Riley LaShea

author, roamer, creative-type person

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Upcoming Release Dates

If you’re into this sort of thing, you might have noticed it’s been a while since my last book release. Under my own name, that is. Like ‘over a year’ a while. I have released other books in that time. Twenty-one of them to be exact – one a week for 21 weeks – and, best believe, it took some out of me. May I never again do such a ragingly stupid thing.* Those books were not under my name, though. They were under my other name. My name-ish. R.A. LaShea? Still my name. Just not the same name. You get the point.

Anyway, if you haven’t already, and you enjoy a good serial killin’ thriller, might I recommend you psychologically disturb yourself on the beach this summer by downloading Weeks 1-3 for free on most e-book sites.

As for upcoming releases under my own name, here they are. Comin’ at ya. All two of them.

Black Forest: Stories End (the final book in the Black Forest Trilogy): December 9, 2016

Night Falls on the Piazza (my first erotic romance since Behind the Green Curtain): April 21, 2017

And that’s about the extent of it.

Go with God.

Or Satan.

Or neither.

However you roll, I’m down.

*Pointless prayer. I will. Guaranteed.

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Revolution! With a Side of Arrogance

I walked into the Nevada caucus a reluctant first-timer, and walked out a county delegate.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go to the caucus, to vote, or to support my candidate. I did. In fact, you might say I have never supported a candidate more. I supported Hillary in 2008, and I support her now. I think there is no greater proof how much this country needs its first female president than that a “great male hope” has arisen in both elections in which Hillary was considered the “frontrunner.”

It was the noise I was dreading, and the pointless sitting. Having seen clips of caucuses during election coverages past, I feared hours and hours of both of those things. As it turned out, it was actually pretty quiet. Though, the sitting really was pointless and the chairs were designed for junior high school students and really not all that well. More than twenty years out of 8th grade, I think I finally figured out why I’ve had back issues for as long as I can remember.

At least, it was an English/composition classroom, and I kind of dug the vibe the place was throwing down.

Be Kind cropped

A lovely sentiment. And with puppies!

Thing was, though, we were not all in this together.

Same shitty seats, same impatience, it seemed, at first, as if we were. Except, of course, for those three Republicans who changed parties for the day to vote against Hillary. We know that’s why, because they proudly proclaimed the fact, and rolled their collective eyes when the precinct captain said either Democratic candidate could clean up money in politics.

As for the rest of us, there we all were, Hillary supporters sitting next to Bernie supporters. I even moved from my original seat so the people wearing the most Bernie gear in the place could have chairs next to each other. Because they were people, and an election is an election, and flesh and blood trumps ideas. Always. If they don’t, you need new ideas.

Once back in junior high English, we had to wait more than an hour to get to the actual voting part. Because the caucus system inarguably sucks. During that time, a couple of Sanders supporters got tired of waiting and left. The rest of us sat it out. Hey, this is what democracy is all about, right? Leaving the house to go to a place to exercise your constitutional right and be totally inconvenienced?

We were all equally inconvenienced for the cause.

Then, the vote came. The precinct captain told us to check our chosen candidate, and we turned our forms over to the Clinton and Sanders secretaries for the count.

Final tally for the district?

Total voters: 37

Clinton: 19

Sanders: 18

“That can’t be right,” the most outspoken Bernie supporter declared, and started to immediately count heads. “Thirty-nine,” he said. “Who didn’t vote?”

“There are a couple of visitors. Relax,” another guy said. And it was true. People had just said they brought people with them from out of state.

“If you don’t want to be a county delegate, you can go,” the precinct captain announced when the tally was marked, and half the room was up and out of the place like rockets. The half that supported Bernie Sanders.

Except for one woman. A woman about our age, or a couple years younger, was like, “Shouldn’t we get the delegates first?” Literally the only Bernie supporter who did not immediately gun for the door, she had to pull two guys back in to get the three Sanders delegates for county. Including the guy who was so sure the vote was wrong.

They had no alternates.

Meanwhile, on the Hillary side of things, the number of supporters who stayed was making it a difficult decision for the woman who volunteered as secretary. Everyone wanted to go and support Hillary at the county level, and the secretary really wanted a spot for herself. In the end, there were four delegates, four alternates, a couple of disappointed people, and one woman who didn’t “need to be a delegate”, but just wanted “to see the entire process.”

Bernie supporters get a lot of credit for being “passionate,” for being forward-thinking, for wanting to change a broken system. But loudest and most adorned in t-shirts and buttons does not mean most passionate. Nor, as became clear in that room, does it mean most dedicated.

On our way out of the school, feeling pretty good about scoring our county delegate spots and going to support Hillary in a larger arena, we heard a young woman who was working our room ask her male friend/partner/whatever about the final count.

“Eighteen Sanders, nineteen Clinton,” he told her.

“Really. So, if those two people had stayed, we would have won?” she responded. “Well, Sanders supporters have lives.”

Then, when we got home, we saw the footage of Bernie’s supporters booing Hillary’s speech. Again.

I know –

NOT ALL BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTERS.

But, for those of you who believe Bernie is some kind of godsend, that he is the only way to a better future, or that he is getting shafted so the political system can go about business as usual, all I can say is this –

You do not have to be AGAINST something to be FOR something. And I really hope the snark and feelings of superiority will change this country in all the ways you want.

