Posts Tagged ‘intelligence agencies’

Our ‘Underground Knowledge’ discussion group on the popular Goodreads.com site continues to go from strength to strength with membership now topping 480, making this one of the fastest growing groups on Goodreads.

Goodreads: Book reviews, recommendations, and discussion

The group is aimed at those with an interest in the world we live in and a desire to learn or to uncover “underground knowledge” on important issues of our times.

Everyone’s welcome to join! All you need is an enquiring mind. Our members include scientists, teachers, historians, authors, intelligence agency personnel, bankers, housewives, whistleblowers, students and one or two busy-bodies (two actually).

 

Here are some popular discussion threads that you might like to check out or better still to join in on…

Are cures for cancer being covered up by Big Pharma? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/…

Mozart and shattering the inborn genius myth: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/…

Operation Mockingbird – The CIA’s use of hundreds of US journalists to deliver propaganda to the American people: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/…

Is Queen Elizabeth II richer and more powerful than anyone else on Earth? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/…

The overpopulation myth – the counter-theory that the planet is not over populated: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/…

Evidence for scientifically advanced Ancient civilizations? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/…

Does the Illuminati even exist anymore? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/…

 

Latest poll

Our latest new poll is proving the most popular to date. It asks: Do you believe the world in 2015 is the most scientifically evolved civilization in the history of the Earth? To date, 52% say no, 19% yes and 29% are unsure. A fascinating discussion is developing in the comments section as well – so do check it out and feel free to have your say: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1…

The poll closes January 12 PST.

 

To visit our ‘Underground Knowledge’ group go to: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/142309-underground-knowledge—a-discussion-group

 

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 One of the recurring themes throughout The Orphan Trilogy is that the global elite will continue to profit any way they can. That often means orchestrating wars all over the planet. And to create wars there don’t need to be any genuine enemies, only perceived enemies. If enough citizens believe their national security’s in jeopardy then politicians who propose wars will receive the support they need.

Of course, the public are reliant on the media to inform them of the facts regarding potential threats. And therein lies the problem.

In early 2013, the world was told North Korea was on the verge of starting a nuclear war. This sparked a certain amount of fear worldwide while on social media reaction to the rumored nuclear threat bordered on something closer to hysteria.

Notwithstanding Kim Jong-un’s Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a brutal regime that has committed untold human rights violations against its own people, it appeared then as now an unlikely threat to world peace. Despite the 25 million-strong rogue state having declared itself a nuclear power, it seemed in all probability to be just that – self-declared and nothing more. The vast majority of nuclear and regional experts agreed that North Korea’s arsenal amounted to only a handful of crude devices and they concluded the country was unlikely to have nuclear-armed missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Furthermore, the overwhelming consensus was that to become a true nuclear power, North Korean scientists would need a lot more bomb fuel than they had access to at that time.

Kim Jong Un Hasnt Been Seen for Weeks as Kerry, U.S. Confront North Korea Aggression

Kim Jong-un…Is he really a threat to the West?

Siegfried Hecker, an American nuclear scientist who has regularly been granted access to North Korea’s nuclear facilities, said the rogue nation lacked the materials to be a nuclear threat. Posting on the website of Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation in April 2013, Hecker said: “North Korea does not yet have much of a nuclear arsenal because it lacks fissile materials and has limited nuclear testing experience.”

Other similarly qualified commentators expressed near identical viewpoints. However, none of these expert opinions seem to have been taken into account by Western media outlets. Instead, most ran with the sensationalist angle that a nuclear war was a possibility. Some journalists even went so far as to mention the potential for World War Three by bringing China into the equation and assuming it would side with North Korea in any international conflict.

Less than a month or so later the news story had completely fizzled.

From what we can ascertain, the whole episode was essentially the media hyping up a decades old stand-off between North Korea and the West.

This brief but high profile news story drove us to question whether any wars have arisen from sensationalism or propaganda.

 

“Why else do you think we are permanently at war in various regions all over the world? And why is it the citizens of this country, one of the richest on earth, get poorer each year?”The Orphan Factory

 

Conventional wisdom suggests all international armed conflicts since WW2 were inevitable and the millions of soldiers and civilians who have been killed during this period were sacrificed for some greater good. Certainly that’s the commonly-held belief about conflicts Western nations – America and Britain in particular – have been involved in.

