I have an editor (Thanks Carolyn) and amd waiting on tenter hooks for the edited version.  I am hoping to publish at the beginning of March, although there seems to be enough steps to get to that point it might take a little longer.  I am keeping my finger crossed.  I bought a Kindle Fire to test my publishing skills and I am currently thinking of going with Amazon initially.  I have ideas for some cover photos – and my wife is a great photographer.  We will see if it works.  (If it does not, the fault will be mine, not hers).

I am also re-writing Assassin, and I think it is better.  I added a pair of detectives as the assassin’s protagonist.

And while taking my kids sledding in the woods of My Hood, I came up with a great idea for a Sasquatch story – but I did not tell them there.  In the woods, and snow.  In the failing light…

So here is a little expert on how my heros from Loop Vacation meet.  Enjoy.

Gord

Mark was in the Czech Republic with some fellow NATO soldiers on a 4 day leave. At the time we was stationed at the huge sprawling Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. Beth was taking the summer off between University classes in Indiana and was traveling Europe on a shoe string budget with two girl friends and a Canadian guy that was interested in her but so far had been much too polite for his own good.

They had been aware of each other in the bar. Mark was openly watching her. She was openly ignoring him, but not in a bad way. When she went to the bar to get more drinks for her table, Mark practically sprinted to get in line behind her. Uncharacteristically, he had not one idea what he might say to her. But he was spared the embarrassment of mumbling like a love-struck school boy. As he got to the bar, she accepted her change for her tables drinks and turned away. And at the last second, maybe dropped a wink that he maybe saw and maybe did not see. For years she called him a liar when he suggested she had winked at him. But not in a bad way.

Twenty minutes later, noticing her friends drinks were low, he gambled and went for drinks for his own table. The troops were drinking American beer from a pitcher that the waitress would be only too happy to serve, but he insisted. And got his timing off. Now, in the history of every action planned by Mark Multon, he had never fucked up the timing before or since. But that evening he totally missed it. It was a good thing no one from his unit noticed his arrival at the bar a full twenty seconds early. Lieutenant Scott would for sure make some joke about “Premature JackDanielation” or something similar. In any event, Beth got in line behind him. And stood very close behind him. He could almost feel her warm breath on his neck, but when he turned to talk, she was turned away as well, yelling at her table about drink orders. There was something in the air.

The third time she went for drinks, a mite early, he just walked up to her and said in a voice for her only “Hey guys, we been looking all over Iraq for Weapons of Mass Destruction and we have not found anything. But here before me is a Biological Weapon if I every saw one.” And without missing a beat, and talking in voice that was meant for him only she replied “Hey girls, these guys are looking for the weapons of old men. I am not sure if they can even find their own weapons.” But her eyes were sparkling when she said it and there was a half smile that Mark would come to love.

Everything else in the bar ceased to exist for Mark. He was drawn to at physical level, but even in the few exchanged words, he could sense an intelligence and humour. Everything changed for the young officer. For ever.