Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--European Chocolate Bars

     Fortune recently smiled upon me again, and I was able to revisit a Wegman’s supermarket.  For those that haven’t already heard me rhapsodize about this grocery store, Wegman’s is easily the best supermarket I’ve ever been to.  And that’s compared to quite a few supermarket chains, given that travel for my job has taken me to most of the states East of the Mississippi River.

     Anyway, this particular Wegman’s had a slightly larger than usual selection of candies in their International Foods aisle, so I took advantage.  Specifically, of their chocolate bars.  I ended up buying nine different kinds, which I think is a fairly nice representative sample.

     I almost used quotation marks on “European” in the post title, because the situation is a little complicated.  For example, one of the candy bars is made by an Irish company, but actually manufactured in Trinidad and Tobago.  And one of the German companies is owned by the U.S. megagiant Kraft.  Finally, several of the bars I found were from Cadbury, which is considered one of the quintessential British chocolate makers.  But, in 2009 Cadbury was bought out by Kraft, and then a few years later Kraft changed its global foods division’s name to Mondelez International.  All of these company ownerships probably don’t factor in much with the actual composition of the candy itself—as far as I can tell they’re still made in the same places as before, and using the same recipes.  I just let you know to give you the complete story.

     Moving on, I was only dimly aware of how seriously some folks take their chocolate.  It seems to go beyond the more normal, sort of innocent “food nationalism” most people exhibit.  To sum up, quite a lot of chocolate fanciers think that American chocolate is vastly inferior to European.  I checked into the possible reasons for this a bit, and came across a few websites.  One claimed that U.S. chocolate uses less cacao (10% minimum vs. 20% for European), use less butter and cream (resulting in lower fat content), utilize more sugar (causing a lighter, sweeter taste) and buy their chocolate beans from South America rather than from West Africa, as most of Europe does (some say that different beans have different flavors).  Others accuse American companies of using more chemicals, artificial ingredients, and controversial additives like emulsifiers, corn syrup, and vegetable oils.  And still others sources (probably American!) claim that the chemical additives, corn syrup, etc. charges aren’t true, and it’s just a conscious, or subconscious anti-American backlash.

     Well, I like a good brouhaha about trivial nonsense as much as the next person, and I’d love to fan the flames of an intercontinental candy war, but in my case my taste buds are preventing me from being either a traitor or a patriot.  I simply don’t notice much of a significant difference between the two.  As I mentioned in some of my earlier chocolate post (See August 20, 2012 and November 22, 2012 posts), I do have a marked preference for milk chocolate vs. dark chocolate (somewhat ironically, in that I like other bitter tastes, such as very hoppy beers), but whether the milk chocolate is American or European (or probably from other continents, but I haven’t been able to test this) doesn’t really matter much to me.  So in this quasi-battle I’m pretty neutral, like Sweden, or the active chocolate manufacturing Switzerland.

     As always, I’ll use the U.S. scholastic method for ratings, A through F, with A being excellent, B good, C average, D unsatisfactory but passing, and F for failing, with plusses and minuses as necessary.  Listed from worst to first.

1)      Cadbury (Irish made, for a British company, American owned) Flake.  Billed as “The Crumbliest Flakiest Mild Chocolate”:  B-.  Dry, and flaky as advertized.  Thin, narrow bar.  Okay, not great.  Very messy to eat, with all the flaking.

2)      Cadbury (also Irish made, for a British company ultimately owned by Americans) Wispa.  An “Aerated Milk Chocolate Bar”:  B-.  Aerated refers to a few air pockets scattered throughout bar.  Solid, and okay.  Flavor is similar to Flake.

3)      Cadbury (this time it appears to have been manufactured in Portugal, but company and owners same as above) Crunchie.  “Milk Chocolate with Golden Honeycombed Centre”:  B.  Again, tasty but unspectacular.  Has a crisp yellow core.

