Islay Scotch Whisky

It has come to my attention that I drink a decent amount (better than an indecent amount I'm told) of scotch. I do not live on scotch alone, oh no, I do imbibe other liquids. Yes, yes, water, of course--and a lot of it--I learned my lesson when I was stationed in the Mojave Desert back in my Navy days (yes, the Navy in the desert) when all I drank was soft drinks. Yuck.  I also enjoy champagne (as much as I enjoy scotch, actually), and wine, and gin, and bourbon, and even whiskey with an e on occasion.

Back to scotch--I do have a favorite style of scotch and it's from Islay, and island off the west coast of Scotland. I enjoy the heavily peated scotch with its smokiness and hint of the sea in the finish from the three distilleries along the southeastern coast of Islay. These distilleries are Laphroaig, Lagavulin, and Ardbeg.

Typically I keep Laphroaig 10yr, Lagvulin 16yr, and the Ardbeg 10yr around the house, but here are three bottles I'm currently working through from those three distilleries:

Lore and Uigeadail are more expensive than their 10yr siblings, and the 8yr Lagavulin is cheaper than its 16yr old uncle even though it's a limited 200yr anniversary edition. These three and even the ones I typically keep around the house from Islay are the deep end of the pool. These aren't for the casual sipper. I'd suggest starting off with a Highland scotch, or build up to it with bourbon or even some smooth Irish whiskey like Jameson.

When you're ready, come join me in the mountains of Colorado for a dram of Islay Scotch whisky!

Publishers Weekly Top 10 SF, Fantasy & Horror for Fall of 2017

Iron Angels, the urban fantasy/police procedural I wrote with Eric Flint has been chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of its top 10 picks for fall 2017 in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror category! Iron Angels will be released as a hardcover on 9/5/2017 from Baen Books.

Here is a link to the web-based article:

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/74069-fall-2017-announcements-sf-fantasy-horror.html

In the digital and print editions of Publishers Weekly they printed a little more information, and my wonderful publisher, Baen, also ran a full page color ad for its fall releases!

Its available for pre-order now at all the usual spots, to include: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells, as well as Tattered Cover (since I live in Colorado!).  In addition, there is an eARC available on Baen's website: http://www.baen.com/iron-angels-earc.html. An eARC is an advanced reading copy of the novel, which Baen offers, warts and all, to the public to purchase if they want to get their hands on a book right away!

Iron Angels: A bizarre kidnapping case leads FBI Special Agent Jasper Wilde into the mysterious world of a strange religious cult and even stranger criminals.

My 2017 Concert Schedule Won't Help My Tinnitus

I'm attending quite a few concerts in 2017. Most people probably figure me for loving Sinatra and big band style music (and they'd be right), however, I have pretty broad tastes when it comes to music.

Tinnitus: I do have a constant high-pitched tone in both ears (probably from being around jet aircraft in the Navy on a daily basis for years, playing in loud bands throughout my life, and attending a large number of concerts), and as such, a few years ago I began wearing musician-grade decibel reducing earplugs at band practice as well as to concerts. Of course I adopted the earplugs way too late in life, but I don't want further damage if I can help it!

Here are the concerts I already have tickets for:

May 6 - Testament & Sepultura at the Summit Music Hall

May 11 - Opeth & Gojira at Red Rocks

June 3 - Roger Waters at Pepsi Center

June 7 - Metallica with VolBeat and Avenged Sevenfold at Mile High Stadium

June 8 - Brit Floyd at Red Rocks

July 6 - Queen at Pepsi Center

July 8 - Ghost at Fillmore Auditorium

August 25 - Depeche Mode at Pepsi Center

That's a pretty cool lineup, and I may add in a few shows if they don't interfere with travel and work.  And I don't think I'll be partaking in any mosh pits this year.

Until Dawn - Interactive Horror for PS4

You know, I don't often write about video games. In fact, I don't think I've ever posted about one on my website, until now, and I'm writing about Until Dawn from Supermassive Games. I hate to write this, but for those with other platforms, it's a PlayStation 4 exclusive that was released back in August of 2015.

When I began writing fiction seriously again around a decade or so ago, the time I allotted for gaming (video, RPG, tabletop, board, etc.) dwindled to nearly zero. Every once in awhile I'll find a title that intrigues me, and this time it was Until Dawn that hooked me.

The game is an interactive horror film, and while it's filled with some pretty standard tropes, the description of the gameplay interested me enough to give it a whirl.

Okay, here is the setup and the tropes you'll recognize right off: the game involves a group of teenagers who are probably 18 or 19 given the clues you'll find in game. These teens get together in a remote cabin up in the mountains one year after the disappearance of two of their friends who are twin sisters of one of the teens. Of course, they are then terrorized by a psychopath who toys with them and they must survive until dawn.

