text:
Survivors speak out against sex crimes
Wed Jun 15th, 2016 4:00pm
He was an older man and Susan had just turned 18. After he started physically and sexually assaulting her, she was ashamed and afraid that the community would not stand by her if she left him. When she thought he would actually kill her – seven years into their relationship – she ran away with nothing but a few clothes. She was free from bodily harm, but she had to face another obstacle: the people who did not believe her.
The woman, now in her mid-30s, has chosen to share her story anonymously as her ex-partner still lives in the San Juans and she fears retaliation for speaking out. Her name has been changed to protect her identity.
"The sad thing is that his employer and everyone wanted to protect him," she said. "I was horribly harassed by his friends and they were aware of what had been going on. People were taking sides and they were protecting the abuser."
She reported the abuse to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services of the San Juan Islands and applied for a restraining order, but dropped it for two reasons: pressure from her ex's friends and because she didn't really think the order would work.
"It's just a piece of paper," she said. "If he had wanted to hurt me it wouldn't have stopped him."
Though her case occurred more than 10 years ago, her story is becoming more frequent in San Juan County. Local law enforcement and staff from DVSAS told the Journal last week about the uptick in the number of sexual and domestic abuse cases. One disturbing trend is the number of sexual assault victims that are children, ages 0 to 17, seeking services from DVSAS. From 2012 to 2015 the reports tripled from two to six. In the last six months, DVSAS already has four reports. Kim Bryan, DVSAS director, stated that it's likely the increase is due to more victims reporting such crimes.
This has not always been the case. For our anonymous source, talking about the crime was almost as painful as the event itself.
"Rape is not easy to deal with, but it's so much more personal coming from your spouse," Susan said, describing how painful it was to relieve her trauma with detectives. She chose to let go of her anger and move on rather than pressing charges and going to court.
"It would be very hard and they treat you like victims not survivors," she said.
A San Juan County man who was raised on the mainland in the 1950s has also come forward to share his story years after the fact. He asked to remain anonymous, and his name has been changed to protect himself and his family. Although he has come to terms with the abuse he suffered, he said it's hard for others to handle the weight of his difficult past.
From the ages of five to 13, Dan was sexually abused by his mother, grandmother and several of their female friends.
"I am sure that they were abused too," he said. "When I was supposed to be taught how to be nurturing and loving and kind, it's not what was happening. There is a huge emotional chapter missing for me."
His older siblings had already left home and his father, who was often gone working for weeks at a time, died a few years after the abuse began.
"As a child, you are led to believe this is normal behavior," Dan said. "You live in a bubble, and you are manipulated into situations that you have no control over. And in that era there wasn't any press or information readily available about sexual abuse."
Although there is more information now than in the 1950s, rape is still the most under-reported crime: an estimated 63 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to police, so the real number of men facing this trauma is unknown. Men are in the minority of reported cases because less violence occurs or because they are less likely to admit assault. Websites by anti-sexual violence organizations estimate that at least 10 percent of all sexual assault victims in the U.S. are male. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18 years old. One in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives and 27.8 percent of men were age 10 or younger at the time of their first rape/victimization. In the last five years, DVSAS tallied three adult men who reported abuse perpetrated by adult women.
For Dan, it took 35 years for him to face his past and to make peace with being a statistic.
In the ninth grade, hemoved out of his home and began living on his own, eventually earning his GED and attending university. As an adult, he worked long hours, traveled the world and never told a soul about what happened in his childhood. Instead of abusing others, he abused himself. He started drinking around age 12, and had a realization in his mid-50s that alcohol played too big of a role in his life. He hasn't touched a drink since, and chose to confront the reality of what he'd been avoiding for so many years. It wasn't until his therapist told him "you were raped" that he recognized he was a victim.
"There isn't a lot of information about young men who are sexually assaulted by their mothers early in life," Dan said. "It's hard for men to talk – period. And with something that is so volatile and intimate, it would behoove us to communicate more and not feel threatened, but you are still judged for being vulnerable. It's nice to think we have evolved beyond that, but we haven't. Everyone will say 'this is a terrible thing' but no one really wants to talk about it."
Dr. Hani Miletski, who wrote the book "Mother-Son Incest: The Unthinkable Broken Taboo Persists," states that society's denial about incest is not diminishing but has rather reached a plateau especially when it comes to prevention and recovery needs.
"Men who were sexually abused as children continue to encounter ridicule, minimization, and dismissal," wrote Miletski.
Dan credits his wife and their child with balancing out his negative experiences and helping him focus on the positive.
"I didn't stay in that revolving door," he said. "You go out and you create a better life for yourself. You can't go forward if you are looking in the rearview mirror. The abuse has certainly shaped my life. Emotional connections don't always come easily for me, and there are huge gaps in my memory that are disorienting. It's just always going to be a constant."
He says the $64,000 question is: why did the cycle of abuse stop with him? There is not an easy answer other than he saw what a normal family looked like and wanted to have that in his life.
"You can't overcome what happened, but you try to get it in order. You push out the negative triggers. I can't be angry anymore," he said. "I want the people around me to get the best of me. I don't want to be restricted by this."
For Susan, who left her partner in 2005, the insulated nature of the island community at that time made her struggle with reporting the abuse.
"I think our community is different in that victims are so scared to be judged," she said. "If you lived in Seattle you would only worry about your group of friends. In small communities it's tougher to speak out."
Despite the fact that false reporting of rape is less than 10 percent, victim shaming is a common occurrence in society. According to the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness: "Victim-blaming attitudes also reinforce what the abuser has been saying all along; that it is the victim's fault this is happening."
Its website explains that victim shaming is often born from the fact that people want to distance themselves from the horror of the event, giving them a false sense that somehow they will be safer from being abused themselves.
Susan said she recalled someone looking at her with pity after news spread that she had been abused.
"They either hate you or pity you," she said. "No one says, 'good for you for speaking up.'"
Despite the negativity, she found friends who did support her and helped her to move on. She eventually relocated to another island to start fresh.
Her advice to others is, "Don't be afraid. Your life is more important than what others think of you."
Dan recommends that victims find someone trusted to confide in – whether that person is a therapist, friend or family member.
"You have to commit to talking to someone about it," he said. "You have to be able to be honest and say: 'This happened. And it's okay. I survived it.' You have to own it – for better or worse. You can get comfortable with it. You can live with it. It doesn't have to control you."
Sounder editor Colleen Smith Armstrong contributed to this story.
Google gaffe, missing mystery, ruckus reachout | San Juan County Sheriff's Log
San Juan County Sheriff's Office responded to the following calls. Dec. 30…
San Juan County COVID case recap
Submitted by San Juan County Note: Current positive case numbers are available…


