http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2009/07/spotlight-on-july-2009-books.html

They put some serious work into that.

And as a nerd, I must admit that I clicked on every single Amazon link, just to see how I was ranking compared to the others. There were only five that were ahead of me, and one of those was Dean Koontz. So I’ll call that a win.  There are some interesting ones on there, and it is just a bummer that when you become a writer, it kills most of your reading time. If I’m reading, I feel like I should be writing. Though I’m currently reading George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. (just as amazing as everyone has said it is). I just finished Paul Gennesse’s Dragon Hunters (2nd book of great series) and DanWells’ I Am Not A Serial Killer (awesome first novel). Plus I’ve got two history books on Black Jack Pershing, but that’s business.

Amazon sales rankings are odd though, they do it by the hour, so in one day, I can swing 100,000 places back and forth, so you never really know. Plus I still have no idea how many of the Baen books have been sold so far. So I feel like I’m doing okay…

1. Does anybody have a picture of the prototype Browning BAR from the 1950s that was in bullpup format?

I heard such a thing existed, so I need to see it!

2. Is it true the new KneeCapping Trade bill includes a provision where you have to get your home inspected for environmental stuff before you can sell it, unless your mortgage is from Fanny or Freddy?

Got this on the radio, but unconfirmed, because you know, nobody in congress could bother to actually read a 1300 page bill with the largest tax increase in history that will destroy two million jobs, break the dollar, and assure China’s place as the world’s superpower for the next generation, before they voted.

3. Does anybody actually care about Michael Jackson?

Seriously. Shut up already.

4. Do my blog postings seem “angry”, or “full of hate”, or “maniacal”, or do I have “right wing-extremist” views, Or am I “a bitter rasist” (no, that’s how they spelled it) whenever I post about politics?

All from actual e-mails. The really nasty ones get marked as spam. And actually, if you aren’t angry right now, then you haven’t been paying attention. So yes, I am angry. I’m not however “Rasist”. I do not, nor have I ever worshiped the Babylonian sponge-god Ras. Way too much flagellation and scourging for my tastes, but if you’re into that whole invertebra romance thing, it isn’t my place to judge.

5. Is global warming sorry, climate change, such a bad thing if it turns Utah into Seattle (in a good way, with lots of rain, not hippes)?

We had record rain fall in June. This is the greenest I’ve ever seen this brown state, which is kind of a brownish-green at best, but hey, I’ll take it. Plus my garden is looking awesome. Or I should say, my wife’s garden, because I’m only good for killing things and having allergy attacks. I actually have a black thumb. I don’t garden. I execute plants by condemning them to a slow withering death until they are devoured by snails.

On that note, it is so cute when your kids are well read, but haven’t heard how the words are pronounced. So when I was surveying all the snails my wife poisoned, I asked my daughter if she knew that the French ate snails, and she answered, “Yes, they called it Escargets.”

6. Government sponsored health care… Seriously… WTF?

No comment. Too filled with maniacal hate-rage-malice and blood shooting form my eyes getting all over keyboard. Maybe I should get that looked at, but then I’d have to stand in line for six years so a doctor imported from Baluchistan could shake some chicken bones over me or something.

 7. Do I really look that much like James Gandolfini?

I got this one. Yes.

Anybody seen the Mexican? The one where he plays a gay hitman? Yep. I look just like him in that one. Only I’m neither gay, nor a hitman, but that’s pretty much what I look like. I also bear a suspicious resemblance to the big guy who did the Donkey Show in Clerks II. MadOgre called me at home three seconds after the movie was over and told me I had to rent it.

So yes, I look like a donkey-molesting mafia don.

8. Have any of the geniuses in congress paused to think that something like, I don’t know, ALL medical breakthroughs have come from people inspired by profit, and most of those have come from America, and that the world’s medical research will pretty much end once we have Socialized Health Care?

I can’t answer this one, but look at the words Socialized Health Care… doesn’t that seem oxymoronic? You don’t really think of Care and Socialism going together. I think that the only medical research Stalin supported was that thing where he tried to breed a Super-Ape Army.  The only thing socialists “care” about is staying in power.

9. If you could clone one Founding Father, and stick him in congress, who would it be?

I don’t know… which one shot Hamilton?

Tough question. I think philosophically I would like John Adams, but the time for reasoned discourse might be past, and it would be really fun to watch Sam Adams punch Harry Reid in the face, then bust out the tar and feathers.

