My next book

I usually don't write much about my books here. For that I have my other blog, but not everyone who read this blog reads Herbert's Place (my other blog).

I just did the final approval of my book 'Codename Salamander' and I'd like to share the picture with the readers of this blog. (This is exactly the same thing I wrote there)

My latest Science Fiction novel Codename Salamander is finally ready to be published. It was a long road. After writing it, I submitted the novel to my publisher Melange Books LLC. It was accepted and I signed the contract. That was last year. It is a long waiting period between submitting a novel and having it published. There is always still lots of work to be done.

The editing process took a long time and after reading the novel so many times it was getting boring. I was anxious to get back to writing the novel I’m currently working on: Rhodar, the Barbarian - Saleen (Working title). By the way, I’m reaching 80,000 words with that one.

I discovered when having your novel edited by an editor, don’t get too complacent and trust the editor too much and don’t accept the suggestions and revisions blindly, as I did in the end. You still need to read the revisions because errors have a way of sneaking in. I found this out with Codename Salamander. Fortunately, my publisher sent me the PDF version of the novel and asked me to make sure everything is as I want it. I took the time and read the whole novel again, paying close attention to every sentence and word. To my horror I found a slew of errors. Nothing major, but enough to be annoying when reading the story. It is important to make sure the novel is error free. Some readers make it a habit to look for errors and that can be fatal to a novel. Actually, after a long period of being away from the novel, I enjoyed reading it again and I hope my readers will find as much enjoyment with it as I did.

Codename Salamander is the fifth book in my ‘Spider Wars’ series, that started with Outpost Epsilon, a short novel I published in 2008. After that I wrote and published three volumes under the sub-series ‘Lizard World’. All four books took place on a planet called Epsilon, a planet covered with giant mushrooms and teeming with dinosaurs and other nasty critters.

Anyway, everything was finally ironed out with Codename Salamander and the novel is ready to go to the printer. It will be released November 22^nd, 2016. One more month. I can wait that long.

The artist did a wonderful job. She seems to have new, fresh ideas and designed a cover I’m quite happy with. It is bold and colorful.

Have a look at it and judge for yourself:

The World is #Crazy

Yesterday morning on the radio someone said it is #Pyjama Day on Tuesday and they suggest everyone go to School and to work wearing pyjamas. It is for some cause.

What nonsense is that again? Come on! Wearing pyjamas at work? Not only is it dangerous in certain occupations but also sloppy looking. Pyjamas are for wearing in bed when you’re going to sleep and when nobody sees you. The last thing I’d like to see is people wearing pyjamas in a store, especially sales people. For one thing—it sure doesn’t look professional. How about your lawyer or the judge in court wearing pyjamas? How much confidence will that instill in you about your case being taken seriously or how much respect can one have for a professional person wearing pyjamas? How about a police officer stopping you for speeding? Just picture it in you head a cop wearing pyjamas with his gun belt strapped around his waist strutting up to your car, like some guy who escaped from the Loony bin. I think I’d speed away.

I rest my case.

I’m always amazed when I see people, usually fat people, wearing sweat pants when going shopping. Do they ever look in the mirror?

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any crazier, I read about someone coming up with another wonderful idea. The latest thing is to hire a ‘#Marriage Proposal Planner’. They give you ideas how to propose to your (hopefully) future spouse, arrange the place and time, even arrange for the jeweler to come so you can pick out the engagement ring, and so forth. Are people really that stupid these days they can’t even propose anymore?

How about the wedding? Of course, there have been #Wedding Planners already for a while. Weddings cost so much these days one wonders if it is smart to get married. Perhaps that’s why so many young couples decide not to get married and just move in together. It’s cheaper that way.

 It doesn’t end there. Funeral places plan the funeral. To die is expensive. I’m sure there are ‘Christening Planners’ when you want your child to be baptized.

The insanity never ends. And everything comes with a huge price tag. By the time people get married, they are already deep in debt.

Then comes the first house. It isn’t a ‘Starter Home’ anymore, like in my days; oh no, now it has to be a huge house right away.

I’ve always maintained that the majority of people on this planet are not normal. I wonder what aliens think (if they indeed exist) after watching humanity for centuries. Will they eventually run to their spaceships screaming and take off never to return because they just can’t take this insanity that has gripped our planet anymore?

I’m sure that every psychologist has a list of what is considered normal and what isn’t. There are, of course, different views on what is normal. Sometimes it also depends in what culture one grows up.

This is what I found in a dictionary defining abnormality:

#Abnormality (or dysfunctional behavior), in the vivid sense of something deviating from the normal or differing from the typical (such as an aberration), is a subjectively defined behavioral characteristic, assigned to those with rare or dysfunctional conditions.

