
Mona is working for the Election Board today, working down at the fire hall for 12 hours and then again in November for the big election, today is just local. She likes doing it and it pay $10 an hour. For the big elections she has a crew of 4-5 people. She didn't want to work today, as she is finishing up our laundry room. We picked up a used set of Maytag washer and dryer for $200 and needing to get them hooked up as the laundry builds up.
I get a bit of work done most days, loading a wheelbarrow with whole chunks of firewood and hauling them to the shed for storage. I'm restricted to two trips a day or Mona will take my wheelbarrow away from me and I cannot work outside unless anyone who is home knows I'm out there in the event I fall down. I feel like a child, but I adhere to the rules to keep her happy. Was supposed to have a wood party last Saturday, but the workers all arrived to late and stayed for the barbecue. But we got to see Liam and Darci. Liam worked the summer with a carnival outfit traveling through Alaska, and he enjoyed it. Darci is going to college and working toward a nursing degree and working as a lifeguard.
Elizabeth, our eldest child, is with us for a couple days, taking a break. This also gives her time to visit with her daughter, mother and her grandchildren. Elizabeth is drawing again and she is quite the artist.
James is still in Qatar, which for some reason is actually pronounced "Cutter". Joshua still helping handle the protesters in Washington D.C.. Haven't heard from John in a bit, but Micah Sue calls to stay in touch.
Trees are turning and the leaves are dropping rapidly, grass is tall and the air smells so great. Average temp during the day is 50-60 and at night down into the low 40's.
Oh, I've decided to drop the news service I was adding to this journal, but if you found it interesting I recommend the following sites:
Gatestone Institute News
Washington Free Beacon
Global Times (China), but check out their international reports
Moscow News (Russia not US)
Jerusalem Online
Blaze News
Jerusalem Post
UN News
Telegraph UK and also the other Telegraph News from other countries.
Russian Herald
Central Asia Times
New Zealand Star
BBC
Manila Times
Taipei Times
Egypt News
Guardian
American Patriot Daily
Iran Herald
White Hose Insider
Remember, some of these sites carry propaganda and the news needs to be backed up by other sites listed here. I have found that CNN, FOX News, LA Times and New York City Times will occasionally use fake news.
I'm stopping this service because the research I do take up to 8 hours and I need to be using this time to work on my books. In the next 5 journals I'll be adding the back cover of my books to help you understand what I'm writing about. I'll always value story ideas and will provide credit as to who has given me the idea for the story.
Today's back book cover is for "Blake's War", first book in the Arizona Ranger series set in the 1860-1900's of the Old West.
(Click on the cover to see a free preview on Amazon)
"Based in the 1860's Arizona Territory, this is a tale of the Old West and the creation of the Arizona Rangers (which actually existed and fought the likes of Geronimo and Cochise). Captain Blake, (main character), leads the only band of Rangers in the Arizona Territory, where pay rarely comes on time or if at all, and the men are responsible for the procurement of their own horses, needed tack and the bullets for their pre-Civil War weaponry. The Rangers are mostly made up of former Indian fighters, hunting guides, desert miners and U.S. Army Scouts, and these are the courageous men who join the ranks of the Arizona Rangers. Captain Blake needed men who shared in his vision to bring law enforcement to the Arizona Territory and to stop the Apache, Comanche and Ute Indians from their continuous war against the wagon trains, stagecoaches and the settlers who come from the East.
In this first book of a planned 5-6 book series, the Territorial Government of Arizona feels it can no longer afford to provide their limited funding to the Rangers and disband them. The Union sided officials also fear the Rangers southern sympathy if war was to come. Blake and his family live on their horse and cattle ranch outside of Globe, Arizona, and when the Civil War does break out, he and his former Rangers join up with General Hook's Army of Texas (Southerners). Blake is given the rank of Captain, and his comrades become part of his mounted army. In fighting the Civil War, Blake and his men engage in numerous battle but are eventually captured by a superior force of Union soldiers and taken by open cattle cars to El-Mira Prison, New York City. Here, where the conditions are wretched , prisoners starving , and the icy weather is freezing the prisoners to death by the hundreds. By the end of the war, 12,000 men have died in El-Mira Prison Camp, while over 12,000 northerners perish in the Southern Prison Camp of Andersonville. His men now doubtful some will survive another month, Blake stage an escape for his command, using a prior escape tunnel they uncovered underneath a perimeter wall. But, once clear and traveling through New York, they learn that within a month of breaking out, the Civil War had ended. Now, no longer fearful of being caught and returned to El-Mira, the men have an adventurous and rewarding journey back to their their homes. But, when Blake and his men arrive, they find the Apache have raided their ranches and farms, and are often assisted by white and Mexican bandits now known as Comancheros. These outlaws have killed his wife and young son, who fought defending his mother and sister, but these outlaws have kidnapped his young daughter for the new business of white slavery. Blake's now adopts Liam, the only youthful survivor from an Apache attack on a small wagon train. A lot of the men have similar tales to tell, with families gone and how their property was seized for owed Federal Reclamation Taxes- a new law, where everything they own is seized by a corrupt court system and auctioned off.
But, Blake finds out the Arizona Rangers are once more needed, Arizona is hit with cattle and horse rustlers, fraudsters, and gunmen, who work for dishonest judges and lawyers, who are in the pockets of East Coast land speculators. Such criminals are coming to Arizona by the hundreds. There is also the rise of the Indians, who watch in alarm as the railroad tracks are laid for the horrifying Iron Horse. The tribes watch as hundreds of thousands of their sacred buffalo are slaughtered and often laid to waste. Captain Blake also learns his young daughter was taken from his home by Comancheros, a new brand of outlaw to strike the Southwest and transported into Mexico, where he learns they pass her on to these White Slavers, but he has no idea where she was taken. So, Captain Blake begins a lengthy search to find her. (This search will be shown throughout the next two books, along with numerous battles fought by the Rangers against the Indian Tribes, bandits and Comancheros. Rangers work alongside the U.S. Army stationed in Arizona, who have learned to value the desert skills of these Arizona Rangers)."
That's about it for "Blake's War", with the 2nd book entitled "Indian Wars", which I'm working on my final rewrite at this time. The 3rd book only requires a final rewrite, it will be entitled "The Gunfighters", while the fourth book is mostly in note stage.
Next book report will be the "Apache Snow", Book # 1 of a 3 book series, unless I add a 4th book. Book # 2 is now out for sale, "In Search of Honor", and the third book is now in line for final editing and this one is called "Sandbox Wars", set in Afghanistan.
I do hope you enjoy reading my books, whether its Kindle or by book, and please provide me with a critique of same.
The world continues to go around, people make the same mistakes over and over again, while the cost of living continues to rise. I often ask the Lord where we're all going. Washington DC remains a mess, but I still recall the time of Watergate and President Nixon resigning and even after all that mess we still had another calamity the next morning. If we can keep from blowing each other up, or releasing some kind of new virus, humanity will continue on.
God bless all of you and may your days be pain free and free of tension. BILL