Welcome Visitors

Welcome to my personal blog. I have another blog, Herbert's Place, but that one limits me to what I sometimes want to publish, because it is mainly used to promote my books. As it says in the header, I want to use this blog to write about things that have nothing to do with my books. There is no real theme here. I'll be writing about anything that causes me to either be happy or somethings that concerns me. It could be political, travel, a hobby, or anything else. So come and visit me sometimes.

Saturday, July 13, 2024

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Savanna has been released for sale

SAVANNA, Book Two in my Science Fiction series ‘Operation Stargate’ has been released. It is now available from the following outlets:


Assuming the existence of a Star portal on the planet Savanna to be a secret, the humans don’t know that the Accilla, the Spiders, and other spacefaring races are fully aware of it.
Jeremy Sheppard, a newly appointed Captain of the Solar Space Force to the military outpost and Dennis Collins, a civilian, must join forces to thwart a conspiracy to control the Star portal.



Here is another excerpt:

Only one road ran from the outpost to Crystal City. It was nothing more than dirt and not well maintained. Sheppard was happy to be safe inside an armored vehicle as they rolled across the rocky and pitted surface. He imagined the road would not be in a good condition after a heavy rainfall.
It didn’t look like there’d be any rain soon, and he was grateful for that. Looking out of the window at the landscape and the sky, it was difficult to accept he was on an alien planet. Savanna was much like Earth, starting with the vegetation, the soil, the color of the sky, and even the gravity. Not all planets humans tried to colonize were this ideal. Some were outright unpleasant, and yet, humans attempted to tame them and make them livable.
Of course, there were penalties to be paid. Over the centuries that’d passed since humans finally joined the other spacefaring races, some of the planets refused to be made into the image the humans visualized. Instead of the planet changing, humans changed. Subjected to harmful radiation, humans adapted, genes mutated, and the results were not always desirable. He remembered spending time on Deadrock, aptly named for the number of settlers who died after one of the early colonization ships crashed on a planet never designed for humans. Most of them died during the first years, but some survived. They worked the land, they built homes, and they adapted. Their descendants changed inside and outside. When this lost colony was finally found, the humans living on it were barely recognizable as humans. They were more alien than some of the real alien races.
“You’re awfully silent, Captain Sheppard.” The trooper driving the vehicle broke into his thoughts. His chuckle sounded almost amused. “Still trying to figure out which mischievous devil chose you to join us on this planet of continuous fun and excitement?”
“Colonel. Wainwright called it Outpost Despair,” Sheppard said.
One of the two troopers sitting behind Sheppard laughed. “That’s one of the nicer names we call this outpost.”
“From what I’ve seen this far, it isn’t that bad,” Sheppard said.
“You’re right, it doesn’t seem so bad, at first. After being here for as long as some of us have been, you will realize what seemed so nice is nothing but a variation of hell. The boredom drives you crazy, and the realization you’re stuck here for good. No assignments, no promotions, no action. You’ll get tired of seeing the same old faces every day and listening to the same old stories, because there are no new ones. A war could be raging out there, we’ll never know. The only excitement we get is when someone new, like you, joins us.”
“You could always resign and become a farmer,” Sheppard suggested.
“If I would have wanted to dig around in the dirt, I would never have joined the military in the first place. Besides, it isn’t as easy as it sounds to resign from the military. Have you ever read the fine print? You’ll have to undergo a partial mind-wipe to prevent you from spilling any military secrets, and you’ll lose any privileges you may have, including your pension. I for one am not willing to do that.”
“Neither am I.” Sheppard turned around to look at the trooper. “By the way, I never caught your name.”
“I’m Lieutenant Edward Fox, and this guy with the red hair beside me is Randall Foster, Sergeant Randall Foster, actually.”
“I’m Jeremy.” Sheppard shook Fox’s hand.
“I’m Robert McCallum,” the driver said with a little chuckle. “Just plain Trooper McCallum. No special rank. Never made it.”
“Doesn’t make any difference.  Nobody gives a crap about rank here anymore. We’re all on first-name-basis,” Foster said. “Or last name, whichever you prefer.”
“I have no problem with that,” Sheppard said. “What’s the assignment we’re on, anyway?”
“Supply run.” McCallum smirked.
“What are we getting?”
“You’ll see. You’re lucky you’ve been chosen. You must have made an impression on the Colonel. It usually takes him awhile to trust newcomers enough to make them part of an important assignment like this.”
“I suppose I should feel honored. What’s the story with Colonel Wainwright, anyway?”
“Nobody really knows. He has his own demons to fight, like most of us.” McCallum glanced at Sheppard sideways. “Like you, Captain Sheppard.”
When Sheppard said, “I have no demons to fight,” all three men laughed.
“Of course not.” Fox snickered behind him. “They sent you here for a little holiday.  A long holiday, Captain Lilli-white.”
Sheppard stayed silent. He didn’t get angry, because he didn’t sense any malice. They were only having a little fun at his expense. So far, he hadn’t met many of the other troopers on the outpost, but if all of them were like these three, it wouldn’t be too bad, and he could accept his situation. Only one thing he couldn’t accept, the fact he may have to spend the rest of his career on Savanna. That would really be a form of hell.


Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Outpost Epsilon available everywhere

Outpost Epsilon is available now from Amazon, Smashwords and more sellers.
Here are the links:

Excerpt/Outpost Epsilon/SF/PG/Herbert Grosshans


If you visit me from the sites I advertised the book, then you've read the excerpt, but if you just stopped here by accident or any other reason, here is an excerpt: (Please read to the end. I have an offer for you)

Note: Even though this excerpt does not contain any Erotica the novel does. It is recommended for mature readers.

Stonewall went into the storage room again and opened the other two boxes. The aliens inside looked remarkably like the first one. As he watched the one he opened first, a sudden twitch moved across the slack face, and then suddenly the eyes flew open.
       Sitting up, the alien stared at Stonewall.
      “Don’t be afraid,” Stonewall said with a soothing voice, not knowing if he would be understood. “We are friends.”
       The dark lips formed a smile. “Friends,” the alien repeated with a soft, female voice. She sat up, and then she carefully climbed out of the casket.
      Movement in the other two caskets told Stonewall that all of the aliens were alive. He watched them sitting up and leave their sleeping places. All three wore clothing similar to those of the wounded man in the other room. Even though it was loose, he could see the outlines of breasts on their chests.
The first one stared at Stonewall and spoke, but of course, he didn’t understand a word.       “I don’t understand your language,” he said.
      “But I understand you.” The alien looked at Stonewall. “I recognize your language. What happened? Who are you?”
       “Your spaceship crashed. We are here to rescue you.”
       “We crashed?” The female lifted her head and looked into the fourth coffin. “What happened to Leer? Is he alive?”
       “If you mean your male companion, yes, he is alive, but he is injured.” Stonewall walked ahead of them into the room where Peters and the alien man waited anxiously. When the three females stepped out, the wounded man let out an audible sigh. One of the three went over to him and squatted in front of him. She spoke to him in a soft, low voice, and then she stood up and faced Peters and Stonewall.
      “He needs help. He will die if he doesn’t get medical attention fast.”
       Peters looked at Stonewall. “Do you have any medical training?”
      Stonewall shook his head. “Just some first aid, basics, that’s all. He needs more than that.
“This is just crazy. I’ve told the Chief many times we need more than a few scooters and a couple of rovers. We need vehicles that fly, not just crawl on the ground!” Peters stared at the darkening sky outside.
“I wondered about that myself,” Stonewall said. “Why don’t we have a small shuttle?”       “Too dangerous, apparently. Because of the giant reptiles controlling the sky.” Peters laughed sarcastically. “As if traveling on the ground is so safe.”
       “So what can we do?”
       “There is no room on the scooter for all of us, obviously. I could take him back to the outpost. Doc Flemming might be able to help him. You’d have to stay here with these three and wait for us to pick you up with the rover. If I leave now, I should make it before midnight.”
       “I thought traveling at night is too dangerous?”
       “It is.” Peters studied the alien man who sat in a crouched position in his seat, his breath coming in great gasps. “But this is an emergency. I know which way to go now. It will be easier.”
“All right. If you think so. I’ll stay here. We should be safe inside this vessel.”
      “You should be, but don’t get careless. Now, help me getting him outside and to the scooter.”
