Kevin Whalen

Coming Winter 2026... WHAT LIES BENEATH WHITE CREEK - A heroine struggling with the trauma of an abusive relationship - A hero dealing with survivors guilt from his time at war - An Antebellum southern mansion with hidden passages and dark secrets - A southern gothic mystery dealing with serial murder, kidnapping and corrupt officials - Realistic action scenes written by a Special Operations combat veteran Elaine Hollis hoped buying White Creek House would be start of a new life. She believed restoring the old southern mansion would be a way repairing her shattered soul following her horrific divorce. She even found hope in her sudden attraction to Matt Grady, a scarred Army Veteran turned mechanic, whose quiet strength was such a contrast to her ex-husband's cruelty But White Creek House hides a dark history that reaches back to the days of the Underground Railroad. There are people who will stop at nothing to ensure Elaine doesn't discover those secrets. Meanwhile, Carson Atwood, Elaine's manipulative, FBI Agent ex-husband, is looming over everything, pulling strings for his own dark purposes. Elaine and Matt must now reach deep within themselves and face their pasts if they are to have any hope for their future.....

EVERY US state is different. I was just in New York the week before and it was wild different than either New Mexico or Georgia (NYC is much more European in feel than my home in Atlanta). Go to south Florida and you might as well be in South America. Hawaii is more like the south Pacific than any place in America. My Girlfriends kids live in Montana and it's barely out of its Old West settler days. I could go on and on. The variety is damn near endless. The rest of the world thinks we have one culture just because they see our movies. That's just the bit we share (like people judging all of Italy by its food) and even that is only representative of one small part of California

@DetWha @parodyinaskirt okay, even from that perspective there are much more differences between the states of Georgia and New Mexico than any US states

No actually the point was not simply to flex how large the United States is (though that is also fun). The point—which was admittedly not spelled out for the benefit of slower viewers—was that Americans do not NEED passports to be “well traveled,” assuming that’s something you care about. America is huge. The nation is approximately the size of the European continent, its states the size of countries. And it’s got all the cultural, geographical, and environmental variation that comes with that size. An American who has traveled throughout his country is as “well travelled” as a European who has traveled throughout his continent. Leaving his state is like a European leaving his country. But the American never needed—and so likely never got—a passport.

@cheapfreddo @parodyinaskirt I'm talking about the US State of Georgia compared to the US State of New Mexico

@DetWha @parodyinaskirt Georgian is considered very distinct to european languages so you are very obviously speaking nonsense to support yourself

Special Forces might the only element that does what you're saying, just because each group has a regional focus and the language requirements makes changing groups rare. That said, WITHIN groups I'd like to see more longevity on a team. I'll even say that officers should get more team time than they do. Even when I had back to back rotations on the same ODA, it wasn't the same "team" because of all the shuffling that happened between deployments.

We've tried 'em all: Doctrine Organization Training Materiel Leadership Facilities Policy Every damned one of 'em, 'til we're all blue in the face. Know what we haven't ever fixed? Personnel. The Manpower model. We recruit, man, and train based on the same model that's been in place since the all-vol force came into being. Cycle men through jobs like mass-produced parts. Like conscripts. To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes: If you've tried everything and still haven't seen the expected results, the one thing you HAVEN'T tried must be the fucking answer. Leave units together longer. For 3 or even 4 years. Tie the damn contracts to service with a given formation (Division/Regt./Group/Ship). Stop moving good dudes out of jobs they're good at. Replace only for incompetence or physical injury. Stop the cycle of madness. @infantrydort

Just between Georgia and New Mexico, the climate, the architecture, art, cuisine, pace of life, recreational activities are all wildly different. Even though both speak English, the dialect is very different, with more Spanish and Native words in normal speech than back home and Georgia. There's no comparison to that difference in Europe. It's more like going from France to Morocco or Tunisia

@DetWha @parodyinaskirt can you give examples of a couple cultural differences between US states that wouldn’t apply between European countries?

@MilHistNow One of the trailers showed delivering the D-Day address and it just felt flat. Fraser is a great actor, but I don't think he has the intense edge that Ike had

Brandon Fraser really tries, but simply isn't convincing as Ike.

