A deleted dream. Some Art.

I ended up taking this out of the first book. After several revisions, it wasn’t needed.

But I like it.

***

I dreamed that I walked amongst death and destruction as a storm poured out its wrath overhead.

Bodies were strewn everywhere as the remains of the town burned. Pierced, crushed, mangled, and some, gnawed on. Smoky fog drifted from dozens of fires that rain struggled to quench.

Lightning crashed, momentarily blinding me, before rolling thunder pounded my senses from above.

I stepped around carnage as in the rain-soaked street. The slaughter had been complete. Women. Children. Horses. Livestock. Nothing lived. The only sound was the hiss of raindrops falling amidst flames.

Stopping, I dropped to my knees in the muck. Of all the massacred bodies that lay trampled in the mud, scattered on the boardwalks, and among the flickering flames. It was hers that gave me pause.

A little girl lay in a pool of blood, her white dress soaked with crimson from the spear sticking from her chest. Her light blue eyes were open and unblinking as rain fell onto them. Strands of blonde hair plastered against her cheeks. A homemade doll clenched tight in her tiny hand.

I didn’t know who she was. I didn’t know who any of these people were. But I recognized the town. It was mine.

Closing her eyes, I gently tugged the doll free. Wiping blood off with my thumb, a small buttoned face smiled back at me.

The puddle of blood from the girls body rippled.

My eyes flicked to it. I watched it ripple again as the ground trembled.

I looked up as a massive four-legged beast lumbered through the thick gray smoke at the end of the street, and stopped.

It was an odd-looking creature. Two large horns above its eyes jutted out and a smaller one rising lower on its face. A bone shield flared out from the top of its head, giving protection to its neck and shoulders, and behind it sat something vaguely human.

The rider was bigger than a man, with thick dark hair covering most of its body except its painted chest and face. It reminded me of the apes from my childhood picture books. But this one wasn’t cute and cuddly with a banana. Instead, it was large and terrifying.

The ape raised a stone club above its head and roared, jerking on the reins. The three-horned beast reared, shook massive horns, then splashed heavily to the ground in a spray of muddy brown water.

I felt it in my chest, a primordial challenge that honor and justice demanded be accepted. Trembling in rage, I gently tucked the doll back into the girl’s hand and stood, drawing a pair of matching revolvers.

As rain dripped from the brim of my hat, I thumbed the hammers back.

I was going to cut the ape’s heart out and eat it.

The three-horned mount rushed forward with a bellow. The ground shook as it bore down on me.

The ape roared, raising the club to strike.

Jerking the pistols up, I pulled the triggers.

***

So, some art, right?

This is the initial sketch that the talented Mike Katoglou sent me when I was shopping around for someone to create a banner for me. (Which I still need… hmmm…)

western dinosaur

I loved it so much that I asked for a sketch style drawing. That awesomeness turned into this:

FalPicWOP

Not much else going on. It’s just been a week so I needed to post something.

The writing continues – The world still spins.

Hope everyone has a great week.

As close as we can get to Jurassic Park…

This is just wicked. I freaking love it.

True story – When I first started messing around with writing years ago, I had a character (a famed hunter) kill a komodo dragon on horseback with a spear. I may still have it somewhere, but it involved a guy traveling to distant, exotic planets, and killing things.

Because, honestly – that’s what all good stories are about.

 

My Main Character is not me. Plus, writing, writing, writing.

Before I get to that… the Rough Draft, minus the Final Giant Battle (FGB), is done for the sequel. I’m now working on filling it out and fixing things.

The FGB is gonna be awesome, just like the last one. And it’s always the most exhausting thing for me to write. I don’t know why, I really enjoy writing action more than anything else. I think it’s because it’s such a culmination of so many characters and moving parts, and there’s a brand new faction for the book that… geez… I want to talk about but I really shouldn’t because it’d ruin the surprise.

But let’s just say the battle is going to include Pterodactyls.

There.

That’s enough of a hint.

So the FGB includes giant leathery birds… Cause, why not? Seems cool – and my motto is that if something seems cool, you should always do it.

Speaking of that, I went out to eat at my favorite Mexican restaurant with some close family friends. And there was a truck parked outside the door with an empty giant metal cage in the back.

It took my wife’s adamant restraint to keep me from getting naked and climbing into the cage to terrorize people coming and going.

Seemed cool. Should always do it.

Unless your spouse doesn’t want to be embarrassed. And in retrospect, it was probably kind of stupid.

Now I’d just like to publicly state: My main character is not based on me.

Yes, I’d do a lot of things that he’d do. But he does a lot of things that I wouldn’t do also.

In real life, I’m 6’4″ and 245lbs (hey! I’m bulking…) and good with a Glock and AR/M16 platform (I shot Expert Award every time we qualified in the Marine Corps, so I’m no slouch, and YES – my first time was with Iron Sights.)

Jedidiah is a stumpy six feet tall and 185lbs and pretty good with revolvers and a badass Winchester 1886 rifle. And a Bowie.

See. Not the same.

But I did base the Love Interest off my wife.

Cause she’s a total babe.

 

 

Edit – In case you’re interest what I’m talking about. Here are the excerpts. If you like it, I’ll send you the entire thing for feedback.

West of Prehistoric

Darker Days are Coming…

From Truexodus via Instagram (Also found at http://www.trustandard.net/)

***

Darker days are coming.

Make no mistake.

Whoever wins the 2020 elections will undoubtedly spark a chain of events no one will be prepared for in America. The cultural divide and turmoil is too great not to see bloodshed in some way.

As followers of Christ, we need to “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” (1 Cor 16:13) As law abiding citizens, we bear arms to ultimately live our lives as lovers and protectors of our communities and families, we may be called upon to fight for.

Now, my first thought is never “let’s shoot them and let God sort out the rest!”

Violence is not the way of the Christian.

Living in love, communicating in truth, standing firm in the faith is what we are called to do. We don’t need to make threats, we don’t need to insinuate violence as an answer. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:12).

But in the moment where Satan manifested himself in the free willed actions of gross and distorted men, the most loving thing you could do is “lay down your life” for those around you. You never hope violence comes your way, but in the hour of testing do not fail to be prepared. “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.” (Ps 82:3)

DarkerDays2

***

My wife cracked this joke like 3 days ago.

Further proof that I married out of my league.

BetoWaco.PNG

Let’s be honest.

This is nothing new.

Francis was just the first one stupid and desperate enough to ‘Go Simple Jack’ and expose the left’s goals of total firearm confiscation so blatantly. (That’s a Tropic Thunder AND a Deadpool reference…. wow… go me).

I’m willing to bet the Democrat oligarchy collectively moaned and gnashed their teeth when he stated something so stupid on a national public stage because his sound bite will be the rallying cry for gun owners for the next twenty years.  

Anyways. I ain’t skeered. Cause Francis hasn’t even taken 3% in the Polls yet, so hows he gonna lead a national movement to take my guns? 🙂

In other news. The left is also using a little girl with Aspergers to yell at everyone else about burning the Earth to a cinder. Which is just ridiculous. But hey, if she’s a little girl, with Aspergers, you can’t make fun of her. You can’t challenge her. You can’t belittle her. You can’t tell her she’s wrong.

Or you’re being a bully.

Well, my son has Autism. And likely my three year old daughter as well – so it doesn’t cut any mustard with me.

Greta doesn’t know squat, because she filed with the UN against 5 countries for not stopping climate change. (Of course America is one of them.) But not China… which is the leading polluter in the world.

I call bullshit. Go find a park to play in and leave the arguing to the adults.

ChildAbuseAspergers