Week 5 NFL picks

Eagles at Bills (Bills)
Saints at Panthers (Saints)
Raiders at Texans (Texans)
Chiefs At Colts (Colts)
Bengals At Jags (Bengals)
Cards At Vikings (Vikings)
Seahawks at Giants (Giants in a slaughter)
Titans at Steelers (Titans)
TB at 49ers ( 49ers)
Chargers at Denver (Chargers) 42-17!!!
Jets at Pats (Pats)
GB at Atlanta (Falcons)
Bears at Lions (Lions)

Larry's picks...
Kansas City Chiefs W
Indianapolis Colts

Arizona Cardinals W
Minnesota Vikings

Philadelphia Eagles
Buffalo Bills W

Oakland Raiders
Houston Texans W

New Orleans Saints W
Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals W
Jacksonville Jaguars

Tennessee Titans W
Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks
New York Giants W

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
San Francisco 49ers W

New York Jets
New England Patriots W

San Diego Chargers W
Denver Broncos

Green Bay Packers
Atlanta Falcons W

Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions W

NFL week 4 picks

Score through week 3:

Larry - 31-15
David - 29-17

DET @ DAL (Larry -Lions, David- Lions)
SF @ PHI(Larry - Eagles, David- Eagles)
MIN @ KC(Larry - Chiefs, David - Vikings)
WAS @ STL (Larry- Redskins, David - RedSkins)
NO @ JAC (Larry - Saints, David - Saints)
TEN @ CLE (Larry - Titans,David - Browns)
PIT @ HOU(W)(Larry - Texans, David - Texans)
BUF @ CIN (Larry - Bills, David - Bills)
CAR @ CHI(Larry - Bears, David- Bears)
ATL(W) @ SEA (Larry - Falcons, David - Falcons)
NYG @ ARI(Larry- Cards, David -Giants)
DEN @ GB(Larry- pack,David - Pack)
MIA @ SD(Larry - Bolts, David - Chargers!!!!!)
NE(W) @ OAK (Larry- NE, David- Pats)
NYJ @ BAL(Larry - Ravens, David Ravens)
IND @ TB(Larry - TB, David - TB)

NFL Week 3 picks

David Agranoff 19-11
Larry Hall 21 -9

David's picks:
Pats At Bills: Patriots
Jags at Panthers: Panthers (in a close one)
49ers at Bengals: Bengals
Dolphins at Browns: Dolphins
Lions At Vikings: Lions
Texans At Saints:Saints
Giants at Eagles: Eagles
Broncos at Titans: Titans
Jets at Raiders: Raiders ( thought alot about this one, Jets starting 3rd string center- would be surprised if the raiders screw this up)
Chiefs at Chargers: BOLTS!!!!
Ravens at Rams: Ravens ( both need this one, this will be a tough game)
Packers at bears: Bears (in a close one)
Cards at seahawks: Cards (awful game)
Falcons at Bucs: Bucs
Steelers at colts: Steelers
Redskins at Cowboys: Cowboys

Larry Hall's picks:

Houston at New Orleans(W)
NY Giants(W) at Philadelphia
Jacksonville at Carolina(W)
New England(W) at Buffalo
Miami(W) at Cleveland
San Francisco(W) at Cincinnati
Denver at Tennessee(W)
Detroit(W) at Minnesota
Baltimore(W) at St. Louis
NY Jets(W) at Oakland
Kansas City at San Diego(W)
Arizona(W) at Seattle
Atlanta (W)at Tampa Bay
Green Bay(W) at Chicago
Pittsburgh(W) at Indianapolis
Washington(W) at Dallas


My Chargers Prediction: 48 - 10. Huge game for Ryan Mathews. This will be the chargers first flawless game. No turn-overs and forcing at least three. We need to beat the chiefs while they are down. for real.

I have a story in this charity anthology!

