Will Hawkins

That Granger is heading for London after a long interval in Russia is a promise of continuing adventures, though operating under Adm. St. Vincent bodes ill for his immediate future. First, I can see him being placed in command of the frigate, Calliope, to replace the present captain who is ill and being assigned to take that officer back to London to recover his health, then being assigned to some other adventure as his command of the frigate is confirmed. However, being now under St. Vincent, as First Lord of the Admiralty, might bring problems before that happens. At any rate, we will see...

At the opening of this chapter, the lookout reports land off the Larboard bow, but Granger is horrified to find land to Starboard. There seems to be some confusion at this moment of dawn! I do not envy Granger in his colder temperatures. Here in Bahia where I am living, the high temperatures vary from 25 to 30 during the day with a drop to 20 at night. My old bones are very happy with those temperatures.

Finally the bell rung … Finally the bell rang The quotation by one if your commenters is … a well thought out plan of battle is good only until the first gun is fired. I believe it is said by a Chinese General many years back in history. I could look it up, but I am too lazy!

I am normally very famous for nitpick comments on stories in GA. It is a special temptation for an author who is writing dialog spoken by young people, to insert bad grammar into their speech. I congratulate you on avoiding that temptation. Your grammar seems to be all correct, and in no case will I ever comment on punctuation…that is a morass from which no author ever recovers. I am enjoying my reading and can only say, keep up the good work. Mr Will

This gives both you and I ... This gives both you and me. As an author, if you are trying to decide which form of a pronoun to use, just say the phrase to yourself, leaving out one of the objects. It will be immediately clear which one to select. Frequently the form to use — the objective case, will be the one that sounds correct to your ear. As in this case, This gives I sounds wrong, as opposed to this gives me.

Okay, I am back to re-read this book as a sequel to book one. Let us see if I can make more sense of this book, knowing some of the characterizations and relationships from the first book. Have you hired an editor as yet. I am looking forward to smooth writing from here on out. Mr Will

Note that bread is not totally vegetarian. There may be ingredients in bread that are animal based, but these ingredients do not require the killing of the animal from which they are developed. Milk being an example, as well as fats. The use of whooping in describing a competition stems from the ancient word whup, He keeps whooping our Enforcer meaning to beat or overcome.

The standard spelling for the verbal command to stop, is whoa. You have used the command to stop several times in this chapter, mis-spelling it with the h in the wrong place. I am pleased to see that you are seeking help with your grammar issues — clearing those up will help the reader understand the story line more easily.

and let hit be known, … and let it be known

oplep A warm guest of wind, a warm gust of wind Dave drolled on, Dave dronned on

Vincent couldn't himself and ran his fingers along the large bicep. Is there a word missing from this statement? Perhaps -contain, or -control?

For a candidate about to become a member of a normal sized pack to be invited to spar with the wolf of the Alpha of the largest pack in the nation, is a great honor as long as it is sparring only – he can gain a great deal of respect by sparring well at such a professional level. And, if he does well, will increase the prestige of his pack greatly. I can only hope no-one gets hurt too badly. But, at this beginning stage in the story line, I do not see that as a possibility.

Check your use of the word -bunker down- I think the expression is -hunker down-. The make out session at the front door was well written.

My name is MisterWill, I am an old f+++t, born in 1932, that means, if I live that long, I will be 90 years old this September. I am a former College instructor from Washington State, living in Brazil because of the weather and free health care. I consider myself very lucky, I still have all my hair, all but two of my teeth, and most of my marbles. This story holds out the promise of being a bit different, lycanthropy (werewolves) with magic mixed in. I am looking forward to reading it.

It seems that history is in agreement on the mental condition of George III at the time of the War of Independence of the British colonies in America, and that about a half-dozen European kingdoms were cursed with the same weakness. I am thinking of several Scandinavian countries as well as Portugal that were cursed with similar royal insanities at about this same era, all in the name of keeping the bloodlines pure. That one concept destroyed the majority of the royal houses of the world within a couple of generations.

I am into my third reading of this series and am loving it just as much as my first. Keep up the good work, Mark, and now I will just settle back and enjoy. Mr Will

As an old (80+), retired schoolteacher living in the fringes of the Brazilian rain forest in Bahia, I have depended upon Mark's writing of this series of chapters to maintain my sanity. First point, grammar: I am famous (or infamous, as the case may be) for being a stickler for proper grammar. I am pleased to report that Mark, and his editing staff, have not disappointed me in this respect. If I am able, as nit-picky as I am, to find even one grammar error in a chapter, it is a cause for celebration – he just does NOT make the grievous errors that destroy the reader's pleasure in reading the works by other authors. Second point, characterization: Mark's characters are alive, they live and breathe. They have emotions and express those through their dialog perfectly. They grow and react to situations and events just as if they are real people. I find myself becoming deeply involved in their emotions, likes and dislikes, as I read through the chapters. It gets to the point that I feel these are real persons, not the product of someone's pen. Oh, I could go on and on, but to summarize, Mark is an author in every sense of the word, and well deserves a five-star rating.

Castlereagh's fiefdom was Irish and he ended up committing suicide by cutting his own throat. Is this chapter the first time we have heard about him?

Just for your future information, Mark, 'studdingsail' is correctly spelled as one word. No space, no dash. OK, now the 'old Troll' will duck back under his bridge again. I find so few grammatical errors in your work, Mark, I am almost ashamed to pick on one –- even a tiny one such as this. You are a superb author and your editing staff must be bored, finding so very little to correct. Mr Will

"Fair winds and a following sea." is an ancient blessing when a wind-ship sets sail and I believe it is appropriate in this case.

Now remember that I am an old man (80+) but I have a friend here in Brazil named 'Bruno' as well. My Bruno is a BIG boy, young, about 18 yo. He stands over six feet tall and is all lean muscle.Because we live in Brazil where nobody wears shoes, his feet have spread out wide as well. So I enjoy reading about a Bruno in a story. Unfortunately my Bruno does not own a bar however.

Mark, does anyone in your stories ever eat anything other than pizza? A serving of lasagna would be nice for a change!

Hold on a moment here! Don't give up on JP just yet – HIV-AIDS has been determined to be not quite the killer it was at first thought to be, and the first test normally given to detect increased viral loading sometimes is not accurate.

Hospital Food: To be a dietician in a hospital setting may be one of the most thankless jobs in the world. Hospital Food ends up being tasteless and bland because of the many restrictions placed upon its choice. It must not create allergic reactions, violate any religious taboos and be suitable for nutrition for the sick and those recovering from surgery, even intestinal surgery, and, much of the time, it must be served at bedside.