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Friday, March 29, 2013

Adventure 4 Now Available!

TIME TRIP

ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY

The unparalleled historical adventure is here!!


Buy it for Kindle for only $1.99!




TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Zammie sees Kareena

There was a knock at the door. Everyone turned around to see Mr. G’s eighteen-year-old granddaughter Kareena entering with a tray of tea mugs. She had long charcoal hair that flowed down her back, and she wore a short royal blue dress that sparkled. Zammie’s mouth instantly dried up when he saw her.
          “Hello, everyone,” she said. “Grandma told me to bring you some chai.”
          “Yes, yes, our favorite,” said Mr. G. “Kareena, you’ve met Kyla and Zammie before, haven’t you?”
          “Yes, but the last time I saw you, you were both like six.”
Kyla smiled and took her mug of hot tea. “I think Zammie was seven.”
          “Oh, are you the older one, Zammie?”
Zammie could barely speak. Kareena’s hazelnut eyes were so bright and clear they looked like they had been manufactured by Pixar. “Yeah. I’m twelve now.”  She smelled of rose petals.
          “Don’t be too long, Grandpa, they’re going to be finished with dinner soon.”
          “Okay, we’ll be in shortly.”
Kareena turned back to the two cousins. “Good to see you two again.” She smiled politely.
          “You too, Kareena,” they both answered. Zammie was too embarrassed to look her in the eyes for more than a brief moment.

--Zammie sees Kareena
from Time Trip #4: Killing For Country



TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  





Monday, March 25, 2013

Kyla and Hardtack


We were led through a stretch of woods where there had been a cavalry fight just an hour before. We saw scores of Rebel prisoners being kept under close watch in a field on the other side of the woods. They covered most of the field that I could see. There must have been thousands of them. They looked defiant, but tired. At least most of them did. Some of them looked scared liked they missed their moms and wanted nothing more than to go home.
          We stopped there for a rest since it was relatively safe and so far from the primary combat. We got out of the carriage and I sat in the shade of one of the large trees with Tillie. The air was humid and still. I was begging for a breeze. There were a few Union soldiers sitting nearby and one of them was eating a plank of hardtack. We had missed breakfast that morning so we were both hungry. Hardtack was supposed to be gross and unappetizing, but I was so hungry I would have eaten cardboard at that moment. The soldier must have noticed us looking at him as he ate because he reached into this brown haversack and pulled out another biscuit for us. After trying the hardtack I still believe I would have rather chosen cardboard.

-- Kyla's account from 
Time Trip #4: Killing for Country 

"Hampton's Duel" by Don Troiani
July 3, 1863, Confederate Cavalry Lieutenant General Wade Hampton fought a fierce battle east of Gettysburg just as Pickett's Charge began along Cemetery Ridge.


TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
To be released on March 30, 2013

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Cannoneers

I couldn’t imagine how many tons of iron was being quickly shipped across that valley. I was mesmerized by the speed and efficiency of the cannoneers. They worked in groups of four or five at each gun. The cannon would fire and a new shell and powder would be loaded into the muzzle. Like a well-oiled machine, the men working the guns functioned in perfect harmony with one another only performing those exact motions which allowed the hot guns to be fired again and again as quickly as possible. It was a process they could probably do in their sleep. Grab a shell, load the round, stuff the muzzle, light the fuse. Boom. Rinse. Repeat. 

--from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country 





TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Burying Horses

              Men on fatigue duty were sent up ahead of the marching column to make any necessary repairs to the roads or build bridges if needed. While still in camp, men on fatigue duty were the ones ordered to clean the camp sight, dig ditches, drain swamps, and bury the dead horses.
          Burying horses is tough because their legs want to keep sticking up out of the ground. Sometimes the bony limbs had to be sawed completely off. If they weren’t deep enough then the dogs would dig down and start eating the horse corpse. That awful smell didn’t seem to bother the dogs. On marches, just like the pickets, soldiers on fatigue duty were also instructed to look for any possible sources of additional provisions or supplies.


--from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country





TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  


Friday, March 15, 2013

Songs by Hibari Misora


A young Hibari performs in a series of movie scenes.



Hibari performs "Okawa"

Hibari performs "The Darkness of Edo Taro"


TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

You eat maggots?

           When we went back downstairs I noticed the putrid smell of gangrene had been overwhelmed somewhat by the smell of freshly baked bread. Mrs. Schriver and her mother were busy slicing loaves for the injured soldiers while more bread was being baked in the wood fire oven. The oven was made from black iron, and it put out a lot of heat. The back door was still closed to protect us from sharpshooters, but we had to open all the windows elsewhere in the house and fan in some fresh air to keep from boiling ourselves. The taste of homemade apple butter spread across that fresh bread made enduring the stifling heat worth it.
          “I haven’t tasted such sweet bread in all my life,” said one of the injured soldiers. The fingers from one of his hands had been blown off by shrapnel so Tillie helped feed him.
          “What kind of food do the soldiers have out there?” I asked him.
          “Not much. Some hardtack is the only food I guess. We used to have salted pork, but I haven’t seen much of that in weeks. At least not without maggots crawlin’ in it.”
          “That's awful!” said Tillie.
          “They’re not so bad once you get used to ‘em,” continued the soldier. “I hear they kinda good for ya.”
          “You eat maggots?” I asked surprised.
          “You eat anythin’ when you’re hungry enough,” said the soldier.