4)      Horst Schluckwerder Marzipan.  German company, as can probably be deduced from the name.  Marzipan is almond meal mixed with sugar or honey, that appears to be a polarizing taste.  B.  Large bar—like 7 inches long by 2 inches wide.  Marzipan covered in chocolate.  As it happens, I’m pro-marzipan, so I enjoyed this.  Not awesome, but decent.

5)      Nestle (Made in U.K. for a Swiss owned company) Aero Milk Chocolate.  “Feel the Bubbles”:  B+.  Like Wispa, with air pockets but more so.  Good, a touch bland, maybe.

6)      Catch (product of Trinidad/Tobago for an Irish company).  “Soft Caramel and Crisped Rice in Milk Chocolate”:  A-.  I rather like the rice base with the chocolate covering.  Very good—just shy of great.

7)      Nestle (same as #5) Aero Peppermint flavor:  A.  The honeycombed interior for this one is green, for the mint.  Really enjoyed, as I like mint flavors.  Better than the plain variant.

8)      Milka (German made, for American Kraft) White Chocolate Confection:  A.  I like white chocolate, too, so found it excellent.  Also, noticed later that “Best By” expiration date was 8 months overdue!  But didn’t taste stale or bad to me.

9)      Nestle (U.K. made, for Swiss company) Lion:  Is a cookie base, covered with caramel and then chocolate:  A.  Delightful.  Reminded me of one of my favorite American bars, Twix.  Like the mix of sweet flavors over the cookie crunch.

     Unlike every other food/beverage types I’ve rated before, you’ll notice my scores were very high.  The “worst” bars were still B-, which is still better than average.  It appears when it comes to chocolate bars, I’m hard to disappoint.  I guess, kind of like the line about pizza, or sex, even bad chocolate bars are still pretty good, to me.  (And just to quash some ugly rumors, I NEVER had sex with a pizza.  Second base once when I was drunk, but that’s as far as it ever went.)  But seriously, I obviously like some chocolate bars better than others, but it seems making one that’s truly terrible is too much of a challenge.  At least from all the ones I’ve tried.

     Finally, years ago a female friend ironically (I think) gave me a Nestle (U.K. made, Swiss owned) Yorkie bar, which had a wrapper that said, “It’s not for girls!” along with a circle with a line going through a woman’s picture, etc.  I didn’t include it in the ratings because I remember liking it, but it was some time ago, and I’m vague on the details.  I recall being sort of darkly amused by its gall in advertizing—I was sort of puzzled that they didn’t include the tagline, “Misogyny never tasted so good!” or the like.  Well, they’ve removed that bit of humorous(?) sexism and now it looks like a regular bar.  Maybe that new kind of Diet Dr. Pepper will soon follow.

Two Bits of Writing News

    Got some good writing news recently.  First, I heard from Grinning Skull Press.  My story, "Cruel to be Kind" was accepted for "Cranial Leakage:  Tales from the Grinning Skull Volume 2."  It's due out in the summer.  I'll pass along more concrete details and the cover as soon as I get them.
    Secondly, it's time for my annual article in In D'tale Magazine, I guess.  My piece about rejection will be in their May issue.
    Clearly, "Cranial Leakage Volume 2" will have its own blurb.  But to give you a taste of the type of outfit Grinning Skull Press is, and because I like its imagery, I'm posting the blurb for Volume 1.
     "Conceived in darkness, to feed off the host.  It is poked at and prodded, all the while growing within the confines of the authors' mind until it reaches the point where it will no longer be contained.  It forces its way through the porous openings in the skull, insinuating itself into the bloodstream, feeding into the very cells of its host, who has only one desire--to rid itself of this parasite before it is driven insane."
     Also, apropos of nothing, I recently learned I might have six lumbar vertebrae (the lower back bones) instead of the normal five.  I'll find out in a few days if I'm an evolutionary throwback to our Hominid and Australopithecine ancestors.  (It's actually not that uncommon a congenital anomaly, and usually doesn't give its bearers any advantage or disadvantage.  But as someone who is into bones and general weirdness, I kind of hope it is true.)  

