Tag Archives: 5 stars

The Complete Saulzar Codex

10 Monday Nov 2014

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It’s finally here! Get the complete Saulzar Codex at Amazon for $6.99.

CODEX

Saulzar is a mighty warrior that wishes for nothing more than a simple life with companions that he loves. But what happens when his life becomes entangled in forces far greater than he can imagine? Can he pay the price to keep the bonds of friendship alive? Or will the lure of power and a sword of legend teach him the true cost of revenge?

Follow Saulzar from his thieving youth in the bustling city of Sol and into the shadow of empire, where he seeks a focus for his wrath. He is a barbarian unchained, and the world will tremble when he finds a release from his rage.

The Saulzar Codex contains the original twelve chapters of the story, plus two bonus tales. It is approximately 300 pages.

It is just the beginning of Saulzar’s epic tale.

The Saulzar Codex

A Fall from Grace
#1 A Price to Pay – Saulzar battles his grief and the vengeful spirit of Flynn.
#2 The Bonds of Friendship – Saulzar and Janus seek the vessel of Herna.
#3 The Illusion of Control – Saulzar and The Wolves must assassinate the Warlord of Komarna.
#4 A Release from Rage – Saulzar completes his task as Kubetsai-jo, but suffers a great loss.

A Lesson in Honor
#5 The Cost of Revenge – A young Saulzar battles the criminal empire known as the Arah.
#6 The Lure of Power – A young Saulzar seeks to join the Durrant Heil.
#7 A Sword of Legend – Saulzar battles the undead to obtain the sword he is destined to wield.
#8 The Love of a Woman – Saulzar fights for the hand of the beautiful Jafina.

A Spark of Hope
#9 To Lead a Pack – Saulzar leaves humanity behind and joins with a wolf-pack.
#10 The Shadow of Empire – Saulzar’s wolves terrorize the Genai at the behest of the emperor.
#11 A Barbarian Unchained – Guided by Omen Taru, Saulzar seeks vengeance.
#12 A Focus for His Wrath – Saulzar seeks to balance the scales of injustice.

Bonus Stories
A Baptism in Blood – Saulzar’s family is attacked by wolves. Survival was just the beginning.
The Warrior – The email that started the series.

The Saulzar Codex is just a prequel to a much larger novel. If you enjoy this story, please leave a review on Amazon and share it with your friends. The more reviews and shares it receives, the more likely that more will be written.

Help me entertain you! Thank you!

Follow Saulzar on Twitter: @TheRealSaulzar 
Follow the author on Twitter: @brandera33

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandera

Researching why we get fat

21 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in On Books, On Miscellany

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Everyone knows that if we eat more calories than what we expend, we will gain weight.  That’s easy and irrefutable, right?

We also know that if we exercise and cut out the fat from our diet, that will make us lose weight faster.  The government tell this to us, our doctors tell us, tv shows and commercials say it.

Has that worked for you?

It has not worked for me.  I work out 4-5 days a week, I play sports often, and I do my best to avoid red meat and pop.  I don’t always do it, but all that effort I put in has to balance out on my side of the equation.

But it has not. I continue to gain weight, I can’t drop the spare tire, and I have a very hard time staying away from sugar.

So is that the answer to the obesity epidemic? That America lacks the willpower to make itself lean? That is surely the message that is given to all of us.

But what if that is wrong?  What if the calories in / calories out doctrine that has been preached all of our lives is wrong?  What if exercise for the sake of losing weight is not the answer?

What if it is not how much we eat, but what we eat that makes us fat?

I read Why We Get Fat, and What To Do About It, by Gary Taubes on a suggestion from a couple of friends, and his argument will surprise you. It will also make you wonder why you never thought of it before.

According to Taubes, and innumerable sources he cites, it was not until the 1970s that our current way of thinking about nutrition took over our collective minds.  Before that time, everyone knew it was bread and beer and pasta and sugar that made you fat.  That is, the culprit was carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates now form the base of the nutritional food pyramid. If carbohydrates are in fact the reason we get fact, our government, which decries obesity, is in fact what is pushing us to get fatter.

Taubes shows how and why we came to believe the calorie in / calorie out idea of weight loss.  He gives historical evidence of why it doesn’t work, why eating the way the government prescribes makes people fat, and how all of those carbohydrates affect the body.