--from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country


Hardtack biscuits and a tin cup.


TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  


Sunday, March 10, 2013

Death to All Foragers

A Civil War forager.
          Officers did their best to prohibit any attacks or abuse of the civilians themselves. The soldiers were only supposed to enter houses and lay claim to those effects that could be consumed or could be used for military support by the enemy. I still heard a few horror stories here and there about soldiers destroying furniture or pianos or even becoming overly rough with women or old people who protested too much.
          “This is war,” one of the privates told me when the subject of abuse came up. “Bad things happen.” 
          Sometimes the civilians would be pushed too far, or the soldiers would be unlucky enough to run into men at home who had no fear of military reprisal. I was told one story about a regiment that was marching along a few miles behind their foraging party. While the regiment was still marching they came across three naked male bodies hung over a fence rail and buzzing with flies. Vultures could be seen circling overhead. The three men had been mutilated in a vicious manner with a sign hanging around the ankle of one of the dead men that read “Death to all foragers.”

-- from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country

Foraging for supplies.


TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  


Saturday, March 9, 2013

Killing For Country - March 30th!

From Civil War to Civil Rights . . .

From a simple pistol to the atomic bomb . . .


TIME TRIP #4: KILLING FOR COUNTRY

 is a journey through history 
unlike anything you've ever read.

The latest installment in the Time Trip series will push the boundaries of historical adventure once again. 

Having already completed a handful of amazing trips through time, Zammie and Kyla will now be sent on an epic path across three continents where they will be pressed to the very brink of survival. 


From the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima to the Battle of Gettysburg to the night of Kristallnacht in Germany, our two adventurous cousins will see first hand the destructive power of war and the inspiring actions of the survivors attempting to rebuild their lives.


Thoroughly researched and brimming with tension, 

Killing For Country will leave readers both breathless and better informed on how three of history's most astounding and tragic events played out.



TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4: 
KILLING FOR COUNTRY

AVAILABLE MARCH 30!



TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com! 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Hibari Misora


Sadako slept in one of the small bedrooms on the third floor of their family’s house. Sadako and Mitsue shared one futon and Kyla and Zammie shared another. Kyla was awoken just before dawn by one of the trams rolling out of the Kyobashi stop outside the window and across the street. She climbed out of the blue futon and walked over to the window. She looked outside and saw people already beginning to fill the market area down the road. It had rained during the night and the last drips from the wooden terraces along the houses were still pattering down onto the pavement below.
          Kyla looked around at Sadako’s room. Mitsue’s school books were stacked neatly on the desk. Sadako’s books were already packed into her satchel on the floor. A small black and white poster of the beautiful teenage pop singer Hibari Misora hung on the wall. She was one of Sadako’s favorite performers. 

--from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country
Available 3/29/2013!!


Hibari Misora is probably the most famous Enka performer to have ever lived. She began singing as a Kyoto teenager, in the 50's, and continued right up to her sudden death in 1989. She was only 52. She is often thought of as having comforted Japan through the difficult recovery from the devastation of the war years. Her life has become a subject of popular legend.
 -- from TechnoGirls.org


An 11 year old Misora Hibari performs in the 1949 musical Odoru Ryugujo


TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
To be released in March 2013

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The Tragedy of Hiroshima

The woman had been blinded by the explosion. Her eyes were open but her pupils had been scalded white like two milky marbles. For those unfortunate enough to be looking in the direction of the explosion as it happened, the intensity of the flash would permanently destroy their vision. If the explosion itself didn’t kill you, then the heat blast would. If they heat blast didn’t reach you, then the white light would blind you. If you had your eyes covered then the radiation would find you. And if they radiation didn’t kill you that day it would try again the next. And the next. It would lie in wait for years if need be, like a patient killer, soon to be punishing even those who were not yet born.

--from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country 





TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  


To provide new guards for future security


“All experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
          –The U.S. Declaration of Independence




TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
Available at Amazon.com! 

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Adventure 4 - Gettysburg Cover


                     “There is one thing that I didn’t understand about that sit-in, though,” said Zammie.
                “And what’s that?” asked Mr. G.
                “Why didn’t they fight back? Why just sit there and take that abuse? I was confused that Anne was mad at me for fighting off that guy. And then she helped him as if he was on her side.”
                “It’s because they were outnumbered, right, Mister G?” asked Kyla.
                “True, they were outnumbered, Kyla, but that’s not why they engaged in a peaceful protest. They were following the teachings of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. who taught that those who are acting in a lawful and just manner should never engage in violence even if violence is enacted against them.”
                “Not even for self-defense?” asked Zammie.
                “Self-preservation, sure. But that doesn’t require an assault on your enemy which is what I think you mean.”
                “What I mean is if someone is hitting you then you have to hit 'em back to get 'em off you,” said Zammie. 
                “In most situations that is true. But the point of the peaceful protest is to maintain the higher moral ground. With hope that there is enough just sentiment in the world watching that your argument of peace will overpower your opponent’s argument of hate. This is true whether it’s just a few people like Anne Moody and the other students or if it’s entire armies going to war.”

-- from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country

ADVENTURE 4 
GETTYSBURG COVER 





CHECK OUT THE REST OF THE SERIES AVAILABLE NOW!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1
THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 
Available at Amazon.com!  

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
KILLING FOR COUNTRY  
Available at Amazon.com!