ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Weston Ochse is a former intelligence officer and special operations soldier who has engaged enemy combatants, terrorists, narco smugglers, and human traffickers. His personal war stories include performing humanitarian operations over Bangladesh, being deployed to Afghanistan, and a near miss being cannibalized in Papua New Guinea. His fiction and non-fiction has been praised by USA Today, The Atlantic, The New York Post, The Financial Times of London, and Publishers Weekly. The American Library Association labeled him one of the Major Horror Authors of the 21st Century. His work has also won the Bram Stoker Award, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won multiple New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. A writer of more than 26 books in multiple genres, his military supernatural series SEAL Team 666 has been optioned to be a movie starring Dwayne Johnson. His military sci fi series, which starts with Grunt Life, has been praised for its PTSD-positive depiction of soldiers at peace and at war. Weston likes to be called a chaotic good paladin and challenges anyone to disagree. After all, no one can really stand a goody two-shoes lawful good character. They can be so annoying. It's so much more fun to be chaotic, even when you're striving to save the world. You can argue with him about this and other things online at Living Dangerously or on Facebook at Badasswriter. All content of this blog is copywrited by Weston Ochse.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Living Dangerously Weekly - Frog Stranglers and Monsoons

This post seems longer than it is to me because this is the third fourth fifth time I've written it. For some reason Blogger hasn't been saving my edits. But I'm on to it. I know what it's trying to do (DRIVE ME CRAZY). Seems the new editor won't work in Firefox and I have to use creepy old IE.

Anyway...

For those of you who follow Living Dangerously, you'll remember that it was just a month ago when my little corner of Arizona was threatened by fires. We were evacuated twice. More than 60 homes burned. The Huachuca Mountains were on fire for weeks. It was a humbling and terrifying experience. Which is why the irony of complaining about too much rain isn't lost on me. And not only is it the rain, but it's also the humidity. I put a battery in my daughter's car this morning and was drenched in sweat. I mean come on. I might as well live on the East Coast if you're going to do that to me.

 
But the gratification comes with the knowledge that we only have about a week of this left. Which is awesome. Since July 4th we've been hit daily with frog stranglers, worm gurglers... Monsoons. The desert soil isn't made to soak up water, so it sheets to the lowest level. With the mountains burned and deforested, those next to the mountain are getting hit the hardest.

 
Probably the craziest thing are the frogs. The Arizona Spadefoot Frog to be exact. These damn things estivate (sleep in dormancy in the dry soil until the monsoons hit. It's like having dehydrated frogs. Just add water and POOF!


Instant Frog!

And with a thousand of these screaming in the night, it's something out of a horror movie.

So that's been my week.

Projects currently working on:
  • Blood Ocean (Abaddon)
  • Seal Tealm 666 Outline (Thomas Dunne)
  • Living Death Race 2000 (Books of the Dead)
  • Black Fever (With Mike McCarty)
  • Blight (Comic Book)
  • Killing Time (Comic Book)
  • 4 short stories
  • 2 Novellas
  • and a partridge in a pear tree

 

 
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2 comments :

  1. Wendy T.July 23, 2011 at 10:27 AM

    I remember when I lived in Maricopa, commuting to the college during monsoon meant driving over thousands of the little buggers. It made me a little sick every day of that commute. Drive safely and don't let them swarm you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Weston OchseJuly 23, 2011 at 10:45 AM

    I won't Wendy. We don't have a lot of them on the road now, but in a few weeks the Mexican Generals are going to be everywhere. Those I hate running over, but they do swarm the roads.

    ReplyDelete

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