Talkshow Name Contest Extended!

Due to my own tardiness at getting the word out I have extended the contest to name my new talkshow by one month. You now have until December 31st to put in your suggestion. Here's the details.

I am starting a new radio talk show on www.blogtalkradio.com starting in December and am enlisting the help of my faithful audiobook listeners to name the show.

The show covers Current Events, Politics, Sports and Entertainment presented against a humorous backdrop of live talk mixed with occasional skits and coming from  a fairly conservative viewpoint from America’s northern frontier state of Alaska.

It is guaranteed to be informative, sometimes serious, generally fun and at times downright silly of the Kharzai Ghiassi school of silliness (listen to Karl’s Last Flight or Faithful Warrior and you will know that means).
The title needs to reflect that the show comes from Alaska, is a general information/entertainment show, and sound intelligent when spoken aloud.

If your suggestion is chosen you will receive $25 USD to Paypal  or Amazon.com.

To submit your Title by commenting to this post or use this Contact Page with the subject “Radio Title”.  You have until  December 31st to submit.

I look forward to what you come up with.

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He don’t look that tough…

Someone recently brought up the topic of author photos on the back of books. Some authors really look like their characters, tough as nails and ready for anything. But they wondered how many of those authors were really bad asses like their characters and photos seemed to portray. Other authors look like meek and mild accountants with a temerity that makes Elmer Fudd look like a Hells Angel.

So the question came up, “What does a real bad ass really look like?”

I worked among the military intelligence community for several years during and just after the Cold War, including Special Forces and Delta. One thing that astonished me was the fact that most of the real bad-asses, and by bad-ass I mean people who went undercover in terrorist infested nations, gathered human intelligence, spied on people who trained professional killers or killed said people themselves, most of those real life bad-asses looked like boy scouts, or marching band types. A lot of them never played sports in school and were serious bookworms.

As adults all of them lived for adrenaline and the life and death power moments their jobs entailed. Now, mind you I was not one of them per se. I ran the mess hall they ate at, yes, I was chef to the spies. But I got to know them on a personal level that moved behind the curtain of mystique they let the world raise between them.

With the exception of a few Marines and a couple of Army Rangers none of them made one's spine shiver with an icy glare. (Those exceptions were truly terrifying men too, let me tell you). Those who acted the baddest in public were usually "Sigint", signals intelligence...nerds with headphones listening to the enemy from continents away.

The public perception of bad-ass is skewed. But I guess that makes for good book covers and movie images with muscular dudes and icy stares. And the consumers want us, the writers, to look like our imaginary friends we write about. I remember hearing CS Lewis stepson mention how disappointed he was when his mother married the famous writer and he learned that Lewis was not a six foot tall muscle bound Knight in armour, but rather a balding pudgy professor of English, and Christian teacher.

Should our favourite writers look like the heroes in their books? Maybe. After all, who wants pay ten or twenty bucks to see the guy they remember as the chubby flutist from their high school band slink through the shadowy underworld doing bad things to bad people?

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Name My New Web Radio Talk Show

I am starting a new radio talk show on www.blogtalkradio.com starting in December and am enlisting the help of my faithful audiobook listeners to name the show.

The show covers Current Events, Politics, Sports and Entertainment presented against a humorous backdrop of live talk mixed with occasional skits and coming from  a fairly conservative viewpoint from America’s northern frontier state of Alaska.

It is guaranteed to be informative, sometimes serious, generally fun and at times downright silly of the Kharzai Ghiassi school of silliness (listen to Karl’s Last Flight or Faithful Warrior and you will know that means).

The title needs to reflect that the show comes from Alaska, is a general information/entertainment show, and sound intelligent when spoken aloud.

If your suggestion is chosen you will receive $25 USD to Paypal  or Amazon.com.

To submit your Title by commenting to this post or use this Contact Page with the subject “Radio Title”.  You have until  November 27th to submit.

I look forward to what you come up with.

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Basil’s Weekly News Review talkshow

I am starting a new live call in talk show at www.BlogTalkRadio.com , "Basil's Weekly News Review". It's like Dennis Miller & John Stewart get mashed up and sprinkled with a bit of Alaskan somethin'r'other. Need listener input on what's a good time and day , include your state / prov or country w/ suggestion.

Planned start date will be after thanksgiving, but maybe sooner if I get sufficient feedback.

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Win a free CD-Audio book

Just in time for the Holidays! Sign up for my newsletter at the newly rebuilt www.basilsands.com and you will be automatically entered to win a signed CD-Audio version of one of my books. You can even choose which one you want.

The newsletter promises not to clutter your inbox, as it only comes out once a quarter or less.

If you’ve already listened to all of the podcast novels…well…listen again with no breaks, no commercials, no bumper music.  Just the story.

Or give it to a friend who hasn’t heard. Heck, you can even donate it to your local library!  Just sign up, and tell all your friends.

While you are there take the poll question and leave a comment on the comments page.

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Are Female Authors as good As Male Authors?

this question came up on The Killzone.  I asked my friend Grunk what he thought about whether female writers were as good as male writers. here is what he said.

Hmm...

Me solve prollum

bang woman on hed with stik

drag back to cav

she rite storee

me kill big antler to eat

she cuk

she cleen

she rub my shoulders give hot bath and make Grunk feel like man aprisheyated

me smash things to make her good plot lines...me modul for cuver grafik

Her lituriree fyoocher good...

