Area 7 by Matthew Reilly

My rating: <a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/273288015″>5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I’m doing a re-read of this book as a warm up to Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves which has just arrived. Even though this is the second time I’ve read this book it’s just as fast paced and adrenalin fueled as the first time I read it. Mr Reilly may be criticised for his lack of character development but he certainly makes up for it in the action stakes. It’s also been said that he seems to write these books as if they’re screenplays for a big budget action movie and if that’s the case when will some enterprising movie producer pick up the rights to this series and do them justice I wonder? I don’t mind that I have to suspend belief at certain parts of the story, it delivers in my opinion, on every level for pure entertainment value. Hope the new book lives up to this standard, which I’m sure it will, here’s to many more ‘Scarecrow‘ books.
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<a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4625592-jan-domagala”>View all my reviews</a>

See you soon,

Jan.

I was on Facebook the other day and my sister posted that ‘life never ceased to amaze her’, which prompted several comments as you could imagine. Some were on the lines that ‘things happen for a reason, we just have to find it’. This led me to add, ‘Some say that there are reasons for things, others say it’s God‘s will but what about the random things that catch us sideways that seem to have no rhyme or reason? I like the saying that shit happens but life goes on’

This led me to remember some more sayings about life, such as;

S.S.D.D., Same Shit Different Day,

Life is never boring, boring people do boring things,

and,

Life has three rules,

Rule 1, Shit happens.

Rule 2, Shit happens on a regular basis,

Rule 3, If you’re not sure what to do next, refer back to Rule 1.

Life is all about choices, whether we realise it or not, we all have them, we all make them and the choices we make tell the world the kind of person we are. If we come to a certain fork in the road of life that is better for us but hurts others, what do we do, do we choose to put our needs before others or the reverse? whatever choice we make tells us something about the type of person we are. We travel down this road guided by our moral compass which helps us to make the right choices.

Now you might think I’m rambling a bit but what I’m trying to say, probably very badly that in my opinion life is a road that we travel, it has many twists and turns on the way and we’re never truly alone on our journey. If there is no one standing by us we still have our thoughts and memories to keep us company. Some travel like this whilst others have friends and family along for the company. While we make this journey we should never take anything for granted. As my sister once said ‘Live every day as if it’s your last, because one day it will be’ I don’t think she was advocating going out and bungee jumping every day or running off and doing anything stupid. I think she was trying to say that you have to envelop life around you, immerse yourself in its diverse qualities. Take nothing for granted, look around and marvel at what’s around you. Take pleasure in a simple flower opening to the sun, or the dawn rising above the horizon, revel in the amazing sight of a new moon in a star filled sky. Look around you at the people who inhabit this world, their diversity of cultures all wanting the same thing, to live.

This life is a long and winding road with many twists and turns, no one knows for sure what we’ll meet when we reach the end, just that we’ll get there, what’s important though, is how we get there.

See you soon,

Jan.

to try to drum up some interest in the Col Sec series and Ronin in particular I’ve made the book free for February. Here’s a link to the page on Smashwords.com

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/119052

Hope you enjoy and, as always any views, comments or opinions are welcome.

See you soon,

Jan.

as you may or may not know I lost a member of my family recently, my nephew and not only did I lose my friend, my nephew and a wonderful guy but he was my proof reader for the Col Sec series. He was my sounding board, my encouragement when I thought I was going wrong and he enjoyed Ronin almost as much as I did. His death has not only left a huge hole in my life but has left me with a question. Should I farm out the proof reading task to someone else or should I take on the task myself?

I think it would benefit both myself and the work if another set of eyes should check my work before I publish. So, hoping that whomever I pick lives up to the high standard my late nephew set, I ask for volunteers. If there is anyone out there willing to take on the task then please contact me either by leaving a comment on here or you can reach me at my email address which is jan.domagala@gmail.com.

See you soon,

Jan.

it’s been a while since I’ve been able to post anything on here due to one thing or another, but now I’m back hopefully to post a little more regularly.

Friday 13th of January was a sad day for our family for it was when we said goodbye to our Matt. As I’d posted earlier the young man died in a tragic accident on the 29th of December. He was one of life’s purest souls, never a bad word about anyone crossed his lips, he had a joy for life that was contagious and he was not only my nephew but my friend.

In his all too short life he achieved so much and could have gone on to do a lot more had he been given the chance. He was British Champ at 12 in Shukokai karate, one of the youngest black belts in the country, he was a talented percussionist and actually won the young musician of the year for Staffordshire, something a percussionist had never done before. His band entered a talent contest on the BBC called Get your act together, a forerunner of X-Factor which they won and before he died he was helping to bring music to disadvantaged young people. Our family are trying to set up a trust fund to help continue the good work he began.