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Ireland needs EOTs because employee ownership means more and better jobs
By IPSA AdminJune 2, 2020June 15th, 2020No Comments
By Graeme Nuttall OBE
An employee-owned company (EOC) is more likely to retain employees and recruit. This is a key message for policy makers as unemployment rises because of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It's time the Irish Government actively promoted employee ownership and, in particular, the employee ownership trust (EOT) which has grown the number of EOCs in the UK by more than 70% since its introduction in 2014.
More jobs from employee ownership
The lesson that EOCs mean more jobs was learned in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Research published by Cass Business School, London in 2010 established that companies where employees own a significant and meaningful stake create jobs faster than their non-EOC counterparts, particularly in times of economic downturn. Numerous studies show that employee share ownership or profit-sharing help general financial performance but it is employee ownership that really makes a difference: when significant employee share ownership is combined with meaningful employee participation. Follow-up research, published in 2014, extended the comparison between EOCs and non-EOCs over the periods 2009-10 and 2010-11 and confirmed that EOCs withstood the recession better as the recession deepened. As EOCs recruited, so non-EOCs reduced their staff numbers. The clear conclusion was that EOCs support higher employment levels than non-EOCs.
And these jobs weren't low paying, unskilled jobs. The EOCs studied had significantly higher wage and employee costs than comparable companies. Moreover their employees had genuine participation in governance, strategy and decision-making. The non-EOC comparison businesses struggled to motivate staff whereas EOCs could count on the commitment of their employees. Instead of trying to find a formulaic top-down way out of financial difficulties, EOCs adopted an approach that was more fulfilling for employees by giving them greater discretion and acting on innovative ideas from employees. Also, on the whole EOCs invest more in human capital, such as training, than non-EOCs (according to a third Cass Business School report in 2012).
Nor did these well-paid, satisfying jobs in EOCs come at the expense of profitability. As the recession continued, profitability was similar in both EOCs and non-EOCs. Actually it was a little less in EOCs but is that a problem if these companies provided more and better employment? Judging by the subsequent financial success of many EOCs, the decision to maintain employment levels, and indeed recruit additional employees, positioned them well to succeed once the downturn ended. Overall the Cass Business School research concluded that EOCs are more resilient: they have less sales variability and deliver more stable performance over business cycles.
The employee ownership trust effect
Employee ownership works across a wide-range of sectors and businesses of all sizes throughout the UK. It's easier to harness the positive effects of employee ownership in SMEs but it can still have a significant effect in larger companies, provided the organisational structures exist to give employees a genuine say in how their business is run. So, for any government wishing to preserve jobs and increase employment, creating more employee ownership needs to be part of its package of solutions. There's a short-cut to doing this and that's to promote EOTs. Introduced in the UK 2014 as a result of the Nuttall Review of Employee Ownership, the EOT has generated incredible growth in the UK employee ownership sector. Hundreds of additional companies are now employee owned, through an EOT, with tens of thousands of employees. And this doesn't include the many employee trust-owned companies that existed pre-2014, such as the John Lewis Partnership.
There are various reasons why EOTs have proved popular. They meet a demand from many baby boomers for a way to pass on their business without selling to a life-long competitor, a way that is flexible and allows them to time their exit to meet their personal situations. Simplicity is another reason. An EOT provides every employee with a stake in their business, via the shares held on their behalf in the EOT, without the complexities, risks and costs of running share plans.
These reasons for the success of EOTs aren't UK-centric. There are US companies now owned by EOTs even though the US tax system heavily encourages direct share ownership via Employee Stock Ownership Plans. Other countries have introduced or are reviewing the possible introduction of EOT type legislation. The Irish economy – with more than 250,000 SMEs employing more than 68% of the people engaged in the economy – is ideally suited to benefit from EOT legislation, and the benefit of EOT legislation for SMEs in Northern Ireland puts our SME community at a distinct disadvantage.
It's important that every jurisdiction permits all forms of employee ownership: direct, indirect (via trusts) and hybrid models that combine the two. But the UK experience shows that models involving an EOT will prove the most popular.
Introduce EOTs to boost employment
All the long-standing reasons for encouraging employee ownership remain; it creates business success, employee well-being and benefits for the wider economy. However, if any government needs a standout reason to promote employee ownership now, then the Covid-19 pandemic gives us that. It has shown how good work is vital to individuals and society and this is something that employee ownership can deliver. The Irish Government should introduce EOTs as a way to retain and increase jobs.
Graeme Nuttall OBE, partner, European law firm Fieldfisher and, as the UK Government's independent adviser, author of the Nuttall Review of Employee Ownership.
For more information on EOTs, see https://www.fieldfisher.com/en/insights/tried-and-tested-employee-ownership-trusts
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Mi-8MTV-5 (Mi-17-V5) is a radically modernized version of the Mi-8MTV-1 helicopter. The Mil Mi-8MTV-5 (Mi-17-V5) multipurpose helicopter is intended for rapid airlift of troop forces to a combat area in the daytime and at night and air fire support. In 1995 Kazan exhibited an upgraded Mi-17MD, a 36-troop version of the Mi-17 at the Paris Air Show. Several requests for information were received from unspecified Asian countries. Prototype (RA-70937, converted from Mi-8MTV) featured widened forward, port, door; additional starboard door; and rear loading via short ramp and two clamshell doors. Further modified, with large, single-piece rear-loading ramp and other changes, for display at ILA '96, Germany, in search and rescue form, designated Mi-17MD Night. By 1997, '70937 had gained a spine-mounted IR jammer and flight deck armour and was stated by Kazan to have the dual designation Mi-17MD/Mi-8MTV-5. At the 1999 Moscow Air Show it had lost its registration and become an 'Mi-8MTV5-1' with the alternative designations Mi-17N (Noch: Night) and (for export) Mi-17V-5. First flight in this guise was in January 1998; first production Mi-17V-5 flew August 1999. Kazan-built production model with port side door enlarged from 0.83 m (2 ft 81/2 in) to 1.25 m (4 ft 11/4 in); new 0.83 m (2 ft 81/2 in) wide starboard sliding door; rear flat ramp with single hydraulic cylinder drive installed on helicopter floor and capable of being lowered to horizontal position in flight, permitting disembarkment of up to 36 troops in 15 seconds. Series production started in 1999. The Mi-17V-5 multi-mission helicopter is still manufactured by Kazan and is also offered as an upgrade. Further upgrades on offer include transport, special operations, medevac, SAR, fire fighting and combat variations.
Mi-8MTV-5 mi-17-V5 Combat: is equipped with external store racks to cam- aerial bombs with a total weight of up to 2.000 kg, up to four pods of the S-8 rockets, or detachable 23mm gun mounts. Currently, equipping the helicopter with guided missiles is being studied.
Mi-8MTV-5 Mi-17-V5 Transport: is intended for carrying various cargoes in the cargo cabin, including long-size ones with the loading ramp opened, and on slings, as well as for performing construction and installation work.
Mi-8MTV-5 Mi-17-V5 Search an Rescue: is intended for carrying various cargoes in the cargo cabin, including long-size ones with the loading ramp opened, and on slings, as well as for performing construction and installation work.
Mi-8MTV-5 Mi-17-V5 Flying Hospital: is equipped with 12 stretchers for wounded and with first aid kits.
Mi-8MTV-5 Mi-17-V5 Fire Fighting: is fitted with additional equipment can pick up water from an open reservoir, carry 4.5 cubic metres of water and discharge it in 15 seconds. The use of a long external sling (up to 59 – 100 m) increases the precision of water discharge. The dimensions of the cargo cabin allow carrying up to 36 firemen with full equipment. The helicopter equipped with a dropping system provides a descent of firemen in hard-to-reach places without helicopter landing.
The cargo/passenger cabin of the Mi-8MTV-5 (Mi-17-V5)is equipped with additional folding seats and six pivoted mounts, which enables the troopers to deliver fire through firing ports. Its cargo doors are replaced with a loading ramp that increases the effectiveness of loading/unloading operations. An additional starboard door and widened (from 830 to 1,250 mm) port side door reduce the enplaning and deplaning time of 36 troopers to 15 s.
The avionics suite and night vision goggles, which ensure ground surface observation from an altitude of up to 300 m in the conditions of natural illumination from 1 to 0.0005 lx, enable the crew to perform dark-time and low altitude flights.
The Mi-17-V5 is motorized with two TV3-117VM engine. The modernized fuel system made it possible to increase the helicopter ferry range up to 1,600 km and its loitering time up to 10-12 h.
The combat survivability of the helicopter is ensured by armor protection of the crew cabin and vitaL systems, by infrared suppression exhaust mixer boxes over engine exhaust ducts which decrease an infrared signature of the helicopter, fuel tank self-sealing covers and polyurethane foam protection, firefighting equipment redundancy and backup of hydraulic and electric power sources and main control circuits.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


So. You want to be a photographer?!
Website Hosting: Siteground This is totally an affiliate link. I really do love Siteground though! They're up 99% of the time and I've never had a problem with them. When I've had a problem (alway user error) they were quick to help me fix it. Completely WordPress friendly! I currently have two of my sites hosted through them and I plan on using SiteGround foreveh! If you haven't already purchased your URL you can do that here and the first year domain registration is included! What?! I just saved you $15!
WordPress: Just. Just use it. Half the internet uses wordpress and there's a reason for it. These people know what they're doing. Save your self the headache and just do it.
When I started out I had no idea what I was doing, okay, I still don't but I'm willing to help you through the slog of what I've learned.
I knew WordPress was the way to go. Why? Okay. Here's what I wish someone would have told me.
Your website is going to have a lot of content. Pages of information and pages of photographs– you need a way to wrangle all that mess into one spot. WordPress IS that spot. No coding needed, they have people for that, they make things called plug-ins that will help you make your site do just about anything and what it doesn't do widgets will do. Also, how can you not be in love with a website that uses widgets to make life easier?
Host (SiteGround)–this is where the files and photos are physically stored for viewing on the WWW. Your domain (website name-which is basically an address) will point here to find all the information your viewer is looking for. You will need to do a little background work here to get it set up for WordPress, but it is super easy. Really.
Content Management (WordPress)– This is where the pretty listing of your pages and photos are for you, the non-computer programmer, to organize and publish for the entire universe to see.
These things together make = Functional and Productive Website!
I'll be updating and editing this page periodically. (Read as: When I learn more and find out I'm messed something up.) Please check back and let me know if I've helped in any way!


text:
Q: Why do primitive data types work without including the System namespace? I read that all primitives fall under the System namespace.  If I comment out using System I would expect there to be a build error in my program,   however it is running successfully.  Why is this?

A: As was mention before int is an alias of System.Int32 type. The alias of primitive types are implicitly known by the C# language. Here is the list:
object:  System.Object
string:  System.String
bool:    System.Boolean
byte:    System.Byte
sbyte:   System.SByte
short:   System.Int16
ushort:  System.UInt16
int:     System.Int32
uint:    System.UInt32
long:    System.Int64
ulong:   System.UInt64
float:   System.Single
double:  System.Double
decimal: System.Decimal
char:    System.Char

So, for these aliases, also known as simple types, you don't need to specify any namespace.

A: When you use int, you are basically putting in System.Int32. Since this is the fully qualified type name, you don't actually need using System;
Your program would work if you did
 System.Int32 num = 0;

even without the using

A: It's because int is an alias for System.Int32, and since the "Int32" is already prefixed with its namespace (ie. "fully qualified"), the syntax is legal without having to specify using System; at the top of your code.
The MSDN snippet below describes this concept-

Most C# applications begin with a section of using directives. This section lists the namespaces that the application will be using
  frequently, and saves the programmer from specifying a fully qualified
  name every time that a method that is contained within is used. For
  example, by including the line:
using System;

At the start of a program, the programmer can use the code:
Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");

Instead of:
System.Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");

System.Int32 (aka "int") would be the latter.  Here is an example of this in code -
//using System;

namespace Ns
{
    public class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            System.Int32 i = 2;    //OK, since we explicitly specify the System namespace
            int j = 2;             //alias for System.Int32, so this is OK too
            Int32 k = 2;           //Error, because we commented out "using System"
        }
    }
}

Since line 11 is not fully qualified / aliasing a fully qualified type, using System; would need to be uncommented for the error to go away.
Additional references-

*

*C#, int or Int32? Should I care?