10. And finally, Monster Hunter International vs. My Little Pony in a grudge match to the death! WHO WILL WIN?

I don’t know, but if it was directed by Michael Bay, there would be lots of explosions.

http://www.c3airsoft.com/showthread.php/hk-vs-airsoft-becaause-17511.html?s=376c1949cabcab3592ffef8d58c29224&t=17511

Apparently H und K is now suing every manufacturer of Airsoft guns for copyright infringement…

Oh, you have no idea the delicious irony of this moment. See, when I wrote my “HK, because you suck, and we hate you” rant a couple of years ago, I did it as somebody in the gun business who didn’t like the way they did business. As a store owner and NFA guy, HK was a pain in the rear to deal with. Since that time, that one rant has gotten more hits than anything that I’ve ever written, and I get constant hate mail from people who tell me I’m a big-stupid-mean-jerk-face for not worshipping at the altar of Teutonic superiority.

Ironically, most of that hate mail has come from Airsofters. My rant has shown up on every forum you can think of, including ones in German, French, and Slovokian (I think). I can always tell when those links get posted because then I then get fifty e-mails telling me how stupid and poor I am, and that I need to go play with my Rugers because I must be too poor to appreciate real guns.

Oh, wait, Ruger makes a piston AR now too… So how are you guys enjoying those HK 416s that you all swore to me would be available TWO YEARS ago? Oh, yes, I know, Delta Force uses the 416… It really is that awesome. I’m sure it is the finest killing machine ever forged by the hand of man or god, but you just can’t have one, because you still suck, and they still hate you.

One day I’m sure that HK will make 416s available for civilians for twice as much money as their competitors, and then I’ll get a couple thousand e-mails telling me how stupid and wrong I was several years after I posted the rant… The internet is timeless in its own way. So you guys just keep your fingers crossed, and I’m sure your 416 will be delivered by a magic leprechaun riding a pegasus, and it will only be years after every other gun company in the world has already been selling thousands of copies of whatever their assault rifle is in the US for less money.

Heck, I’m waiting for the Marlin Advanced Combat Rifle to come out the same time as the Perazzi forward-ejecting Battle Bullpup.

Oh, man, I’m laughing out loud as I type this. Because all those Airsofters who’ve given me crap are now getting sued by HK! Not only do they not want you to have their real guns, they don’t want you to own toys that look like their guns. That’s a whole new level of hate.

Ironically, this is about the stupidest thing they could have done from a business perspective. So either the Airsoft manufacturers will pay them a tiny royalty, or more likely they will just alter the design enough not to be a trademark violation. If HK was a normal company, they would realize that they’re kicking their fan base and their stalwart internet defenders in the crotch, but you’ve got to remember that actually hating the people who purchase their products is standard operating procedure there.

It seems like every other gun company I’ve dealt with actually encourages Airsoft companies to make guns of theirs available to the public, because that just increases brand awareness. It is just like getting their gun put into a movie as a prop. It doesn’t hurt their overall sales. What… you were totally going to buy that USP .45, but went with the one that shot plastic BBs instead because of the cost?

We are now exactly one month away from the shipping of the Baen edition of Monster Hunter International. I’m positively giddy. If I get a little too giddy, I’ll just watch the news to bring me back down, but until then I’m eagerly awaiting July 28th.

When I signed my contract with Baen and discontinued the Print On Demand version of MHI, it seemed like it would be forever until it was available again. During that time I wrote two and a half other books.  I can’t believe that it is time.

MHI is available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Hunter-International-Larry-Correia/dp/1439132852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246206412&sr=8-1

Barnes & Nobel: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Monster-Hunter-International/Larry-Correia/e/9781439132852/?itm=4

Tower Books:  http://www.tower.com/monster-hunter-international-larry-correia-book/wapi/113032800  Now this one is by far the cheapest at $6.79, but I’ve never purchased from Tower and don’t know anything about them. (though they lumped me into Christian Romance, which doesn’t make any sense at all, but I’ve been dominating! Take that Romantic Christians!)

Baen’s Webscriptions E-Books http://www.webscription.net/p-1024-monster-hunter-international.aspx plus this has Seven FREE SAMPLE chapters.

It should be in your local book stores. I’ve called every Barnes & Nobel in Utah, and they’re all ordering between 8-12 copies to start, which seems decent as far as I know. My county library system has ordered a dozen.

If you are a long time fan of MHI, all I ask is to go out and harrass your friends until they’re sick of you, and then go harrass complete strangers until they purchase this book. If you take your harrassment too far (which I don’t hardly think is even possible) then you can inform all the other folks on your cell-block about the sheer coolness that is MHI.

Then when it releases, I need everybody to go to Amazon and post an honest review. I said honest, not mean. You know the kind of Amazon review I’m talking about: “Moby Dick, there was far too much whale action in this book, or at least in the first chapter that I skimmed. I hate whales. They’re like all fat and eat plankton and stuff. Plankton is stupid and so is Herman Mellville! 1 star!”

I’m doing the happy dance. Picture a large man that looks like Tony Soprano doing an end zone dance, and you’ve got the basic idea. One month and counting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVh75ylAUXY

Say what you will about it, but can you even imagine somebody making this today? And that probably says more than anything.