I've traveled extensively in Europe. To get the degree of cultural and geographic change I just experienced flying from Georgia to New Mexico, I'd have to leave Europe entirely and head to Africa or the Middle East. Other than roughly similar political structures and the everybody speaking English (in addition to Spanish and various tribal languages), the two places couldn't be more different

@parodyinaskirt distance isnt a factor here, you haven’t experienced new language/culture/history by staying in the US, Before you try to tell me these differences also apply in US, they are much less significant than between European countries but you’re not experienced enough to understand

@KeyserSoze1995 @LauraFlowD @nazzobetweeting Hell, we have COUNTIES bigger than some of those countries

@LauraFlowD @nazzobetweeting When a country is smaller than a US State, you kinda need one

things i, an american, have learned from europeans on twitter about my own country that are news to me: -we don’t go outside -we don’t have humidity -the whole country is a desert -we don’t have bakeries -we don’t have passports -we say “parsta” -we don’t have produce in our grocery stores -we don’t have bread -we can’t hang our clothes outside to dry -there is more biodiversity in belgium than the entire US (lol) -we can’t walk outside what am i missing ?

This really does highlight the need for excellent staff. Grant and Lee were both brilliant generals who'd executed complex maneuvers effectively in the past. But the 1864 campaign (The 40 days) was a shitshow of epic proportions on both sides. I think that's because neither had the staffs they'd relied on for earlier success. The difference was that Grant had left his behind in the West with Sherman, while Lee's was largely used up or dead. Confederate casualties in the upper ranks was absolutely appalling.

162 years ago today, a 27-year-old Confederate major general charged a wall of Union artillery at dusk with three brigades on foot, no support on either flank, and no real reason to do it. His name was Stephen Dodson Ramseur. He had been promoted to division command four days earlier. The afternoon of May 30, 1864, the Army of Northern Virginia was holding a brilliant defensive line behind Totopotomoy Creek. Robert E. Lee had handed Jubal Early a chance to swing around Warren's V Corps, hit the Federal left in the flank, and roll up the entire Union line. The plan was good. The execution fell apart almost immediately. Anderson's supporting corps was late. Half of Early's own troops were still strung out on the road. The Union line was deeper and better posted than Confederate scouts had reported. Early should have called it off. Instead he reluctantly told Ramseur to attack. At 6:30 in the evening, Ramseur ordered his men out of the woods near Bethesda Church and across an open field toward a ridge crowded with Union guns. Federal artillerymen could not believe what they were seeing. They had time to load canister, sight the guns, and wait. The Confederate line stepped off in perfect order. Officers on horseback. Battle flags up. The first volley of canister opened lanes in the Confederate ranks you could march a regiment through. The second volley collapsed them. Inside twenty minutes, Ramseur's division had lost more than 900 men in a field the survivors could cross in two minutes at a walk. It accomplished nothing. Five months later, almost to the day, Ramseur was shot through both lungs at the Battle of Cedar Creek. He died the next morning at Phil Sheridan's headquarters, surrounded by Union generals who had been his classmates at West Point. He had just learned by telegram that his wife had given birth to a daughter he would never see. He was 27 years old. The Confederacy ran out of generals long before it ran out of soldiers.

I thought the villain was a complete idiot who ignored every advantage he had. Just based on things established IN THE FILM, me and a buddy completely ripped apart the tactics in the final battle. Not only did he do everything wrong, he somehow managed to make every decision worse. It was so bad I could see the plot armor from space. I'll concede that Stephen made the most of what he had to work with, but it doesn't change the fact that the writing was crap. The Avatar idea was cool, but other than giving Jake a way of talking to the aliens, they didn't do anything with it. Use them as a way for the workers to safely work the environment? Nope. Make the Navi fight people who look like them? Nope. They actually could have dumped the concept and still kept the same plot with only minor modifications. Speaking of the Navi, they adopted a guy into the tribe who came from across the stars and represented a people who demonstrated the ability to rip up the environment at will. Not once did any of them ask him single question. Not even a "why?" That would've been first thing I'd have ask. Their entire way of life was under threat and they sought ZERO understanding - even from the perspective of trying to fight back more effectively. That brings me back to the "Unobtanium" (stupid name in my book). The film establishes that it was valuable, but never says "why". What is it used for? What makes it worth interstellar travel and a hostile environment to get? That is the central conflict in the film and there are no stakes attached to it all. Look, I'm not trying to dissuade anyone who likes it from liking it. I'm just explaining why I think it's an incredibly shallow film that has little utility beyond being a fancy screen saver.

@DetWha Superb villain. Great way of introducing the new world by way of avatars, which means storytelling. Superb special effects. And a smash-them-up ending to take the audience home. It's a genuinely good film.

It’s an awful movie. Who cares whether a movie “projects” any director’s brain onto the screen? Why care about a director’s brain at all? This is silly Lit Crit writing. Is the movie good? Why? Those are the questions to ask. Restraints are not always or even often bad things. They force story tellers to be economical by being indirect, vague or clever in how they present a story. Subtlety in the right hands can lead to great art. Lucas with limitations made a epochal movie in the 1970s; Lucas with unlimited power made a dead fish in 1999. He also marred his previous films with extraneous details no one liked.