      The alien man could barely stand. Stonewall and Peters helped him outside then they practically dragged him across the swamp until they reached the scooter. Before Peters left, he gave Stonewall a pack, which had been stored in the back of the sidecar.       “There is water and food inside. It should be enough for you until I come back.” Peters lowered his voice. “Don’t let down your guard. Those might be females, but we know nothing about their species. Keep your eyes open at all times and your rifle within easy reach. I’ll contact the base and fill them in about the situation. Don’t expect anyone to pick you up until tomorrow afternoon. That rover doesn’t travel any faster than the scooters, perhaps even slower.” He slapped Stonewall on the back. “Take care and stay safe, my friend.”
       Stonewall watched as Peters took off into the forest then he waded back to the alien vessel. The three females watched him anxiously when he climbed back into the ship.
“Thank you for helping us,” one of them said. “I am Sheera. What shall we call you?”
 “Stonewall, call me Stonewall.” He looked at the other two. “You have names also?”
       Both of them smiled. For the first time, he noticed their long incisors.
      “I am called Pteer.”
       “And I am Seel.”
       Stonewall tried to remember their names and the faces that went with them. Even though at first glance they looked alike, he noticed differences between them, the most important ones the eyes. Sheera’s eyes were purple, Pteer’s brown and Seel had shiny, black eyes. Watching them closer, he also noticed that their faces seemed unable to show deep expressions, as if they were wearing masks. They looked almost unfinished. Coarse. Their naked skulls were large, bulging out in the back of their heads.
       When Sheera turned away from him, he saw the hump on her back, and checking out the other two, he found they also had humps.
       He shrugged. Just because they weren’t very attractive, didn’t mean they couldn’t be amiable.

Just for visiting and reading this far, I'll send you a free copy in any format you want. Just drop me a line at hegro@shaw.ca

Friday, October 5, 2018

Outpost Epsilon


My book ‘Outpost Epsilon’ was originally published 2008. It was the forerunner to my trilogy ‘Lizard World’. I never really cared much for the cover.
I always loved that story and the character Terrex Stonewall, and so I wrote a trilogy following ‘Outpost Epsilon’. The trilogy was published as ‘Lizard World’. It seemed appropriate, because the planet Epsilon is populated with giant lizards, dinosaurs.
We’ve made some changes to Outpost and the rest of the series.  My publisher Melange Books decided to release ‘Outpost Epsilon’ as the prequel to the trilogy, with a beautiful new cover. We’ve also changed the series title. The whole series will be called ‘The Stonewall Chronicles’, which includes ‘Outpost Epsilon’.
The first book in the trilogy will be re-released in January 2019 with a new title ‘A New Dawn’. The second book will be ‘Epsilon City’, which actually is the old title, but all books will have new covers. And Book Three in the trilogy will be ‘Mysteries of Epsilon’.
Who knows, I may decide to write another novel in the series ‘The Stonewall Chronicles’, featuring Scout Terrex Stonewall. Right now, I’m busy with another project and once I’m done with that I want to write Book Three in the series ‘Operation Stargate’. I’ve already written down a few outlines and ideas, but it’ll have to wait.
With that same Universe I created in Outpost Epsilon as the background I started another series ‘Operation Stargate’. Book One ‘Codename Salamander’ was released in 2016 and is available from Melange Books and many outlets on line, including Amazon.
Book Two in that series, ‘Savanna’, will be released in the near future.

