November 29, 2007 by Karl.

Good evening my friends. We just returned from two afternoons of packing boxes for our troops at Christmas time. The first 100 were fun packages — singing Christmas trees, toys, a little candy and fun things for the guys and gals. The next 80 boxes were food boxes. Starbucks and their customers came through with 80 more pounds of coffee for us and HEB helped out with some summer sausage. Those, crackers and cheese, more big Hershey’s bars, “Slap Your Mama” hot sauce, (yes, that’s really what it is named), a lot of candy, and two knitted helmet liners, plus whatever else we could cram into the boxes, made up the bulk of what we sent. It is amazing to see the variety of items people donate. Love you all - thanks.
We’ll be at the Navy Base in Corpus Christi this Friday, (tomorrow, 30 Nov), and Saturday and Sunday, 1-2 Dec, selling and signing my book. If you haven’t picked one up yet, here’s your chance!
(Did I mention they make GREAT Christmas presents?)
We signed up for one more event, an arts and crafts show on Dec 9th, (Saturday) - at the Lagoon’s RV park (across the road from the Rockport Post Office. Come see us.
Carol has also arranged for us to squeeze in one or two days next week at Curves in Rockport. See you there, Ladies.
Then we’re off to Cabo San Lucas and a week of rest and relaxation, (not to mention some serious Marlin fishing).
We sent out emails to everyone who bought my book, hoping to get several orders for Christmas gifts. We’ll see how that turns out.
I’m hard at work on my next book, the last in a trilogy about a band of robbers. In this one they steal the 20 million dollar grand prize right off the poker table at the Universal Poker Tour in Las Vegas. It’s a thriller.
I’m also shopping around for a publisher for the first two books in that trilogy, plus the China story I wrote about earlier. Keep your fingers crossed for me. These are great stories you’ll all love to read and share with your family and friends.
With the good Lord’s help, we’ll get them published.
We’ve sold over 500 copies of “Signs of Our Times” and plan on writing that $5,000 check to the Wounded Warrior Project in San Antonio right after the first of the new year. Look for the picture on my website in January 2008.
Thanks again to everyone who helped make this work of love a success.
I hope to write again before Christmas, but if I can’t get back to the computer in time, let Carol and I wish you all the merriest of Christmases - may all your wishes come true. God bless you. God bless and watch over our fighting men and women. And most of all, God Bless America, land that we love.
Via con Dias, my friends,
Karl & Carol

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November 17, 2007 by Karl.

Good afternoon once again, my friends.
It is a cloudy, overcast day here, a rarity, and it looks like rain later in the day or tonight. Our lawns could use a soaking, so we’re not complaining.
We just returned from Starbucks and a three day book signing there. Thanks, Starbucks for letting us set up any time we want to, and thanks many times over for your wonderful support of our troops.
We had a busy time since I wrote last. We returned home late on Monday and did a fast turn-around to Austin and Camp Mabry on Friday.
On the way, we stopped by at Brooks Army Medical Center (BAMC), in San Antonio and visited with some of our wounded warriors in the new Intrepid Center. What a beautiful place that is!! If you are service connected and can get on the base, stop by and visit with some of our guys and gals. You’ll be glad you did, and so will the troops you get to meet.
We met and spoke with several of our servicemembers (men and women), who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(While we were in Fort Worth, four people bought books, but asked us to give their copies to a wounded warrior, so we did just that, and the troops we selected were very appreciative of the thought behind the gift.)
The injured were so proud of their service and smiled though their pain. The pride they displayed made us happy to be doing what we are to help them. Believe me, our eyes were wet when we left for Austin.
We stayed with good friends from Carol’s Reserve unit in South Austin, convenient to the base. We did well there, selling 22 books in a day and a half.
Then we returned to Rockport on Sunday night, tired but ready to sell more books.
Monday and Tuesday I worked on my stories, editing them ONE MORE TIME!
Wednesday and Thursday afternoons we worked with Carla Reed and her gang over in Bahia Bay, packing 250 boxes for our troops. That was a fun time, but tiring.
Wednesday and Thursday mornings plus this morning, we set up at Starbucks as I said, and sold 14 more copies of my novel.
Tomorrow we plan to sell some more at church to our Winter Texans.
Good news: We received a phone call from Woody Acres, one of the big RV parks in town, and they want us to have a book signing at their recreation center on Monday at 8 a.m. We hope to sell a LOT of books there.
We cancelled our book signing we had scheduled for Lackland AFB in San Antonio, due to car problems.
Our last scheduled signing for this year will be at the Corpus Christi Naval Exchange, Nov 30 and Dec 1 & 2. We hope to see you there.
Did I mention that my book would make a great Christmas present?? Come see us.
I hope to soon have another book in publication. It is a long, sometimes frustrating process, but we’re working at it. Hang in there, more exciting action and adventures, (and a little romance), is on it’s way to you soon. I’ll let you know.
Until the next time, thanks again to all of you who have bought my book. Right after the first of the year, we plan to go up to BAMC and write that $5,000 check to the Wounded Warrior Project. Look for the picture on my website in January 2008.
God bless you and keep you safe. Have a great and wonderful Thanksgiving. When you say Grace, add a few words of thanks for our troops and the wonderful job they are doing over there.
Don’t fight over the turkey leg - there are two of them!
Via con Dias, my friends,
Karl & Carol

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November 6, 2007 by Karl.

Good morning my friends. We are back home safely after a 969 mile round trip to Fort Worth and a book signing at Carswell NAS Joint Reserve Base, where we sold 60 books in four days.
Thank you to all of our new friends and also our old Reserve friends we met again. We had a good time speaking with all of you and the cookout on Saturday night with the Reserve buds was great!
We leave again Friday for Austin and Camp Mabry on Sat. & Sun. From all reports, this base is used more by retirees, so the signing should be a good one too. Keep those fingers crossed for us. We’re getting close to our goal and hope to write that $5,000 check to the Coordinator for the Wounded Warrior Project at Fort Sam Houston before the end of the year.
We were supposed to help pack boxes for our troops again this week, but the coffee from Starbucks is a little late, (no fault of theirs, they gave a ton of it to another organization), so that will probably take place next week.
If you haven’t given me a review on my book, PLEASE do so. I need all the moral support I can get to show my publisher and possibly find a new agent to represent me to the BIG BOYS.
On another subject, I hope to have a new book out before the end of the year too. I am shopping two of my new novels to different agents, but so far, no luck.
Check out the reviews I have received. So far all are positive.
We received donations of five books to give to our wounded warriors, and we’ll do that when we stop by Fort Sam Houston this Friday. Thanks to all of you who contributed - the troops love my book. Guess what the hero does to the terrorists is what they’d like to do. (Wouldn’t we all?)
Sorry to be so short this morning, but I’ve got a ton of work to do to get ready for this weekend. Only three more signings and we can take a well-deserved vacation for a week before we begin again.
Drop by again. I promise you a new short story very soon.
Via con Dias,

Karl

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