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Ugli

     I think I first learned about ugli from doing crossword puzzles.  It is, for those that don’t know, a citrus fruit.  Like every citrus fruit aside from pummelos (see February 20, 2014 post), Mandarin oranges, and citrons, it’s a hybrid (see March 30, 2013 post).  It’s a cross between grapefruit, tangerines, and oranges.  Found growing naturally in Jamaica, it’s now evidently produced deliberately and artificially, and has become more popular in the U.S. and other areas, especially during the months from November through April.

     But there’s the name.  I was somewhat surprised to find out that it’s not a word in a foreign language (or an approximation of one), or the last name of the first person to discover this fruit.  It’s actually an alternate spelling of “ugly.”  Once you see one this moniker makes sense.  It’s a largish fruit, typically being bigger than a grapefruit, only its coloration is a mix of green and yellow.  The skin is similar to other citrus fruits, only it’s a bit rougher, and can be spotty and warty.

     But even if the name is arguably fair, it’s still kind of weird that the growers, who want people to pay good money to buy them (yes, the name is trademarked), went with this non-appetizing, insulting title.  It put me in mind of the old, 1970’s Saturday Night Live skit where they mocked a then popular jam ad campaign.  The ad line was, “With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good.”  Obviously, the folks at SNL took their parodies to amusing extremes, like, “With a name like Painful Rectal Itch, it has to be good.”

     So today’s tangent will be about other real, funny, product or company names, especially those involving food.  And be forewarned, many of these are quite tasteless and low brow.  Clearly, some of these are similar spelled words in other languages that mean different things, or are from other English-speaking countries which have different slang terms.  (I’m sure this works both ways, so if any bilingual readers have examples of English product names which sound hilarious and/or dirty in another language, feel free to explain these in a comment.)  Also, I should reference “National Lampoon Presents True Facts:  The Big Book,” which provided some of these.

1)      Pee Cola. A soft drink from Ghana.

2)      666 cold medicine.  Probably not a big seller in Christian countries.

3)      S & M Amusements.  For an amusement park.  In a time long before “Shades of Gray.”

4)      Cabbages & Condoms.  A Thai restaurant.

5)      AnalTech.  A Delaware business which makes chromatography plates.  An unfortunate combining of “analysis” and “technology.”  I would have gone with “Technolysis” myself.

6)      Hooker furniture.  A Virginia company, apparently based on the owner’s last name.

7)      Schwing America.  A Minnesota concrete pump manufacturer.  They must have gotten really sick of hearing “Wayne’s World” jokes in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s.  Also the owner’s last name.

8)      Soup for Sluts.

9)      Vergina lager beer.  A Greek brew.

10)  Urinal.  A hot drink.  (Ha!)

11)  Mortuary Affairs & Food Service.  One stop shopping, I suppose.

12)   A. Cockburn, M.D.  And the good doctor’s specialty was urology.

13)   A jam called Tastes Like Grandma.

14)  Ass Compact.  A German magazine about risk management.

15)   Ditcher, Quick, and Hyde, divorce lawyers.  Almost too perfect—did they change their names, or only hire Ditcher because of his name?

16)   Jack the Stripper.  An English wood stripping service.

17)   Only Puke.  Crackers

18)   Wack Off!  An Australian insect repellent.

19)   A home construction firm named Foster’s.  And their ad line was actually, “Put your family in a Foster home.  They’ll love it!”

20)   Frozen Corpse Ranch.

21)   An auto repair shop specializing in transmissions.  Called Tranny-Man.

22)   Herpes Pizza.

23)   The Golden Shower Restaurant.

24)   S.T.D. Contracters.

25)   Amigone funeral home.  I saw this one live, it’s in the Buffalo, NY area.

26)   A diet candy in the early 1980’s called Ayds.

27)   Staying with unfortunate, deadly disease coincidences, New Zealand had a drink named Sars.

28)   Finger Marie.

29)   Duke of Cumberlands Head pub.  The sign outside read, “Filthy Ale and Disgusting Food.”