No it wasn't. From the cardboard characters (only 3 of the Navi even have names and one of those is just a title), the contrived plot devices ("unobtanium"? Really?) and downright stupid decisions by everyone all around, it falls apart under even cursory analysis. The only good things I can say about it is that looked pretty and the plot lifted straight out of Dances with Wolves was somewhat coherent.

@DetWha The first Avatar movie was genuinely good.

It's been a long time since I watched it. Don't remember it being "bad" per se, but I do remember thinking, "They just took one of TV scripts they had lying around and padded out to make a movie." That's really all it is. A decent, if unremarkable, season 4 or 5 episode we saw on the big screen instead of the small one

My favorite TNG film so does 15 work?? 😂😂😂 literally has everything. Action …. Romance… intrigue…. And some laughs with Worf singing opera and Data learning to ‘play’ like the kiddies

@CreatureAuthor Daily carry? A Glock 19. When he gears up for the finale? A suppressed Daniel Defense A-15 in .300 BLK, a Glock 40 in 10mm and a Benelli M4 semi-auto shotgun

What's your current wip's MC's 'go to' weapon of choice?

@AuthorGFAllen Prefer? Yes. Have a lifestyle conducive to them? No. Hence, the kindle for airports and hotels and audible for the long drives

Anyone else still prefer physical books over ebooks or audiobooks?

@monsterhunter45 Thanks for this. I was planning on responding but my day job was getting in the way. But you treated it with all the seriousness it deserved😆

Aw fuck it, I've got a cold and I'm not getting any paying writing done today anyway. Let's go through how stupid this post is. "The Rifling in Your Pistol Barrel is Retarded And so is the reason it exists." - He shouted from high atop the peak of Mount Dunning Kruger. "We all know rifling improves a weapon's accuracy by gyroscopically stabilizing the bullet." -Okay? "That advantage becomes measurable at 50 yards, and important at 100 yards." -False. It is obvious long before that, and since you can think of accuracy as a cone it's going to be bad immediatley and get worse from there. And it looks like he got this dumb shit measurement from Grok talking about rifled shotgun slugs. "Do you see the problem? " -Yes. The problem is that X should have a feature whenever somebody starts talking about gun stuff a video of them shooting a standard timed drill should autoplay so the audiene can see how fucking clueless they are before reading further. "If you expect to hit targets at 100 yards with a 3-inch barrel, then you have either a great deal of pistol experience, or very little." - I have a great deal of experience. I shoot pistols at 100 all the time. I've got videos of me ringing steel at 100 with my carry gun. Barrel length has little to do with it. That great deal of experience is why this retarded shit makes my eye twitch. "Some men are thinking, "My hollowpoint won't expand if it tumbles!" I'm pretty sure no women are thinking that." - That doesn't even make any fucking sense. Destabalized bullets are super fucking inaccurate. If they tumble through the air their terminal ballistics on impact are going to be dogshit. They will have lower velocity and less penetration. I don't know if he's trying to say women are stupid or want weaker and more inaccurate guns or what, but it's cloying. "Setting aside the question of whether tumbling is good or bad, a smoothbore pistol bullet won't start to tumble until beyond 25 yards." - False. Anybody who has every used a shot out barrel, fully leaded barrel, or fucked up ammo has seen key holing much closer. I saw a bad batch of 38 LRN key holing at 5 yards on paper two weeks ago. "Do you expect to fire your concealed carry pistol at a target 25 yards distant?" - Do I expect to? No. Am I capable of doing so? Absolutely. Oh, and this whole part demonstrates this fucker has zero clue about actual shooting, because if we can shoot at 25, then hitting at 5, 7, 10, etc. is faster and easier, and we can be more discerning in what part we want to put bullets into. I suspect this fucker is minute of washing machine. "At this point, some men will spring into action to point out that the chance is not EXACTLY zero. There was that one time a guy made a miraculous 40-yard shot!" - Yeah, Eli Dicken. There's also a bunch of others from 25-75 that I'm aware of (elsewhere this dumbfuck is quoting the old "FBI says gunfights are at 3 yards" debunked bullshit) "What if his bullet had tumbled?" - Then his accuracy and terminal ballistics would've gone to shit and the bad guy would've continued killing innocent people for longer. "Then the hollowpoints might not have expanded!" - Yeah, fuckface, that's the least of your worries when your tumbling bullets miss entirely and go on to hit who knows what. "IMO, rifling the barrel of a self-defense weapon is absurd." - Your stupid opinion is noted, and then immediately disregarded. Because it's fucking stupid. "It adds expense" - We live in a golden age of quality pistols t for shockingly cheap. How fucking poor are you? "it adds weight" - HOW? This is one of my favorite parts, but how does taking metal away make it heavier? Holy fucking shit balls. :D "it wastes bullet energy" - No, actually the opposite. Destablized bullets bleed velocity which means less energy. "and it heats up the barrel for no good reason." - It isn't a belt fed machinegun, you fucking knob. "Why then are pistol barrels rifled?" Because gun designers in the fifteen hundreds were smarter than you. That's probably because they had to actually test stuff rather than just make up dumb shit on the internet. "When the free market does something stupid for more than a year or two, you can bet it's not the free market. Yeah, it's the NFA." - blink. LOL WUT?!? :D "Under the National Firearms Act, a smoothbore pistol counts as "Any other weapon," which, among other requirements, must be at least 26 inches long." - I've known a lot of firearms engineers. I've know top champion shooters who are sponsored pros for gun companies who make suggestions that turn into products. I've toured factories. I've known lots of guys who own gun companies and build and tweak guns for fun and profit. I've been involved in this shit eyeball deep for 30 years. And not ONCE did I ever hear anybody go "You know, what would be great? A smooth bore carry pistol, but we can't, because of the NFA!" "So the next time you fondle your carry pistol, which you should do on a regular basis" - This motherfucker shoots once a year while standing behind a table. "take a moment to reflect that your government did to it what it does to everything it touches." -That is some utter fucking bullshit. Are gun laws stupid? Yes. (I wrote an entire book on the subject!). Are gun laws the reason your modern concealed carry pistol has rifling? Lol. Fuck no. :D This is the dumbest shit I've seen on the internet in a long while, and I was trying to get a euroweenie to understand GDP this morning. :D