*Built-In Types Table (C# Reference)
(Lists all the built-in types, and their .NET framework equivalents)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Classic Movie ReviewsMovie ReviewsClassic Review: Now You See Me Series (2013-2016)
Keith NoakesJune 11, 2017
Since I've started this site, I've written a lot of reviews. In case you missed some of my earlier ones, I would like to share a pair of reviews of both Now You See Me films which originally appeared here and here respectively.
Charismatic magician named Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) leads a team of three talented illusionists, Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) called the Four Horsemen. Atlas and his comrades mesmerize audiences with a pair of amazing magic shows that drain the bank accounts of the corrupt and funnel the money to audience members. An FBI agent named Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and an Interpol detective named Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) intend to rein in the Horsemen before their next caper, and they must turn to Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), a famous debunker, for help.
There have not been too many films about magic so this peeked my interest in this. The trailers made it look very cool and I was excited to see what the magic would look like on screen. Of course I've seen this before so at least that's what I thought then. The amazing cast featuring Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, and Morgan Freeman didn't exactly hurt it either. I will admit that I did not remember this as much as I should so it was definitely nice to see it again.
This is film was when the team we know and love first came together under the most mysterious circumstances. We got a glimpse of each of them early on, as well as each of their different personalities. They were still fun to watch individually but it would have nice to have seen more of it. There wasn't really much character development beyond these initial scenes (maybe this will improve in the next film). Their individual personalities kind of faded a little bit once they came together and the team felt taken over by Atlas and his dominant personality. He became a leader and never really gave the others a chance.
Atlas was the only one who really showed any personality here. Atlas was a character who was just full of confidence, bordering on arrogance. He's definitely a heavy, quick talker which makes him come off as smug and annoying. There surely could not have been anyone more suitable to play him than Eisenberg. He and Harrelson's McKinney also had some fun exchanges. McKinney was probably the one who came closest of the other three to get any focus. Despite that, they were still fun to watch together thanks to their great chemistry and good, witty dialogue between each other. Their relationship was the best part of the film.
The basic plot itself was simple enough as it consisted of the horseman traveling from place to place and performing shows featuring various magical acts which dazzled. Although some of their tricks defied belief, they were still mostly well done and the different effects behind them were great as well. Once they robbed a bank in Paris from a show in Las Vegas, this got the attention of the FBI and agent Dylan Rhodes (Ruffalo). From then on, the horseman had to keep hiding their involvement and evade capture as Rhodes along with Interpol agent Alma Dray (Laurent) stayed on their tail while trying to figure out how they did what they did. In order to do so, they enlisted the help of a former magician and now magic debunker Thaddeus Bradley (Freeman). Bradley had a vested interest in this as well as he was also trying to debunk the horsemen.
Their cat and mouse game between the horseman and Bradley and also with them and the authorities was very fun to watch and compelling here but it did get a little frustrating at times because of the fact one side was always several steps ahead of the other. Most of the fun here came from us, as viewers, trying to figure out how they did what they did. This worked for the most part but the story took this a little too far when it implied that there was something more going on behind the scenes that was fueling their journey. Because of that, the film started to get sillier as it was building up to its rather convoluted end which may frustrate some as it just felt unnecessary and stretched out the plot to a point that it made the film a little too long.
All of the performances were good here with Eisenberg standing out playing a type of character we've seen him play on multiple occasions. Ruffalo was good but didn't really stand out here. Laurent was okay but her forced relationship with Rhodes was kind of unnecessary. Freeman stole a lot of his scenes as well. Michael Caine as Arthur Tressler was probably an unnecessary character but he and Bradley had some fun interactions.
Overall, this was still a fun movie with some good magic tricks but was a little undermined by its forced convoluted plot.
After fleeing from a stage show, the illusionists Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), and Lula (Lizzy Caplan) known as the Four Horsemen find themselves in more trouble in Macau, China. Devious tech wizard Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe) forces the infamous magicians to steal a powerful chip that can control all of the world's computers.
I was a fan of the first Now You See Me as I am a fan of magic films, despite there not being much of them, and of magic in general. The first film was cool and the magic looked good for the most part but I found the story a little convoluted. I was hoping that with another film in the series (and a third film in the future), these things would improve.
The benefit of this film is that since there was already a film before it, it doesn't have to waste time since the team has already been put together with the film picking up not too long after the first. While the previous film ended with some questions, this one tries to answer some early on while also asking new questions. It just felt like the path was a little clearer here. The only real drawback to this is that those who haven't seen the previous film might be lost at first.
Those wondering about the absence of Isla Fisher's Henley Reeves, she left the group over the year the Four Horsemen spent in hiding after the events of the previous film. With unrest forming within the group as they are tired of being in hiding, they finally get the opportunity to perform again but things quickly don't go as planned after they find themselves in China. While there, tech wizard Walter Mabry (Radcliffe) enlists them to steal a powerful chip with the power to control all of the world's computers. Sure, we never get an idea of how powerful this chip really is but that's besides the point.
Radcliffe's Mabry was a great addition here as a villain but he still felt a little underused here as the film definitely could have gone further with him. He seemed to always just be lurking most of the time so if we had more of a sense of how much of a bad guy he was, what the Horsemen did would have more impact. The topic of human surveillance obviously came up here because of this but there was much more going on here. The team has to come together once again, also obviously because of the new team member in Lula, but after a year in hiding, they have to figure out how to do it again. Without giving anything away, there is something else but it has a little to do with the previous film.
Just like in the previous film, you kind of have to suspend belief when it comes to all the magic tricks. Also like the previous film, some of the tricks defy human belief (you have to remember that this is a film) and the fact that a lot of people fall for them and/or are oblivious to them happening defy belief and some might have a problem doing this but this film works the best when this happens. Believability aside, the tricks themselves are still well done with the scene involving everyone and a card being thrown around, which everyone has probably seen part of in the trailers, standing out.
Dan thought the film was convoluted and too smart for its own good. While he is right about the film being a little too smart (and the first one was as well), the film is nowhere near convoluted. The first film was more convoluted. While Franco and Fisher were a little marginalized in the first film because of Eisenberg's Atlas almost dominating scenes, this wasn't really the case here with he and now Caplan playing more of a role this time around. The film definitely could have gone without their forced relationship but Wilder asserted himself more and Caplan had some nice quips while trying to fit in with the group. The film's secondary characters were used well enough here with the exception of Morgan Freeman's Thaddeus Bradley. He was the best part of the first film and had a strong chance to repeat that here. Despite that, he was still great here.
The performances all around were good here and a little more even than the previous film with Eisenberg not dominating the scenes which allowed for a little more personality amongst the other Horsemen. Their chemistry, even with a new member, still was the best part here with the great dialogue remaining. They were still very fun to watch together. Ruffalo was better here in an elevated role, with more action and interaction with the Horsemen. He also had great chemistry with them. A low point, for sure, has to be a twin to Harrelson's McKinney being introduced for no reason. Another has to be the ending which was a little too convenient.
Overall, there were still problems here new and old but there still is some fun to be had, if you condition yourselves properly
If you liked this, please read my other reviews here and don't forget to follow me on Twitter, follow me on Instagram, and also like me on Facebook. Would you like to write movie reviews for this site? Contact me above or via social media for more information.
Doctor Who (2005) Season 10 Episode 9: Empress of Mars Review
Classic Review: The Conjuring Series (2013-2016)