     Anyway, back to the ugli.  Once again, my local Shop Rite supermarket came through.  The one I picked out was bigger than a grapefruit, green and yellow, a little oblong and warty, and not the most attractive fruit I’ve ever seen.  (A 2 Bagger, or a Coyote Ugli, if you’re a sort of misogynist fruitophile (don’t think this is a real term, but you get my meaning.))  However, maybe the slightly unpleasant rind helped, as removing it from the edible pulp was easier than with oranges, lemons, etc.—it kind of pulled away.  The inner pulp sections looked identical to oranges, and were even (boringly) orange in color.  The taste was….impressive.  Not bitter and nasty like a grapefruit, and better than the decent pummelo.  Its flavor was most like a tangerine.  Sweet, and very enjoyable.  It was a bit pricey—about $3 for a single one—but I do plan on having this again, when it’s available, every so often.

     Therefore, to paraphrase a Simpsons line, like Chief Wiggum, the ugli might not look great from the outside, but it, “has so much inner beauty,” where it counts.

"Dead Reckoning" Character Interview

     As with the "Kaishaku" character interview on Monday, this interview was only previously posted on the Musa Publishing blog.  And for those just tuning in, today and tomorrow are the only remaining days to purchase both "Dead Reckoning" and "Kaishaku," for the foreseeable future, as Musa Publishing is closing.

      Character Interview—Kurt Minnifield from “Dead Reckoning”

Q: Why do you think Paul Stansfield chose you to represent “Dead Reckoning?”

A:  Because I was one of the ones in the thick of everything, I guess.  I was both victim and victimizer, you could say.  Plus my dashing good looks and charm don’t hurt either! (Laughs).

Q:  Tell us a little about yourself.

A:  I come from a small town in western New York state, called Warsaw.  Graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a degree in communications—meaning I was prepared for nothing, basically! (Laughs)  Took a job at a local theater building sets, and filled in for a sick actor once, and got hooked.  I was never one of those Method types, though—they often take things too far.  At the end of the day, you’re still pretending, no matter how much preparation you’ve done.

Q:  Where do you live?

A:  After the events of the story I relocated to the Pacific Northwest.  I won’t say where, because I’m sick of talking to reporters (this one interview excepted).  I really like it—it’s beautiful, and the people are laid back, cool, and tolerant, even to fictitious people.  Although the time zone is a bit of a bitch.  NFL games starting at 10 A.M?  Outrageous!

Q:  What do you wish people would know about you?

A: Mainly, no matter what I and some of the others did--and some of it, let’s face it, was dreadful—we had good reasons.  I think anyone would have responded in a similar way.

Q:  Is there anything that you wish Paul Stansfield had kept his mouth shut about?

A:  Looking back on it, I’m aware of how much I criticized other characters, was kind of negative at times.  But I did say, and think these things, so I can only blame myself.  But otherwise I thought it was fair—it gave every side a chance to explain themselves, in a way.

Q:  When were you born

A:  1986.  And my parents looked the part in the photos of me as a wee kid.  Big hair, parachute pants, I tease them a lot about it.

Q:  What music do you listen to?

A:  Classic rock, some punk and hardcore, old school rap, and as a guilty pleasure—a little disco.  So bandwise, my favorites are The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Run DMC, Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, The Sex Pistols, The Misfits, GWAR, and The Village People.

Q:  Where have we seen you before?

A:  Nowhere, unless you took in New Paltz theater productions.  Or a foot fungus commercial.  Or a video for the worst hair band I ever had the misfortune to hear.  Wolf Blade?  Wolf Sword?  Something awful and ridiculously cliché like that.  Even with the idiotic “umlauts for decoration, not actual pronunciation” crap.  Because we can all agree that punctuation makes you a badass, right?

Q:  What is your perfect evening?

A:  An abandoned roller rink, a case of Mad Dog 20/20, and a giraffe!  No, just kidding.  A small gathering of close friends, a barbeque, and later, a Wes Anderson movie.