He also discusses how carbohydrates play a big factor in health, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s.

I strongly recommend you read this book. At the very least, you may answer the question of why you work so hard at losing fat, but it never happens.  And if your question is answered, you just may be convinced to change your diet.

I was. I’ve had very few carbs since September 10th. I’m going to stick with it a few months and see what happens, and I’ll be sure to let you know how it works for me.

Oh, you may be wondering what I’m eating now instead of carbs.

Fat. Yup, beef and sausage and cheese and eggs.  I’ve lost 4 pounds in 16 days.  Think that’s crazy?  Read the book and then let me know what you think.  You may just be crazy for eating spaghetti with a side of garlic bread.

Westward Bound – a writing journey

16 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in On Books, On Travel, On Writing

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My wife, Denise, and I like to travel.  We don’t often get to travel with our friends and family, but we love to take them with us to share in our adventures.  To do that, we write about our adventures and share pictures.

Typically, it is enough to share our Travelpod site and keep that updated as we go along.  But in May 2011, as we rolled across the open plains on our way to Moab, Utah, I decided that a standard travel blog was not going to be enough.  You see, we really wanted to share the experience with our two nieces, Amelia and Adrianna.  They are a bit too young for a cross country road trip (or we’re too old to want to travel that far with a six-year-old and a three-year-old), so I decided to write a story about them.  In the story, they would take the road trip with us.  In order to add a dash of adventure and daring, I set the story back in the 1870s and put them on the Oregon Trail.

With Denise’s excellent photography and book layout skills and a lot of editing help from my brother-in-law, Patrick, I was able to have it printed and ready for them in time for Christmas.

They liked it.

A lot.

I figured they might. They love books, and what’s better than reading a story about yourself?

And since they liked it, I thought a few other people might enjoy it.  A few weeks of Kindle formatting later, and I published it through the Kindle Store!

Click the image to purchase!

I’d love for you to take a read. This is a book for kids, but don’t go in expecting Dr. Seuss.  There are lots of words, but we offset that with over forty beautiful photographs that Denise took on our trip West.

Don’t have a Kindle?  You don’t need one!  Just buy it with your Amazon account, and it will ask you where you want to send it.

You can purchase without owning a Kindle!

Just choose to use the Cloud Reader. It’s actually a great way to read the book, and the photos are in full color and look amazing.

If you do read it, I would really appreciate it if you left a review on Amazon!

And if you do or don’t read it, I’d love it if you shared this article, or a link to the book on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social site.

And now, here’s a quick excerpt from the book.

 

Chapter 1: Running out of space

PA WAS in the barn.  It seemed he was there an awful lot lately.  Amelia remembered that last winter, Pa spent most of his time playing with her and building a rocking horse.  He had painted the horse black.  She and her little sister called it Chocolate and loved to play on it.

Ma was in the kitchen salting beef and putting it in jars and crates.  Her shoulder-length, curly, auburn hair kept falling into her eyes as she worked.  Usually Ma would sit with Amelia and play school with her.  Amelia would answer questions like 19 + 7 or How many apples did Susy have left if she picked 10 and gave 3 away?  Ma told her she was really smart.  Her little sister, Adriana, would listen for a while, but then she would take Ma and Amelia’s coffee order and bustle off to her imaginary kitchen.  She would return quickly to serve it before taking the pretend dishes to pretend wash them.

Even Grandma was busy in the kitchen; she had been working since before the sun was up! Grandma had short, black hair and always had a loving smile for Amelia.  It sure seemed odd to Amelia that Grandma and Ma would be working so hard.  The food for the winter had already been gathered and stored; Amelia had even helped this year!

Amelia was a tall, thin, red-headed girl that would turn six in the spring. Her big, beautiful, brown eyes did not miss a thing.  She was always interested in what the grown-ups were doing, and she was smart enough to understand most of it.  Adriana, was a pretty little girl with curly brown hair and an easy laugh.  She was too intent on her jigsaw puzzle and cooking imaginary food for her dolls to notice the change in routine the last few weeks.  Amelia had done her best to ignore it, but her curiosity was getting the better of her.  She stood up from her math flash cards and yelled to her mother in the kitchen.

