Having A Grunt Life

Grunt Life came out and immediately went into a second printing. So happy that people Grok my style of Military SF. Now, nine days into the sequel, Grunt Traitor, I'm doing things to planet earth no one should ever be allowed to. It's galactically evil, but the logical outcome if we will are ever unfortunate to be invaded and terraformed.

A new review surfaced of Grunt Life from Hugo Award-nominated Elitist Book Reviews. I'll share
the first paragraph and the last paragraph, but for the rest you need to go to the site.

First: "I’ve been on the look-out for novels similar to those of Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter series and Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger novels. I love the mix of Military Thriller with SF/Fantasy/Whatever. It didn’t have to be magic, but I needed something that was contemporary, actiony, and with speculative elements in it."

Last: "Weston Ochse is an awesome author. I put his stuff next to Correia and Maberry without hesitation. While I was curious about Ochse’s work before, now I’m excited to read it. All of it. It’s pretty easy to see that Ochse is one of the better authors for action SF out there, and GRUNT LIFE was an absolute blast to read."

Do you have your copy yet? I ask you then why not?

I'll Be Glad to Toss Your Book in the Trash

So sayeth a brand new fan I've received. Along with all the emails I received from my website contact link today was a gem of an email about my novel Blood Ocean, which was part of the Afterblight Chronicles published by Abaddon Books (UK).

Here's the email:

"After reading your contribution to the Afterblight Chronicles, I can say that I will never read another one of your books again. I have issues with it since I started it. But being someone who doesn't give up on a series and who enjoys SciFi, I am going through them. If this is any indication of your work, well lets just say, your no where as good a (sic) your complementaries. So, unless you have a another book in the Series, I will be glad to toss this junk in the trash where it belongs." - name withheld by me

Here was my reply:

"Thank you! Can I ask what your issue was?"

I'm waiting on a response.

His response will sort of indicate what sort of person he is. You see, this is my most brutal book. I mean, hell, it's post apocalyptic. It's supposed to be brutal, right? But it also has transgender characters, cannibalism, anti-Caucasian sentiment, and I heap a ton of fictional baggage on the Japanese.

Is he Japanese?

Did he take umbrage at me making white people evil?

Is he a vegan?

Maybe he doesn't like LGBTs.

This book is still available. It was published in 2012. This is not an advertisement, but here's what the book is about if you've never heard of it.

Waterworld meets Point Break as Kavika, an under-sized boy living in the floating Sargasso City - jigsawed together with ships, submarines, barges and oil tankers off the coast of what was once known as California, must strive to overcome his lowly status and the condemnation of his peers in order to save his city from an enemy living within.

Survivors of the Cull, a Plague that wiped out people without the blood type O-neg, struggle in the floating Sargasso City jigsawed together with ships, submarines, barges and oil tankers off the coast of what was once known as California.

Separated by demarcations of turf, ethnicity and fear, it’s not so much living as existing. High above it all swing the Pali Boys: descendants of Hawaiian warriors, they desire to lift themselves and the spirits of the residents below by performing an increasingly impossible series of extreme stunts, designed to test their manhood, and demonstrate the vibrancy humanity once had.

But as a conspiracy of murder unfolds and blood attacks increase, Kavika a single under-sized Pali Boy must strive to overcome his lowly status and the condemnation of his peers in order to save them all from an enemy living within.

The book received mixed reviews when it came out. Some consider it the favorite of my 20+ published books. Others don't like it for the brutality. And some think I spent too much time in scene setting. But everyone had at least something good to say about it. 

Update: I've waited 24 hours for a reply, but didn't receive on. But I did put my detective skills to work, you know, those I got from watching television. His name is in his email, which I can see. I Facebooked his name and there is one person out there with a mutual friend of that same name. If that's the same person, then he's white, southern, and middle aged. So being Japanese is out. Maybe he's a white vegan?

So there you have it. You can't please everyone, but at least this fine upstanding gentleman gave me a laugh.

My Email Exploded This Morning

I guess Amazon is getting more aggressive. Either that or I have more fans. I have a book coming out in October. No surprise to me or to anyone following me on facebook. But now it seems that everyone who's ever bought a book from me now knows because Amazon bulk emailed them. Funny thing is, though, that some folks thought that the email was from me, went to my website, and sent me emails. Some of them are down-right hilarious.

This was in the email everyone got.

A sampling of these emails include:

• Stop sending me spam! I don't like your books.
• So happy to see you doing so well.
• Loving SEAL Team 666.
• When is the movie coming out.
• How'd you get my email address?
• Can you introduce me to the Rock?
• Cousin XXX got this from Amazon, where he obviously bought your books, and forwarded it to almost everyone on his family mailing list.
• I didn't know you wrote books.
• Cool logo on the cover. Are you selling it?
• How do you pronounce your name?
• I hate your guts!!!
• Do you know Jonathan Maberry? Can you get him to blurb a book for me too?
• Is this self-published?
• Where do you get your ideas?
• Why did you name the dog after a vacuum cleaner?
• Please unsubscribe me from this list.

 I could go on, but you get the idea.

Of course I'm probably preaching to the choir. If you're reading this and you've ever bought one of my books from Amazon then chances are you received the Amazon bulk emailer too. Know this:

• I didn't send this email.
• I don't know when the movie is coming out.
• I can't introduce you to the Rock.
• I'm not selling the logo. MGM currently has the rights to it.
• I didn't get your email address. 
• Yes I write books.
• Thank you for hating my guts.
• I get my ideas from a  woman in Iowa who sells them on eBay.
• The dog is named after a president.
• Jonathan Maberry is probably too busy to blurb your book.
• My name is pronounced like Oaks.
• The book is not self-published.
• And thank you for loving SEAL Team 666

I hope this helps everyone.

