A Ghost Ship (Fact in Fiction)

Another “Fact in Fiction” I use in the Legends of the Winged Scarab series:

 

Fact: The former Russian Cruise Liner Lyubov Orlova was lost at sea while being towed to the Caribbean from Canada. A well-known ghostship, she supposedly was inhabited only by cannibal rats. 

 

 

Fiction: In Books 3-5 of the Legends, she is turned into a floating luxury liner by the South American billionaire-pirate Lorenzo Dominguez. 

 

Sailing her as the Bucanero II across the Atlantic and Mediterranean, Lorenzo terrorizes our protagonists who are trying to escape his clutches on a small sailboat headed for Crete (North America having been devastated by the eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano - hopefully, that event will stay fiction).

A Supervolcano On The Verge

Writers are excited when some stuff in the fiction they write comes true and alive. Let’s hope this one doesn’t; because the beast that would rear its deadly head here is Yellowstone, the Supervolcano.

In After the Cataclysm, my fictional protagonists struggle to survive a decimated North American continent after the vast cauldron of Yellowstone has blown its top. Makes for an exciting story.

Long foretold, the threat, alas, is all too real in our time. Just as with the threat from outer space, scientists, however, are working hard on how to save us from extinction; which is funny (well, not really at all) because on the other hand, the minds of little people plot annihilation.

I just came across this article in Mach/Environment:

Scientists Hatch Bold Plan to save Planet from Supervolcano,
by Kate Baggaley.

bold-plan-to-save-planet

 

 
Aerial view, Grand Prismatic Spring, Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Peter Adams / 

Getty Images

Not to scare you, but it’s worth reading.
Worth reading–for entertainment value and to remind ourselves that “it could happen.”-  

After the Cataclysm- so far - is pure fiction. Please, check it out on Amazon.

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IT70KCE

The Kissing Bug (Fact in Fiction)

Here is another “Fact in Fiction” I use in the Legends of the Winged Scarab series:

The Kissing Bug, Chagas Disease. 

In the U.S., over 300,000 people live with it (mostly Hispanics from Latin America). Over 8 million people in Mexico, Central America and South America have it. The disease comes from the bite of a triatomine bug; it carries a parasite which can ultimately destroy the digestive system and heart. Worldwide, the disease kills tens of thousands a year.

In Book 3 “After the Cataclysm,” Lorenzo Dominguez, our billionaire art thief/pirate/kidnapper caught Chagas disease as a boy in the abject squalor of the Venezuelan prison on Isla Margarita. 

In Book 5 “The Nile Conspiracy,” Lorenzo's predestined fate catches up with him (at a rather opportune time for our protagonists). 

1000 Pages of Action/Adventure

   

Save on this #BoxSet of four complete novels. 

 

History in the making, playing out during recent world events, with the heroism, frailty, folly, passion and love of Man. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076QZWCDG/

 

Add Book 1, a saga of Ancient Egypt's First Dynasty, to your reading pleasure.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006QVKO6C

 

 

Charmer, Conman, Kidnapper

Edward, My Bad Boy,

also appears in 4 of the
Legends of the Winged Scarab Novels

He charms in Sirocco, Storm over Land and Sea

He cons in After the Cataclysm

His bad side crystallizes in The Crystal Curse

And what happens in The Nile Conspiracy,
well -- you'll just have to read about it.

Even in Shadow Love, he is remembered
with some regret about what could have been...

How did he get to be that way?

This short novella here shows how he
spirals from charmer down to criminal.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009BQZ1JY

Excerpt

Helen, a high-powered executive and consummate professional when not enthralled by tall Brits, informed him she had to take an early morning flight to Europe and that her generosity, alas, could not extend to her home, her Mercedes and her treasured sailboat while she was away.

Edward understood, being the perfect gentleman. He returned her key, kissed her good-night, promised to call her in two weeks.

That Sunday morning, the normally fastidious Edward did not shave. He dressed in the midnight blue silk pajamas and brown leather slippers—gifts from a nice woman in Newport Beach—and confidently drove up the Silver Strand that connects seedy Imperial Beach to affluent Coronado.

A couple of homes down from Helen’s, he spied a yellow-hulled San Diego Union in a driveway. Slowing down just enough, he expertly scooped the Sunday paper up. Then he drove to a lone beach emergency-telephone he had scouted out the day before. Smoothing out a sheet torn from his motel’s Yellow Pages, he dialed the number of the first-listed locksmith. No answer. Second: No answer. The third promised to meet him at the given address within thirty minutes.

“Can you imagine? Here I am, out in the street in my pajamas. I come out to pick up my Sunday paper and the door slams behind me.” Edward’s speech is colloquial and friendly, without a trace of his usual Eton-tinged accent.

“It happens all the time,” the locksmith commiserated. “I’ll have you back in your house in no time.”

* * * 

Tales of Ancient & Modern Egypt (and More)

Legends of the Winged Scarab Series 

KHAMSIN, The Devil Wind of The Nile

- A Novel of Ancient Egypt - 

Followed by Action and Adventure in present-day Egypt and beyond:

SIROCCO, Storm over Land and Sea

After the Cataclysm

The Crystal Curse

The Nile Conspiracy

http://amazon.com/Inge-H.-Borg/e/B006QYQKUS

* * *

Also, check out these FUN Volumes:

 Edward, Con Extraordinaire

This charming trickster turns into a major "nuisance" (to put it very mildly) in Books 2-5 of the Legends of the Winged Scarab Series.

    

And, for Animal Lovers, there is always Pasha:

 http://amazon.com/Inge-H.-Borg/e/B006QYQKUS