Well, hush my mouth.

 
“I honestly do not know where to begin. I was not familiar with Mr. Roy Griffis, but was absolutely captivated from the very beginning. I read Book 1, The Old World, and was so drawn into the story that I forgot I was reading a story about these people, and actually felt I was experiencing their story with them. What an incredible accomplishment! Upon finishing Book 1, I felt it was such an amazing read that books 2 and 3 had to be a letdown. I could not have been more wrong. Mr Griffis’ style and storytelling did not drop off one iota. In fact, we continually get drawn further and further in to these characters’
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I used to wonder

“When will I know I’m a real writer?”

Being younger (and certifiably dumber), I imagined the answer would be something like:

  • Mansion and starlets rubbing coconut oil on my aching fingers.
  • Riots at my book-signings
  • Tabloid reports about my coke-fueled binges on croissants and women of questionable virtue during lost weekends in Vegas.
Image result for crossiants and girls

(With bonus suspicious white powder)

 

When younger (see above), I was expecting certain kinds of evidence to confirm that I was a “writer.”  The fruits of success would be the proof.

And when those fruits (as I conceived of them) didn’t appear, I was downcast.  I failed to achieve the rewards, and thus I was a failure.

Then, as so often happens when we’re not looking, …

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The First Casualty

Welcome, Instapundit readers.  My site, roymgriffis.com, which was briefly wiped out in the devoutly-to-be-wished-for Instalanche, is back up.

(Note:  this is the original English version of an Op-Ed piece I was asked to write for Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger on what the election means for the United States)

Image result for hillary clinton loss

Trump won.

That surprised not only the Hillary faithful, but a lot of conservatives as well, including me.  Because, frankly, most of us (including the candidate herself) figured the end of this movie had already been written.

It may not be known in Europe, but Hillary Clinton had a vast machine behind her:  a Democrat National Committee (which, per WikiLeaks, had colluded to suppress the votes of Bernie Saunders supporters), a …

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I’m not sayin’ anything, but I’m just sayin’…

HELL AND HIGH WATER: THE CRAZIEST FITNESS TEST OF ALL TIME

There’s no fiercer test than the infamous final “Multi,” one of the world’s most physically exhausting, psychologically demanding trials by turbulence—and what every aspiring U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer must do.
BY MICHAEL RODIO

The U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer test starts with the equivalent of wrestling a linebacker in a hurricane, and gets worse from there.

Called the Multi—short for Three-Man Multiple Rescue Scenario—it’s the final test a U.S. Coast Guard airman must pass to become an Aviation Survival Technician (AST), an elite swimmer who leaps into water out of a helicopter and hauls drowning mariners to safety.

“The Multi is a fitness test, but it’s also a

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This damn well made my day

A very nice review over at Whispering Stories.

BTHOM3 Front Cover

“Meeting Charlotte Braninov again was like becoming reacquainted with an old friend. We meet her on her journey from her homeland of Russia on board a ship bound for London. Travelling with her, are the compatriots she met during her imprisonment at the hands of the Red Army. During the sea crossing we witness a different side to human nature when benevolence takes the place of brutality. Charlotte’s altruism continues to shine through as she builds a life for herself and her companions in England.

“…I look forward to much more from this very accomplished wordsmith and I can award ‘The Wrath of a Righteous Man’ no less than a perfect five …

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So, the KGB sent me another email

The “Swiss Journalist” wrote:  Hi Griff, hope things are well. Can we talk on the phone tomorrow? I have to ask you something…

And I thought to myself:  This is how it starts.Image result for dogs running in night

It begins with “Can you do me a favor?” and it ends up with you running for your life through a muddy swamp at midnight, being chased down by rifle-toting guards who are accompanied by dogs that don’t respond to commands in English planning on playing “fetch” with my giblets.

 

So I said, “Sure!”…

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Crud and “Cooooool”

Cameron and I, doing one of our usual things.

Cameron and I, doing one of our usual things.

I have my once-a-year cold.  Nothing miserable, just a low grade energy drain, which means I basically have the ambition to drive to work, work, then drive home and more or less fall into to bed.  Motivation for the other things that make life worth living (writing, spending time with The Rib, or wrestling with the cats and dogs) is sadly absent.

Like me, my son Cameron both celebrates and curses our genetics.  We’re cheered that we very rarely fall ill to whatever bug is going around, our joints are sound, and so on.  We grumble that in the DNA dice game of life, we got the “you will start losing …

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A fun chat with “This is Writing”

Author Interviews: Roy Madison Griffis and his By The Hands of Men

SCOTT MULLINS
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Roy Griffis Author InterviewsFor those who don’t know you, introduce yourself, your writing and books

Given name Roy Madison Griffis.

Roy for my mom’s father.

Madison from my dad’s father.  He was born in deep south, and his birth name was Marion Madison Griffis, but my own father had an inkling such a name might cause me trouble in the growing-up-and-surviving department, so he opted for the middle name.

All that being said, most people call me “Griff.”  I was in the Coast Guard about 30 seconds before I became Griff for the rest of my life.

My writing?  Along the way, I’ve written

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Ringside at the Circus of the Fallen

Haven’t discovered the title for Book Four (the last, I swear!) of my By the Hands of Men series.

But I did finish the first part (working title “Ringside at the Circus of the Fallen”).

I’m hard at work on the next section, which I call “A New Love.”

Meanwhile, a peek of me back in my “Getting Paid to be Errol Flynn” days, when I was the 61st Aviation Rescue Swimmer in the Coast Guard.

rs-drysuit-photo

(Rare photo of me in my dry-suit…that water in San Francisco could be cold.  The dry-suit is discolored from the time I was crawling around the very greasy engine of a sinking fishing boat, trying to stop the leak.  Ah, youth.)

 …

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“Why Trump?”

Image result for hillary supporters crying

 

Why Trump?

This seems to be the question a lot of perplexed Europeans are asking of Americans:  “Why in the world would you vote for Trump?”

Before we begin, google the term “JournoList” and the name “Jonathan Gruber.”  I’ll wait.

Quickly, you’ll discover that JournoList was a private email list made up of a number of writers and reporters for major news organizations in the United States.  In 2008, this private email list of the people who craft and create the news presented to Americans declared themselves the “unofficial Barack Obama election committee.”  They were preplanning smears of critics of the glory that would be the First Black President of the US, all the while claiming to …

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