Q:  What is your favorite sports team?

A:  The Buffalo Bills, baby!  Alas, I was too young to see them much during their sort of heyday in the early 90’s.  Although my parents said I cried for weeks after fucking Norwood missed that field goal…

Q:  What are your biggest fears?

A:  Clowns, velvet, and commitment! (Laughs).  No, probably it’s that I ever have to go through something like the “Dead Reckoning” events again.

Q:  Why should readers be interested in your story?

A:  Because it’s the most comprehensive account of a really fucked up situation.  And maybe as a warning, to show how tiny mistakes can mushroom into disaster.

Q:  What are your turn ons?  Turn offs?

A:  Jeez, what is this, a Playboy Centerfold interview?  Next question.

Q:  What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

A:  Mint chocolate chip.  I’m green all the way!

Q:  Will we be seeing more of you, or are you stepping out of the limelight?

A:  Emphatically stepping out of the limelight.  My five minutes of fame felt like a century.  More than enough for me, thanks.

Blurb and Excerpt for "Dead Reckoning"

     Continuing my review of my Musa Publishing ebooks, here are the blurb and excerpt for "Dead Reckoning."       

 Dead Reckoning blurb:

      Kurt Minnifield is a fledging actor playing a zombie in a low budget horror movie.  The director and crew decide to move their shooting to lovely and isolated Watkins State Park… only they don’t get proper permission.

     Victor Newsome is a thirteen year old trying to both shed his nerdy image and learn outdoor skills at a special survival camp.  After teaching the boys how to make shelter and kill their own food, the counselors decide to take a day trip to the neighboring state park—Watkins.

     A series of ethical lapses, poor decisions, and bad luck lead to a colossal misunderstanding.  Violence erupts as both sides fight desperately against a dangerous set of foes.  Who will be more savage—the literal “monsters,” or the boys equipped with deadly weapons, and the knowledge of how to use them?

Dead Reckoning excerpt:

     Kurt struggled to catch up as the unknown actor continued to track the other zombies.  Now he saw that the other actors must have seen or heard the guy—they’d turned around and were advancing on him.  The guy wasn’t Chris, or Rickey, or Gene, either, this was definitely some new actor.  So what happens now?  No one had any special effects things on that he could see, so unless this man ran away the unscripted, natural shooting was over.

     The actor wasn’t fleeing.  He raised his gun and aimed it at the zombie in front, Will.  His hand shook for a second, and then he fired.

     The crack of the shot was loud, and Kurt nearly fell over in shock.  That was no blank!  That sounded real!  What the fuck?  And then he turned his head to look at Will.  Blood was running from a hole in his chest.  Kurt gasped.  Will had been the last zombie to be made up before Kurt—he was positive that T.J. hadn’t put any squibs on him.

     Will had stopped, and his zombie claws went to the wound, and he stared at the hole wonderingly.  The zombies nearest him—Tabby, Henry, and Ed, all dropped their arms down and were staring at Will too, and then back at the mystery man with astonished expressions on their faces.

     The guy hesitated, and then raised his gun a little, and fired again.  There was a second boom, and then Will’s eye broke up, followed almost immediately by the back of his head.  Blood, and pieces of whitish skull and grayish brains splattered out, onto the forest floor, and even slightly on Tabby’s arm.  Will fell on his side with a strange gurgling sound.

     Holy Shit! thought Kurt.  That was no squib either.  This was real!  This guy is psycho!  He watched as Tabby took off, into the bushes to the side of the clearing.  Henry and Ed crouched by Will’s body, and struggled to communicate with the alien assassin.  They waved their arms wildly, trying to signal “Stop” with their palms held up.  Their grunting was noticeably louder, but still inarticulate.  Kurt started to walk across the clearing to join the group.

     The armed man paused a moment more, and then aimed once again.  The two zombies tried to duck behind Will’s slumped corpse.  Two shots whined past, and then a third hit Henry in the shoulder.  Just then he whirled in Kurt’s direction and fired again, just as Kurt threw up his hands.  As soon as the gunman turned, Ed and Henry were in the bushes right behind Tabby.