@Grunt2A @Danyeah1975 That doesn't mean you didn't lift heavy shit. I've seen what armor guys go through

@Danyeah1975 I think I'd have a hard time with a VA claim I drove an armored vehicle I didn't ruck 20 miles once after SOI

I have lower back pain so my doctor did an X-ray on me and he said I had an "unusually high amount of arthritis for someone my age and asked about my history I said I was in the Marines for 6 years and he changed his diagnosis to "you have the expected amount of arthritis" 😂

@KWscout @DoingFedTime @WANGHAFlol I totally agree. Hate to say it, but it does say something about that department that he got his gun back at all. Some places, it would just disappear into the ether, never to be seen again. This is why I tell people that local elections matter.

@DetWha @DoingFedTime @WANGHAFlol That's a fair argument, but confiscating someone's property on a hunch that it might be illegal isn't the right way to go about it.

🧵 Story: I got arrested with a 3D printed gun. (The one on the right) I had a warrant. I completely forgot about a ticket, missed court, they put out a warrant for my arrest. A cop runs my plate, sees I have a warrant, pulls me over. In the process of arresting me he has to search my car as well. He finds the pistol that I told him was in my center console. At this point I’m in the back of his car. He’s walking around, making calls, taking pictures of it. I know what he’s doing. It doesn’t have a serial number. He finally asks me where the serial number is. I tell him it’s a PMF. He looks even more confused. I explain as well as I can. I made the gun. It’s 3D printed. It’s legal. In 12 of 50 states I could be in trouble. Not this one. He tells me his sergeant is in contact with the ATF at this point. He believes me but he has to double check. My car gets towed, he takes the gun into evidence, I bond out.

@Ghostgerbil @GVanZee Broken clocks... twice a day... yadd yadda...😆

@DetWha @GVanZee Lol, a quote from Uncle Joe

Why do people discount a .22 for home defense? Holes are holes. Punch one.

@KevinLamb74 There's some stuff out there where George talks about his original vision for A New Hope. It's downright bonkers and probably unfilmable with the tech at the time. What made SW special was how he worked within his limitations and having a downright genius editor

The Phantom Menace presents the vision of a man with absolutely no restraints, whether they be creative, technical, or financial. I know many consider that to be one of the film's greatest faults, and George Lucas himself even toned some things down like Jar Jar and midichlorians in Episodes II and III in response to fan backlash. But I actually really appreciate that Phantom Menace is arguably the one Star Wars film that just projects George's brain directly onto the screen with zero filters. Everclear Lucas if you will. Such a fascinating, imaginative, and colorful movie that has weathered the criticisms and stood the test of time. There will never be another film like it.