The funeral was moving and awe-inspiring to say the least. There was a procession of around 20 bikers who accompanied the hearse, which was a modified bike with the hearse actually being the sidecar. Three Police motor bikes gave a dignified escort to the procession both from the home to the church and on to the crematorium.

Eulogies were read out by his best friend and his music teacher and in the church it was literally standing room only. After the cremation we all went to a pub where a slide show of young Matt was on show at the side of the stage upon which several of his friends performed songs to celebrate his short but eventful life.

Now comes the hard part, carrying on without him.

How do you continue living when you miss someone who was so important in your life? There is only one possible answer to this question, and that is, one day at a time.

To allow grief to cripple us is not what Matt would want. He would want us to carry on and live our lives to the fullest, to do all the things we wanted to do, what we had planned to do and to celebrate being alive.

I’m no grief councillor but I will set goals for me to meet in the coming months. First of all to get over a chest infection that has plagued me since before Christmas. Secondly, to continue writing, I have Omega almost ready for publication and Discovery almost completed which are the next two books in the Col Sec series. Matt was as enthusiastic about these endeavours as myself and I hope to do him proud. We are soon to be moving house which I’m really excited, nervous about and later in the year my daughter will be getting married so all in all a truly eventful year ahead filled with promise.

If recent events have taught me anything it’s this.  If you have goals, go for them, don’t let anything hold you back. You can do whatever you set your heart on. Cherish what you have because it can all be gone soon and finally love and support your friends and family as I’m sure they will you and don’t be afraid to tell them you love them. Life is too short for regrets and if you have regrets, make them for things you’ve done and not what you haven’t.

See you soon,

Jan.

I was watching the news this morning and there was a report about the dangers of heart attack in people who had recently had a  bereavement. It went on to state that the shock of losing someone close to them could bring on a heart attack, especially in those with an ongoing heart condition. I mentioned that numerous studies had been completed on many cases to deliver the results, they mentioned statistics and quoted numbers and I sat there thinking that it was a bit like the old Monty Python sketch about the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Who in their right mind would come up with a study like this? Do they honestly think the general public is stupid? Of course the loss of someone close to you will affect your heart, the stress alone is enough to incapacitate most people so it stands to reason that if you have an ongoing medical condition the risks to you are much higher.

It’s common sense.

Do we need reams of studies with statistics and numbers to tell us that if a brick falls on your head it’s gonna hurt? No because it’s common sense.

Come on people let’s get back to reality here, how much money and time has been wasted  running this survey? Surely it could have been put to better use doing anything else.

That’s my rant for the day,

see you soon,

Jan.

it’s rapidly approaching the time for an event that I am not looking forward to, the funeral of my nephew, for the obvious reasons. I know my sister has planned it well, it will not be a mournful occasion, there will be tears of that I’m sure but it will be more of a celebration of the young man‘s life and not a sad farewell. Having said that, the reason I am not looking forward to it, and forgive me for labouring what to some may be the obvious, but I am not looking forward to saying goodbye. I will never see that young man again, never share time with him, laugh with him or discuss topics of interest we both share. I am still struggling with the basic fact that he has been ripped from our lives by some callous act of chance, so saying goodbye is out of the question.

During the funeral service I will listen to comments, anecdotes and revelations about him from various friends and family members and it brings back memories of three funerals I attended in the last few years which brings me to the point of this post.

At each funeral I learned things about the departed that I never knew, in some cases things that I’d forgotten about and reminded about others that we all had laughed about at family gatherings. At my Brother in law’s funeral around two years ago I learned what others knew about the guy and it opened my eyes. They were talking about a wonderful person, full of humour, warmth and generosity. My opinion of Paul was coloured, I’m ashamed to say, by my first impression of him. The first time I ever met him was, and I remember it as if it was yesterday, a cliché I know but none the less true, the night Stef, my sister brought him home to meet him. This is not quite how it sounds because they had dated a few times and I remember my parents talking about it and Paul in general and that they knew very little about him other than what my sis had told them, which was not a lot. Well you can imagine that, that wasn’t going to go on for long. Previous dates had ended with them arriving home, Paul would say goodnight at our gate then disappear into the night and Stef would come in. The night in question we all waited for her return, it was a saturday night and my father kept going out to the gate to catch their arrival.When they got home Dad was waiting at the gate, Paul had no avenue of escape and when invited in he had to say yes.