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Sweet Success for March 2016
Shannon Lawrence's horror short story, Blue Sludge Blues, appeared in Devolution Z (ISBN-10: 1523809485, ISBN-13: 978-1523809486, 98 pages), on February 2, 2016. The February 2016 issue boasts a surprising variety of horrors. From a terrifying Korean legend to a monstrous Mexican cryptid, plus goblins, zombies, and much more… There is something to chill everyone to the bone! Pick up your copy at print or ebook copy at Amazon.
Maura Weiler's mainstream novel, Contrition, (ages 15-95, ISBN: 1593096488 and 978-1593096489, 330 pages, trade paperback), was released on April 14, 2015, by Infinite Words/Simon & Schuster and is available in book stores nationwide.
Michelle Major's contemporary romance, Recipe for Kisses (ISBN 978-1503952263, softcover/e-book, 254 pages), was released February 2, 1016, by Montlake Romance and is available at Amazon.com.
Join us here to celebrate the writing and publishing successes of fellow PPW members. When the sweet smile of success shines on you, but sure to let us know!
03-25-2016 9:31 AM Sweet Success
Sweet Success for February 2016
Tena Stetler's debut paranormal romance novel, A Demon's Witch (ISBN-13: 978-1509203086, 325 pages), was released in paperback and e-book on September 25, 2015, by The Wild Rose Press. It is available on Amazon. Tena's Sweet Success continues into 2016. She just signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press for a new paranormal Romance novel, A Witch's Journey, (350 pages, e-book and paperback).
Darby Karchut's (writing as Darby Kaye) urban fantasy for big kids: Unholy Blue (ISBN 987-1633920518, trade paperback, ebook, 292 pages) releases January 19th, 2016 from Spencer Hill Press/Spence City. The sequel to the best-selling The Stag Lord, the book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and most independent bookstores.
Sweet Success is pleased to update our readers on Margaret Mizushima's debut mystery novel, Killing Trail: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery. In March we shared the early publication news and today I'm happy to post that on December 8, 2016 Margaret's book was released by Crooked Lane Books (ISBN: 978-1-62953-381-0, 311 pages, hardcover, paperback, and ebook). Her book is available at: amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com,indiebound.org, and booksamillion.com.
Sweet Success for January 2016
Zara West's romantic suspense novel Beneath the Skin (325 pages, e-book and paperback), will be published in early 2016 by Wild Rose Publishing. Keep an eye out for future announcements at www.wildrosepublishing.com and her website www.zarawestsuspense.com.
Tena Stetler's novella, Charm Me (ISBN: 978-1-5092-0467-0, e-book, 80 pages), will release just in time for Valentine's Day. Her paranormal romance will publish January 6, 2016 by The Wild Rose Press. Available at Amazon. Preorders are now available.
Shannon Lawrence's horror short story, "The Blue Mist", in the anthology The Deep Dark Woods (ISBN 978-0692565070, 148 pages), was released by Revolving Door Press on October 25, 2015. It is available in e-book and paperback at Smashwords, Amazon, Createspace, and Barnes & Noble.
Kristi Lloyd's short story, The Hut of Yasmine Babushka, was released October 2015 in the e-magazine Quantum Fairy Tales, Lucky Issue #13 by Quantum Fairy Tales publishing. It is available at www.quantumfairytales.com
Sweet Success Archive Post 2010-2015
Chris Goff's adult thriller, Dark Waters (ISBN# 978-1-62953-192-2, hardcover, trade paperback, e-book and Audio formats, 346 pages), was released September 15, 2015 by Crooked Lane Books and is available at: Tattered Cover, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and IndieBound.
Debbie Maxwell Allen's memoir, Unlimited: Conquering On My Knees(ASIN: B01638N2RK, 175 pages, soft cover, adult and young adult), was released December 14, 2015, by Stained Glass Publishing. Available at http://bit.ly/unlimitedbook, and you can read a free 2-chapter sneak peek: http://unlimitedbook.org/.
Catherine Dilts announces the release of book two in her Rock Shop Mystery series, Stone Cold Case (ISBN # 9781432830991, 385 pages, hardcover and Kindle). Her amateur sleuth novel was published on September 16, 2015 by Five Star-Cengage, and is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, as well as Tattered Cover.
Carol Berg's epic fantasy novel, Ash and Silver (ISBN 978-0451417268, Trade paperback, ebook, & audio, 496 pages), was released on December 1, 2015 by Penguin Random House/Roc Books. It is available wherever books are sold and at audible.com.
Kelly Michelle Baker's YA fantasy, The Waters of Nyra: Volume II (ISBN: 1508732795, paperback and ebook, 98,000 words) was released September 5, 2015 by CreateSpace. The book is available at Amazon.
DeAnna Knippling's YA historical fantasy/horror novel, Alice's Adventures in Underland, was released on August 15, 2015 by Wonderland Press (ebook and paperback, 50,000 words, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and other fine online bookstores, in print and ebook formats. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0124IYP74/).
Robert Spiller's amateur sleuth mystery novel, Napier's Bones (5th Bonnie Pinkwater mystery),was released April 11, 2015 by Jmars Ink (ISBN# – 9781511454964, softcover, 302 pages). It is available online, rspiller.com and on Amazon and CreateSpace.
Allegra Gray's YA historical novel, Entrusted (Book 1 of the Relic Guardians series), was released on September 8, 2015 by Silverthorne Entertainment (-ISBN: 978-0692486146, 311 pages, paperback and ebook).
Shannon Lawrence's horror short story, "Maelstrom" (ASIN: B0130ZAVF0, e-mag and paperback, 285 pages), was published by Sanitarium Press in Sanitarium Magazine, Issue 35, on July 30, 2015.
Jane Bigelow's short story "The Golden Ruse" was published in Luxor: Gods, Grit and Glory (ISBN 13: 978-1514779378, ISBN 10: 1514779374), on August 15, 2015 by Museum Tours, and edited by Bill Petty. All the stories involve the city of Luxor, aka Thebes, aka Waset, and always a center of events in Egyptian history.
D.B Humel's cozy mystery, Meg and the Mysterious Voices (ISBN: 978-0-042011-00-7, e-book, 162 pages) was released on July 19, 2015 by Viva Publishers. The novel is available on Amazon or email the author at db@dbhumel.com.
Peter M. Klismet's third book, "FBI Diary: Home Grown Terror," (ISBN: 978-0986422331, AISN: B00XULEKWU, 314 pages), recently won 1st prize for non-fiction books at the National Public Safety Writers convention in Las Vegas. Published by Global Publishing Inc., the book was released in May of 2015 and with received favorable reviews.
M.J. Brett's family fiction novel, The Voices Know My Name (ISBN: 978-0-9748869-9-2, softcover, 260 pages, ages 12 and up), was released July 16, 2015 by Blue Harmony Press. This is her tenth novel.
Anna Blake's memoir, Stable Relation (ISBN 978-0-9964912-0-4, 240 pages), was released July 2, 2015 by Prairie Moon Press in paperback and ebook. It is available at Amazon and everywhere books are sold.
Pam McCutcheon's futuristic romance novel, Golden Prophecies (ISBN: 978-1941528273, e-book reissue, 392 pages, adult), was released July 15, 2015 by Parker Hayden Media. Golden Prophecies is available at Amazon and iBooks.
TR Fischer's romantic suspense novel, Changing Sky (ISBNs: 9780996493604 Changing Sky – paper version (soft cover), 9780996493611 Changing Sky – Ebook, 322 pages, ages 13 and up), was released on July 2, 2015 by Renaissance Press. It is available on the author's website, where you can also get a sneak peek of the first two chapters.
Karen Albright Lin's short story, "The Snow Day," (featured initially in BTS Book Reviews Jan/Feb 2015 issue, pg. 143) has been honored by the 2014 Red Carpet Book Awards and as a result has been invited to be included in an upcoming short story anthology, Shooting Stars. Release date is set for October 1, 2015 by Ravenswood Publishing.
Ataska Brothers' fantasy novel, The Soul of a Stillborn (95,000 words, new adult, myth/folklore), will be released by Fantasy Works Publisher in Fall 2015. The manuscript is also a finalist in the paranormal category for the Linda Howard Award of Excellence of Southern Magic Romance Writers.
Gabriele Ewerts' self-published middle-grade fantasy, Sophie and the Magic Flower (ISBN: 9781511842310 and 1511842318, paperback and Kindle, 372 pages) was released on April 22, 2015. The book is available at Amazon.com and Createspace.com. Visit Gabriele's website for more information.
Shannon Lawrence's horror short story, "Know Thy Neighbor" was published April 4, 2015 in the e-magazine, Under the Bed Magazine (adult, mature, disturbing content), ISBN: B00VNFR4S2, 72 pages) by Fiction Magazines. It is available at Fiction Magazines, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.
Shannon Lawrence's flash fiction (published as Shannon Kenoyer-Lawrence), "Awakening", was released on February 15, 2015 in the young adult anthology, Of Mist and Magic: Really Slow Motion (ISBN: (ASIN): B00TA6BND8, e-book, 337 pages) by Samantha Redstreake Geary, publisher. This fantasy-reimagined fairy tale collection is available from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Mist-Magic-Really-Slow-Motion-ebook/dp/B00TA6BND8
Karen Albright Lin's poem, "His Island" (a poem written in honor of the bald spot gracing the head of Karen's husband), was chosen by Colorado Journey publishers to be in their printed guide, Colorado Journey, which is "the most complete guidebook for finding art and artists, wineries and the incredible destinations that can only be found in Colorado." Learn more at www.westerncoloradojourneys.com.
Charlie Hubacek's historical fiction novel, Into the High Ute Country (ISBN-9781311362278, 978-1508606536, ebook and POD paperback, 200 pages, readers 10 years and up) was released March 16, 2015, by Hart Hills Publishing. This book is available on Smashword, Kindle and Createspace.
N.K. Trever's young adult cyber-thriller, Duplicity, (ISBN: 978-1250059147, hardcover/ebook/audiobook, 256 pages), was released March 17, 2015 by Thomas Dunne Books (Macmillan). Duplicity is available at http://www.amazon.com/Duplicity-N-K-Traver/dp/1250059143.
Margaret Mizushima is pleased to announce that her mystery/crime novel, Killing Trail: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery, will be published in the winter of 2016 by Crooked Lane Books. It is planned that it will be available in hardcover, e-book, and paperback.
Darby Karchut's YA fantasy, Griffin Rising (ISBN 978-0-9741145-6-9, trade paperback, 200 pages), was re-released in 2014, by Copper Square Studios. It is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many independent bookstores.
Donnell Ann Bell's newest suspense novel, Buried Agendas (ISBN 978-1611944693, trade paperback and digital, 242 pages), was released 11-7-14 by Bell Bridge Books. This book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and wherever books are sold.
TR Fischer's romantic suspense novel, Prey for Me (ISBN: 978-1500913274, 276 pages) was self-published in paperback and e-book in August 2014. Read the first chapter and purchase the book through Ms. Fischer's website, www.TRFischer.com.
Matt Bille's adult horror/dark fantasy, The Doleman (ASIN: B00NQIVFQQ, 237 pages), was released in paperback and e-book on October 15, 2014, by Wolfsinger Publications. The book is available at Amazon, Smashwords, and other online retailers. Visit http://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/Dolmen.html for more information.
JL Fields' cookbook, Vegan Pressure Cooking; Beans, Grains, and One-Pot Meals in Minutes (ISBN 9781592336449, 176 pages), will be released January 2, 2015, by Fair Winds Press.
Rachel Weaver's literary fiction, Point of Direction, (ISBN : 978-1-935439-91-2, 233 pages) was released May of 2014 by Ig Publishing to rave reviews. Oprah Magazine described it as a "strikingly vivid debut novel." In his review on NPR's All Things Considered, Alan Cheuse described the novel as one that "pulls you in." Point of Direction was chosen by the American Booksellers Association as a top ten debut for Spring 2014, by IndieBound as an Indie Next List Pick, and by Yoga Journal as one of their top five suggested summer reads.
J.T. Evans', Children of the Carnival, is an adult horror short story included in Carnival of the Damned (ISBN: 978-0692247815, 236 pages), that was released in paperback and e-book on 8-25-2014 by Evil Jester Press. The book is available on Amazon.
Darby Karchut's middle grade novel, Finn Finnegan (2013 from Spencer Hill Middle Grade/Spence Hill Press) recently won the 2014 IPPY Silver Medal for Juvenile Fiction. Finn Finnegan, the first in a seven-book urban fantasy series, is based on the ancient Celtic legend of Finn MacCool (Fionn mac Cumhail) and is set in modern-day Colorado Springs. The other books in the series include Gideon's Spear and The Hound at the Gate (coming January 2015).
Karen Albright-Lin's memoir, Mu Shu Mac-N-Cheese, was one of the finalists for the HuffPost 50/AARP memoir contest. Ten finalists were chosen from a pool of more than 2,400 contestants. Next step, Karen has to cut 77,000 words down to 50,000 by Dec 15th. Visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/memoir-contest-rules_n_4317794.html to see the contest announcement.
Dr. Yvonne DeMoss' self help book, Flying Beyond Fear (paperback, 230 pages, ages 8+), will be released on November 7, 2014 by Dorrance Publishing, Inc. This practical workbook for anxious/phobic flyers will be available through Dorrance Publishing and Amazon.
Kelly Michelle Baker's young adult fantasy, The Waters of Nyra: Volume 1 (ISBN: 978-1500587321, paperback and ebook, 70,000 words), was released on July 26th, 2014, by CreateSpace. This novel is available on Amazon.
C.L. Roth's middle grade fantasy/SF novel, Cosmic Chaos (ISBN: 978-0-9846619-5-4, ebook, 166 pages) was released in ebook format on July 29th, 2014 by C.L. Roth. It is available on Amazon.
Leslie Budewitz's mystery novel, Crime Rib (ISBN: 978-0425259559, 304 pages, paperback and ebook) was released July 1, 2014 by Berkley Prime Crime (Penguin Books). Crime Rib is available in all brick and mortar stores and online. Read an excerpt on Leslie's website at www.LeslieBudewitz.com.
Shannon Lawrence's flash fiction, Spes et Libertas, was released February 6, 2014 in the fiction anthology, Beyond the Binding Composers for Relief Companion Collection, by Samantha Redstreake Geary (e-book, 112 pages, ISBN: (ASIN): B00IAZY03U)
JL Fields' non-fiction essay, A Well-Rounded Vegan, was released in May 2014 in, Running, Eating, Thinking: A Vegan Anthology (Chapter 8) by Lantern Books (ISBN: 978-1-59056-348-9).
Ronnie Lee Graham's nonfiction, And Then the Train Wrecked, (ISBN: [soft] 978-1-49083487-0, [hard] 978-1-4908-3486-3, [e-book] 978-1-4908-3485-6, 128 pages, adult) was released May 7, 2014 by Westbow Press, A Division of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. This Christian self help/personal growth book is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Christianbook.com, and Books A Million. Visit Ronnie's website.
Alicia Howie was recently featured on Commercial-News.com (an online newspaper out of Danville, Illinois). The article covered the way Alicia used real places in and around Danville in her first book, Seven Days of Grace, released in November of 2013. Howie self-published her book and at a book signing she sold 80 copies. The book is available on Amazon, Smashwords, and Nook. Read the full article.
Carol Berg has sold the audio rights to her mythical fantasy novel, Dust and Light(ISBN: 978-0451417244 – print copy, 464 pages, trade paperback, ebook, audio). The audio book will release in August 2014 by Audible.com (NAL/Roc Books for the print and ebook already available).
Ashley Hodges Bazer's Sci-fi/Space Opera, Heralds of the Crown: Poison, (ISBN: 978-163-310-0060, E-book and trade paperback, 93,000 words, family-friendly/adult) was released on May 16, 2014 by Distinguished Press. Poison is available on Amazon and Smashwords. The author's website is www.ashleybazer.com.