Hmmm...me like wumun writer...and her look varee hot in bearskin minidress ... Grunk feel primal urges now ... plees leev and clos dor after u.

So there you have it folks, Grunk’s answer to the age old question.

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On the radio again

Between returning from vacation last week and killing / reanimating my entire website, it’s been a busy week. But now there is icing on the cake of busy-ness.

I am guest hosting the Glen Biegel Half Hour Show on KBYR AM700 tonight from 5:30-6 pm AKST ,that’s 9:30-10pm EST.  That’s also 0230-0300 GMT…I won’t be hurt if my UK listeners wait for the podcast version.

Then I will be doing Hometown Talk on the same station tomorrow morning from 0800-1000 am (Noon-2 EST, 1700-1900 GMT). that one will longer therefore funner.

I promise to be witty, intelligent and not pick my nose in front of the camera.  Tune in via the web at www.kbyr.com and click the ‘listen live” link or check out the podcast archive on the site in a few days and let me know what you think.

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Retribution of a sort

Monday I posted a blog about terrorists getting their due. Then it would seem that the terrorists got back at me.

Half an hour before going home for the day my wife calls and says the washing machine is not spinning, can I take a look at it. I take the look. Then I grab some tools and proceed to figure out what the problem is. It has to do with the brakes, they won’t release the drum. No problem I just take the motor out, pull out the gear box, reseat the brake pads and replace whatever part is bad right?

Well, in an ideal world that is what I would have done. In the real world I loosened the screws on the gear box and it suddenly dropped two inches then the brakes fully deployed and locked in the cylinder. I could not get it out, or in, or even jiggle it in place. I was two hours into the repair and my bum shoulder was killing me. At that point calling in a professional would have ended up costing more than a new washing machine. And I did not want to explain how it had ended up in so many pieces and then deal with the inevitable sneering and “You should’ve called us from the beginning, we could have fixed it in half an hour.

Depression set in. In the back of my mind I think of the harsh words I had for Megrahi and his ilk and wonder if they had something to do with the death of my washing machine. For what may well be the first time in my adult life, I gave up and said “Forget it!”

I determined to just replace the whole machine the next day. After a night of sleep and nearly forgetting the turmoil and depression of the night before I go to Home Depot and get a really good deal on a nice cherry red washer and dryer set with no interest financing and free delivery and setup. I’m in a good mood again.

Then I go to dinner at one of my favourite restaurants with a friend last night. Apparently the Libyans were not happy that I fixed the machine the night before and they decided to poison my dinner with salmonella or some such vile evil. By the time I get home I am starting to experience waves of dizziness and freezing chills coupled with a compelling urge to stay very near the toilet all night. At one point the dizziness over came me and between episodes of liquid rapidly evacuating all intestinally connected portals on my body I passed out for at least ten minutes. When I awoke blood was smeared across my hand and nose from what I assume to be a spontaneous medieval bleeding performed by my subconscious.

I spent the night in a daze of quasi-hallucinogenic dreams wondering if I should wake my wife to take me to the hospital but choosing instead to continue my conversation with the blue rabbit and the pancake bush.

By this morning I pulled out of the haze and now weakly sit in my comfy chair debating on eating this delicious smelling squash gruel my wife made to help settle my stomach.

I don’t know though…she doesn’t look Libyan…but maybe they’ve replaced her.

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Mickey Moss Chapter 4

Basil’s Tweet Book, Mickey Moss, has been updated. Check it out at @basilstweetbook

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Mickey Moss Chapter 4

Basil’s Tweet Book, Mickey Moss, has been updated. Check it out at @basilstweetbook

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Lockerbie/Pan Am 103 bombing mastermind still lives

Despite being released from a Scottish prison on a “mercy ruling” due to terminal cancer that was supposed to have claimed his life within three months Abdelbaset al Megrahi, sent to his home country of Lybia for what was supposed to be his final few weeks of life, is still alive.

For that matter, he is not only still alive, but has ‘miraculously’ improved and recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital and sent home to his family. While the families of those 270 souls on Pan Am flight 103 still mourn their dead more than twenty years later.

This really pisses me off for several reasons.

1. The dude was convicted of planning and supervising the execution of the actions that took the lives of 270 Britons, Americans, and folks from many other nations in 1988. He is a murderer. Murderers should not go free, ever.

2. He is a coward. He and his people rejoiced in their victory over an undefended airliner full of unarmed civilians half of whom were women and children.

3. He will do it again if the chance arises. Of this I have no proof, it is just a gut feeling. But it is a gut feeling based on facts of what is known about terrorist cowards.

And the government and nation of Lybia is complicit with Megrahi for they, in spite of Ghadaffi’s promises that he would be dealt with in a ‘low key fashion’, gave the murderer a hero’s welcome when he was returned to Lybia in August.

There is at least this one consolation from the prophet Isaiah ( CH.5:22-24 paraphrased)

       Woe to those … who acquit the guilty for a bribe, 
       but deny justice to the innocent.

       Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
       and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
       so their roots will decay
       and their flowers blow away like dust…
    

Let it be known the prophet’s curse fall on Megrahi and those who follow his path, not by the hand of man, but by the hand of God himself.

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Mickey Moss, Chapter 3

Online now on @basilstweetbook , check out the Twitter novel experiment.

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