Before I get to my latest Oil Gypsy post I must tell you about all my promotions for my novel Deadly Enterprise.
I have blog interviews up at Rachael Byrd’s site www.xanga.com/rachaelbyrd as well as on Novelspot at http://novelspot.net/node/1733 .
Actually my Novelspot interview is on the front page right now. I did have another but I’m going to have to send a note to the blog owner to find out the link to it.
I am on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=668091003 and I’m in the process of getting Gisel a page there. (I will need to get a gadget to connect my old laptop to my cable modem, so I can use a different computer for her. The site doesn’t believe me if I try to log on as her with the same computer I’m on.)
I’ve joined some more Internet sites to meet readers and others in the writing trade.
Both myself http://profile.myspace.com/198285372 and my main protagonist (Gisel http://profile.myspace.com/215889756 ) are on Myspace.
I’m on Book Place http://morganmandelbooks.ning.com/profile/w1r2i3t4e5r6 ;
Alternate Realities http://alreal.ning.com/profile/w1r2i3t4e5r6 ;
Nothing Binding http://www.nothingbinding.com/node/460 ;
Double Dragons’ Yahoo Group
http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/DoubleDragonPublishing_MeetTheAuthors/ ;
Zumaya Publications http://zumayapublications.ning.com/profile/w1r2i3t4e5r6 ;
Xanga http://www.xanga.com/private/yourhome.aspx ;
Bebo http://www.bebo.com/Chriskander ; and
Shelfari http://www.shelfari.com/Chriskander .
The last two are giving a few problems as I’m still sorting out how to make my site display Deadly Enterprise. Scratch that last, as I just received another helpful note from Lupita at Bebo’s customer service which has solved the problem. Still waiting to hear from Shelfari.
Mustn’t forget my original blogsite http://www.serial-adventure-fiction.blogspot.com and my website http://www.christopherhoare.ca The website isn’t updated yet, so I’m posting my news and promotions on the blog – as well as the Oil Gypsy excerpts, like the one following.
I can also be found on the Muse Book Reviews http://themusebookreviews.tripod.com/ , where I can be contacted to review your speculative fiction novel.
Whew! You can see I’ve been busy.
********
More from Oil Gypsy:
The PM of the Night Drive to Gialo got me into other troubles as well. The areas we often worked in had been fought over by the British, Germans, and Italians just 25 years before during the Second World War. One of my jobs as the surveyor who laid out the lines for others to follow was to watch out for mines and unexploded ordnance.
Our oil company client had provided a mine clearance crew when we worked farther north, but didn’t consider this area dangerous enough to warrant the expense. We were working in the area where the British Long Range Desert Group used to slip past the fighting formations to spy in the rear, and they sometimes tangled with the Luftwaffe or the Regia Aeronautica on their journeys.
We had found some wreckage from the war on previous jobs, a blown up LRDG truck, a crashed Sparviero, and the back half of a three tonner that we’d turned into a generator trailer. We also found unexploded bombs that the Italian bombers had dropped on fleeing trucks. We could have written a quality control report of the Italian munitions factories, because we generally found three craters to every unexploded bomb – a 25% failure rate. But these bombs were still live and dangerous if you messed with them.
We were lucky enough to have Luigi working on our crew. He had formerly operated his own mine clearance contract company around Tobruk and El Adem – places where several battles had been fought and three armies had buried mines and forgotten where they were. He and I worked out a routine to blow up any unexploded bombs that I found.
The book method was to use an explosive charge and a very long firing line. A quarter of a mile is a bit too close unless you can get under cover. We operated a vibroseis crew and had no explosives, caps, or firing line – so Luigi improvised.
I was designated driver, while he did the bomb end. I just had to park the Land Rover close enough to the bomb and with a clear route to get away when the time came, making sure the motor was idling smoothly and not likely to quit when we most needed it. He would clear a space around the bomb, cover it with charcoal, pour gas over it and make a gasoline trail to the passenger door of the Land Rover. When everything had been put away and the coast seemed clear he would drop a lighted match onto the trail and shout, “Let’s go, God Almighty!”
And I would drive away as fast as the terrain would permit until we reached a vantage point about a mile away where we’d sit and watch for the explosion. When the fire heated the bomb casing enough, the explosive would go off. It might take fifteen minutes or three times that, we just never knew.
And a mile away wasn’t always far enough. One day we both ducked when a piece of shrapnel whistled past, then sat up sheepishly. It’s too late to duck when you hear it – it could have already hit you.
On this particular occasion I discovered a bomb on the line the day Luigi went out on the plane for a week off. PM said, “Not to worry. I’ll come along to help you blow it.”