Maria Faulconer is excited to announce the April release of her latest children's book, A Mom for Umande by Dial Books for Young Readers. It received a starred review on Kirkus and is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Maria was inspired to write Umande after seeing a photograph of a baby gorilla snuggling in the arms of his surrogate mom. An adoptive mom herself, she was captivated by the joy on their faces and knew she had to write a story about this resilient little gorilla.
Carol Berg has sold the Brazilian-Portugese language rights for her novel The Daemon Prism, a novel of the Collegia Magica, to Bertrand Brasil publishing of Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona. This mythic fantasy was originally published in January of 2012 and published by NAL/Roc Books for print and ebook, Audible.com for the audio book (ISBN 978-0451464712(print), trade paperback, e-book, audio, 592 pages). Berg's book can be found where books are sold, online bookstores, and Audible.com.
Becky Clark's novel, Banana Bamboozle (ISBN: 978-1-4944-9471-1, paperback, kindle 286 pages), was released on National Goof-Off Day (March 22, 2014), by Becky Clark (self published) and is available on Amazon.
Julie Kazimer's romantic suspense novel, The Assassin's Heart (ISBN-10: 1603819754, ISBN-13: 978-1603819756, 211 pages, ebook and trade paperback), was released March 1, 2014 by Camel Press (imprint of Coffeetown Press). This novel is available at Amazon.
J.T. Evans' short story, One-Thousand Eighty Degrees, was published in Phobias: A Collection of True Stories (ISBN: 978-0615949857, Paperback, ebook, 102 pages) on January 11, 2014 by Hidden Thoughts Press. It is available on Amazon.
K. Michelle Lindstrom's self-published memoir, Finding Rodolfo, (ISBN: 1495222985, Kindle, 337 pages), was released on December 29, 2013 and is available on Amazon.
Gail Mencini's novel, To Tuscany with Love(ISBN: 978-1-938592-00-3, Paperback, 400 pages) was released January 7, 2014 by Capriole Group. It is available to purchase on Gail's website.
N.K. Traver's cyber-thriller novel, Duplicity (working title) has been accepted by Macmillan Entertainment and is scheduled to be released in 2015.
When teen hacker Brandon's mirror reflection grows a mind of its own, the crimes he's committed come back to haunt him and he risks being sucked into a dangerous alternate world that puts both his sanity and his life at stake.
As a freshman at the University of Colorado, N.K. Traver decided to pursue Information Technology because classmates said "no one could make a living" with an English degree. It wasn't too many years later Traver realized it didn't matter what the job paid—nothing would ever be as fulfilling as writing. Programmer by day, writer by night, it was only a matter of time before the two overlapped. You can find her at her website and GoodReads.
Catherine Dilts is pleased to announce two Sweet Success Stories. First is the release of her debut mystery novel, Stone Cold Dead, which became available in Kindle format on December 12, 2013, and then the hardcover, available as of January 8, 2014. It is published by Five Star-Gale/Cenegage Publishing (ISBN # 978-1-432-82743-4) and is available at Amazon.com. In addition to her debut novel, Catherine will also have a short story, Tweens,published in the May issue (on stands February, 2014) of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
Martha Gilstrap's fantasy novel, The Slipaway Trail (ISBN 978-0-9887500-4-3, e-book, & 978-0-9887500-5-0, paperback, Adult, 501 pages) was released on October 12, 2013 by Slipaway Trail Publishing. The book is available at Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com or directly from author by email.
M.J. Stewart is pleased to announce the release of her new Middle-Grade Action Adventure novel, Two Degrees From Zero: A Snowboarding Adventure (Clan Publishing, ISBN: 978-0-9911850-0-9, Kindle e-book; ISBN: 978-0-9911850-2-3, Paperback, 200 pages), and is available at Amazon.
Lynda Hilburn's paranormal novel, Crimson Psyche, Kismet Knight, Vampire Psychologist book #3 [British edition] (-ISBN: 978-0857387257, 464 pages, Paperback and e-book) was released in the U.K. January 2, 2014, by Quercus Books/Jo Fletcher Books UK. The book is presently available only in the U.K. and will be available in the U.S. soon.
M.J. Brett's true crime mystery, Truth Lies Six Foot Under (ISBN: 978-0-9748869-8-5, 246 pages, e-book and paperback) was released July 2013 by Blue Harmony Press. The novel is available on Amazon.com as a Kindle edition.
DeAnna Knippling's horror short story, The Strongest Thing About Me is Hate (4600 words) appeared in the Nov/Dec issue of Black Static, which is available in print in many bookstores or online at all major book retailers.
Donnell Ann Bell's suspense novel, Betrayed (ISBN: 978-1-61194-372-6, 257 pages, adult)was released in trade paperback on November 18, 2013 by Bellebooks/Bell Bridge Books. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, Kobo, and wherever books are sold.
Karen Albright Lin's personal essay, The Importance of a Penis, (adult, 1,200 words), is a top ten finalist in the Boulder Writers' Workshop Make Me Laugh Writing Contest. It is currently with top TV comedy writer Gene Perret for final judging. The essay can be read at Red Line Magazine.
Beth Groundwater's mystery novel, A Basket of Trouble (ISBN: 978-0738727035, e-book & paperback, 312 pages, adult), was released November 8, 2013, by Midnight Ink. The book is available through the author's website.
Jaxine Daniels is re-releasing three of her novels, Promise to Believe, A Soft Place to Fall, and A Good Place to Land, all of which are paperback and E-books and are being released through Amtraz Enterprises/CreateSpace. All are available at Amazon.com Here are the details of each of her novels:
Promise to Believe (ISBN: 1492746010, 184 pages) is a Paranormal Romance re-released on September 15, 2013.
A Soft Place to Fall (ISBN: 1492765759, 244 pages) is a Military Romance Novel re-released on October 2, 2013
A Good Place To Land (ISBN: 1492766968, 230 pages) is a Military romance novel re-released October 2, 2013.
Bethanne Strasser's contemporary romance, Letters From Home (all formats, 30,000 words) was released on November 25, 2013, by Entangled Publishing. The book can be found at most online retailers. Bethanne's website is at: www.bethannestrasser.blogspot.com
F.T. Bradley's thriller, Double Vision: Code Name 711 (ISBN: 978-0062104403, hardcover, 256 pages, ages 8-12) was released October 12, 2013 by Harper Children's books and is available wherever books are sold.
F.P. Dorchak's Sci-fi action adventure novel, ERO (ISBN 0615859623 and 978-0615859620; 109,000 words; paperback; adult) was released July 19, 2013 by Wailing Moon and is now available in paperback and e-book. The book is available through Smashwords, B&N, Amazon, CreateSpace, and iTunes. A stranded astronaut draws upon confused and contradictory memories to recall his involvement in UFO Black Operations—and Humanity's not-so-pleasant future.
F.P Dorchak's supernatural murder mystery novel, The Univited (ISBN 9781301573967 and 0615906826; 96,400 words; e-book; paperback; Adult) was released as a paperback October 2013 by Wailing Loon. The book is available atSmashwords, CreateSpace, B&N, Amazon, and iTunes. Kacey Miller is on the run. Stumbling upon a heinous crime scene one sleepless night, she is drawn into an investigation where both the suspects and investigators are tormented by bizarre, supernatural experiences. She must decipher her own visions and nightmares, which forces her to confront long-denied, deep-seated, and secretive guilts—as well as her own connection with the murderers.
Kristi Helvig's new young adult science fiction novel Burn Out (Egmont USA, ISBN-13:978-1606844793, hardcover, 245 pages, ages 12 and up) is now available for pre-ordering at Amazon & Barnes & Noble. The book will be released April 8, 2014. You can also check it out on Goodreads.
C.L. Roth's mystery Bone Weary (ISBN# 978-0-9846619-2-3 for print, ISBN# 978-0-9846619-3-0 for eBook) was released in May 2013. This adult cozy mystery is the first book in the Weary, KS mystery series, and is published by C.L. Roth Publishing and available at CreateSpace, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
Karen Lin has a lot of Sweet Successes to share!
It was announced that Karen Albright Lin's feature length horror screenplay, Dark Side of Morning Light, is a quarterfinalist in the 2013 Scream Craft Horror Screenplay Competition. The screenplay tells the story of a mother who wades through Chinese mythical culture to free her son of a hunger striker who has possessed him. Ms. Albright Lin is now a monthly columnist for BTS Book and Book Trailer Reviews, a partner with Barnes & Noble. She'll be writing about the multitude of genres she's dabbled in. Her column is called "Karen's Writing Detours. " Her first article is in the August 2013 issue. Karen is now represented by Deborah Ritchken of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency, who is currently marketing Karen's cookbook, Nature's Wrap: Cooking in Leaves; Recipes from Around the World. Ms. Albright Lin just returned from teaching writing classes on a cruise through the Baltic and will teach again in December for Celebrity Cruise Line, destinations Belize, Panama, Cartagena, Costa Rica and Colon.
Walks on the Margins: A Story of Bipolar Illness (ISBN 978-0-9891414-0-6, trade paperback and e-book, 180 pages), a memoir by Kathy Brandt and Max Maddox, was released in April 2013 by Monkshood Press. It is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble online.
JL Fields's cookbook, Vegan for Her: The Woman's Guide to Being Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet (ISBN 978-0738216713, softcover, 400 pages) will be released by Da Capo Press Lifelong Books on July 9, 2013. The book will be available at all major online book retailers as well as in brick-and-mortar bookstores, or you can find it at veganforher.com. J.L. shares plant-based education, recipes and cooking techniques, as well as animal rights information and resources, on the popular blog JL goes Vegan and is writer and editor of the community blog Stop Chasing Skinny.
Beth Groundwater's mystery novel, Fatal Descent (ISBN 978-0738734828, all formats, 300 pages), was released in trade paperback and ebook formats on June 8, 2013, by Midnight Ink. The book is available anywhere books are sold. The author's website is at bethgroundwater.com.
F.P. Dorchak released his supernatural murder mystery novel, The Uninvited (ebook with softcover forthcoming, about 96K words) on May 15, 2013. The ebook is available at Smashwords and Amazon, with additional retailers forthcoming. The author's website is here, and his blog is here.
Shannon Lawrence's flash fiction piece, "The Family Ruins," was released in April 2013 by Chuffed Buff Books as part of its Sunday Snaps: The Stories anthology (ISBN: 978-1908858016, paperback, 128 pages, ebook forthcoming). The anthology is available at Amazon, Chuffed Buff Books, or The Book Depository. The author's website is at www.thewarriormuse.com.
Carol Berg's teen/adult fantasy novels Transformation, Revelation,Restoration, Son of Avonar, Guardians of the Keep, The Soul Weaver,Daughter of Ancients, Song of the Beast, Flesh and Spirit, and Breath and Bone were published as audiobooks by Audible.com during Spring 2013. Her website is at www.carolberg.com and you can find her on Facebook here. You can find her audiobooks at Audible.com.
Karen Albright Lin's adult literary mainstream poem, "Holding Us" (online and softcover), was published in Paris/Atlantic, the American University of Paris literary magazine, in May 2013. The poem is available in the Paris/Atlantic 2013 issue here. The author's website is at www.karenalbrightlin.com.
Karen Albright Lin's mainstream adult flash fiction story, "Snow Day," was released March 1, 2013, by Running Out of Ink. The story is available for free online here. The author's website is at www.karenalbrightlin.com.
Jo-Ann Costa's historical fiction novel The Bequest of Big Daddy (ISBN: 9781938467271, 84K, ebook and softcover [the latter available in April 2013])), which took second place in the 2008 Paul Gillette contest, was published February 1 by Koehler Books. The book is available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million, with pre-orders for the paper edition available. The author's website is at jo-anncosta.com.
Richard and Janet Fogg's military history book, Fogg in the Cockpit (ISBN 978-1612000046, hardcover; ASIN: B005AUG53G, Kindle) was released byCasemate on July 27, 2011. In recent updates, Fogg in the Cockpit has been nominated by the Air Force Historical Foundation as one of the best military history books reviewed in Air Power History during 2012. The book is available at online retailers Amazon and Kobo, as well as from Casemate. The authors' website is www.janetfogg.com.
Marti Verlander's adult fantasy novel, Elegy: The Black Diamond (ISBN 978-0-9887500-0-5 ebook/978-0-9887500-1-2 softcover, about 106K words), written as Martha Gilstrap, was released January 1, 2013 by Slipaway Trail Publishing. The author's website is www.marthagilstrap.com. The book is available at Amazon, Smashwords, OmniLit, CreateSpace, and Barnes & Noble.
Shannon Baker's adult mystery novel, Tainted Mountain (ISBN 978-0738734224; trade paperback and ebook, 306 pages), will be released by Midnight Ink in March 2013. The book will be available at major online booksellers. The author's website is at www.shannon-baker.com.
Karen Albright Lin's adult horror short story, "More More More!" (850 words), was published November 29, 2012, by Nth Degree Fiction and Fandom 'Zine. The story is available online for free here.
Jody A. Kessler's adult paranormal romance novel, Death Lies Between Us(paperback, ebook), will be published by Crescent Moon Press in March 2013. The book will be available from major online bookstores. The author's website is at jodyakessler.com.
Catherine Dilts's mystery short story, "The Jolly Fat Man," will be published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in April 2013. The magazine will be available on bookstands and at online bookstores.
J.T. Evans's fantasy short story, "A Poor Fellow Soldier," was published in An Uncommon Collection in November, 2013. The anthology is a collection of stories centered around a mysterious bookstore and its owner, Ezra. The book was published by the Colorado Springs Fiction Writers Group. You can find out more about J.T. at his web site: http://jtevans.net/
C.L. Roth's (a.k.a. Carol Englehaupt's) middle-grade fantasy novel, Cosmic Shift (ISBN: 978-0-9846619-0-9, softcover and paperback, 248 pages), will be released by C.L. Roth Publishing on November 22, 2012. The book will be available through Kindle, Nook, and Amazon CreateSpace. The author's website is at www.clroth.com.
G.T. Harper's adult thriller novel, Bering Storms (ISBN: 978-1-891331-38-1, trade and ebook, 398 pages) will be released November 19, 2012, byNebbadoon Press. The book will be available from the publisher and via Kindle and Nook.
Beth Groundwater's new adult mystery novel, To Hell in a Handbasket(ISBN 978-073872702, trade paper and ebook, 300 pages), will be released on November 8, 2012, by Midnight Ink. The book will be available online and from many brick-and-mortar bookstores. The author's website is atbethgroundwater.com.
Carol Caverly's adult mystery novel, Frog Skin and Mutton Fat, Book #2 in the Thea Barlow Wyoming Mystery Series (ASIN: B008WDB5MO, ebook, 214 pages), was released in August 2012 by Amazon Digital Services, Inc. The book is available at Amazon.com. The author's website is at www.carolcaverly.com. The first book, All the Old Lions, is also available on Amazon, and the third book, Dead in Hog Heaven, will be available soon.
Deb Buckingham's nonfiction craft book on knitting for all ages, Dishcloth Diva (ISBN 978-1-937513-14-6, softcover/digital, 62 color pages), was released in September 2012 by Cooperative Press. The book is available from Cooperative Press and will be available soon from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Table Rock Llamas. The author's website is attheartfulyarn.blogspot.com.