     Fire rushed through Kurt’s left hand, just above the wrist.  He groaned as he saw blood, and tendons, and even bone through the hole in his mangled hand.  He dove to the ground, just as another bullet hit a tree right where his head had been.  And then he was gone, tearing through the bushes and trees almost without looking.

     The man trotted up to Will’s body, and kicked at it curiously.  He looked briefly at the spot where the hand-shot zombie had disappeared, and then he turned back and went after the first three zombies.

     It hadn’t been thirty seconds when the first fly landed on Will’s destroyed head, took off, and then landed again.  Soon a large crowd of them was jockeying for a prime position.

     

    

   

  

                                                  

      

    

   

Kaishaku Character Interview

    As I mentioned in Saturdays's post, my ebook publisher, Musa Publishing, is closing soon, on February 28th.  Therefore, I'm posting all week about those two ebooks.  Musa is having a sale on all books, too--everything is 80% off.  So "Dead Reckoning" is down to 60 cents, and "Kaishaku" is now 40 cents to buy.           

Character Interview—Dustin Dempster from Kaishaku

Q: Why do you think Paul Stansfield chose you to represent Kaishaku?

A:  Because he had no other choice.  There are two major characters in the story, and Levon sure the hell wouldn’t agree to talk.

Q:  Tell us a little about yourself.

A:  I’ve lived in Oregon all of my life, and went to school here, too.  I’m a junior executive at a software company.  My girlfriend’s name is Jenny, and she manages a bar/restaurant.

Q:  What drew you to the area?

A:  I’ve stayed in the Portland area because all of my friends and family are here, and I was able to find a good job, too.  Why leave?

Q:  What do you wish people would know about you?

A: I’ve taken a lot of heat about the DUI.  I wish people would understand that while I admit to being at fault ultimately, I was also a victim of a string of coincidences and bad luck.  Plus I did my time, so to speak—lots of trash picked up, grunt work done at the hospital, and with the counseling detailed in the book.

Q:  Is there anything that you wish Paul Stansfield had kept his mouth shut about?

A:  Yeah, like the whole book!  He paints me as being…obsessive and weird.  Which I’m not—I’m a normal guy.  And I’m worried about the last part of the story, from a possible legal and ethical standpoint.

Q:  When were you born?

A:  April 22, 1978.  Gen X, I guess.  Not that I buy into all the generational crap.

Q:  Since your story deals with a killer, tell us about some killers who you think most people don’t know about.

A:  Well, there’s Richard Kuklinski, “The Iceman.”  He was a free lance killer for several NY mob families, as well as on his own, and he very well may have slaughtered over 100 people.  His specialty was tying up victims in a cave, where they’d be devoured by rats, while being filmed.  Or the Gonzalez sisters—Maria de Jesus, Delfina, Maria Louise, and Carmen.  They ran a brothel in San Francisco del Rincon, Guanajuato, Mexico, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and killed over 90 people, mostly prostitutes who got sick or old.  Or there’s noted rapist killer Carl Panzram—the unrepentant killer.  His last words to the executioner were, “Hurry it up, you Hoosier bastard!  I could kill ten men while you’re fooling around.”  I guess he had an important appointment in hell!

Q:  Where have we seen you before?

A:  You haven’t.  This is my first appearance.

Q:  What is your perfect evening?

A:  Probably a night out with friends, bowling or at a bar, then some Q.T. with the lady at home.

Q:  What is your favorite sports team?

A:  I don’t follow other people playing sports.  So my favorite teams were ones I was on—baseball as a kid, and basketball and track in high school.

Q:  What are your biggest fears?

A:  You’re baiting me—you want me to say the obvious, that Levon’s story affected me.  Well, it didn’t!  I’m fine.  So I’ll say my fear are…clowns and having my apartment broken into.