Have a terrific day.

Ghost Heart Review Roundup

Remember when you were younger and you read Something Wicked This Way Comes or The Thief of Always or The Traveling Vampire Show and you felt a certain magic in the words, a certain tug at your soul, a warm summer wind through your nostalgia? This is what Yvonne Navarro and I have tried to create. We want a story of troubled youth to be pan-generational. We want a book adults and teens can read with equal pleasure. Most of all, we wanted to write a book that could be read aloud, the reader lending substance and

gravitas to the work.

So far it looks like we've succeeded.

Here are what some are saying about Ghost Heart.

Horrornews.net - "Comparison to Something Wicked This Way Comes immediately comes to mind, as Yvonne and Weston bring in that same comforting yet engaging style of prose that his the eyes and ears like the rumbling voice of Grampa in his rocking chair on a slow twilight eve. They had me full-on from the first paragraph and I dug every second of it. It’s hard to come across people who can mimic the feel of the oral tradition, but these two do it admirably."  Read more here. 

Reading Bites - "What to say about Ghost Heart? It’s so hard to review a book that’s genuinely more of an experience than a read. It’s the story of Matt, a boy facing the break up of his parents and watching his friend’s ghostly guardian spirit fade as she grows up, as he tries desperately to stop time and make it all somehow not happen." Read more here.

Frank Errington - "Husband and wife writing team, Weston Ochse and Yvonne Navarro, have produced something very special with Ghost Heart.  At the center of the story is a very cool kid, a couple of ghost/imaginary friends and his German Shepherd, Kubla Khan." Read more here. 

Don D'Amassa - "A collaboration between two authors of whom I don't see enough. It's also a very unusual novel that is as much fantasy as horror...The story is episodic but the individual encounters are wrapped around the central plot quite nicely. For some reason this reminded me of the early Dark Tower books by Stephen King, although with a darker coloration. It's more a coming of age story with weird overtones than a suspenseful horror novel despite some quite creepy things that happen along the way." Read more here.

Also with cover art from the vastly talented Vincent Chong.

Do you have your copy? Want it in a special edition? Here's the info.

Deluxe Hardcover pricing: $80 USD 

Trade Paperback pricing: $14.95 

USD Ebook pricing: $3.99 USD - 

See more at: http://www.darkregions.com/books/ghost-heart-by-weston-ochse-and-yvonne-navarro#sthash.geYtW816.dpuf

Burgers with Chefitude - Sonoita

I love burgers.

Who doesn't, right?

But I also like a whole lot of other things. I've had two burgers this year. One was homemade from  

lamb...awesome. The other was at the Haunted Hamburger in Jerome and was absolutely unremarkable. So when I saw a review of a burger place in Sonoita (a place I love) by GallivantingGirl called All Hail the Perfect Burger, I was intrigued. Then when I saw that I could make the burger a bison burger, I was excited. Then when I saw that you could order a burger and not know what's going to be on it, I was pretty dead on freaking excited. I had to do it.

Then came the call from the pops. He and mom and my kid brother were going to come down and spend a few days with us. All I did was connect the dots, so yesterday, we drove to Sonoita and arrived at the ubiquitously named "The Cafe." Here's their website. Their motto is Fresh Attitude, Fresh Food, Experience Chefitude. 

About the place. They have wine. They have beer. It's in Sonoita. They have burgers and other things to eat. They have wine. Oh, I said that already. Wine prices were very affordable, especially with the local wines.

Wife's chicken curry soup and Black and Blue Burger

So what did we order? My lovely wife had the black and blue burger because of her love affair with blue cheese. Instead of fries, she substituted for the curry chicken soup. My mom had the black and blue burger as well but she caved in on the fries, although she barely touched them. I might have rescued a few from the dispenser with help from my brother, who had a green chili cheese burger.

My dad and I were the brave ones. We both ordered APE Burgers. We told them we didn't have any allergies. My dad said not too spicy. I said no peanut butter and jelly. Then the waitress left and I noticed a worried look on my dad's face.

"What is it?"

Close-up of wife's Black and Bleu Burger

Me telling them not to use PB&J made him worried that he should have said the same. "If they serve the burger with peanut butter and jelly I'm sending it back."

I smiled and said, "As you should," all the while secretly hoping they would.

Then the burgers came. All were cooked perfectly.

My father was served a Cordon Bleu Burger. Atop the half pound of 80/20 ground beef he had a piece of ham and chicken wrapped in cheese. With the addition of a garlic aoili it was magnificent.

Then I was served a PB&J Burger.  No. Just kidding. I was actually served a burger with bacon, brie and green apple atop a medium rare bison burger. With the addition of siracha mayo and ketchup, this was the best burger I can remember eating. I'm not saying it's the best burger ever, but it's on that list for sure. Somewhere definitely in the top five.

Highly recommend you all go out there. You will not be disappointed. Burgers are a little spendy, but then you're paying for truly terrific ingredients and...chefitude!

Dad's Cordon Bleu Burger

Brie, Bacon and Apple on Buffalo

Close up of -- Brie, Bacon and Apple on Buffalo

Even Closer - Lol

Layered perfectly, cooked perfectly

Close-up of curry chicken soup

My mom's burger. So good.