‘KEEPIN’ IT WEIRD’ NEWS

Dateline: October 30, 2020

You’re in the right place

for a mix of stories you just won’t find 

anywhere else…

“Here’s to the allure of the obscure!”

October 2020 Newsletter

In this issue: 

1. New Books Page

2. Free Books

3. Butterfly Effect

4. Featured Guest

1. New Books Page

Take a look at my refreshed ‘Books by GK Jurrens’ page on this site. I call the new banner photo on that page (from my personal archives) , “Room with a View.” Go see for yourself why that is a grand metaphor, especially coming from an at-risk guy who has been staying indoors for most of the last year.

I’d be honored if you’d check out my handiwork here.

2. Free Books

Speaking of books, You’ll see a synopsis of each of my three latest labors of love on that same New Books page.

Two years in the making, the plan is to publish my Mayhem paranormal science fiction trilogy before Christmas, and I’m so excited to offer free advance review copies (prior to publication) to anyone who will commit to writing a brief review of each book prior to their publication date of December 15th. Just shoot me an email at gjurrens@yahoo.com with the subject line “ARC.”

This is how I plan to cap off 2020 before we move on to 2020 hindsight. No, this is not how an author is supposed to launch three new books, but what the heck! So help me out over here!

If you’re of a mind to top off your year of living dangerously engaged in an entertaining read and by writing a paragraph or three of your impressions of one or more of these epic tales (before 12/15), this starving artist would be forever grateful. You will be among the first to read this as a trilogy! If you’d like to just do one or two books, that’s fine too.

Full Disclosure: Underground is an extensively enhanced edition of Beneath the Mayhem that now flows into the all-new Mean Streets and the epic Post Earth. Each book also stands well on its own, and you’ll see many of the same characters in more than one book. But together? An epic tale.

“A science fiction story for our time.” – Early beta reader

Are you curious what sort of world Earth has become in the latter half of the twenty-second century?

Much has changed, but people remain the same. Well, most of them. Some still lust for power and influence, but most remain filled with hope, joy, despair, generosity, and a desire for redemption. Even in impossible circumstances.

And for whatever reason, some offer the world something more. Much more.

NOTE: If you’re not already on my ARC (Advance Review Copy) team and wish to get a copy of these as ebooks FREE & to keep with the understanding you’ll send me a review after you’ve finished reading one or more of them (before December 15th), shoot me an email at gkjurrens@yahoo.com with the subject line “ARC,” and I’ll send you three publication-ready books for your review. Thanks in advance. I hope to entertain you.

3. Butterfly Effect

Within the pages of Mean Streets, our heroes must influence three obscure events that impact future history in a monumental way. A seer chooses these events from within his prognostications and challenges three of his acolytes to carry out his quests. Some call such events “linchpins” or the “domino effect.” I was inspired from a personal experience.

This phenomenon may also be characterized as the “butterfly effect.” For example, a butterfly takes flight in Africa and sets off a chain reaction of events that leads us to a completely unanticipated event or future consequence on the other side of the world via a ripple effect. Upon reflection, you might find amusing one such effect in my recent experience.

I enlisted in the US Coast Guard in 1969 in Minneapolis based on an idea that came to me while living in San Francisco. That event led me to a brutal nose dive into an empty porcelain bathtub in 2020 at home here in Florida a month ago. My reward? A cracked rib and a subdural hematoma. Say what?

• 1969: A butterfly… While living in San Francisco, I was drafted into the Army but chose instead to enlist in the US Coast Guard “back home” in Minnesota,
• 1972: Ice Op = Injured my back during a rescue mission on a frozen Lake Huron (read the short story of that mission here if interested),
• 2014: Back surgery resulting in neuropathy (numbness in my left foot),
• 2019: Neuropathy worsened with age and arthritis (yay!),
• 2020: I tripped over rug in the dark with my numb bare left foot resulting in a painful swan dive into an empty bath tub! (I’m okay now).

So the moral of this story seems obvious, doesn’t it? Do not enlist in US Coast Guard Search & Rescue as that will cause a geriatric injury half a century later!

4. Featured Guest

Meet Josef Lederhaas (posthumously), a penniless immigrant who I am proud to celebrate as a friend, even after he has fallen. I regret not capturing a photo of my friend before his passing many years ago. He wasn’t much for that sort of thing.

I’ll share a brief story with you. Joe Lederhaas commanded a Naval missile destroyer during the Viet Nam war and brought high honor to the uniform in the service of his adopted nation.

Born in Austria, he immigrated to the US as a young man, unable to speak a single word of English. He became a naturalized US citizen just so he could become an officer in the US Navy, learned the language and gained entrance into the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland by pursuing an American politician to sponsor him. He lost many friends and acquaintances during the Viet Nam War, as did some of us, and other wars since. But under his command, his ship also saved the lives of countless Naval aviators.

One day, Captain Joe asked me as a fellow vet if I was registered in the VA (Veteran’s Affairs) system. At the time I had not bothered and told him so. After all, my IBM healthcare insurance provided all I needed back then.

Now understand that Joe stood an imposing six-foot-four, and his use of a cane notwithstanding, when he stared you down with those intense blue eyes and with a set to his block-and-slab chin and jaw, you listened.

Suddenly, in Joe’s sterling command-and-control voice he boomed (we were in an elevator at the time), “Gene, you do your fallen brothers and sisters who fought and made the ultimate sacrifice for your rights as a veteran a disservice if you do not exercise those rights. Is that your intention?”

Well, it took me almost two years to get classified as a disabled veteran, but I made it happen after that compelling elevator speech. Because, as Captain Joe stated so eloquently, it was the right thing to do.

The same is true for casting our ballots. Many have sacrificed to earn this privilege for each of us, this fundamental touchstone of our beloved democracy. So vote. Please.

Allow me to offer the likely unnecessary reminder to vote ASAP if you haven’t already done so. Almost seventy million Americans have already done so (early)… record numbers in the election of a lifetime. This is how we celebrate our democracy! Joe would be proud.

I’ve heard some say, “What’s the point of voting? A single vote doesn’t matter.” Or, “I don’t like either candidate, so I’m not voting.” Or, “I’m just gonna vote for a write-in as a matter of principle.”

Kay and I were registered to vote by mail (absentee ballots) here in Florida, a key battleground state. We received our ballots, read the instructions carefully, marked the ballots, placed them in the enclosed “secrecy sleeve,” inserted all into the included envelope, and signed the outside of the envelope over the seal as instructed. Then, just to be safe, we dropped our ballots off at the Lee County Supervisor of Elections. Painless. For us.

Please note: It is now too late to mail in your ballot, so fill it in and drop it off or vote in person! Wear a mask, maybe gloves if you’re at risk. Please.

Not to be too weird about it, but we old folks are no longer the major demographic in this country. Young people are the biggest voting block. So if you’re under twenty-five, pass the word! Listen to the lovely Keke Palmer and “Actually Vote!” Either way, I’m looking forward to a drop in my blood pressure, y’all !

To celebrate our votes and life in general, we’re venturing out for a rare weekend away from our COVID bunker in the RV.

Besides exercising the bus’s equipment, we’re taking our dance lesson DVDs with us to learn (again) the salsa, rhumba, and maybe an evening waltz. Not much room in the living room of the motorhome, but enough. Other than that, we’ll just eat, nap and love. Maybe watch an old black and white Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) movie on Sunday morning.

Stay safe and stay well if you can possibly manage both. Are you looking forward to 2020 hindsight too? 

Every day is to be treasured, y’all. Namaste, and…

Adieu, my friends. 

With pen in hand, 

Gene