rlfj: Blog

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One of my readers passed along this interesting item. I read it and found it a bit spooky. Interesting, though.

http://concealednation.org/2019/09/man-targets-extremely-skilled-sniper-nicknamed-the-reaper-during-attempted-robbery/

In other matters, several readers have sent me notes about what is happening in Kurdistan and the similarities to what happened in A Fresh Start. Again, a bit spooky, but more importantly, quite heartbreaking.

For those curious, I am in the process of writing The Grim Reaper: Reaper Security Consulting. I already have a number of chapters outlined and at least six written. Unlike Adventures In Southern Law Enforcement, this story will be more like the original in that it will be a continuous narrative. GRASLE was written more as a series of individual police related incidents that all built towards the finale. It will take place beginning immediately after GRASLE in mid-2018 and continue through the next ten years, ending in mid-2028.

That does not mean I will be publishing it any time in the near future. I might not actually publish this until early 2021. Why the delay? Politics! While much of what is going on in national politics does not directly affect Grim and his family, the idea that it will have no effect is naïve. It certainly will affect those around him. For instance, best friend Bo Effner is an ambitious Republican District Attorney looking to be named a US Attorney. What happens if President Trump is reelected - or not reelected? Grim himself will be working with a variety of police departments across the south. Will politics affect his business or affect the communities he will be working with?

Or could things become even worse? I have never seen our nation more polarized. Many have described the current state of affairs as bad as the late 1960s, when Vietnam and civil rights became toxic topics and civic unrest became commonplace. Personally, I think it is worse than that. (I was around for it.) I think the level of insanity is rapidly approaching the levels we saw a century earlier, when slavery tore apart the nation. The Civil War killed 620,000 out of a national population of about 31 million. A similar disaster at current population levels would kill over 6 million Americans! Impossible? Watch the news! If you listen to what the base of each party is saying I cannot imagine where anybody is going to find compromise. I could easily write a story about the descent of America into a post-apocalyptic hellscape, but it is just too depressing to consider.

Anyway, I have a reason to hold on publishing the story until 2021. I want to see if we still have a country to publish it in.

No, not the end of my writing career, but the end of this story. This section was the end of the original story, so this is where I end Tales of Culverin Hill. Four new sections and four modified original sections. I hope you enjoyed it.

For those curious, I am still writing. I recently started a new Grim Reaper story, which should take him well into the 2020s. Don't expect this anytime soon. I don't see it being finished for about a year. I don't even have an outline yet, just some chapter ideas, but I am typing and saving. I may do a few short pieces in the meantime, but this will be my next big project.

I got lots of responses from readers about changing the sign from coyotes to wolves. Many reported about changing predator habitats and migrations and ranges, even about the growth of coyotes and crosses with similar canids (wolves and dogs). As for other predators and scavengers that would eat up any carcasses, one suggestion definitely amused me. Feral hogs would certainly be happy to eat any miscreants. I used to watch Deadwood and I loved when Al Swearengen would send his victims over to Wu's hog pen for disposal. Said hogs would soon show up as pork chops. Talk about recycling!

Anyway, time for another couple of chapters. Now we learn some more history of the Culverins. Enjoy!

I just learned something truly fascinating. There were no coyotes east of the Great Plains before the 20th Century! I had always thought that coyotes and wolves coexisted, though they occupied slightly different niches in the same ecosystem. Asiaticus informed me that coyotes didn't move east of the Mississippi until after the larger wolf was hunted out of the east at the end of the 19th Century. I verified this through some research.

Why is this important? Because Lizzie Smith could never have put up a sign saying, 'Coyotes Have To Eat Too!' There were no coyotes! She wouldn't have even known what a coyote was! She would have put up a sign saying, "Wolves Have To Eat Too!' Coyotes never showed up in North Carolina until the 1970s. In the interim, other predators would have picked up the slack, eating any crooks and thieves the Culverins left out in the woods. So, I had to do a minor rewrite, switching out coyotes for wolves.

It's time for another few chapters. Enjoy!