Jen Turano's adult Inspirational Historical Romance novel, A Change of Fortune (ISBN 978-0-7642-1018-1, softcover, 320 pages), will be released by Bethany House on November 1, 2012. The book will be available at Barnes & Noble, Tattered Cover, Amazon, the Walmart website and most other book sellers. The author's website is at www.JenTurano.com or find her on Facebook here.
Darby Karchut's YA fantasy novel, Griffin's Fire, recently won the 2012 Readers Favorite Book Reviews and Award Contest Bronze Medal in the Young Adult/Coming of Age category. The first book in the series,Griffin Rising, was the 2011 Sharp Writ Young Adult Book of the Year.Griffin's Fire (ISBN 978-1606192122, 200 pages, trade paperback) was published by Twilight Times Books in April 2012. Her websites are at www.darbykarchut.com or www.darbykarchut.blogspot.com. You can find her books at all major bookstores and in many independent bookstores.
DeAnna Knippling's science fiction short story, "The Third Portal," won first place in the Parsec, Ink 2012 Short Story Contest. The story was printed in Confluence Program in July 2012 and appears in the Triangulation: The Morning After anthology edited by Stephen V. Ramsey. The author's website is at www.DeAnnaKnippling.com; you can find her books at all major online bookstores and via www.WonderlandPress.com.
Kevin Ikenberry and Pete Aldin's new teen-and-up science fiction short story, "Illegal," was published in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Issue #56, in print and major ebook formats (6700 words). Kevin's website can be found at www.kevinikenberry.com, and you can find the magazine at www.andromedaspaceways.com.
Lynda Hilburn's adult paranormal novel, Blood Therapy (ISBN 978-0857387226, trade paperback, 400 pages), will be released in the UK by Jo Fletcher/Quercus Books UK on September 13, 2012. The author's website is atwww.lyndahilburnauthor.com; you can buy her books online at Amazon.com and at local bookstores.
Carol Berg's The Soul Mirror, a novel of the Collegia Magica, won the 2012 Colorado Book Award for Genre Fiction. She has also been named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Writer of the Year. The Soul Mirror (ISBN 978-0451463746) is an adult fantasy/mystery published by New American Library/Roc Books in trade paperback and e-book (528 pages). Her website is at www.carolberg.com, and you can find her books online and in brick-and-mortar stores.
Donnell Ann Bell's romantic suspense novel, The Past Came Hunting(ISBN 978-1-61194-048-0, 277 pages, softcover/digital), is receiving numerous awards, including nominations in the 2012 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence and the 2012 Greater Detroit Romance Writers of America Bookseller's Best Award for Romantic Suspense and for Best First Book. The book is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BelleBooks, Books a Million, independent bookstores and wherever books are sold; it will be coming out as an audiobook at a date TBD. The author's website is at www.donnellannbell.com.
Aaron Michael Ritchey's YA paranormal romance novel, The Never Prayer (ISBN 978-1937254414, 272 pages, trade paper/digital), was released by Crescent Moon Press on March 29, 2012. The book is available online at Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble. The author's website is at aaronmritchey.com.
Terry Odell's romantic suspense novel, Where Danger Hides (ISBN 978-1-4328-2512-6, 371 pages, hardcover [will be out in digital soon]), is the winner of the Romantic Suspense category of the Holt Medallion Award. The Five Star/Gale Cengage title is available from online bookstores and via the author's website. The author's homepage is at terryodell.com.
Her young adult urban fantasy novel, Griffin's Fire(ISBN 978-1-60619-212-2; trade paperback), will be released April 15, 2012, by Twilight Times Books. The book will be available at most online bookstores and in many independent brick-and-mortar bookstores.
Deb Stover's adult paranormal romance novel,Mulligan Stew (ISBN 978-0515133097, 320 pages, hardcover, softcover, ebook) was re-released as an ebook in August 2011 by ePublishing Works. The book and ebook are available via online bookstores. The author's website is at www.debstover.com.
Deb Stover's adult time travel romance novella,Citizen Daisy (ebook, about 23K), was published January 5, 2012, by ePublishing Works. The ebook is available via online bookstores.
Mandy Houk's sixth article for kyria.com ("Flip Sides") has been posted. Her seventh ("Keeping Up Appearances") is scheduled for some time in late February.
Mona Hodgson's historical fiction novel, Too Rich for a Bride (Book 2 in the Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek series) (ISBN 978030745892-6, softcover, 306 pages) was released by WaterBrook Press in May 2011, following Two Brides Too Many(May 2010). Visit the author's website at www.monahodgson.com. You can buy the book from your favorite bookseller or go to her website to contact her for autographed copies.
Richard and Janet Fogg's military history book, Fogg in the Cockpit (ISBN 978-1612000046, hardcover) will be released by Casemate on June 19, 2011. Casemate has just announced that the book will be featured by the Military Book Club. The book has also been featured in an article in the Longmont Weekly. The Foggs will be attending the 359th Fighter Group Association's reunion in Dayton in July and manage the Facebook page for the 359th Fighter Group, 1943-1945. The book will be released worldwide; see the author's website at www.janetfogg.com for more information.
Carol Berg has sold the Hebrew translation rights for her adult and teen, mythic fantasy novel in two volumes, The Lighthouse Duet: Flesh and Spirit and Blood and Bone, to Graff Publishing in Tel Aviv, Israel. Carol's website is at www.carolberg.com.
Terry Odell's romantic suspense novel, Where Danger Hides(second in the Blackthorne, Inc., series) (ISBN: 978-1-4328-2512-6, hardcover, 371 pages) will be published by Five Star Gale/Cengage on May 18, 2011. The author's website is at www.terryodell.com. You can buy the book from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
Darby Karchut's debut YA urban fantasy novel, Griffin Rising(ISBN 978-1-60619-210-8, trade paperback, 175 pages) will be published June 28, 2011 by Twilight Times Books. You can buy the book in bookstores and online at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon; you can also read the book as an ebook (out now) from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
DeAnna Knippling's short SF story, "Paid," was published at Crossed Genres magazine (www.crossedgenres.com). Beauregard is a time-travelling detective in a multiverse where he's his own worst enemy. Literally. DeAnna has also started a small press, Wonderland Press (www.wonderlandpress.com) to epublish her and her pseudonyms' work. Please see the website for weekly weekend ebook coupons and links to her Kids' Pulp stories, unadulteratedly awesome (and un-adult) short stories for 9-12 year olds with titles like "Attack of the 50-Foot Sushi Monster" and "Zombie Girl Invasion," writing as De Kenyon. DeAnna's (and De's) stories can be found on Smashwords, Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobles, and other ebook retailers near you.
Beth Groundwater's short mystery story, "Fatal Fish Flop," will be published in Fish Tales, The Guppy Anthology (ISBN: 978-1-4344-3080-9) in April 2011 by Wildside Press in trade paperback online at Amazon.com and Wildside Press (http://www.wildsidepress.com). Author website atwww.bethgroundwater.com.
DeAnna Knippling's short science fiction story for adults, "The Business that Must Be Conducted in the Dark" was published in the January edition of Silverthought Online. She has also had a short Weird-West story, "Miracle, Texas," accepted by podcast website Nil Desperandum.
DeAnna is a freelance writer in Colorado Springs who is having fun ghostwriting nonfiction books at the moment. Her first novel, Choose Your Doom: Zombie Apocalypse, was published in November 2010 by Doom Press.
Read DeAnna's blog here!
Georgiana Hall's middle-grade novel, Hershey: A Tale of a Curious House Rabbit (ISBN 1936343312), published in 2010 by Peppertree Press, was featured in a USA Today article by Colorado Springs writer, Sharon L. Peters. The book can be purchased at online booksellers; the article can be viewed here.
Matt Bille's dark fantasy novel, The Dolmen, will be released in 2012 by Wolfsinger Publications in softcover. The book will be available at the Wolfsinger website. Visit the author's website atwww.mattwriter.com.
Lynda Hilburn's VAMPIRE SHRINK, DARK HARVEST, and an untitled third book in her Kismet Knight series, featuring a psychologist who treats vampires after being drawn into their secretive and seductive lair, originally published by Medallion Press, and which found success as No. 1 sellers in Kindle's vampire romance and ghosts & fantasy categories, to Mark Smith for republication by Silver Oak in the US (Quercus's new line with Sterling) and Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus in the UK, by Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media Group (world).
Deborah Martinez Martinez, Ph.D.'s new children's non-fiction book, Trade on the Taos Mountain Trail (ISBN 978-0-9823445-0-7), was published by Vanishing Horizons on November 12, 2010. Illustrated by Robert W. Pacheco, book is available in full color trade format. Order from www.vanishinghorizons.com or El Pueblo History Museum or The Bookery in Pueblo.
Beth Groundwater's adult mystery novel, Deadly Currents (ISBN 9780738721620), will be released on March 8 by Midnight Ink in trade paperback and e-book. The book will be available online and at brick-and-mortar stores. Author website at http://bethgroundwater.com.
Ian T. Healy reprinted two stories, "Graceful Blur" and "The Scent of Rose Petals," which originally appeared in A Thousand Faces: The Quarterly Journal of Superhuman Fiction, on Smashwords. Purchase the stories here. Author website at http://www.ianthealy.com.
Julie Kazimer's urban fantasy novel, The Body Dwellers, was just purchased by Solstice Publishing. The Body Dwellers, a tale of mutants and romance, also won second place in the 2009 Pikes Peak Writers Contest. Congratulations Julie!
Julie Kazimer recently announced that F***ED UP FAIRYTALE, her winning entry in the 2010 Pikes Peak Writers Fiction Contest, has sold in a two-book deal to Kensington!
As reported at Publisher's Marketplace in October 2010, F***ED UP FAIRYTALE is likened to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" meets "Shrek," a truly messed up tale where, when Cinderella is run over by a bus, a private investigator (on mental health leave from the Villains Union) is hired by Cinderella's not-so-ugly stepsister to solve what she believes is a murder and break her own curse before New Never City is riddled with dead bodies.
Way to go, Julie! What sweeter success is there?
12-18-2015 3:11 PM Sweet Success
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text:
Across the Partisan Divide: A Curious Encounter with My Senator, Susan Collins
Submitted by robert.shetterly on 08 October 2012 - 03:29pm
On the first leg of a trip last week to work at the Maxwell School for Citizenship at the University of Syracuse, I flew from Bangor, Maine, to Washington, D.C. Sitting across from me in aisle two was one of Maine's senators, Susan Collins, a woman of enormous power, seniority and prestige in the Republican Party and our government. How often, I thought, does one get the serendipitous opportunity to talk with a senator? But another passenger sat between us, and I could not engage her.
This was a commuter flight in a small jet, the kind that does not connect to a walkway into the terminal, but has the passengers disembark and stand outside the plane as they wait for their luggage to be brought forward. Senator Collins happened to stand, waiting for her bag, next to me. I leaned over and introduced myself. I had hoped to take this moment to ask her some questions about the maintenance of democracy. If you are inclined to say my intended conversation was a bit heavy for a windy and noisy tarmac, you would be correct.
Senator Collins began to offer me the public smile commonly bestowed on friendly constituents, but paused. My name must have set off a little alarm in her head. She gave me a brief look -- I'm not sure I could read it -- and said in an even voice, "We are not friends," turned her back on me and walked away.
Her response did not come from nowhere. Indeed, we are not friends. I have never called her Susie, nor has he called me Rob. In fact, I have tried to be a thorn in her side, having been arrested twice in her office in peaceful, civil disobedient protests against her support of the Iraq War. And on two other occasions I politely interrupted public speeches of hers when she was defending and supporting the Bush war policies. I have gone to jail, paid fines, and done community service in vain attempts to influence her positions or at least have others recognize them for what they were. But, it's important to note, each of the protests came after appealing to her office to allow me and others to meet her face to face to discuss these issues. We were always refused.
Most of the time, those of us who protest public policies feel that people in power pay attention to neither the protests nor the people who protest. When Senator Collins walked away from me on the tarmac it seemed nearly positive; at least she knew who I was. At the same time, I knew enough not to take "We are not friends" personally. She was addressing all of us who think it is our right as citizens to oppose her policies.
You can imagine my frustration. So close to a Senator I've wanted to engage and then given her back. She was probably afraid I might make a scene, begin calling her a baby killer or pour flour on her head. But such is the strange dance of power and protest in this country. The power uses all the means of security and privilege to avoid direct conversation with people who disagree. The opposition resorts to civil disobedience and interruption because our "democracy" has not allowed any other form of communication. And then, when coincidence places them in the same place at the same time, the distrust is too deep to span.
What is the price of this incivility, this distrust? I don't want to be the senator's personal friend, but I really would like to discuss with her the crises besetting this country and the world and how to remedy them. We don't have to agree. But I do believe that she should invite those of us who have different views to be part of the conversation. How can we be friends of the world together, joined by shared concerns and able to discuss climate change, environmental degradation, war, the incompatibility of democracy with the influence of enormous wealth, unsustainable economics, poor education, energy depletion, industrial farming, debt, unemployment, and a host of other issues? How do we get beyond political expediency, campaign contributions and corporate profits to discuss these things?
Senator Collins, along with Maine's other Senator, Olympia Snowe, has decried the intractable partisanship of our current government -- politicians entrusted with the enormous task of solving critical problems as millions ( no, billions!) of people and other species are affected by their obdurate inaction. Perhaps my brief interaction with her was a perfect example of the absurdity of this inability to talk. Jack Kennedy said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." So we might say those who make formal friendship based on a common concern for our destiny impossible make partisanship inevitable. They make the possible impossible.
I'm sure Senator Collins considers how history might write her story. She is already famous for all the obvious reasons. But there is only one sure way to earn an exemplary niche. And that is moral courage -- the courage to listen to the other side, to insist on what is right, not expedient, the courage to inhabit what Terry Tempest Williams calls "the open space of democracy." Senator, let's start a conversation. I promise not to pour flour on your head.