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I Saw The Judds for the First Time in 25 Years

Sometimes you don’t realize how much something has been a part of your life until you end up crying like a baby at a Judds concert. Crying like a baby, that’s Shawna’s descriptor. I thought of it more as hysterical sobbing I thought was never going to let up, but, praise be to all gods, lasted for only two songs.

Here’s what I thought would happen.

I thought, if they sang River of Time or Guardian Angels, I would cry. No question. Those are two songs I can’t even listen to the album cuts of without crying. So, live? Yeah, there would be tears. I even warned Shawna about the likelihood of this in advance. Her response? You crying? Let me see if I can withhold my shock.

Here’s what actually happened.

The Judds came out on stage. They waved to the audience. They raised their joined hands in reunion-y triumph. Wynonna sang one word – one freaking word – and geysers erupted out of my eye sockets.

It was about the same time the quaking started, that shoulder-racking warning that lets you know this cry’s about to get real. Real ugly.

Why am I reacting like this? I thought. This is sooo freakin’ weird.

There were two reasons, it occurred to me after a while, once I had gotten my utter lunatic under control and turned back into Concert-Fun Riley.

One is simple. Cause and effect. If you ever hear Wynonna sing live, you’ll understand. The woman has a voice so big and so honest, you can’t help but respond to it.

The other is not quite so simple.

The Judds were a huge part of my childhood. They were the first band I ever saw live. Capitol Music Hall. Wheeling, West Virginia. The Rockin’ With The Rhythm tour. If I’m taking liberties here, they’re minor. I saw The Jets right around the same time at the Ohio State Fair, and we saw The Judds at that fair too. It was my first theater concert for sure, though. I was six or seven years old.

The Judds were also the first musical group I truly loved. How much impact they had on my dream of becoming a singer for the remainder of my childhood and adolescence is hard to quantify, but it’s safe to say they had some.

The rest, you could say, was timing. The Judds became such a big part of my life right after my parents’ divorce, and part of it I didn’t really share with my friends. Judds music was something I had with my dad and my sister. It was kind of our thing. And sitting in The Venetian Theatre in Las Vegas Wednesday night, two thousand miles from where they are, I realized it always will be.

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21 Weeks Now on Amazon

21 Weeks: Week 1 is now available on Amazon. All books in the series will sell for 99¢, with the first book available for free as often as possible. If you’d like to see the full release schedule, you’ll find it here –

21 Weeks

If you sign up for either of my mailing lists, you’ll receive Week 2 and Week 3 for free as soon as they’re available. Here’s a link for the 21 Weeks list.

Sign Up

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Thoughts on Six Current Events in 100 Words or Less

– OR –

A Blog in Which I Share My Unsolicited Opinion While Complaining About Other People’s Opinions

Busy. Busy. Busy. Lot of writing going on up in here. Which makes it hard to blog. More writing?, my mind thinks. You’ve written seven hours today. How about zoning out instead? Watch some Myka and HG. Look at pictures of puppies in baskets.

So much going on, though. Seriously. Our world is a whole lot of dumb. Not just right now, but it’s definitely had its share of hot topics over the past weeks. Since my writing juices are almost all being poured into serial killer novellas at the moment, but I’m too riled to say nothing, I will now rant on current topics in 100 words or less.

The Confederate Flag

You work in an office. There’s a poster. Most employees like it. It’s motivational. No harm.

A couple, though, are truly bothered. They’re siblings. Their parents died on Kilimanjaro, the mountain on the poster.

Most employees say, “Take it down. We don’t need it if it bothers anyone. It’s not important.”

Two love the poster. They landed their first contract after reading it. Not their fault the siblings take it wrong. They demand it stay.

Want to keep defending a flag that can never just be about history or pride? Go for it. Just know you’re the office assholes.

GOP Race

The fact that Donald Trump is leading the GOP polls says all anyone ever needs to know about people who vote Republican.

Police in the United States

First, see this link about Reykjavik police vs. U.S. police (preferably when Instagram is up) —> I’m the link!

Second, fire everyone and start over.

Except for this guy.

Appoint him Sheriff of the United States.

ISIS

In Istanbul, we met a Kurd who railed about ISIS – “If this is what the religion is. I don’t want it.” What he did want was supplies to fight on their own turf.

The other day, after seeing an ISIS price list for sex with infants, an American woman said it was time to nuke them, regardless of collateral damage. Her reason? She wouldn’t want to live under them.

But some people do. Just as some found hope in concentration camps.

ISIS is powerful, but not more powerful than the world’s militaries combined. Why are they waiting to save people?

Out of Control Childrens

Portland diner owner tells a couple’s kid to be quiet when the parents let it scream and scream. Parents go online seeking sympathy. Other parents say “kids are kids.”

The problem isn’t kids being kids. It’s parents who don’t want to parent.

When someone has a negative reaction to your child or your pet, don’t assume they hate children or animals. It’s far more likely they just hate your children and animals.

Guns

Mass shootings. Public places. No reason. Welcome to America.

Experts think movie theaters need night-vision cameras and metal detectors. Bye bye naughty movie theater hijinks.

Guns are the weapons of cowards. How ludicrous that we all have to suffer so cowards can keep them.

Tidbits

Also, apparently Millennials believe whites are as discriminated against as every other group. So, while they have proven socially liberal, they are clearly not socially advanced.

And ignorance is not an opinion. There’s a reason Bill Gates doesn’t chime in when the toilets back up at Microsoft. Wise people know, when they know nothing about a subject, they should shut the fuck up.