Okay, that doesn't sound all that original, and it isn't. But that is the briefest of explanations regarding the plot that I'll give--I'd hate to spoil the game (even though it's been out for a awhile now). What makes this game interesting is the gameplay and implementation. This is the first game in a long time that made me come back to it and made me think about it after I'd stopped playing.

First off, you get to play all of the characters, each of them will take center stage throughout the story and you'll find clues, make critical decisions that will not only affect that character, but the other characters. In the game this is called the "butterfly effect" and some choice made early in the game may have a sever impact later on. There are a couple of cool things about this butterfly effect and the way it's implemented. They use Native American lore to explain the significance, and throughout the game there are also totems that characters will find that foreshadow events (such as a characters death, saving someone's life, that sort of thing), so these can help when making decisions and impact the butterfly effect. The other great thing is that these decisions have their own screen and the player can flip through them and see how these events impacted the story and characters as you play.

As this is happening, a story unfolds, and there are times characters have to make a choice on the fly, such as investigate a noise or follow footprints, or stay with the group or investigate noise on your own. These are things you'd be yelling at the screen for if this were a movie, and you'll find yourself making decisions that are the lesser of two evils (until you find out later on it wasn't the lesser of two evils!).  And then there are chase scenes where the screen will flash an icon and you need to hit the corresponding button on your controller, but these aren't often, but it's extremely stressful when it happens and I could feel the adrenaline kick in.

Given the choices all these characters can make, this leads to probably hundreds of different scenarios, and the choices the player makes will affect which characters make it until dawn. My first go through, I had 3 out of the 8 survive. Going into the last few minutes until dawn I actually I had 5, but then lost 2 from a decision I had to make in a matter of seconds.

This game lends itself to multiple play-throughs. The good thing is that once you've completed the game once you can access the chapters (the game is divided into chapters), which are also cleverly done and end in cliffhangers, and after a brief interlude (with a psychiatrist who explores your fears--and then those fears get implemented into the game), there is a recap of what happened before in the form of: Previously on Until Dawn, which then gives the highlights.

The effects of all these decisions even plays into how the characters then react to one another and they'll stop trusting each other or perhaps grow closer. I found myself really bummed when a couple of my favorite characters bit it. Another thing, sometimes you are given a choice, and it may seem you have to do something, but there are times when it's good to not hit the button to do something.

A few of the cast members are fairly well known, such as Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) and Rami Malek (Mr. Robot). The in-game characters are not only voiced by them, but modeled on them. The photos of Hayden Panettiere and Rami Malek are from the game, and they're pretty decent. Even the facial expressions are done quite well (I think they're at least as good as the Grand Moff Tarkin CGI in Rogue One--and that was a major production, not a somewhat unknown video game). The only character with weird facial expressions is the psychiatrist, there is just something a little off about the way his mouth moves, it's odd (it may be that the way his mouth moved in the game reminded me of one of my bosses that I didn't get along with at all, so that may have played into it a bit and made me want to punch the screen once or twice. Yeah, we didn't like each other at all). My old boss, I mean, the psychiatrist, doesn't have much screen time, so it's palatable.

It's not all positive. For instance, at times it feels like the game has the characters "on rails", guiding you down a specific path and at times the camera angles are frustrating. But I told myself that added to the mystery (when a camera angle prevented seeing something for instance), and if a door was locked, well, believe it or not, that was somewhat explained down the road when certain pieces of information are discovered. But those are my biggest gripes. It's only 9 hours or so of playing, but to me that's a good thing since I want to replay this a few times since it's impossible to see all the content the game offers in one play through.

I believe this sort of game and the butterfly effect and decision making process would work well with other genres, but it was such a pleasure to take the reins of a horror film and be the one making the dumb decisions rather than yelling at the screen. This really is an interactive horror film and overall I think the acting, graphics, music, gameplay, and cut scenes are pretty seamless and add to the cinematic feeling.

I Required A Break

I took a break. Mostly from social media. Not entirely, but from active participation, which to be fair wasn't super active to begin with. I've lurked on social media giving the occasional thumbs-up and so forth, but quite honestly, since my post on enjoying life in the age of social media back in June, I haven't felt the urge to engage much online.