Firstly, he decided to drive and when we got to the bomb parked us the wrong way around facing a pile of rocks. Then he got out and walked to the bomb. Now wasn’t the time for Introductory Bomb Disposal, lesson one, but that’s what he expected. I think he listened to half of what I told him.
Next he bent down to scoop enough sand away from the bomb that we had enough exposed metal to pile our charcoal over. His hands were shaking so much that I had to do the scooping. I became concerned he might frighten the bomb. I left him with the charcoal and gas can, saying, “Don’t light anything until I’ve moved the Land Rover into the right position and we’re ready to go.”
He might have heard.
I maneuvered the Land Rover into the position we needed for a quick getaway, and then began reversing to get closer. I looked out the back window to see our fire over the bomb blazing merrily and PM hoofing it toward me with the gas can in one hand and a face like the target of a firing squad. I stomped on both pedals – brake and clutch – before running him over. He flung open the back door and tossed the gas can inside. “Let’s get out of here!”
He dived in through the passenger door and I revved and lifted the clutch before he’d finished closing it. We zoomed into motion – backwards toward the bomb. In all the excitement I hadn’t shifted out of reverse.
I stomped both feet on the pedals again. Grabbed the gear shift and muscled it from reverse to first gear. There was a strange limp feeling as the lever came off in my hand. PM stared – his eyes grew as round as saucers. He dived for the door handle to run for it. I revved the motor one more time and tried the clutch.
We lurched forward. Yep – the forks had gone into first gear before the lever broke off. You would never believe how fast a Land Rover can go in first gear – with a bomb behind it, anyway.
We buzzed away over the rocks and loose sand like a frantic chainsaw. I drove away up the hill to a vantage point – and passed another unexploded bomb sticking out of the ground as we went. I asked PM if he’d like to destroy this one as well, but he elected to wait for Luigi to come back.
That wasn’t the end of the story. It flew all around the desert and towns until I’m sure everyone in the country heard about the two idiots and the bomb. I had guys tell the story to me when I was in town. I found the variety of outcomes in these stories astounding. In some versions the bomb blew up under the Land Rover and killed them. In others it only pitched the vehicle onto its roof and they climbed out unhurt. In fact I think I heard every variation except the actual account what had happened.
I even ventured to correct some of these raconteurs with the eye-witness story, but nobody was ever impressed. They much preferred their own versions.
I have blog interviews up at Rachael Byrd’s site www.xanga.com/rachaelbyrd as well as on Novelspot at http://novelspot.net/node/1733 .
Actually my Novelspot interview is on the front page right now. I did have another but I’m going to have to send a note to the blog owner to find out the link to it.
I am on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=668091003 and I’m in the process of getting Gisel a page there. (I will need to get a gadget to connect my old laptop to my cable modem, so I can use a different computer for her. The site doesn’t believe me if I try to log on as her with the same computer I’m on.)
I’ve joined some more Internet sites to meet readers and others in the writing trade.
Both myself http://profile.myspace.com/198285372 and my main protagonist (Gisel http://profile.myspace.com/215889756 ) are on Myspace.
I’m on Book Place http://morganmandelbooks.ning.com/profile/w1r2i3t4e5r6 ;
Alternate Realities http://alreal.ning.com/profile/w1r2i3t4e5r6 ;
Nothing Binding http://www.nothingbinding.com/node/460 ;
Double Dragons’ Yahoo Group
http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/DoubleDragonPublishing_MeetTheAuthors/ ;
Zumaya Publications http://zumayapublications.ning.com/profile/w1r2i3t4e5r6 ;
Xanga http://www.xanga.com/private/yourhome.aspx ;
Bebo http://www.bebo.com/Chriskander ; and
Shelfari http://www.shelfari.com/Chriskander .
The last two are giving a few problems as I’m still sorting out how to make my site display Deadly Enterprise. Scratch that last, as I just received another helpful note from Lupita at Bebo’s customer service which has solved the problem. Still waiting to hear from Shelfari.
Mustn’t forget my original blogsite http://www.serial-adventure-fiction.blogspot.com and my website http://www.christopherhoare.ca The website isn’t updated yet, so I’m posting my news and promotions on the blog – as well as the Oil Gypsy excerpts, like the one following.
I can also be found on the Muse Book Reviews http://themusebookreviews.tripod.com/ , where I can be contacted to review your speculative fiction novel.
Whew! You can see I’ve been busy.
********
More from Oil Gypsy:
The PM of the Night Drive to Gialo got me into other troubles as well. The areas we often worked in had been fought over by the British, Germans, and Italians just 25 years before during the Second World War. One of my jobs as the surveyor who laid out the lines for others to follow was to watch out for mines and unexploded ordnance.
Our oil company client had provided a mine clearance crew when we worked farther north, but didn’t consider this area dangerous enough to warrant the expense. We were working in the area where the British Long Range Desert Group used to slip past the fighting formations to spy in the rear, and they sometimes tangled with the Luftwaffe or the Regia Aeronautica on their journeys.
We had found some wreckage from the war on previous jobs, a blown up LRDG truck, a crashed Sparviero, and the back half of a three tonner that we’d turned into a generator trailer. We also found unexploded bombs that the Italian bombers had dropped on fleeing trucks. We could have written a quality control report of the Italian munitions factories, because we generally found three craters to every unexploded bomb – a 25% failure rate. But these bombs were still live and dangerous if you messed with them.
We were lucky enough to have Luigi working on our crew. He had formerly operated his own mine clearance contract company around Tobruk and El Adem – places where several battles had been fought and three armies had buried mines and forgotten where they were. He and I worked out a routine to blow up any unexploded bombs that I found.
The book method was to use an explosive charge and a very long firing line. A quarter of a mile is a bit too close unless you can get under cover. We operated a vibroseis crew and had no explosives, caps, or firing line – so Luigi improvised.
I was designated driver, while he did the bomb end. I just had to park the Land Rover close enough to the bomb and with a clear route to get away when the time came, making sure the motor was idling smoothly and not likely to quit when we most needed it. He would clear a space around the bomb, cover it with charcoal, pour gas over it and make a gasoline trail to the passenger door of the Land Rover. When everything had been put away and the coast seemed clear he would drop a lighted match onto the trail and shout, “Let’s go, God Almighty!”
And I would drive away as fast as the terrain would permit until we reached a vantage point about a mile away where we’d sit and watch for the explosion. When the fire heated the bomb casing enough, the explosive would go off. It might take fifteen minutes or three times that, we just never knew.
And a mile away wasn’t always far enough. One day we both ducked when a piece of shrapnel whistled past, then sat up sheepishly. It’s too late to duck when you hear it – it could have already hit you.
On this particular occasion I discovered a bomb on the line the day Luigi went out on the plane for a week off. PM said, “Not to worry. I’ll come along to help you blow it.”
Firstly, he decided to drive and when we got to the bomb parked us the wrong way around facing a pile of rocks. Then he got out and walked to the bomb. Now wasn’t the time for Introductory Bomb Disposal, lesson one, but that’s what he expected. I think he listened to half of what I told him.
Next he bent down to scoop enough sand away from the bomb that we had enough exposed metal to pile our charcoal over. His hands were shaking so much that I had to do the scooping. I became concerned he might frighten the bomb. I left him with the charcoal and gas can, saying, “Don’t light anything until I’ve moved the Land Rover into the right position and we’re ready to go.”
He might have heard.
I maneuvered the Land Rover into the position we needed for a quick getaway, and then began reversing to get closer. I looked out the back window to see our fire over the bomb blazing merrily and PM hoofing it toward me with the gas can in one hand and a face like the target of a firing squad. I stomped on both pedals – brake and clutch – before running him over. He flung open the back door and tossed the gas can inside. “Let’s get out of here!”
He dived in through the passenger door and I revved and lifted the clutch before he’d finished closing it. We zoomed into motion – backwards toward the bomb. In all the excitement I hadn’t shifted out of reverse.
I stomped both feet on the pedals again. Grabbed the gear shift and muscled it from reverse to first gear. There was a strange limp feeling as the lever came off in my hand. PM stared – his eyes grew as round as saucers. He dived for the door handle to run for it. I revved the motor one more time and tried the clutch.
We lurched forward. Yep – the forks had gone into first gear before the lever broke off. You would never believe how fast a Land Rover can go in first gear – with a bomb behind it, anyway.
We buzzed away over the rocks and loose sand like a frantic chainsaw. I drove away up the hill to a vantage point – and passed another unexploded bomb sticking out of the ground as we went. I asked PM if he’d like to destroy this one as well, but he elected to wait for Luigi to come back.
That wasn’t the end of the story. It flew all around the desert and towns until I’m sure everyone in the country heard about the two idiots and the bomb. I had guys tell the story to me when I was in town. I found the variety of outcomes in these stories astounding. In some versions the bomb blew up under the Land Rover and killed them. In others it only pitched the vehicle onto its roof and they climbed out unhurt. In fact I think I heard every variation except the actual account what had happened.
I even ventured to correct some of these raconteurs with the eye-witness story, but nobody was ever impressed. They much preferred their own versions.
posted by Christopher Hoare at 7:15 PM
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