On Alcoholism

Alcohol has had a bad reputation since its creation by the ancient Sumerians 6,000 years ago. By the way, the ancient Sumerian name for alcohol was “igi-hulu.” That’s right! The word alcohol has come all the way down to us from Sumeria almost in its pristine and distilled form.

Beer received special attention in the 18^th century BC code of the Babylonian lawmaker Hammurabi and it was a capital offense, punishable by death, to be charged with rowdy behavior in a salon after its consumption. In fact some of the first writings in ancient Sumeria and Egypt were documents keeping account of the amount of beer barley and grain being stored in the royal house.

There are even some historians who argue that had it not been for the invention of alcohol, civilization as we know it would not have developed. For instance, some go on to point out that the American Revolution was given birth to in a local Boston tavern. One can imagine the founding fathers discussing the upcoming Boston Tea Party over a few mugs of beer.

The idea is not too farfetched, if you consider it.

Alcohol was also historically utilized for medicinal purposes, as in the Civil War when it was used to anesthetize a wounded soldier before undergoing an amputation of a limb. Notwithstanding this, it has also served a psychological medicinal purpose.

The anesthetizing effect of alcohol is due to the brain’s overloading the blood system with HDLPs or “High Density Lipoproteins” which causes a significant rise in the body’s production of endorphins. This process not only decreases pain, but brings about a temporary euphoric state of being.

This is the very trap in connection with large consumption of alcohol. One can easily fall into a vicious cycle of chasing the euphoria, by significantly increasing one’s intake. The problem with this process is that the body eventually builds a higher level of tolerance, so that it requires an even larger amount of imbibing to reach the same initial euphoric state. This is one of the reasons alcoholism is harder to cure than addiction to any other substance known to man.

Many a combat veteran throughout the annuals of modern warfare (in particular from the Civil War onto the present Gulf War) has resulted to alcoholism to assuage the persistent demons and traumatic flashbacks of the horrors experienced on the battlefield. 

And this is where we find our hero and main character, Army Ranger and Gulf War veteran, Staff Sergeant Hank Donaldson in my action-novel The Shaitan.

Not only is Staff Sergeant Hank Donaldson troubled by nagging flashbacks of horrific battle scenes, but he is also plagued with a guilty conscience over his recent divorce and subsequent estrangement from his children; this being the result of his chronic absence from home in the fulfillment of his military duties.

In response our hero takes to the bottle with vigor and finds himself in a drunken stupor most of the time. This wouldn’t pose such a threat, if it had not been for the fact that he was still in the employ of the United States Army, and sent out on a most sensitive mission to find and neutralize, Ismial Abdur Rahim, the world’s most wanted terrorist.

How can Staff Sergeant Hank Donaldson accomplish this vital task without jeopardizing the operation and bringing great harm to himself?

To find out the answer to this question, I invite you to purchase and read an electronic copy of my novel, The Shaitan!

THE SHAITAN IS CURRENTLY BEING SOLD AT THESE LOCATIONS:

Barnes & Noble Bookstore: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shaitan-daniel-canada/1123886050?ean=2940152342888

Kobo Bookstore: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/the-shaitan

The Shaitan is not sold on Amazon.com at this time.

To view a few sample pages or to purchase The Shaitan visit: https://smashwords.com/books/view/573076  (Note: You must 1^st remove “adult content” filter from top right hand corner of Smashword page to access the book, by clicking the “Adult Content” button before searching for book title The Shaitan in search field).

If you want to view my Smashwords Author Profile visit: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ObsidianBlade64

You can also check the comments I will be posting about the making of the book as well as background material out on these social media sites:

My Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/daniel.canada3

My Twitter account: https://twitter.com/lordlumiel

Bon appetite!

Daniel Canada aka Obsidian

U.S. Army Colonels

I served in the U.S. Army for a couple of years and one thing you learn right quick is how influential a colonel is. Colonels run entire bases. Your chance of running into a general is rare. Not that you don’t see one floating around from time-to-time.

You do.

However, everyone in the army knows that the top commanding officers in any fort are the colonels, whom we used to call full-blown-birds, because of the silver eagle insignia emblazoned upon their uniforms, distinguishing them from the rest of the commanders.

This brings us to the topic of Colonel James Edward Brandy, the fictional character in my action-novel The Shaitan.

Colonel Brandy is a career soldier in the service of the US Army, working under the oversight of an overbearing General Burger in a clandestine think tank, overseeing the secret government operation “Inferno,” which has pitted our main character, Army Ranger Staff Sergeant Hank Donaldson against the world’s most wanted terrorist, Ismial Abdur Rahim.

But unbeknown to everyone Colonel Brandy is living a double life and is holding close to his vest a dark secret about an aspect of the operation, which if ever came to the light of day could irreparably alter the entire military undertaking.

What is this carefully guarded secret? And how will it impact upon the very life of Army Ranger Staff Sergeant Hank Donaldson?

To find out, purchase and read a copy of The Shaitan! 

THE SHAITAN IS CURRENTLY BEING SOLD AT THESE LOCATIONS:

Barnes & Noble Bookstore: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shaitan-daniel-canada/1123886050?ean=2940152342888

Kobo Bookstore: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/the-shaitan

The Shaitan is not sold on Amazon.com at this time.

To view a few sample pages or to purchase The Shaitan visit: https://smashwords.com/books/view/573076  (Note: You must 1^st remove “adult content” filter from top right hand corner of Smashword page to access the book, by clicking the “Adult Content” button before searching for book title The Shaitan in search field).

If you want to view my Smashwords Author Profile visit: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ObsidianBlade64

You can also check the comments I will be posting about the making of the book as well as background material out on these social media sites:

My Blogsite: http://obsidianthemystic.blogspot.com/

My Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/daniel.canada3

My Twitter account: https://twitter.com/lordlumiel

Bon appetite!