I took a break for many reasons:

I wanted to enjoy the rest of my summer (which I did) and then enjoyed a prolonged fall, a rarity up in the mountains, which allowed me to sip scotch and smoke cigars on the deck all the way into November. I was also going through a busy period at work and then as of January 8th, I stepped down from being a supervisor and I'm now back as a field agent (in case you weren't aware, I'm a Special Agent with the FBI). We were joking at work that the Bureau may be one of the few places where one is congratulated for stepping out of management and taking a pay cut. But it makes sense, most of us went into the Bureau to work investigations, not be tied to a desk dealing with administrative and personnel problems! So, work kept me busy and writing novels at night kept me busy.

Let's see, what else happened? Well, I was injured (I got hit hard in the left side of my back, and I think a floating rib, connective tissue, and my left kidney took the brunt) in a mosh pit at an Amon Amarth (viking metal) and Megadeth concert at the end of September. That kind of put a damper on my intense workout routine, but I did manage to suck it up for my Bureau physical readiness test (but in the process set my recovery back a few weeks).

The biggest impact came when we lost two of our cats, beloved family members really. It's difficult to call them pets or simply cats when they've been such a part of our lives. We lost Juniper and Buddy in October, within a span of a week and a half.

Juniper was 17 when she passed, and even though we'd been expecting her to go (kidney failure which we'd been slowing with subcutaneous fluids for the past two years), it was still painful. She was my companion--she'd sit behind me while I was writing, forcing me to sit up, and she'd also hang out on the deck with me. And then Buddy, he was 19, almost 20 (his birthday would have been January 27th). His loss was a shock. Yes, I know, he was 19, but he was a ball of energy and pretty healthy. And out of the blue he collapsed and I took him to an animal hospital where we discovered he not only had a pretty bad infection, but what appeared to be stomach cancer. We rescued Buddy when he was 18 and he was awesome--and I'd do it again. He made me smile every morning when I'd see him, and I typically don't smile much when I first wake up. They were both such sweet cats. Juniper is the first photo and Buddy, the second.

SKIP AHEAD TO THE NEXT CAT SECTION IF YOU'D RATHER NOT READ MY OPINIONS REGARDING POLITICS AND HITLER ON SOCIAL MEDIA

And then politics and vitriol and outrage filled social media and I stayed away--I deal with enough hate and stress at my day job where I get to see the worst of humanity on a daily basis so that when I'm at home or online I don't want to see more of it.

I honestly don't see the point in raving on social media about politics. It's tiring. When faced with a virtual wall of people in various stages of outrage, well, sooner or later it becomes white noise. Here is the problem: if the sky is falling all the time and someone is always crying Hitler, well, it ceases to have power or meaning.

If I read every single instance of outrage, and chose to comment on those outrages, well,  I'd do nothing else. Also, if I ceased being friends with people I disagreed with on a single opinion or belief, well, I wouldn't have any friends since I don't think there is a person on the planet that agrees with every single thing I have an opinion on.

So, I'm staying away from active commenting on Facebook when it involves the outrage of the minute. Commenting on pets, family trips and activities, the successes of friends, food and drink, entertainment, and when others need support, those are all things I'll gladly comment on.

START READING HERE IF YOU WANT MORE ABOUT CATS!

Now, back to better things: we have since adopted two more kitties. There is something about my wife and I where we look for cats that no one else will adopt. We found many in that category, but with the two we adopted, we can't believe that no one else would have wanted these guys, even with their problems. They are two of the most loving cats ever.

First up was a guy the Denver Animal Shelter had named Ronan. His photo was pathetic, which is what drew us to him. He's a black cat and the shelter believed he was 12 or 13. He was left in the overnight deposit box (sounds like a bank, doesn't it?) after being found on the streets of Denver. All of his teeth were taken out by the shelter and his eyes needed surgery, and later, we found out he also had FIV (feline version of HIV), but since he had no teeth, wasn't likely to transmit FIV to Bumble or the other cat we'd just adopted. Despite that tough guy appearance in the first photo, he's the sweetest and most affectionate cat. He's also so playful! The first photo is Ronan at the shelter and the second of him at our home lounging on the bed. We changed his name to Bear Cub, but his superhero name is Ronan.

We then adopted a 19 year old cat name Dagwood from the Cat Care Society in Denver (yep, we ended up doing it again, but we've found that older cats are so wonderful!). He will turn 20 this March and really has no issues at all other than his hearing is nearly gone, but boy does he still love the laser pointer and will go after that for as long as I'll wave it around! He still runs and leaps and can climb up the cat tree! He's my new writing partner,  sitting on my lap while I write and watch old TV shows like The Six Million Dollar Man and Magnum p.i. The first photo is Dagwood at the shelter and the second the young man relaxing on the sofa.

Photos of cats are always a good thing on the internet and seem to diffuse anger in a way no other photos can. And no better place to end this now lengthy post!