Interesting Times the Return
In which we discuss the state of the writer, and his “Adventures in life” as well as some of the news, mostly navy related of the week. (well, that was the plan, anyway, plans changed during the writing of this piece) Dinner is meatball subs, and various fixings, grab a drink pull up a chair, and let’s get started. On your way by, please notice the tip jar where we collect for the mess.
As always, I am grateful for those of you that have chipped in to keep the place running whether through a Substack subscription, or via the tip jar.
Last week, I started with the worlds events, and then funneled down to the local stuff, this week, I’m going to do the reverse because we’ve had a lot of things going on here locally.
First off, there’s some movement on the home building front. If you’ve been following this blog you know that we bought a modular home, to put on the farm in Tennessee, from a dealership called Yurezz. The contract required that the dealership inspect the place after the contractors put it together and the next set of contractors did the trim work to the then assembled place, before we could move in. They also had to be there when the power was turned on the first time, and when the contractors who they hired turned on the water and tested the plumbing. Failure to do this voids the warranty, among other things.
Well, as the folks that have been around here know, Yurezz suddenly closed up shop, locked the doors and sent everyone home, with no warning; leaving us and hundreds of other people across six or seven states in the lurch, wondering what was going to happen, and how we get our houses. We don’t have it as bad as some, at least one poor bastard around here bought their home with cash. Yurezz apparently skipped with the cash, and didn’t pay the manufacturer for the home…
SO, here’s the latest. Heather and Richard Altman, the owners of Yurezz, are currently guests of the Appling County Sheriff’s office, the GBI is crawling all over their home and other assets with microscopes, there’s rumors that the FBI is also involved, which would make sense as this is an interstate commerce case, and at least one financial company is suing. Of course, none of this fixes people’s houses… But there’s hope. Our Finance company sent us a contract that would allow us to bypass the current status quo and move forward acting as our own general contractors so that we can get this process finished and get our house. There’s some questions as to how it’s worded that we need to chat with a lawyer about, but it looks like we will be able to get this stuff fixed and move in over the next couple months or so.
I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but at least it looks like we have a exit ramp from this highway to hell.
Other news from the author, as you may have seen, my old publisher had to retrench due to health problems, and other complications to life, so he let a bunch of us out of our contracts and released our stuff back to our control. Not just me, but bigger names like Declan Finn suddenly found ourselves out in the cold, and just in time for a con (Liberty Con) that we expected to have books to shill… Well, you can’t shill a book that’s out of publication!
Some of the writers went full indi, and for those that have the skills necessary, that’s probably the right way to go. I, on the other hand, don’t have those skills, and know I don’t have them. I also don’t have the time, unless I wanted to close down the farming side of my life, shut down the woodshop, let the land go wild, and let my better half take all the burden on the house issues.
That’s not an option.
So I was searching for a new publisher, when I went to Liberty. That’s when someone above smiled. At the first panel I was on that weekend, chaired by none other than John Ringo, I wound up sitting next to some dude I had never seen before. I was first to introduce myself to the crowd, and as part of the intro mentioned that the John Fisher Chronicles are temporarily out of print, while I find a publisher.
The guy next to me, as part of his introduction mentions that he’s starting up a publishing company, and looking for writers. Ringo looks over, picks up the microphone, and says “well, now that we’ve got you two straitened out, lets fix the next guys issues!”
I signed the contract on Saturday, Defiant House Entertainment will be publishing all three of the current John Fisher novels, with first denial on any future ones. I won’t have any books at Imaginarium con this weekend, but I will at least have a publisher!
As I was typing this, I got an IM. A dear friend of many many years just passed away, massive heart attack. I’m sorry, but this is going to take some processing, before I can write any more, so I’ll be back next week.
QOTD: “I would rather have four good screws than two blowjobs!”
AT 2 TAR Jean Ellen Tucker, passed 7/10/2026- who hated the fighter mafia and loved her P-3s
Yours in Service,
William Lehman