Spectras Arise Trilogy…and novella by Tammy Salyer

I’m halfway through book #2...reading the Sci Fi novels, Spectras Arise Trilogy…and novella intro.

First of all, I forgot how thick three novels and novella are when bound together...my hands hurt from just holding the pages open. This story can be leading and compelling in its daring-do sequences, at times, but never ending in its descriptive jargon which leaves me lost in space ()..more like on the page…makes me want to skip it.

The writer can explain tell she's blue in the face what I’m suppose to see, mostly the inside of a spaceship or cave, and I’d still get lost without a map…

My reviews are how I personally relate to the many parts of the writing of a novel...the characters, their surroundings, and their story they want to tell me...I'm not relating to any part of this one, the main character spends most of her time talking to herself.

When I read the main character‘s thoughts, constantly, it drives me crazy...I want to say, shut up!...stop thinking for me! This is taking the imagination away from the reader with over-thought/verbalization.  I want more dialogue and action, less thought.

Melodrama on a dry, hot, godforsaken sphere(s) is what I’m seeing...Action in space in the future; the Gunfight at the OK Corral….or zipping around on the freeway in a gunfire pursuit, what's the difference?  Reminds me of a place I call home....why leave Earth? It's leaving me depressed.  I’m done.

(Politically Incorrect) Written by LaMonte M. Fowler

I feel the need to drop a little truth on y'all. So buckle up...I'm about to be politically incorrect.

We don't need to take America back. No one stole it. It's right here...you're sitting in it. Chillax.

Mexico isn't going to pay for the wall and we're not going to deport millions of people and break up families. If you think either one is a good idea, you're not smart and probably not a person I want to hang out with.

We don't live in a democracy. Technically we are a Federal Republic. But in reality we are ruled by an oligarchy. If you don't know what that is, look it up. Reading will do you good. You probably need to do more of it.

FoxNews, CNN, and MSNBC have an agenda and are not "fair and balanced" or in any way unbiased. I'll reiterate...read more. Read newspapers (even online ones). Read lots of opinions and sources and then (stay with me here), THINK! Form your own opinion based on as many facts as your can brain can tolerate.

Speaking of facts...there actually is a difference between facts, opinions, and propaganda. You should learn the difference. (Another opportunity to show off your mad reading skills.)

Science is real. We know things because of science. Don't be afraid of it. You have an iPhone and Facebook because of science. It's your friend.

Global warming or "climate change" as the cool kids call it IS REAL. Anyone who tells you it's not real is not a smart person and probably should not be dressing themselves or caring for children.

Racism exists. And you are probably a little racist and should work on that. Seriously.

American Christians are not under attack. We are not being persecuted. We wield so much power in this country that politicians pretend to be Christian just so we will vote for them. No one is trying to take your bible away from you. The gay people are not destroying our families—we don't need any help from them, thank you. We do a fine job of that by ourselves. So stop saying we are persecuted. You sound stupid.

Poor people need help. If you're not helping them but complaining about how the government helps them with your money you are not a nice person.

Be nice to the people who teach your children. Don't send them nasty emails or yell at them. Their job is 10,000 times harder than your stupid job. You are not a professional educator so just shut your mouth and be thankful someone is willing to teach your offspring.

You don't know what Common Core is. You think you do, but you don't unless you're a teacher. So stop complaining about math problem memes on Facebook. You can't do the math anyway.

ISIS is not an existential threat to the United States. We do not need to rebuild our military. Our military is the strongest, scariest, most badass killing machine the world has ever seen. So stop being afraid and stop letting politicians and pundits scare you.

Guns do in fact kill people. That's what they are designed to do. If you feel you need a gun to protect yourself in America, you are probably living in the wrong neighborhood and should move before you go out and buy a gun. There are like a billion places to live where you won't need a gun, or even need to lock your front door.