Q:  Why should readers be interested in your story?

A:  It’s entertaining, I suppose, and disturbing, even if Stansfield didn’t always get his facts straight.

Q:  What are your turn ons?  Turn offs?

A:  Turn ons…Jenny, reading, and exercising.  Turn offs… liars and blabbermouths.

Q:  What is the most effective movie about a killer you’ve seen?

A:  Probably Henry:  Portrait of a Serial Killer.  Even if the real life basis for the story, Henry Lee Lucas, had his exploits wildly exaggerated.  Talk about showing the banality of evil—it seems like you’re watching a documentary.  Much more effective than most of the glitzy, big budget movies.  The Silence of the Lambs was also excellent.

Q:  Will we be seeing more of you, or are you stepping out of the limelight?

A:  You might, but I think next time I’ll write about myself.  I’ll have control about what’s written, not slant it so that people get the wrong idea.

Sad News and Kaishaku Blurb/Excerpt

     I have an unfortunate announcement to make today.  The publisher of my two ebooks, Musa Publishing, is closing soon. Their last day of operations is a week from now, Februrary 28th, 2015.
     Therefore, until then my blog will be a farewell tour for all things Musa, and in particular, information about my ebooks with them.  I plan to market my Musa ebooks with other publishers, but because they would then be reprints this lowers the chances of them being accepted again.  And, even if they are, it might be some time before they are (possibly) re-edited, have a new cover chosen, and are available for sale once more.  So, in effect, if you have any interest in reading either "Dead Reckoning" or "Kaishaku" in the foreseeable future, you have until February 28th to buy them.  They can be found at the Musa website (www.musapublishing.com) or on Amazon (www.amazon.com).
     I'll start today with the blurb and excerpt for "Kaishaku."  Over the next few days I'll be reposting the blurb/excerpt for "Dead Reckoning," as well as posting the character interviews for both books.  These character interviews were previously only up on the Musa blog, and were a fun writing exercise.  It was neat to do an interview as a fictional character, even for "people" who are disturbing and rather unpleasant.  As usual, the book covers for both ebooks are visible on the right side of this blog.

  Kaishaku Blurb:

     After receiving a DUI, Dustin Dempster is working off some community service hours at a hospital.  While there he’s asked to do some amateur counseling of sometimes difficult patients.  He thinks this a waste of time, but he reluctantly agrees.

     One of these difficult patients is Levon Howard, a man paralyzed from the neck down because of a car accident.  He’s initially uncooperative, but after being charmed by Dustin’s brutal honesty and willingness to break some small hospital rules, he agrees to participate.  Soon he’s revealing his biggest secrets to Dustin…

     For Levon is an obsessed and unrepentant killer of the worst sort, only with a personal quirk.  Despite his revulsion, Dustin finds himself intrigued by Levon’s story.  Soon he finds himself doing what was once unthinkable, and realizes that he’s being affected by what he’s learned.  Will Howard’s madness claim yet another victim, or even another perpetuator?

Kaishaku Excerpt:

     Dustin pulled up his chair, and listened intently.

     “For starters, my name is Levon, so call me that.  Not big on ‘Mr. Howard.’  Fort is right in a way—I do want to talk.  Just not to someone like him, or his flunkies, or a nurse.  What I’m going to tell you I’ve never told anyone—but I figure, why not?  My life—my real life—is over.

     “You never told anyone?  Why not?”

     “Shut up and listen!  You’ll see.  But anyway, the most important thing in my life is that I’m obsessed with killing.  With a catch—I’m not a murderer.  I’ve never been arrested, never went to jail, and never even broke the law.”

     Levon paused to catch his breath, and Dustin just stared at him, and resisted the urge to laugh.  Come on!  This guy’s gotta be fucking with me!  Or was he?  He looked pretty sincere—could he be serious?  Maybe he would have been better off not talking to him.  But, on the other hand, Levon could hardly attack him even if he wanted to, and besides, Dustin was a little curious.  So he waited for the paralyzed man to resume.