228 pages
$9.99 Kindle
$15.99 Paperback

75 authors from 11 countries came together to collaborate on a mixed-genre anthology of short stories to benefit the orphans of the disaster-stricken Tohoku area. Ninety percent of which is all original work written for this book.

Horror, humor, human drama, science fiction, fantasy, absurdist, bizarro, weird, new wave, bugpunk, Cthulhu, Sherlock Holmes, historical fiction,

Complete author list (in index order): Katherine Govier, Ken Asamatsu, Lee Pletzers, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., S.A. Gambino, Michael Allen Rose, Nickolas Furr, Garrett Cook, Touya Tachihara, Jess Gulbranson, Alvin Pang, Robert M. Price, Kevin Lovelace, Junichi Ashikawa, Dan Ryan, Adam Joffrain, Moxie Mezcal, Andersen Prunty, L. Christopher Bird, Minoru Inaba, Richard Wright, Kirk Marshall, Davide Mana, Show Tomono, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Christene Britton-Jones, Philip Overby, Yuusuke Tokita, David Agranoff, Bradley Sands, Naohiko Kitahara, Michael John Grist, Edmund Colell, Trent Zelazny, Riri Shimada, Made in DNA, Glynn Barrass, Fulvio Gatti, Nirnara, Melissa J White, Fumihiko Iino, Curt Seubert, Elizabeth Black, John F. Rice, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Volker Baetz, Andrew Freudenberg, Terrie Czechowski, Lucía González Lavado, Mie Takase, Stephen A. North, Ran Cartwright, Ukyou Kodachi, Danilo Arona, David Naughton-Shires, John Shirley, Jonathan Moon, Tadashi Ohta, Richard Salter, Midori Tateyama, Grant Wamack, Massimo Soumaré, Yufuko Senoh, Berry Sizemore, Ash Lomen, Adam Breckenridge, Yasumi Kobayashi, Jason Wuchenich, Ryuto Hijiri, Vittorio Catani, Joji Hayashi, Kevin David Anderson, Tamao Kanroji, Michael Moorcock, and Shinya Gaku.

Book review: Pain by Harry Shannon

Pain by Harry Shannon
Dark Regions press
121 pages

Harry Shannon is a talented writer, I have yet to read any of his novels yet, but I have always looked forward to his stories and and appearances in various magazines and anthologies. Pain is a novella, the first in a series of novellas published by Dark Regions press. It is a zombie tale that to me shares much in common with the Crazies(the Romero original more so than the excellent remake). It is the story of a small mountain town besiged by zombie like folks infected by a chemical weapon known as pain.

The book starts with a introduction by Bram Stoker award winning bestselling Author Jonathan Mayberry, I respect the man's work but frankly this intro was pretty worthless to me. The intro serves as a "Zombie genre for dummies," but honestly do we really need that? In my case it almost set the bar too high by reminding me what makes a great zombie movie/novel. More on that later.

Nine times out of ten horror writers who grew up reading Stephen King,Peter Straub and Clive Barker have the problem of over writing, as taught to those by those masters who sometimes could stand to be edited back. Here in Pain, I experienced the opposite. My biggest complaint with this novella was that I felt like we were just seeing the tip of the iceberg with this story. That is good sometimes, we don't want the whole mystery revealed all the time, but I felt rushed through this story and the characters.

It is obvious that this book began life as a screenplay, if you have ever read a screenplay they are like skeletons and they are covered in blood, guts and clothes by an entire production team and director. In this case Pain feels like a skeleton with a very cool looking robe on it. You cane still see bare bones, which is too bad but because the seeds are there.

Lots cool moments of suspense, obviously cool story telling, but in the end I felt like alot was missing. Remember when I talked about the intro. Mayberry pointed out that the best zombie movies/novels are not about zombies. We got a hint that Shannon was trying to make a statement about the military contractors but again I think there was more material just beyond the surface. I almost never say this but Pain is neat little zombie book that could have been even better with another 50 to 100 pages of depth...

NFL picks week 2 (2011)

Bills VS Raiders: Buffalo
Packers Vs. Panthers: Green Bay
Lions Vs. Chiefs: Detroit
Colts Vs. Browns: Colts (Colts have to win this or they wont win all year)
Buc vs. Vikings: Vikings
Bears Vs. Saints: Saints ( tough one, close)
Jaguars Vs. Jets : Jags (in upset of the week.)
Steelers Vs. Seahawks: Pittsburgh ( T Jackson injured)
Ravens Vs. Titans: Baltimore slaughters a team again
Cards Vs. Redskins: Washington
Cowboys vs. 49ers: Boys
Bengals Vs. Broncos: Cincy ( This is tough to pick, they both suck)
Texans Vs. Dolphins: Dolphins
Falcons Vs. Eagles: Falcons
Rams Vs Giants: Giants (The IR bowl)


Pats Vs. Chargers: Chargers!

I might be stepping on the sword for my team. I Think this will be 28-24 final score which team wins depends on who has the ball last. Pats barely beat us last year, Brady said it was the hardest regular season game that they managed to win. We held Brady to 200 yards. This is a serious test for the Chargers but I wont be to worried if we lose, as long as we are in.

Larry Hall's picks ( fellow Charger fan and talented writer)

Oakland Raiders at Buffalo Bills (W)

Kansas City Chiefs at Detroit Lions (W)

Baltimore Ravens (W) at Tennessee Titans

Cleveland Browns at Indianapolis Colts(W)

Chicago Bears at New Orleans Saints (W)

Jacksonville Jaguars at New York Jets (W)

Seattle Seahawks at Pittsburgh Steelers (W)

Arizona Cardinals at Washington Redskins(W)

Green Bay Packers(W) at Carolina Panthers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (W) at Minnesota Vikings

Dallas Cowboys at San Francisco 49ers(W)

Houston Texans(W) at Miami Dolphins

Cincinnati Bengals(W) at Denver Broncos

San Diego Chargers (W) at New England Patriots

Philadelphia Eagles at Atlanta Falcons(W)

St. Louis Rams at New York Giants(W)

NFL picks week 1 (2011)

So the plan is to pick the games each week between now and the super bowl and I'm going to keep score, see how I do by the end of the season. I'm picking the Chargers every week besides that I am going by my knowledge of the game and following football. Some big upsets this week, I think the bills will surprise the chiefs at arrowhead. The Chiefs are a mess, it will show sunday. The Detroit/ Tampa Bay game was the hardest to pick. Looking forward to Chargers of course and the Ravens and steelers game. I think the Colts are dead in the water but i hope they prove everyone wrong! Pete Carrol is crazy to start Tavaris Jackson over Whitehurst.

GB V NO : GB
Pittsburgh V Baltimore: Ravens
Chicago V Atlanta: Falcons
Cincinnati V Clevland: Browns
Indy V Houston: Texans
Jacksonville V Tennessee: Titans
Buffalo V KC: Buffalo (big upset on the road!)
Philly V St.Louis: Rams (big upset!)
Detroit V Tampa Bay: Lions (tough call)
Carolina V Arizona: Cards
San Diego V Minnesota: Chargers!!!!
SF V Seattle: Niners, (unless Whitehurst goes in then hawks)
NYG V Washington: Redskins
Dallas V NYJ: Jets (ugh)
New England V Miami: Pats
Denver V Raiders: Broncos (Oak only chance is huge run game)

My Bolts prediction:I am only worried about Adrian Peterson, I think he might gut us in the first half but expect the D to tighten up after a half time adjustment. This is a totally different D than the last time AP tore us up. I think Rivers will have a huge game, as will Ryan Matthews. Pass protection will be solid and Rivers to VJ for 80 to 100 yards. I expect the bolts to win a turn-over battle forcing atleast one fumble and at least one if not two picks on Mcnabb.

Chargers 35 Vikings 17