I have just returned from a two-week holiday. I had a lovely time and I see that not only is Running selling well but that Amazon have price-matched Books2Read and made it Free, which is great, so grab your copy today:
The other news is that I am very close to finishing the cover design for Iron III: Worlds Like Dust: part 1 so get ready for the climax of Jake Nanden’s adventures!
15% off for Tourists Billboard in Mauritian shopping mall
Finally, a friend sent me this photo of a sign in a Mauritius shopping mall which beggars belief. Seems that, in that gorgeous country, local people have to pay more for goods than tourists. What blatant discrimination! What sort of way is that to treat your own citizens?
Illuminati, assassins and Templar knights all come together in the terrifying, violent climax to the thrilling series!
The Synchronicity Code is book 4 in the Ordo Lupus and the Blood Moon Prophecy series, which precedes the Grail of the Secret Sun, part one of The Hole Inside the Earth – quest for the the Holy Grail.
An immortal Greek mercenary abandons his quest to meet Christ in Jerusalem so he can rescue a dying archaeologist.
The mercenary, Zosimyache, is a libertine vampire who travels through time, aloof from mankind. He is looking for absolution but things become more complicated when he finds out that the archaeologist is a werewolf.
With only three days to live, the werewolf persuades Zosimyache to help him rescue his lover, the beautiful but treacherous witch, Georgina, from Hell.
But Zosimyache will get a bigger surprise than he could ever have imagined in the struggle to save Georgina.
A cosmological thriller that will open your eyes and close the book on the Ex Secret Agent trilogy, but Zosimyache’s story will go on…
If sexy witches, vampires and werewolves are your thing, this book is for you!
Mara bar ‘Serapion Mara bar ‘Serapion, (Classical Syriac: ܡܪܐ ܒܪ ܣܪܦܝܘܢ), sometimes spelled Mara bar Sarapion, was an Assyrian Stoic philosopher in the Roman province of Syria. He is only known from a letter he wrote in Syriac to his son, who was also named Serapion, which allegedly refers to him seeing Jesus Christ in Jerusalem (possibly the only eye-witness account of Jesus Christ).
Place de la Révolution The Place de la Concorde (French pronunciation: [plas də la kɔ̃kɔʁd]) is one of the major public squares in Paris.
During the French Revolution the statue of Louis XV of France was torn down and the area renamed Place de la Révolution. The new revolutionary government erected the guillotine in the square, and it was here that King Louis XVI was executed on 21 January 1793.
Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of Solomon’s Temple (French: Ordre du Temple or Templiers) or simply as Templars, were among the most wealthy and powerful of the Western Christian military orders and were prominent actors in Christian finance. The organization existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages.
Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church around 1129, the Order became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. Non-combatant members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building fortifications across Europe and as far as Jerusalem in the Holy Land.
The Templars’ existence was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. Rumours about the Templars’ secret initiation ceremony created distrust and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, took advantage of the situation. In 1307, many of the Order’s members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312. The abrupt disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends, which have kept the “Templar” name alive into the modern day.
Ophites The Ophites or Ophians (Greek Ὀφιανοί Ophianoi, from ὄφις ophis “snake”) were members of a Christian Gnostic sect depicted by Hippolytus of Rome (170–235) in a lost work, the Syntagma (“arrangement”). It is now thought that later accounts of these “Ophites” by Pseudo-Tertullian, Philastrius and Epiphanius of Salamis are all dependent on the lost Syntagma of Hippolytus. It is possible that rather than an actual sectarian name Hippolytus may have invented “Ophite” as a generic term for what he considered heretical speculations concerning the serpent of Genesis or Moses.
Apart from the sources directly dependent on Hippolytus (Pseudo-Tertullian, Philastrius and Epiphanius), Origen and Clement of Alexandria also mention the group. The group is mentioned by Irenaeus in Against Heresies (1:30).
Fire and Stone Cut in kenjutsu “Fire and Stone’s Cut” refers to when your swords clash together. Without raising your sword, you cut as strongly as possible. This means cutting quickly with hands, body, and legs.
Unfinished Cologne cathedral, 1856 with ancient crane on south tower
The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral was laid on 15 August 1248, by Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden. The eastern arm was completed under the direction of Master Gerhard, was consecrated in 1322 and sealed off by a temporary wall so it could be in use as the work proceeded. Eighty four misericords in the choir date from this building phase. In the mid 14th century work on the west front commenced under Master Michael. This work halted in 1473, leaving the south tower complete up to the belfry level and crowned with a huge crane that remained in place as a landmark of the Cologne skyline for 400 years.
I see that BP (British Petroleum) stocks are up in the UK and USA so maybe now is a good time to invest in petrochemicals.
Fuel has always been expensive, and more importantly during wartime, heavy. In September 1943, when the heroes of Attack Hitler’s Bunker! were trying a precision bombing attack on Hitler’s Bunker in Berlin, that latest Hawker Hurricane, the MKII, required all of its 97 gallons of high-octane fuel, 34.5 gallons each in wing tanks and 28 in a small tank ahead of the cockpit, to achieve a range of 600 miles. It could carry 2 x 500 lb canisters or bombs but would barely be able to reach Berlin from Norfolk, let alone carry out the attack and return.
Drop tanks were not yet available for Allied aircraft and in fact even the German Luftwaffe had limited use for them. Not until October, did the first P-47 Thunderbolts arrive in the European Theatre of War, equipped with drop tanks. But P-47s were to big to negotiate the streets of Berlin in the sort of precision attack required to hit the Bunker and the attack had to be made in September. Continue reading “How much gasoline to reach Berlin in 1943?”→
Occult, Sci-fi & Military 