In they came, Stef introduced him to Mum and myself, I was still at school and although my sis and I fought like most siblings, I looked up to her and when I saw Paul my first thought was “What the hell is she doing with him?” I expected her to come home with a hunk, tall, muscular with model good looks, in other words in my young mind someone worthy. Now Paul was the same as the rest of us who don’t quite fit my parameters for my sis’ ideal partner, in other words normal and quite frankly not up to her standard and therefore not good enough for my big sis. I’m ashamed to say that it coloured my perception of the guy and it changed our relationship. I never got to meet the real Paul, I only knew the Paul I met on that first day.

How many of us have done that I wonder?

I know I’m going to learn things about Matt, my nephew that I never knew, I’m going to see things that others saw and I hope I’ll be richer for the knowledge. It makes me want to immerse myself in the family I have left totally, to really get to know them and them me, to learn every facet of their lives so that  when the time does come to say goodbye they, and I can say that ‘Yes’ I knew them.

In closing I urge everyone to cherish your friends, family and loved ones. Spend time with them, talk to them about your day, listen about theirs and above all never be afraid to tell them you love them. I know from experience that chance, fate or whatever you want to call it can take them from you at any moment so cherish what time you have left.

See you soon,

Jan.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/119052

Check it out please, let me know what you think.

See you soon,

Jan.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 22 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

people say ‘things happen for a reason’, they also say ‘you go when it’s your time’

Well something happened yesterday that would make the sanest of us doubt the validity of those two statements.

It began like any other, normal day, my partner and I woke up and seeing as we were still on holiday, decided to have a lie in. I got up and made a cup of tea for myself and my beautiful partner and brought them back to bed where we lay reading, relaxing and enjoying our time off together. It was later than usual when we dragged ourselves out of bed. We strolled downstairs, had a bit of breakfast and received a phone call from the estate agent to tell us of an offer that a prospective buyer had made. Things were looking up, perhaps the new year would see some pleasant changes. We began to hope.

We discussed the offer and where would we live should we accept, which was something we hadn’t really talked about. The house had been on the market for so long we never thought that, in this present economic climate that we would ever receive one. We talked and talked and we actually began to make plans, which was something we hadn’t dared do for almost a year.

Then it all changed.

My phone went off while I was in the shower and by the time my partner went to get it, it had rang off and I was left with a text that simply said ‘Ring me’

I knew something was wrong the second I read it. I called her and she was crying, sobbing really and I asked, “What’s wrong?”

All she said was, “Are you sitting down?” Right then I knew it was bad news, the kind of news everyone dreads and my immediate thoughts went to our mother who is 81 years old and not in the best of health. My second thought was her partner who is in his late seventies and also not in the best of health, either of them would be the obvious choice and I could feel my world slipping away. What happened next though, took me completely by surprise and was equally shocking, possibly more so because of who was involved.

She said, “Matt’s been killed,” and I went numb. To say I was in shock would be a grave misconception, this went beyond shock. Matt was her son, my nephew and one of the nicest, kindest. most intelligent people I have had the pleasure and privilege to know, and he was 32 years old.

From what we’ve managed to glean throughout yesterday, he was on his way to work on his motor bike, he overtook a cyclist on a straight piece of road and a pheasant came into his path which he hit. He died instantly in the crash. There was no rider error, he wasn’t going too fast, it was just one of those random acts that are inexplicable.

So, do things happen for a reason, if so can anyone please explain to me, the reason why one of the best friends I ever had would have to die like that. Why would my sister have to endure the loss of her son after losing her husband of over 30 odd years, just over 2 years ago. I don’t believe for a second that it was his time to go. He had some much potential, so much to give and so much left in his life to achieve so don’t tell me it was his time.

How can someone make sense of a situation when it makes no sense? That was what all of us were struggling with along with the grief and loss of our loved one. I spent some time with my sister and her daughter and close family friends and it was a common theme of all our thoughts. What happened made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

How does someone come back from that world shattering tragedy? Simple answer, you endure.

My sister is one of the strongest people I know. She has my admiration, she is my inspiration through bad times and she has always and will always have my undying love and respect. She will endure with all the love and support of family and friends and she will go on.

When I got home last night I spoke to both my children who are grown up with families of their own and was thankful that they, with their families were fine and well. I love them very much and I don’t know if I could cope if I had to go through what my sister is going through right now.

In closing I’ll repeat something my sister said which has an undeniable truth to it. She said, “Live every day as if it’s your last, because one day it will be.”

See you soon,

Jan.