If you do own a gun, then make sure you know how to use it really, really, really well. Seriously...get some training because you still don't know how to record stuff with your DVR. Go to the gun range and shoot the thing a lot. Learn how to clean it properly and be able to disassemble it and reassemble it with your eyes closed. It's a freaking gun and it deserves that level of care, proficiency and respect. And for God's sake, keep it locked up and away from your kids.

If you are even a little bit crazy, sad, or pissed off...you shouldn't have a gun. And the Founding Fathers would totally agree with me.

Stop being suspicious of American Muslims. I guarantee the guy sitting next to you in the cubicle at work is probably more of a threat to you than any Muslim. He has to listen to your uninformed ranting day after day and has probably already imagined very colorful and creative ways to end you.

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and all the rest are ENTERTAINERS! Stop getting your opinions from them. (Here's where that reading thing can really be an advantage.)

Stop sharing Facebook memes that tell me to share or else Jesus won't bless me with a laundry basket full of cash. That's not how prayer works. And I don't want money delivered (even from God) in a laundry basket. Nobody ever washes those things out and they just keep putting nasty dirty clothes in them. Yuck!

We are the United States of America and we can afford to house every homeless veteran, feed every child, and take in every refugee and still have money left over for Starbucks and a bucket of KFC.

Unless you can trace your family line back to someone who made deerskin pants look stylish and could field dress a buffalo, you are a descendent of an immigrant. Please stop saying that immigrants are ruining our country. Such comments are like a giant verbal burrito stuffed with historical ignorance, latent racism, and xenophobia all wrapped in a fascist tortilla.

That's all for now. I feel better.

LaMonte M. Fowler

Kim Michele Richardson's memoir, "The Unbreakable Child"

In reading Kim Michele Richardson's memoir, "The Unbreakable Child".

There are times when a story touches me at one, two, or three in the morning, darkness takes on a silence that echoes white noise in my ears, full of thoughts of the people, the characters and their stories, they make me write what I hear...  

Life, Love, and Forgiveness

Life is but a testing ground, a bleached quadrant of earth where souls gather and spew a heritage of worth and pain  

Love intervenes where hate dominates

Life lingers, life goes on, life, the hearth where fire mounts the hills before gravity can pull the warmth away from the soul  

Love carries the flame to the highest peak, and forgiveness takes the burden of truth and radiates

…..To Chapter #3 and already I’m touched beyond measure. My own memories are surfacing. I want to say I can't imagine Kim's struggles in telling her harrowing story, but I can, minutely, I can.

I sat in that deposition, I knew the cold sweat that permeates, the nausea...I felt the frustration, no words...the anger...the indignation...the disorientation, not knowing the way home...   

I see Kimmi, a little girl...A defenseless child. I was also that defenseless child….As I read on last night, my heart broke in a thousand pieces, a thousand years ago...rendering me to tears. I wept for that child of three, of four, of five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten….when will it come to an end?

I heard that voice, don’t cry...if you do, I’ll give you something to cry about...I heard those words, I felt the pain.  I stopped crying.  As an adult, I had to be taught, to learn all over again how to cry.  Six years in psychotherapy...no pills.  Depression was my nightmare, the monster that eats away at your soul.

The nun that beat Kim, Sister Charlie, I asked...how can anyone call themselves by name a representative of God? Or even the human race! This woman was so filled with hate...she was a psychological mess who belonged in an asylum of another nature! How in the world Kim survived in one piece…

...reading further...how in the world Kim survived her abuse as a child at the hands of these Nuns and a rape by a Priest, physically or psychologically, I don't know.  

On the front of the book it reads, “A story about forgiving the unforgivable.”  

True stories are sometimes hard to write, I’ve tried and failed.  The courage it took Kim to write her story, and to relive each moment over and over in her mind and in front of strangers, takes a courage I don’t posses.

I praise her revelations of what transpired in this Catholic orphanage, one not even a scene from a horror story could depict.  I praise Kim for her loving and kind heart.  Even though I don’t know her on a personal level, I hear her voice, the inner child, the adult with the wisdom to carry on, to laugh, to change the world, to love, and most of all to have the courage to forgive.  I love her for who she is.