Daniel Canada aka Obsidian

 

Social Butterfly

The New York City poetry scene of the 90’s was off the chain, as the saying goes. Unlike today's post Giuliani-era, there was poetry gigs galore! You could actually attend a poetry reading every night of the week and still not cover all the events that were going on during that time period.  Folks came from all over the five boroughs and beyond. They flocked to these poetry dives for a multitude of reasons. Some came to read their latest pieces, others to show-off their new gear. And there were those who simply came to meet another lonely soul to tag-up with for the night.

Yep! The 90’s poetry landscape was also the perfect pick-up spot for the salacious wordsmiths to find a kindred soul. That’s where I met a voluptuous poetress, whose name I obscured for personal reasons. So we’ll just call her Anne. Anne and I met back in the days at a swanky performance gig called “The Knitting Factory,” which was run by a great poet and eclectic host from Louisiana named Yictove. Yictove loved to combine live jazz music with poetry. As a result his venue was one of the hottest shows in town!

Anyway, while I was digging the live band which rhythmically exploded on the stage behind ole Yictove, I met and struck up a lively conversation with the sensuous poet, Anne. She was a social butterfly, to be sure; a woman certain of her beauty and sexual powers. Anne was an erotic vixen that made it clear to me she was looking for an exciting one-nighter and I had just been chosen for the lottery.

The affair didn’t last long, but she must’ve left a lasting impression upon me, because she became the catalyst for one of the main female characters in my novel, The Shaitan. In this fictional story I named her Amy Glenfeld.

Amy Glenfeld is a lovely, tall, blonde socialite, who likes to frequent the New York City poetry haunts, to express her sexuality through the spoken word. She also likes to scour the scene in search of a male lover for the night.

Her sexual exploration leads her into the messy life of U.S. Army Ranger, Staff Sergeant Hank Donaldson, who is foraging through the New York poetry landscape in search of an enigmatic terrorist.

It also leads her into the clutches of someone more sinister.

To find out more of this dangerous liaison, purchase and read an electronic copy of my new action-thriller-novel, The Shaitan.

If you want to view my Smashwords Author Profile visit: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ObsidianBlade64

To view a few sample pages or to purchase The Shaitan visit: https://smashwords.com/books/view/573076  (Note: You must 1^st remove “adult content” filter from top right hand corner of Smashword page to access the book, by clicking the “Adult Content” button before searching for book title The Shaitan in search field).

THE SHAITAN IS CURRENTLY BEING SOLD AT THESE LOCATIONS:

Barnes & Noble Bookstore: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shaitan-daniel-canada/1123886050?ean=2940152342888

Kobo Bookstore: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/the-shaitan

The Shaitan is not sold on Amazon.com at this time.

You can also check the comments I will be posting about the making of the book as well as background material out on these social media sites:

My Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/daniel.canada3

My Twitter account: https://twitter.com/lordlumiel

Bon appetite!

Daniel Canada aka Obsidian

Jesuits Priests & The Novel The Shaitan

JESUITS & THE OCCULT

As I mentioned earlier, I would be explicating upon the hither-to-unknown subject of Jesuit Priests and the world of the occult. However, before I proceed I would like to clarify what I’m referring to when I speak of Jesuit Priests involving themselves in the mystical. One can easily mistake this statement to imply that all those dedicated to the Society of Jesus are in actuality dabblers in Arcanum, harkening back to images of the super-secret society Opus Dei. 

Far from it.

The majority of Jesuits would eschew this notion and are simply devoted to the order, in carrying out the daily functions of officiating over church matters and the like. 

Having said this, there are and has been a negligible few who have stepped out of the purview of their ordinary duties and have applied themselves vigorously to unraveling the ambiguities particularly shrouded within the world of the supernatural.

It might not be common knowledge, but not a few Jesuit priests have performed exorcisms even in recent times. The fact that they are capable of affecting this spiritual service bespeaks their vast knowledge and exposure to the vulgarities of the world of the occult.

Madame Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, was fond of accusing Jesuit priests of, not only dabbling in the Arcanum, but also of having commerce with black magic. Whether this accusation if well-founded or not is still debatable.

Nevertheless, it seems probable that the Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the Jesuits, did have exposure to the magical crafts as a result of the codifying of a great body of mystic knowledge by the 12^th century Catholic Pope Honorius the 3^rd, who commissioned a vast compilation of the all the then-known systems of magic in the entire western world.

This monumental work upon completion was entitled “The Grimoire of Pope Honorius,” and has secretly served as a guidebook for Catholic priests ever since, who were curious and bold enough to step foot into the nebulous world of the supernatural and to take on this added profession.

Once again, the question: What does this exposition have to do with my novel The Shaitan? The answer is that it brings us back to the enigmatic figure of the Jesuit priest, Father Emmanuel Miguel Ramirez and his behind-the-scene manipulation and control over the clandestine US army “Operation Inferno,” and over the life and career of our main character, Army Ranger Staff Sergeant Hank Donaldson.

To further understand the complexity of this covert relationship and how it relates to staff Sergeant Hank Donaldson’s assignment over Homeland Security of the nation, I encourage you all to purchased and read an ebook copy of The Shaitan.

- Daniel Canada aka Obsidian

THE SHAITAN IS CURRENTLY BEING SOLD AS AN EBOOK AT THESE LOCATIONS:

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/573076

Barnes & Noble Bookstore: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shaitan-daniel-canada/1123886050?ean=2940152342888

Kobo Bookstore: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/the-shaitan

You can also check the comments I will be posting about the making of the book as well as background material on these other social media sites:

My Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/daniel.canada3

My Twitter account: https://twitter.com/lordlumiel 

The picture that follows is one of the mystical Jesuit Priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin