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Bainstorming - December 26, 2016 to February 10, 2017

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Bainstorming: Darrell's Bain's Blog.
Copyright © February 10, 2017, by Darrell Bain
http://www.darrellbain.com

Responses to subjects brought up by this blog are welcome. I can be contacted by e-mailing me from my website.

Subjects in this blog: Apologies, The New Types, Deaths, Betty’s New Fall, Truck, Friedman, Back, The God Stories.

I believe I should begin this issue with a couple of apologies to my fans and readers.

First, I haven’t kept up with Bainstorming the past year. This was due to illnesses for both me and Betty, and surgeries for both of us. Back problems and a bad burn to my back kept me from doing much for months. It took three months of suffering, and a heavy dose of Opioids daily before finally getting into surgery. Then the burn put me down for a couple of months. Then Betty had to have surgery. And on and on.

Second, the tremendous amount of work (which is still ongoing) when I withdrew about half my titles from one publisher and gave many of them to Twilight Times Books, a very good mid-list publisher, for re-editing and publishing again. I am re-editing many of the remaining titles and self-publishing those I think are deserving of continuing availability. This required a learning curve for me that is still giving me problems. The remaining ones, about a dozen of so, I will allow to go out of print.

There are many other odds and ends in the publishing world which need to be taken care of and I’m gradually getting these done and may actually get caught up from the 6 months of little or no work this year. I hope to be back on a regular writing schedule by the end of this year, and in the meantime will do my best to keep you updated on progress of getting new, heavily re-edited books from Twilight Times Books back into publication. So far, Samantha’s Talent, Galactic Frontiers, Postwar Dinosaur Blues and Bigfoot Crazy have gone back into publication. I have self-published The Golden Seeds (Previous title, Alien Seeds), The Afterlife Cabals (Previous title No Heaven, No Hell). We’re working on the Apertures series now and the first book in that series should be re-published about the middle of March, tentatively. All these from Twilight Times are much better books now than before. I believe my fans and readers will appreciate the improved versions. As for the ones I’m self-publishing, you’ll have to judge for yourself.

THE NEW TYPES

I’ve been working on a new book that is at last going to be available in a print edition (and should be available by the time you read this). The title is The New Types. I’ll have a kindle edition out soon as well.
The novel is about a very few individuals here and there in industrialized countries who begin changing after they’re grown. Some become better people, stronger, better bodies, more pleasant features and smarter than the
normal population but they retain their integrity. Others, however, become evil, wanting to use their superiority to rule the world. A vicious, underground war is developing between the two Types, with the bad ones way ahead because of their superior numbers, even as few as they are.

DEATHS

We’ve had two recent deaths in the younger members of our family. One of our greatgrandsons was just killed in a motorcycle accident. His mother, our granddaughter, died recently from a sudden heart attack. And two other granddaughters have developed debilitating illnesses that will be with them the rest of their lives. Sometimes we wonder why such tragedies are hitting the young people of the family instead of us old fogies, but the universe plays no favorites and there is nothing at all we can do to change that.

TRUCK

Our 32 year old Toyota Extracab truck, bought new, became an extra recently when we finally purchased a new car. We’re keeping the 21 year old Mercury Marquis, bought new, so I sold the truck to my brother who intended to refurbish it. I decided to have it checked over thoroughly before he came down from Oklahoma to pick it up. Alas, it turned out to have a number of major issues which would cost a lot of money to fix so I gave him his money back and the faithful little truck will be junked. I wouldn’t feel right selling it to someone when it has all those problems I wasn’t aware of. We’ll hate to see it go. It hauled many a Christmas tree around the farm while we were in that business and the kids used it a lot as a loaner when their vehicles were in the shop.

FALL

Betty took another tumble a week or two ago. Fortunately, nothing broken but she is sore as all get out, right on the same hip where she still has problems from a torn hamstring from her fight with a spider years ago (if interested, that tale can be found in the Bainstorming archives by using its search engine).

FRIEDMAN

Those of you who have read my books where military action is involved (Alien Infection, Apertures series, The New Types, etc.) are probably wondering why the name Herb Friedman keeps appearing. The reason is simple: He entered the army as a very young man and retired as a Sgt. Major. He was an exemplary soldier and became a fireman after retirement. In the meantime he keeps a web site, www.psywarrior.com dealing with American operations, and another, www.psywar.org dealing with foreign wars, and has written innumerable stories and articles about the use of propaganda in wars. He is consulted on Psychological Warfare from parties all over the world. He could probably earn a significant amount of money from his web site’s many visitors if he allowed advertising on it but he wants to keep it clean and free of extraneous material. I think that alone proves his integrity and honesty. He is a very smart man and has kept himself fit all these years since retiring. I believe he is a few years older than me and I’m getting on up there, but he continues work on his web site and writing articles and also writes a weekly newsletter of family and web site activities that is very interesting. I always enjoy reading it. He made his first appearance in my books in Alien Infection. I killed him in that book but revived his character later. I believe he’ll be around as long as I write, which I hope is many more years—if these pesky illnesses will leave me and Betty alone.

BACK

I’m crossing my fingers (not that I believe in that stuff, but doing it anyway) because I believe I’m doing well enough now that I can gradually quit taking that heavy duty Opioid for my back and substitute a milder pain killer. I’ll talk to my doctor in a couple of weeks and see what he thinks, but I’m satisfied that I can. The back surgery corrected a lot of what was wrong but couldn’t do it all and the surgeon said I’d be in some pain the rest of my life, but at least I can expect no more train wrecks occurring in my spine and I’m able to exercise daily now, which reminds me: Time to get off my duff and get started on the weights and walking. I think I’ve said before that the older you get, the more you need to exercise and the less inclined you are to do it. I have to force myself to work with the weights but I don’t mind the walking, where I can let my mind roam, thinking of plots for stories, what activities are coming up in the near future and all kinds of stuff, the kind that got me a reputation in the family for being absent-minded when I was really just letting my mind wander and not paying much attention to the external world. That’s exactly what I do now when walking and the time passes quickly. I usually do two miles in 35 minutes, which is a good time for a young man in case you’re interested. I used to jog but those days are behind me because of the impact it has n my back.

THE GOD STORIES

I put together three short stories dealing with God, religion, Jesus and life after death, then added an excerpt from my book, The Afterlife Cabals. The God Stories are available on Amazon now for 99 cents. It’s worth it if you aren’t easily offended. Otherwise, you’ll probably get mad at me. Now you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Darrell Bain
Shepherd, Texas
February, 2017

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