“Ma-a-a-a!” she cried.  “Why aren’t you playing with us?”

Her mother’s reply was lost in the howl of the wind from the suddenly open door.  Pa stood in the doorway with an excited look on his face and a letter in his hand.  His usually neatly-combed brown hair was mussed from the wind and he must have knocked his small, round spectacles as he hustled inside. They were crookedly hanging to the side of his large nose.

“Carolyn!  It finally came!” he yelled.

“Shut the door before we all catch the sickness,” Ma yelled back.

Pa came in with Grandpa right behind.  Grandpa’s windblown, white hair was sticking straight up in the air as he ambled over to Adriana.  He laughed as he grabbed Adriana under the arm pits and swung her into the air.  Adriana squealed with excitement.

Ma came out of the kitchen and Pa swept her up into his arms and twirled her around.

“Aaron and Denise finally wrote from Independence, Missouri.  They have purchased wagons and supplies and signed us up with a group of other pioneers heading to Oregon!  We are to meet them in early May.”

“That is fine news, David!  We have just about finished packing the food for the trip,” Ma said.

Amelia and Adriana both perked up at the sound of their favorite Aunt and Uncle’s names.  They did not see them often because they traveled so much, but they were great fun to play with.

Amelia was happy to see her parents smile.  She knew they worked very hard to put food on the table and a roof over her head.  But she also felt uneasy.  She didn’t know what Independence was or what a pie o’ near could be.  She sat back down and listened intently to the strange and complex world of the grown-ups.

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

22 Tuesday Mar 2011

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A few years back I read a book that changed my perspective of the fantasy genre.  I’ve enjoyed stories of swords, sorcery, orcs and heroic quests for a long time now.  But for me, after you get past Tolkien’s seminal work, the rest of the stories tend to devolve into the same old story of an unlikely hero, a great evil, an impossible task, and eventual victory. 

Now don’t get me wrong.  There are any number of ways where that tried and true formula can turn into a very enjoyable book.  That’s why I keep reading fantasy.  Rothfuss, though, with his debut novel of The Name of the Wind, and the recent sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear, has found a way to take a sweeping epic and turn it into something infinitely more intimate.

Kvothe, our flame haired protagonist, trouper, hero and innkeeper has led an exciting, yet short life.  When the book opens, we find him assuming the mantle of a mild mannered innkeeper. He works very hard to hide who he is. And who he happens to be is a legend in his own time. Everyone knows of and tells stories of Kvothe.

In an interesting storytelling device, a man named The Chronicler has tracked Kvothe down and convinced him to have his story recorded. To set the record straight, so to speak.  Thus begins a masterful tale of tales.  Over the course of three days, Kvothe will set down how he became a master magician, the smartest kid at the University at a time when most children have not thought of attending school yet, slayed a dragon, outsmarted a Queen of the Fae, killed a king and started a war.  Yet when Kvothe tells it, you can see how a simple story can become a legend. He isn’t humanities only hope from a Dark Lord. Rather, he’s a kid driven to find an answer to a question. With an indomitable will, he makes things happen.

While I enjoy the story that Kvothe is telling, and innumerable stories that are told to him or by him to other characters during his recounting, it is not the story that draws me to these books.  In the end, you can still boil this down to unlikely hero, a great evil, an impossible task, and eventual victory. Or so it seems two books into what appears to be a trilogy.

No, rather it is Rothfuss’ masterful grasp of the language and the art of telling a story.  His description of Kvothe playing music can move you to tears.  You will feel Kvothe’s triumphs and defeats.  You will read pages of description of arcane magics and systems of science in a make believe land, and later try to replicate it yourself fully expecting it to work in our world.

One last superlative for this book. I reread the first book in 3 wonderful days. I picked up the 1000 page sequel and had it done in under a week. I typically read before bed and fall asleep within 30 minutes. Instead, hours later, I would still be reading. I had to force myself to put the book down and go to sleep lest my job suffer. And even then, I felt myself fully immersed in the world he created even when I was not reading.  It’s that good.

