The title of the email comes from an excerpt from Book 6, the current WIP, which can be found farther down.

The book is coming along nicely as the closing chapters draw near. The threads are climbing to exciting crescendos for this segment of the adventures. I'm toying with the idea of making Book 7 a novella to deal with a thread I omitted from this book. There's already so much going on in this one that I didn't want to explode the word count or further complicate an already complicated set of plots--and the omitted thread runs completely independent of the others for the time being.

Here's the except from the draft of chapter twenty-five, Book 6 of Tomahawks and Dragon Fire:

Atu immediately spoke. “An exhilarating journey. A tremendous sense of wonder shaded with intense vulnerability invades one’s psyche traveling in such a manner, suspended on tenuous tethers between mythological delights, the constant beating of the wings with the gusts of those feathers pulsing over one accompanied by the steady wind in one’s face as the terrain below scrolls below in a constant stream. In Europe people would gladly part with a pound or two for such an experience.”

“Not if they knew where they were being taken,” Hugh said.

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Speaking of stories, we have a 5th paragraph on the collaboration:

The long abandoned barn had the faint sickly sweet aroma of decomposing hay. His joints protested as he struggled to pull the combined weight of his body and arsenal up the ladder to the loft. Just as he had the previous three nights since meeting that peddler, Samuel settled himself into the chair he’d left by the window for another long night on watch. From there he had a good vantage down into the town proper with a clear line of sight to at least half of the thoroughfare. He’d spent more than two years trying in vain to track down the brigands who’d destroyed his life, but that group ranged far and were always just ahead of him. Now it seemed they’d been alerted to his interest and were coming to him. His fears of another quiet night’s vigil were unrealized. He hadn’t sat long before he heard hooves on the cobbles. (Michael B.)

Here's the link to the story as it stands so far.

Send me your proposals for the 6th paragraph.

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I finished The Cowboy and the Cossack by Clair Huffaker. It's a tale of Montana cowboys delivering 500 head of cattle to a town in Siberia with a number of friendly cossacks. Officials, enemy cossacks, and Tartars are the primary antagonists. It's a well-told tale of hostile strangers becoming friends and a young man's growth into manhood. Two things did weary me. First, there's some profanity, with the F-bomb making many appearances. Second, someone doing or saying exactly the right thing to diffuse the tension and make every relationship better happened a little too frequently. With those exceptions, it's a ripping yarn.

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If you haven't nabbed a copy of Truth in Flames, the exciting struggle to save the Declaration of Independence, here's your chance to rectify the situation.

Looking for some fictional war stories?

How about a journey into madness?

Take a descent into the dungeon. Return trip not guaranteed.

Or would you rather join Dana Jasper and check out adventure and mystery in war-torn Afghanistan?

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Honor Roll with special thanks to these subscribers:

Lois for her stunning review and heroic defense of The Shrinking Zone.

JBudd for reviews of Threading the Rude Eye, In Death Bedrenched, Power to Hurt, The Shrinking Zone, Clamorous Harbingers, Promise of Carnage and Flame, and Truth in Flames

Colleen for leaving ratings for several of my books on Amazon

Rob for leaving a review of Threading the Rude Eye

Michael for leaving reviews of Threading the Rude Eye, and The Shrinking Zone

Mayra for a review of Threading the Rude Eye

Gloria for a review of Threading the Rude Eye

ShannonC for a review of In Death Bedrenched

Jan for reviews of Threading the Rude Eye, Power to Hurt, Clamorous Harbingers, Promise of Carnage and Flame, In Death Bedrenched, The Shrinking Zone, Truth in Flames, Justice in Season, and Justice Resurgent.

Bonnie for a review of In Death Bedrenched.

PAR for a review of Threading the Rude Eye

-There are many other reviews of my books, of course, but I don't know whether those reviewers are also subscribers to this newsletter.