Sounds very professional. But what exactly is not normal? What is considered normal? I’ve made a list of what I believe is not normal. Some people may find nothing wrong with some of the items listed. They might even practice that behavior and will feel offended, but that’s okay. I’m not politically correct. Or what is considered as politically correct. These days very little is allowed anymore. There will always be somebody who takes offense.

I actually don’t give a crap.

According to my theory, there are #Universal Laws that have nothing to do with culture and what is accepted by society. My philosophy is this: Just because everyone does it doesn’t make it is right. It also means I don’t have to follow trends and also do it. (Perhaps that’s not normal behavior, but I never claimed that I’m perfect. Neither am I a follower).

Well, here is my list (This list is in no particular order. Just random items as they pop into my head):

*Idiots strapping bombs to their bodies, blowing themselves up and committing murder for an idea that has never been proven and to get laid in the afterlife by a bunch of virgins.

*Religious fanatics claiming their religion is the only religion

*Killing others because they believe something different

*Men wearing earrings.

*Girls (and men) piercing their lips, tongues, cheeks, and other body parts and putting foreign objects like rings and studs through them.

*Covering your face, neck and body with tattoos. Some of them are pretty ugly. What’s wrong with natural skin?

*Homosexuals getting married. (To clear up my stand on that: I have no problem if they want to live together, even though I don’t understand why a man is attracted to another man sexually. Nature (or God if you will) created two genders, one male and one female. The purpose for that is to propagate the species by having sex). I’m getting sick with all the hubbub about homosexuals these days. Every TV show or movie has them. Why all these parades? Why is that shoved down our throats? Straight people don’t make such a fuss.

*Homosexuality is not a normal state, no matter what we’re being forced to accept. It is an imbalance in the brain. That being said, these people can’t help it and should be accepted and treated like everyone else, but, for heavens sake, stop making all this hubbub.It only creates negative feelings.

*In a birth certificate leaving the part open that says: Gender of child. That is in case they finally decide what gender they want to be. (How hard can that be to determine? If you have a penis you’re a male, if you have a vagina you’re a female. It can’t get any simpler than that. If you have both you have a problem). And parents should never decide what gender their kid should be, as seems to be the case lately. Dressing up a boy like a girl does not make him a girl or vice versa.

*Governments bombing the hell out of their countries and then begging other countries to help them build it up again.

*Foreign governments sticking their nose into other countries while their own country is in shambles.

*Governments giving away billions of dollars to everyone who comes begging but not caring about the welfare of their own citizens, especially when the country keeps going billions of dollars into debt. That is insanity and cannot be sustained.

*Men allowed to wear ‘ceremonial’ daggers in a country where nobody else is allowed to carry a weapon.

*In a so-called civilized, peace-loving country men and women walking around with guns and knives strapped to their bodies or openly carrying rifles in the streets.

*When people who have absolutely no education in politics or have never been into politics can run for President or Prime Minister.

*Being allowed to plead insanity after committing a murder and not being sentenced to lifelong prison or even executed.

*People claiming they heard voices that told them to commit an atrocious act and using that as an excuse. And getting away with it.

*Hearing voices (I have my doubts about that, because nobody can prove they actually hear them).

*Raping a woman or, what is even worse, a child. (Men who do that should be castrated)

*People using religion as an excuse not to work on certain days, and getting away with other things.

*Using religion to control people

*A segment of a society not paying taxes but taking advantage of all the benefits. It cannot be sustained in the long run. You can’t keep on taking without giving.

*Single women having a bunch of children and expecting to be taken care of by the government

*Families having many children and not being able to feed them and giving them a good home and an education. I think that's a crime.

*Men beating up their wives or girlfriends.

*What passes for music these days (Yes, that is one of my concerns. Where is it going? To me it’s all annoying noise)

*Believing rapping is music. (#Rapping in my opinion is someone talking to some kind of music, but that is just my opinion. You can’t argue over art)

*People complaining they can’t lose weight and stuffing themselves with ready-made junk food and snacking continuously.

*Parents letting their children become fat. That in my mind is #child abuse.

That’s all I can think of right now. I’m sure there is a lot more.

Some people say Planet Earth is an insane asylum used by an advanced alien race to get rid of their crazy citizens a long time ago. Perhaps there is some truth to that. How else to explain the insanity that seems to have gripped our planet. All these wars, all this killing, all this misery. That is not normal. You can say and believe what you want.

Perhaps humanity took a wrong road at one point in the past and we are heading for some kind of disaster. It is inevitable.

Have a nice day and pleasant dreams tonight.