As a Canadian, the attack on our capital city on October 22, 2014 (the day before my 70th birthday) forced me to rethink my opinion about my country's role in response to ISIS threats. Having thought of war as an ungodly and primitive response to a distant situation, a response which tore apart the minds and bodies of millions of young men and women, and left them -- if alive -- broken for the rest of their lives in defense of a tenuous peace, I confess that my beautiful flawed fascinating polite socially aware and self effacing Canada would not exist were it not for young men like my father who went to war, fought, and won.

The radicalized young man who killed a soldier and wounded another in a parking lot in Quebec on October 9, 2014 and the terrorist attack on Ottawa only two weeks later stunned Canadians, but did not succeed in bringing us to our knees in fear. Our media is not fear-mongering in response and we are not afraid. As our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, declared "Canada will never be intimidated."

Canadian airstrikes on ISIS in Iraq continue -- perhaps they precipitated the attacks, but we will not bow to threats.

In Canada, it's not illegal to have dangerous opinions or beliefs until they are acted on, so the RCMP were hampered in their attempts to help the first young man, though they were aware of his radical beliefs. His family and imam and other members of his community were consulted and their good faith utilized, but Michael Zihaf-Bibeau appears to have been a mentally unstable person whose attack on the two soldiers was unrelated to the Parliament Hill shootings. In focus, however, of the world situation today and the ever-increasing media coverage of ISIS and other terrorist threats, Canadians are divided whether these attacks were a reaction by radicalized individuals to the world situation in the Middle East and beyond.


This brings about an "us and them" mentality which could be equally dangerous in this country.

Moderate Islamists live as peaceful citizens and don't support their radical brothers and sisters. The danger here is that Canada will become a country of fear and hatred toward the unknown, toward Muslims, toward those who would speak reason and not brand an entire group of millions of peoples who have a history of thousands of years of civilization.

Remember that the USA supported Osama Bin Laden initially, when he drove the Russians out of Afghanistan, and the USA also supported Saddam Hussein in the early years. Former enemies such as Germany and Japan and Italy are now our friends and allies.

Times change. People change. Nations change. Each nation calls upon their God to help them in their holy wars.

My father, who fought in five campaigns in five different countries in WWII, and emerged forever damaged after the war, often told his children, "I refuse to let them make me live in fear."

Go to our soldiers, not the leaders, for the truth.



 


Terrorist attack in Ottawa failed with cool Canadians brought to you by:

Short Circuit and Other Geek Stories is a fascinating tribute in memorial to Kenna's son Steve Wild, 1968-2012, who loved "hard" science fiction, robots, and high technology. Authored by Kenna McKinnon, with topics ranging from music of the spheres to death, this book contains short stories written for all ages to enjoy.

Available on Amazon.com here! Buy it for your Kindle with one click! All Kenna's proceeds go toward the Edmonton Humane Society.

From Imajin Books - best selling author Jesse Giles Christiansen

Look for the post RIGHT HERE tomorrow, Friday November 7, 2014 featuring best selling Amazon author Jesse Giles Christiansen announcing the release of GOTH TOWN.

Get it now!

His debut Christmas novella.

GOTH TOWN. See the author bio, download the MP3, see the haunting trailer.

TOMORROW, FRIDAY NOVEMBER 7 RIGHT HERE ON KENNA'S BLOG.

Is this guy nuts? Bigfoot on local Endangered Species list? 



I sometimes feel like an endangered species. And Errl knows what that feels like. An outcast, unloved, misunderstood.

Unread.

I'm thrilled to announce Red Herrings, my new mystery novel, is ready for publication, written from my personal experience with paranoid schizophrenia and an interest in the bizarre.

This new schizophrenic mystery is written with the hero's voice by Kenna McKinnon, author of poetry, short stories, a memoir, a children's chapter book, and two YA novels.

Annie finds new beauty and true love in this engaging story of a young woman coming of age, and solving a heinous crime as well.






Published by father and daughter team at Authors for a Cause, Red Herrings follows my fantasy/sci-fi collection of short stories (Short Circuit and Other Geek Stories) written in memory of my son. All proceeds from Short Circuit go to the Edmonton Humane Society.

Authors for a Cause is a charitable publisher which supports children's literacy and pets.

My new book of short stories is on Amazon right now and I believe it's available on Amazon Prime.

I'm looking for reviews for Short Circuit and Other Geek Stories. I'll send you a free eBook in exchange for a fair and honest review on Amazon.



This book was written in honor and memory of my son, who passed away two years ago this September on the last day of summer 2012.

I will give any of my own proceeds from the sale of this book to the Humane Society of Edmonton, a charity close to Steve's heart. It was published through Authors for a Cause, which funds literacy for children with their share.

If you like sci-fi, fantasy with a twist and a bit of humor, and a bit of everything else thrown in for good measure, you'll love this book of short stories.

Let's help make it a best seller! I'll keep you posted on Twitter and Facebook as to the progress of Short Circuit.

Right now it stands at 735,442 paid in Amazon. It's not available yet in print.

If I get enough interest in the eBook I'll publish this fantastic book of tales in print.

I'll keep you all appraised.

Eileen Schuh at home

I love skipping out of the ordinary, into realms of ‘what-if’ and ‘if only’, both as a reader and a writer. As odd as it may seem, there are lessons to be learned from realities that are no more than mere imaginings and sometimes those lessons are easier learned from a well-told story than from the pulpit. The best stories, to me, are those that are thought-provoking as well as entertaining.

If it’s at all  possible to learn from mistakes before they occur, SciFi is one of the best tools. Although, judging from our current privacy issues, we perhaps didn’t learn all that we ought to have from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, here’s hoping at least some of the messages in my latest release, DISPASSIONATE LIES, get through.

Ladesque is an ordinary woman in a life that is so bland at the start of that novella, boredom is driving her stir crazy. Although the year is 2035, little about her world is different than ours, because a global economic crisis and the collapse of the internet ground technical progress to a stop decades earlier. Her generation of females is different, though,  having been born sterile and without libido. Although to some, that situation is ghastly, to her it is also quite ordinary.

This near-future setting is the back drop against which Ladesque must learn and grow and hopefully take the reader along with her.

If cyber-snooping abilities such as Snowden’s, and privacy invasions such as Wikileaks’, or cyberattacks such as the recent eBay fiasco keep escalating...what will we do? If banks and governments and militaries get hacked, will it cause a massive global financial collapse...or has that already happened?

What will our world be like if fertility rates keep decreasing? If hormones in our environment keep increasing? If loss of libido continues to be an acceptable, common pharmaceutical side-effect?  If...

Do we care? Should we care? Should we act now to prevent drastic results or simply prepare for the day when a generation of sexless females exist in a world struggling to recover from The Great Crash of 2015?

Such weighty contemplations will not likely intrude into your enjoyment of the novella, however.  Such musings will come after the story ends. After Ladesque solves the code, uncovers her secret past, experiences sexuality, takes part in a top-secret FBI project...falls in love.

After all that, you will wonder if we ought to be worrying less about who has nuclear capabilities and worry more about other threats--like who possesses the technology to develop the quantum computer. Because in the near future, that is where unfathomable power will lie.