read the scene where it happened.

Guns

What’s a good holster for the Cobra Denali?

20161202_134126

My October 2015 entry about the Cobra Denali is one of my most viewed entries. I imagine people land on it because they’re thinking about buying a Cobra Denali and they want information about it.

It occurred to me that some people might also be looking for a holster for their Denali. I don’t think there are any holsters that were made specially for the Denali and it might be tough finding a holster that works with it.

The holster I use is an Uncle Mike’s size 1 IWB. This holster is pretty slim and it’s comfortable in my waistband. It also works good as a pocket holster, which I sometimes use it as.

Hunting

It’s December 1 and Firearm Season has ended

Yesterday was the last day of the regular firearm season. I did not make it out the last couple days, was caught up in other things. So, didn’t get to use my boomstick this year.

I got a doe with the crossbow in early October, so my season wasn’t unsuccessful. I spent the rest of October and November trying to get a buck, but no luck.

There’s still another month for deer hunting. I can hunt with the crossbow all through December. If I had a muzzleloader, I could use that for, I think, the first ten days of December. But I haven’t gotten a muzzleloader yet.

Movies, Reviews

Glory Road (2006)

51kaepxgrrl__sy445_The other night, I watched Glory Road on Netflix. It’s another one of those historic sport movies. This one is about the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship team.

Don Haskins is hired to coach basketball at Texas Western, a small college in El Paso. Haskins goes  out and recruits black players from different states, such as Indiana, Michigan and New York.

This is 1966 and in the south. Although some NCAA teams had a token black player or two, the black players were not given much time on the court. I guess Don Haskins’s 1966 team was the first NCAA team where the majority of the players were black and they were given the most time on the court.

A good movie. I paused it several times to look up something mentioned, so I would know more about it.

Hunting

A Big Deer

I woke up at 5:20 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about the deer I saw yesterday. At 5:45, I was still awake and since my alarm would be going off in fifteen minutes, I decided to get my ass out of bed and blog this thing.

Yesterday, I made it over to mom and dad’s house earlier than usual. This gave me four and a half hours in The Bat Shack. It was a gray day, with rain here and there. The rain was mostly light, but for about thirty minutes, it rained pretty hard.

While the hard rain was coming down, I was thinking about some article I read a year or two ago. The article said something about how a good time to hunt is after a hard rain, because the deer will come out when it stops. I don’t know how true that is. I’ve seen so many theories over the years and I no longer know what’s true and what’s not.

When the rain finally stopped, a deer walked into my view.

This deer was massive. Last year, the trail cam picked up a six-point buck that looked well-built. But the deer I saw yesterday made that six-point buck look puny. The deer from yesterday was built like a bull.

I think it was a buck, but I’m not positive. My poor eyesight combined with the immediate background made it hard to tell if those were antlers on its head or tree branches behind it. I needed the deer to go farther into the clearing, and then I would’ve been able to see if it had a rack or not.

But it didn’t go all the way in. From the moment the deer walked into my view, it was alert. If I still had an antlerless tag and could have shot it if it wasn’t a buck, I doubt I would’ve gotten it. This deer wasn’t letting its guard down.

The deer walked about halfway to the corn and stopped, its head up and face turned to me.

I didn’t move and I didn’t make a sound. My heart wasn’t racing, my breathing wasn’t raspy. I’ve gotten used to seeing deer while hunting and I no longer get so damn excited when they show up.

The deer stood there for a couple minutes, and then suddenly turned around and bolted away. Its tail was up, showing a large white flag that signaled DANGER!

I don’t know what spooked it. Maybe it saw me, though I always thought the shadows in my shack would conceal me. Or maybe it picked up my scent. even though I used unscented soap and shampoo.

I sat for another hour, but no more deer wandered into my clearing.

Well, it’s Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. I’m going to mom and dad’s soon, so I can hunt before the Lions start at 12:30

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone.