Bruce McCandless III

The Dead Have No Love for the Living In the Land of Dead Horses tells the story of Texas Ranger Jewel T. Lightfoot's pursuit of and confrontation with a resurrected horror from another age--a manifestation of the Mayan god of darkness, unearthed from its subterranean crypt in the wastelands of the Chihuahuan Desert and set loose on an unsuspecting world. Lightfoot, a hard-drinking Texas Ranger, is aided by an aging silver miner named Ernesto Zavala and his grandson Antonio, a rangy firebrand who longs to free his people from the rule of Porfirio Diaz's corrupt Mexican government. Together, these unlikely heroes face off against a sinister German academic, a trio of religious fanatics who wants to restore the glory of the Mayan empire, and a horror from the depths of history that grows stronger with each setting sun. ​Join Jewel Lightfoot in what Kirkus Reviews calls "a paranormal whodunit that offers a gripping battle between good and evil." But be careful: Not everyone who rides out of Austin in the fall of 1908 is going to make it back alive.

In the Land of Dead Horses

The Man You Never Knew You Knew It's one of the most powerful and popular images in the history of space exploration: an astronaut in a snow-white spacesuit, untethered and floating alone in an expanse of blue. Bruce McCandless II is the man in that spacesuit, and Wonders All Around: The Incredible True Story of Astronaut Bruce McCandless II and the First Untethered Flight in Space is the thoroughly engrossing, extensively researched story of his inspiring life and groundbreaking accomplishments, as told by his son, a gifted writer and storyteller. Bruce McCandless II, a Navy fighter pilot, joined NASA in 1966. He was Houston's capsule communicator--the person talking to the astronauts--as Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong made his giant leap for mankind in 1969. McCandless supported subsequent Apollo flights and developed technology and techniques his fellow astronauts used during the Skylab program, working behind the scenes until he was chosen to ride Challenger into space on the tenth shuttle mission. When he stepped into the cosmos to test the Manned Maneuvering Unit, he became a space flight icon. But the road to that incredible feat was not the sure bet it should have been for such a gifted man. Bruce McCandless II was an astronaut for 24 years, and his story encompasses the development of the space agency itself--the changes in focus, in personnel, in approach, and in the city of Houston that grew up with it. Wonders All Around is more than a catalogue of McCandless's extraordinary achievements, which included work on the design, deployment, and repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. It is also a tale of perseverance and devotion. Recounted with insight and humor, this book explores the relationship between a father and a son, men of two very different generations. And finally, it is an exploration of the mindset of one unique individual, and the courage, imagination, and tenacity that propelled him and his country to their place in the forefront of space history. From Wonders All Around: "Bruce McCandless turned his Jeep around and screeched out of the cul-de-sac in front of our house for the ten-minute drive to the space center. The moon, a waxing crescent, was standing thirty degrees above the western horizon, and my father slipped into a sort of reverie as he sped toward it on NASA Road One. The moon floated serene and imperturbable in front of him like a black-and-white photograph of itself, Earth's gravitational remora, her pale silent sister, movie star and legend, goddess and mirage. Bruce McCandless had just turned thirty-two. He was an engineer, a true son of science, a distant nephew of Sir Isaac Newton. He knew the formulas required for achieving orbital velocity, could tell you the fuel mixtures you needed, the stages and timing of rocket-booster separations. He brushed sentiments away like so many spider webs. But even he was having trouble believing that human beings--his colleagues and friends--were up there in the sky, getting ready to do something no one had ever done before. He was going to be part of it. He would be talking to two men as they walked on the moon. The young astronaut hadn't quite reached his lifelong goal of touching the lunar surface, but he was close. He was almost there. He could feel it."

Wonders All Around

The Dead Have No Love for the Living In the Land of Dead Horses tells the story of Texas Ranger Jewel T. Lightfoot’s pursuit of and confrontation with a resurrected horror from another age—a manifestation of the Mayan god of darkness, unearthed from its subterranean crypt in the wastelands of the Chihuahuan Desert and set loose on an unsuspecting world. Lightfoot, a hard-drinking Texas Ranger, is aided by an aging silver miner named Ernesto Zavala and his grandson Antonio, a rangy firebrand who longs to free his people from the rule of Porfirio Diaz’s corrupt Mexican government. Together, these unlikely heroes face off against a sinister German academic, a trio of religious fanatics who wants to restore the glory of the Mayan empire, and a horror from the depths of history that grows stronger with each setting sun. ​Join Jewel Lightfoot in what Kirkus Reviews calls "a paranormal whodunit that offers a gripping battle between good and evil." But be careful: Not everyone who rides out of Austin in the fall of 1908 is going to make it back alive.

It's 1911. Someone, or something, is leaving the good citizens of East Texas's Ochiltree County savagely mutilated and drained of blood. Slow-talking Sheriff Reeves Duncan needs to put an end to the murders, and soon. But it won't be easy. This is the Big Thicket, dark and brooding, haunted by racial tensions and economic despair. Fortunately, Sheriff Duncan can count on the assistance of an undersized but tough-as-rawhide Texas Ranger, two physicians, a mechanical wunderkind, and a soft-spoken idiot savant who knows the sloughs and baygalls of the Thicket like his own backyard. This league of unimpressive gentlemen is about to be tested by the cunning and ferocity of an enemy that walks by night--and the tentacles of a desperate sectarian plot that threatens the very survival of the human race. Cover design by Shaun Venish.

Or, the Beast

Sour Lake

Carson Clare's Trail Guide to Avoiding Death

RELEASE DATE FEBRUARY 4, 2016. Libya, 1805: A makeshift army of Arabs, Greeks, Egyptians and U.S. Marines, "all mixed riotously together," sets off across North Africa to rescue three hundred American sailors imprisoned by the King of Tripoli. The expedition is soon beset by a series of brutal and mysterious murders--at first apparently random, but then becoming more purposeful and troubling. Private Lemuel Sweet, a young New Englander, chronicles the hardships he and his companions endure on their march west over the seemingly endless sands of the Sahara. Looming ahead of them is the threat of combat in a foreign land. But worse is the creeping suspicion Sweet feels that one of the men leading the expedition is not what he pretends to be, and that ancient and arcane forces are at work that could mean death for him and his fellow Marines before a single shot is fired. Death...or worse. From The Black Book of Cyrenaica: "The Marines reserve judgment about their leader. Malcolm Weston is an officer. That is all they need to know. There is work to do: before dawn, after dark. They are the ones who do it. They are a collection of strong backs and bad attitudes. They are policemen, enforcers, lackeys, brutes. They are highwaymen in government boots. The men of the Navy despise them as bullies. The Marines shrug it off. Sailors are monkeys, leather-skinned creatures of arcane skills and enforced repetition. They are ruled by superstition: curses, cauls, ghost ships glimpsed through the fog. It is no great feat to frighten a tar. Most will refuse to set sail on a Friday. They whistle to call the wind. They are handY with knives, and can consumer quantities of alcohol that defy belief. But they are better talkers than fighters. It has been proven."

The Black Book of Cyrenaica

The Man You Never Knew You Knew It’s one of the most powerful and popular images in the history of space exploration: an astronaut in a snow-white spacesuit, untethered and floating alone in an expanse of blue. Bruce McCandless II is the man in that spacesuit, and Wonders All Around: The Incredible True Story of Astronaut Bruce McCandless II and the First Untethered Flight in Space is the thoroughly engrossing, extensively researched story of his inspiring life and groundbreaking accomplishments, as told by his son, a gifted writer and storyteller. Bruce McCandless II, a Navy fighter pilot, joined NASA in 1966. He was Houston’s capsule communicator—the person talking to the astronauts—as Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong made his giant leap for mankind in 1969. McCandless supported subsequent Apollo flights and developed technology and techniques his fellow astronauts used during the Skylab program, working behind the scenes until he was chosen to ride Challenger into space on the tenth shuttle mission. When he stepped into the cosmos to test the Manned Maneuvering Unit, he became a space flight icon. But the road to that incredible feat was not the sure bet it should have been for such a gifted man. Bruce McCandless II was an astronaut for 24 years, and his story encompasses the development of the space agency itself—the changes in focus, in personnel, in approach, and in the city of Houston that grew up with it. Wonders All Around is more than a catalogue of McCandless’s extraordinary achievements, which included work on the design, deployment, and repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. It is also a tale of perseverance and devotion. Recounted with insight and humor, this book explores the relationship between a father and a son, men of two very different generations. And finally, it is an exploration of the mindset of one unique individual, and the courage, imagination, and tenacity that propelled him and his country to their place in the forefront of space history. From Wonders All Around: "Bruce McCandless turned his Jeep around and screeched out of the cul-de-sac in front of our house for the ten-minute drive to the space center. The moon, a waxing crescent, was standing thirty degrees above the western horizon, and my father slipped into a sort of reverie as he sped toward it on NASA Road One. The moon floated serene and imperturbable in front of him like a black-and-white photograph of itself, Earth’s gravitational remora, her pale silent sister, movie star and legend, goddess and mirage. Bruce McCandless had just turned thirty-two. He was an engineer, a true son of science, a distant nephew of Sir Isaac Newton. He knew the formulas required for achieving orbital velocity, could tell you the fuel mixtures you needed, the stages and timing of rocket-booster separations. He brushed sentiments away like so many spider webs. But even he was having trouble believing that human beings—his colleagues and friends—were up there in the sky, getting ready to do something no one had ever done before. He was going to be part of it. He would be talking to two men as they walked on the moon. The young astronaut hadn’t quite reached his lifelong goal of touching the lunar surface, but he was close. He was almost there. He could feel it."

Bruce McCandless III

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