Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Summer Read: Back to Murder (by J. Mark Bertrand)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mark has been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, was the foreman of a hung jury in Houston, and after relocating served on the jury that acquitted Vinnie Jones of assault. In 1972, he won an honorable mention in a child modeling contest, but pursued writing instead. Besides his personal website, visit his Crime Genre website at http://www.crimegenre.com/.
The next book in this series, Pattern Of Wounds will come out in the summer of 2011.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A missing girl. A corrupt investigation. They thought they could get away with it, but they forgot one thing:
Roland March is BACK ON MURDER...
Houston homicide detective Roland March was once one of the best. Now he's disillusioned, cynical, and on his way out. His superiors farm him out on a variety of punishment details. But when he's the only one at a crime scene to find evidence of a missing female victim, he's given one last chance to prove himself. Before he can crack the case, he's transferred to a new one that has grabbed the spotlight--the disappearance of a famous Houston evangelist's teen daughter.
All he has to do? Find the missing teenage daughter of a Houston evangelist that every cop in town is already looking for. But March has an inside track, a multiple murder nobody else thinks is connected. With the help of a youth pastor with a guilty conscience who navigates the world of church and faith, March is determined to find the missing girls while proving he's still one of Houston's best detectives.
Battling a new partner, an old nemesis, and the demons of his past, getting to the truth could cost March everything. Even his life.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Back On Murder, go HERE.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Summer Read: Relentless (by Robin Parrish)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Robin Parrish is a journalist who's written about the intersection of faith and pop culture for more than a decade. Currently he serves as Senior Editor at XZOOSIA.com, a community portal that fuses social networking with magazine-style features about entertainment and culture.
He had two great ambitions in his life: to have a family, and to be a published novelist. In March of 2005, he proposed to his future wife the same week he signed his first book contract with Bethany House Publishers. They contracted him for the rights to The Dominion Trilogy: Relentless (2006), Fearless (2007), and Merciless (2008). His science fiction thriller, Offworld came out in 2009. This summer debuts Nightmare, and he's working on another for 2011. Robin and his wife and children live in North Carolina.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Ghost Town is the hottest amusement park in the country, offering state-of-the-art chills and thrills involving the paranormal. The park's main ride is a haunted house that promises an encounter with a real ghost.
When Maia Peters visits during her senior year of college, she's not expecting to be impressed. Maia grew up as the only child of a pair of world-renowned "ghost hunters," so the paranormal is nothing new and to her most of the park is just Hollywood special effects. In fact, the ride feels pretty boring until the very end. There, a face appears from the mist. The face of Jordin Cole, a girl Maia knows who disappeared from campus a few months ago.
Convinced what she saw wasn't a hoax and desperate to find answers to Jordin's disappearance, Maia launches into a quest for answers. Joined by Jordin's boyfriend--a pastor's kid with very different ideas about paranormal and the spirit realm--Maia finds herself in a struggle against dangerous forces she never expected to confront on the edge of the spirit realm that try to keep the truth from emerging.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Nightmare, go HERE.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Happy Valentine's Day, Pinkie.
A few years back my sisters, brother and his family, and Dina, Phil and I took my folks on a Baja California cruise. For a belated Christmas gift that year I made iMovie videos for everyone using the pictures everyone took on the trip. This is the one I made for Dina and me.
Happy Valentine's Day, Pinkie. I love you.
Happy Valentine's Day, Pinkie. I love you.
Labels: Baja California, Dina, Disneyland, Valentine, Video
Thursday, February 11, 2010
259 Words: Thin Place @ Sunset State Beach
Friday night and Sunset State Beach was strangely vacant. No surfers, no beachcombers, not even the odd dog. Maybe a seagull or two, and a wide swath of golden sand stretching along the eastern side of Monterey Bay. Evening was coming on and I sat on driftwood reading The Blue Fairy Book for a lit class at UC Santa Cruz. Trying to read, anyway. Between checking the parking lot for my wife’s car every few minutes and being equally unable to keep my eyes off the westward dipping sun, it looked like I’d be in for an all-nighter after our weekend camping getaway.
The sunset finally won my full attention. As the sun dropped to the horizon, the sky exploded—burnished amber fire—rivaled only by its blazing reflection in the water, and at last the surrounding sands. A perfect moment of glory—stunning, literally. Then God passed by and it was gone. The air, water, and earth missing the crucial fourth element.
Five minutes later my wife arrived. Traffic jam. Hadn’t seen the sun set. Despite my enthusiasm to share what I’d seen, undergrad English Lit vocabulary couldn’t convey the momentary vision of fire and glory. Spouses shouldn’t keep secrets, but what do you do when you want to tell but are unfit for the task? To this day it haunts me.
The sunset finally won my full attention. As the sun dropped to the horizon, the sky exploded—burnished amber fire—rivaled only by its blazing reflection in the water, and at last the surrounding sands. A perfect moment of glory—stunning, literally. Then God passed by and it was gone. The air, water, and earth missing the crucial fourth element.
Five minutes later my wife arrived. Traffic jam. Hadn’t seen the sun set. Despite my enthusiasm to share what I’d seen, undergrad English Lit vocabulary couldn’t convey the momentary vision of fire and glory. Spouses shouldn’t keep secrets, but what do you do when you want to tell but are unfit for the task? To this day it haunts me.
Labels: Thin Places
Monday, January 18, 2010
Two Things to Check Out
Mondays through the end of February are $1 pulled-pork sandwich nights at Dickey's. Mmmmm!
Phil's building a blog as part of a geometry project. Check it out.
Phil's building a blog as part of a geometry project. Check it out.
Friday, January 15, 2010
IKEA Find: Pickled Herring
Today a co-worker mentioned she'd found pickled herring at IKEA and it was delicious. Well, she started to say it was delicious, but another co-worker and I interrupted her with questions:
We did agree that the Dyson hand-dryers in the restroom are awesome.
- Did you have to pickle it yourself?
- Did you need an allen wrench to open the can?
- Did it say "pickled herring" on the can, but "Flürm" on the shelf label?"
- Did you need help carrying it out to the car?
- Were there wordless instructions showing how to eat it?
- Did a stock person need to get it down off the top shelf?
- Was it real fish, or fish flavored pressboard?
We did agree that the Dyson hand-dryers in the restroom are awesome.
Labels: Friends, IKEA, Pickled Herring
Friday, October 09, 2009
Honor Roll
We break Radio Silence for the following brief announcement:
Phil made the Six Weeks Honor Roll with All A's and 1 B. (Still time to get All A's at the semester.) Here's a couple pix from this morning's assembly.
...descending again beneath the depths and resuming Radio Silence....
Phil made the Six Weeks Honor Roll with All A's and 1 B. (Still time to get All A's at the semester.) Here's a couple pix from this morning's assembly.
...descending again beneath the depths and resuming Radio Silence....
Labels: Fourth Grade, Philpix