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Hi,i have been watching area 51 with google earth and there never seems to be much activity...does anyone else view the goings on at area 51?
What did you think you might see..........secret things are not seen, they are hidden from view.
Google earth is not real time viewing, so anything you should not see is airbrushed out of the picture or you see the same picture over and over again with nothing happening.
Google get their views of the earth from the government some days after the fact, after all the intelligence people have seen everything they want to see.
So what you get to see is the part that they no longer want..........throw aways.
I have twice downloaded Google Earth and cannot get it to work- I find it very confusing at the best of times. However, if I could get it to work, I'd keep an eye on Area 51 simply because mistakes are made and every now and then something is missed in the doctoring of the pictures, such as we've recently seen in posts here regarding Mars.
Just curious AlienCaller, when you zoom into something, is it clear? I've tried to zoom to my house and it is just a blur.
Thanks Dawn, I've noticed it does that, but no matter how I fiddle with it, I can never seem to get a clear image close up. There was a post a while back with google earth and crop circles and you could see very clearly, very close to the ground. I envy people who can pinpoint objects so clearly that they can further enhance even the smallest portion for a closeup.
I'll keep trying. Any and all tips welcome!
Isn't it amazing.......we have the Internet and Google earth and the rest of it, but it is a very superficial picture.......the censored version if you will........like newspapers and magazines.
Oh but we don't censor anything they say.........not in the normal sense of the word, no of course not........you can't report what you do not have access to or material you do not know exists.......its beyond the range of normal.
Doing research for the period covering the last 60 years I have found that most of the real story never makes it into the media or recorded in any public source of information.
Take a crime for example........a murder if you will.....if that murder does not come to the attention of the police there is no record of the murder ever having occurred.......for all intents and purposes it didn't happen despite the fact that it most certainly did.
Same thing with missing people.........if they are not reported missing.....they are not missing even though they are.
In both cases you can search all the back copies of all the newspapers you can find and you will find nothing related to these unknown cases......so we have a whole category of criminal activity that goes unreported......un crimes.
Oh, but there must be evidence..........of what? You think every criminal and every intelligence officer is a moron......think again. If you use your head you would realize that the perfect crime is far from impossible........yet we are repeatedly told over and over again that there is no such thing as a perfect crime.
Does this not also apply to the UFO field.......we have declassified all our UFO files say the British......except for those prior to 72 which were purged due to the high cost of storage. How much truth is there in this statement? Is it even close to the truth or is it just a another lie?
It boggles the mind (and gets me very upset and angry) to discover just how much can be hidden from view......much, much more than you might ever imagine or I might imagine.
I repeatedly think......okay I've heard it all....it can't get any deeper than this.........and then I am completely caught off balance when I discover that I have no real idea what deep is or how deep.......deep goes.....its like a bottomless hole.....it just keeps getting deeper.
And its very dark down there in the hole.......so bring some candles with you or a good supply of batteries for your flashlight. Everywhere you turn you see darkness........inky black and no light.
The reason why it's so dark is because everything down there is covered-up with black....it's blacked out....censored........tippy top secret......so secret that even the secret people are not allowed to know about it.
So, if some secret people know the truth about UFO and ET you can be sure that you can count them all on one hand..........and if anything should suddenly happen to all of those few the information is gone.........lost. That's how secrets are kept secret, you don't tell anyone.
Nothing too complex about that........you don't tell secrets...that's why they are called secrets because they are things you don't tell anyone.
So, every day people die and they take their secrets with them........and this happens more often than not.
There is the argument that it would be impossible to keep something this big a secret for all these years........someone would talk. Too many people involved they say, can't be done.
Anyone who makes that argument does not know how it really works, they are dreaming. A form of denial........rationalizing the situation in terms of their own understanding, which is the best they can do. unfortunately.
There are more secrets than I could possibly count......so why would UFO and ET be any different?
The thing is.......all you can see is a blur........if you ever saw what it looked like in perfect focus it would take your breath away........and then you'd know what the word scared really meant.