As for Rothfuss, I am a fan of the man as much as the writing. His Worldbuilders fund raising drive has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, which he has been kind enough to match. His blog is all sorts of witty and funny. Check him out. http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com

The Name of the Wind: 4.5
The Wise Man’s Fear: 5

You need to buy this book and read it. It’s #1 on the New York Times Bestseller’s list as of today (3/21/2011)

Buy it Now at Amazon

Review of Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

19 Thursday Aug 2010

Posted by in On Books, On Technology

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The founders of 37 signals have something to say about business, and it may not be what you are used to hearing.  This firm started out in 1999 with just three people. In 2004, they created Basecamp to help manage their projects. Soon, their clients wanted to use the tool themselves, so Basecamp was offered to the masses. It now generates millions of dollars a year in profits.

Between Campfire, Highrise, and Backpack, over 3 million people use their products.  While they were at it, they also invented an open-source programming framework called Ruby on Rails that powers many of the largest sites on the internet.

I’ve been keeping up with the teachings of 37 signals for years.  The talk about releasing code quickly, not out-doing your competition, and focusing on the basics. It’s a refreshing change from software and websites that try to do everything and be everything for every company.

This book is a compilation and revision of many of the business posts that they have released to the Web on their blog, Signal vs Noise.  The book is like the company’s products – no nonsense and easy to use.  They give you an idea or theme, expound on it for a paragraph or two, and let you decide how you want to use it from there.

I am going to touch on a few of the items that I found to be the most profound.  If you would rather skip that, I give this book a 5 out of 5 for anyone looking to start their own business, who has an idea about a business, or is working for someone else and wants to build the best product they can.

Planning is guessing

“Unless you are a fortune-teller, long-term business planning is a fantasy”.  When is the last time you successfully planned everything at a party, a luncheon or a vacation?  It’s hard to do well, and in a business, it is even more complex.  There are just too many factors to take into consideration.  Better to call your plans guesses.  They give you an idea of what you need to do, but you can then improvise and change direction when a better opportunity comes along.

They propose that you stop guessing at the future. Decide what is the most important thing this week, not this year.  Make it your priority today and get it done now, tomorrow will take care of itself.

Workaholism

“Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it’s stupid.”  Pulling an all-nighter or working a lot of overtime demonstrates a capacity for pain tolerance, not a capacity for efficiency and innovation.  Sheer hours worked does not make up for a lack of innovation and organization.  Workaholics can create crises because they like to feel like heroes and they can make others that work in the company feel bad for putting in just their regular hours.

Your best workers are already at home because they figured out how to get it done faster.

Scratch your own itch

“The easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service it so make something you want to use.”  If you are your own customer, you know exactly what you want the product to do.  James Dyson built his own vacuum cleaner because the vacuumed he owned wasn’t very good.  Basecamp started as a home grown application for 37 signals that now services hundreds of thousands of users.

Draw a Line in the Sand

“Great businesses have a point of view, not just a product or a service.”  Determine what your product is about, and don’t change that for anyone.  Your strong stand will bring fans and haters.  That’s OK. If you try and please everyone, you’ll end up with a product that doesn’t do any one thing great.  It’s OK to say no if it makes your product stronger.

Embrace Constraints

“Constraints are advantages in disguise.”  When you have to make due with what you have, you end up getting creative.  Don’t have 3 months to create the feature, just 3 weeks?  Adjust your plan and build something useful in those 3 weeks.

Build half a product, not a half-assed product

“You just can’t do everything you want to do and do it well.”  Find the core of the product or service you are offering and make it shine. Leave the extraneous stuff for later, or better yet, for never.

Interruption is the enemy of production

“If you’re constantly staying late and working weekends, it’s not because there’s too much work to be done. It’s because you’re not getting enough done at work. And the reason is interruptions.” We have found this to be the case at my company, Mindscape.  We do our best to minimize active interruptions like phone calls, stopping by and instant messages.  Instead, we check out email at 11am and 4pm and leave tasks for people in Basecamp.  Of course, it doesn’t always work that way. I just had two emails, a person stop by my desk, and 3 instant messages pop up.  When that happens, it’s hard to remember what you were working on.

Quick Wins

“Momentum fuels motivation”. Break your long term projects into short term goals.  Releases and milestones show everyone that progress is being made. When people get stuck in a two year project, it’s hard to stay motivated through the entire lifecycle.