Outpost Epsilon is scheduled to be released October 16, but it will be available possibly already tomorrow at certain places. I will post the links as soon as I get them from my publisher.

Here is the picture:





Caviar

I caught a few Sauger, which are a subspecies of Walleye, only smaller. We have lots of them in the Red River north of Winnipeg. All the fish I caught were females loaded with eggs. My wife loves caviar so we made some. It is super easy to make and takes hardly any time at all.
Recipe:
Remove the eggs from the sac (just slice the sac with a sharp knife and scrape out the eggs).
Rinse the eggs under cold water in a fine sieve.
Put the eggs into a salt brine (1/4cup coarse salt to 1 cup of water -depends how many eggs there are-).
Refrigerate for 20 minutes, and then put into a fine sieve to drain the salt water.
Taste eggs, if they are too salty rinse in cold water.
Leave eggs in sieve and put sieve over small container to drain more. Refrigerate container with the eggs in the sieve for 2 hours.
After two hours the caviar is ready to eat. ( It will be salty, but caviar is like that)
Eat on crackers.
Enjoy.

Saturday, December 9, 2017

A wonderful Christmas concert



This past Thursday we went to the Club Regent Theatre in Winnipeg to watch ‘A Prairie Christmas’ with the #Nadeau Emsemble. Two women played the harp and a man played a variety of old string instrument that looked quite complicated. One of them sounded like the Scottish bagpipes. What a great performance! No screaming voices and no blaring steel guitars that make your chest vibrate and your eardrums wanting to burst.

The women didn’t just play the harp, they also sang along. Both women had lovely, sweet voices that blended perfectly with the sound of the harps. It was a wonderful and enjoyable evening. I never knew a harp sounded very much like a piano.

Too bad the show wasn’t sold out. People don’t seem to be interested anymore in these kind of performances, where you can sit back, close your eyes and be transported into a world of peace and quiet solitude. They’d rather flock to shows performed by bands like the Tragically Hip and similar groups. I’ve never enjoyed shows where you can’t understand the words, because they are screamed into a microphone and where the instruments are played so loud you can’t hear yourself think. I don’t like people waving their hands in the air in front of me so I can’t see the stage anymore.

We went to a Winter Concert from School. They used to call them Christmas Concerts. Not anymore. In this political climate we are living in, we mustn’t offend all those minorities that don’t believe in Christmas. They played one ‘Song’ with drums I thought would never end, one with nothing but electronic music, and one song by Zeppelin with loud instruments and a guy singing. According to my son he did a great imitation. I couldn’t wait for the evening to end to give my ears a rest.

Whatever happened to those singers with the melodic, resonant voices instead of those flat voices you hear these days?

It seems to be a sign of the times. Nobody has time anymore to sit and relax, to contemplate life and enjoy the silence; to listen to their inner voice. Everything has to be loud and hektic. You hear it in the music and in every part of life. When I watch people walking around with their I-phones in their hand, constantly checking for who knows what, texting while they cross the street, while they stand in line at the cashier, or sitting in a doctor’s office. I’ve seen them playing games on their gadgets while fishing. I watched a man with his two children in a restaurant. Instead of paying attention to his children, he was occupied with his cell phone, completely ignoring his kids. What is happening? Where are we heading? People seems to be more nervous than ever; they suffer from mental problems and from stress. Perhaps putting away their phone and just having a nice conversation with the people they are with might help a lot or going to a concert like the one we just enjoyed.

Many people reading this will not agree with me. My son is a fan of the Tragically Hip. I guess I’m just an old-fashioned guy, a dying breed. Maybe in a hundred years, if we haven’t managed to destroy this worlds with everyone on it, things will be different. Perhaps people will enjoy classical music again and appreciate voices and music performed by groups like the Nadeau Ensemble.