I was wondering if anyone else has wanted advice from the MD for direction but feel they don't want to influence decisions?
Perhaps my MD just needs to get to know me, it seems he is mostly interested in what I want and what I know but little advice on what to do. This might be perfect, I am OK with it but wondered what to expect for advice from the MD as time goes on. I honestly have no agenda other than I have always felt at odds with my male parts and and have obsessed about sensual things all my life and it is driving me crazy. How long do you think a good relationship should be to make decisions?
@MikeP If you just had one, perhaps 2 visits to your doctor then it sounds about right that they want to find out more about you and what your goals are are along with any examinations and blood tests that may they may want done.
Also, some advice that you may be seeking should perhaps be coming from a therapist familiar with transgender issues. Are you presently seeing a therapist?
No one here on the forums is going to 2nd guess and advise you regarding what your doctor tells you based on what you have said.
If you are not seeing a therapist, it might be best if you start doing so. Perhaps your Doctor will have contacts and suggestions for a therapist that they are usually dealing with.
Being transgender is self diagnosed and for the most part, the treatment path is determined by the patient. You will normally only get advise when you ask for it because the therapist roll is primarily to determine that your able to make the needed decisions. Your the only one who truly knows what's going on inside your head so your the only one with all the facts needed for a decision. If you have questions, ask and your therapist will answer the question if possible and if not, you will receive suggestions as to where to look for an answer.
Normally when we go to a doctor, we expect the doctor to have all the answers but being transsexual is backwards and the patient has all the answers even if they don't know it yet. That's why Susan's is a great place to look for answers. There is much to learn here and many truths to use as examples.
I use MD but he is a PhD Psychiatry and a Gender specialist.
" I work with adults in all aspects of general psychology, and I have a specific clinical interest in working with people from diverse backgrounds. In particular, I am passionate about working with LGBTQ individuals addressing a variety of mental health concerns. My therapeutic approach is integrative and tailored to the needs of the individual. I do, however, often utilize components of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) in treatment."
Dena "Normally when we go to a doctor, we expect the doctor to have all the answers but being transsexual is backwards and the patient has all the answers even if they don't know it yet."
I think this address what I am thinking or hoping for but as another one here was asking about the gender test and not being able to find one. I have got quite a bit of relief so far from joining the group he host. Looking forward to my next visit, kinda bummed the group did not meet due to the holiday.


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