Don’t be a hero

“A lot of times it’s better to be a quitter than a hero.”  We’ve all come up against problems that we thought would only take a couple of hours, but ended up taking a couple of days.  Buckling down and finding the solution is great, but sometimes the better solution is to find a different tact.  There were a lot of other items you could have accomplished while you were working to overcome that hurdle.

This doesn’t mean quit at the first sign of a struggle. Instead, set yourself a deadline for the task. If you haven’t finished and you think you should have, bring in a fresh pair of eyes. Sometimes they can point out something obvious that you were too deep into the problem to see.

Say no by default

“Start getting into the habit of saying no-even to many of your best ideas. “  Henry Ford once said, “If I’d listened to customers, I’d have given them a faster horse.”   Keep things simple, remain true to the product that you want to build, and make stand for what is right.  This is one of my favorite chapters, and something I’ve been preaching for years.  Sometimes you have to protect the customer from their decisions, even if they don’t know why.  But keep your mind open. If you say no to the same thing every day, then you probably found the next feature to use.

Let your customers outgrow you.

“There are always more people who are not using your product than people who are. Make sure it is easy for these people to get on board.”

Each chapter is full of useful information and fresh ways at looking at business. I don’t want to give you a free pass to everything that the authors preach, so I’ll just pick out a few more chapter titles that I thought were interesting and that should wrap up this review nicely.

  • Emulate drug dealers. – Make your product so good and so addictive that a small free taste makes them come back with money.
  • Send people home at 5 – Busy people get the most done. Let them go be busy.
  • ASAP is poison – Stop saying it. When you add ASAP to everything, then everything is high priority. If that’s the case, then there no longer is priority.
  • Inspiration is perishable – Ideas last, but the inspiration to act on them does not stick around.

Rating: 5 out of 5 – I’ll be reading this book often  Check it out yourself by clicking this link.

Shogun by James Clavell

31 Saturday Oct 2009

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It has taken me a long time to write this blog. Not that I haven’t tried a few times. I have. I’ve tried just about every day over the last two weeks. I just don’t know how to do justice to this book. Should I give an overview of the story? To do it right would take me thirty pages.
Should I give an overview of the characters? There are many, and each is fully realized with their own ambitions, strengths, and weaknesses. I couldn’t possibly do it right.

I think it comes down to this. I can either write a fifty page book report detailing out the story and my love for it. Or I can just try and tell you what I love about it, without really telling you what it’s about. I think I’m going to go that way. Let me give it a try now.

I love watching the discovery that takes place as the main character sheds his English prejudices and discovers the subtleties of the Japanese culture.

I thoroughly enjoy the depth and magnitude of the plans and treachery set in motion by the Japanese lords.

For a book without a lot of action scenes, I always feel like I’m on the edge of my seat. The possibility of death exists on every page.

The action scenes that are in the book are excellent. They aren’t overly detailed, which I often prefer, but you can’t beat samurai swords. You just can’t. And when the book tosses in a large scale ninja attack, I’m hooked.

I love learning about Japanese culture. The book goes deep into the Japanese code of Bushido, their religious views, and why life and death are so lightly regarded. It’s fascinating. It certainly has the ring of truth. If there are any Japanese readers of this book, how do you feel about it? Does it capture the milieu correctly? Does it still apply in some ways?

The love that blossoms between two of the main characters is artfully presented.

I love that I feel like I can speak Japanese when I finished with this book.

I love that I get so completely lost in the story and the setting that I have a hard time leaving it and not bringing it with me back into my world.

If there’s anything I don’t like, it’s the ignorant Dutchmen in this book that refuse to accept that the Japanese way is the only way to behave when in Japan. I don’t like it because my heritage is Dutch, and also because they are really annoying! I’m pretty sure they are supposed to be, so that goal was accomplished.

This is a book about discovery, survival, death, shame, joy and ambition. It is a book about watching rocks grow, wakarimasu, seppuku, kinjiru, samurai, daimayos, and a thousand other intricate details.

I’d be hard pressed to say there is any book I enjoy more.

I would recommend the rest of James Clavell’s Asian Saga. They are all very good, although none reach the heights that Shogun rests upon.

Rating: 5 out of 5  (What’s this?)