But is this really true?

If wars create vast sums of money for the global elite, is it possible the Soviets, Viet Cong and Muslims were, or are, also fabricated enemies of the West along with North Korea? Or at least exaggerated threats?

We also questioned whether there are enough natural enemies left in the 21st Century to organically lead to wars involving superpowers. After researching the history of false flag operations, we would have to say no. Otherwise, why would there be a need for any of these false flag attacks? If the purported aggressors were invading other nations in broad daylight then surely there’d be no need to fabricate anything.

Gulf War Photobox.jpg

The First Gulf War aka Operation Desert Storm…Another false flag op?

A false flag operation is basically the act of committing a terrorist event or an act of war and having others blamed for it. In recent times those others are usually oil-rich countries like Iraq, geographically or strategically important nations such as Cuba, or drug-abundant states like Afghanistan.

False flag terrorism is employed by governments and intelligence agencies all over the world. It is cleverly orchestrated propaganda designed to provoke specific reactions from the masses in the build-up to war. Sowing the seed, they call it, where – in agricultural terms – the ground is prepared for the harvest that will most assuredly follow. The harvest in this case being war, or more to the point, the spoils of war.

The powers-that-be understand that to create the appropriate atmosphere for war, it’s necessary to create within the general populace a hatred, fear or mistrust of others regardless of whether those others belong to a certain group of people or to a religion or a nation.

Essentially, the global elite’s modus operandi when it comes to creating the perfect environment for wars can be summed up in two words: manufacturing consent.

 

“In war, truth is the first casualty.” –Aeschylus, Greek dramatist (525 BC – 456BC)

 

Ancient Rome

Roman emperor Nero is believed by many historians to be responsible for one of the earliest false flag operations. Those historians claim that Nero was the perpetrator of the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD in which a third of the ancient city was torched.

The emperor’s ulterior motive, they say, was to build Domus Aurea, an enormous building that would include the Colossus of Nero – none other than a massive bronze statue of himself! Before the fire, the Senate had blocked the emperor’s proposal to destroy a third of the city to make way for this complex.

According to Roman historian Tacitus (56 AD – 117 AD), Nero told the Roman population that the Christians, whom Rome was at war with, were responsible for the fire.

While not everyone agrees with Tacitus, no-one disputes that Nero got his way in the end. The impressive Domus Aurea was built in the heart of ancient Rome precisely where the great fire had cleared away the aristocratic dwellings. Naturally, the complex included that statue of himself – the mighty Colossus of Nero.

Nazis framing communists

Another fire was responsible for one of many Nazi false flag operations.

In 1933, the Reichstag, the seat of the German parliament, was set ablaze. Adolf Hitler immediately stated he had evidence that communist terrorists started the fire. Most Germans readily accepted that – influenced no doubt by the month-long, Nazi-sponsored street violence that preceded the fire. The violence achieved its aim of creating a Red Scare, or a fear of communists, within the general populace.

The following day, Hitler and his party persuaded the elderly and senile President von Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Decree. The decree, which was supposedly a defence against future terrorist acts, suspended almost every major civil liberty afforded German citizens at that time.

Reichstagsbrand.jpg

The Reichstag fire a Nazi plot.

Despite the Nazi party’s attempt to blame the fire on a group of communists, the communists were later acquitted by the German government itself.

Most historians agree that members of the Nazi Party were responsible for the fire in the Reichstag. The Hitlerites did this in stealth of course, using one Marinus van der Lubbe, a mentally disturbed arsonist hungry for fame, as their patsy. They’d received a tip-off that van der Lubbe planned to burn the building down. Not only did the Nazis let him do it, they encouraged him and even helped by leaving gasoline in parts of the building.

 

“All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed.” –Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

 

The US Military’s proposal to kill Americans

In 1962, the US Government’s Department of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed carrying out acts of terrorism on American soil to justify military intervention in Cuba.

Hard to swallow or believe, we know, but it’s on the record. Numerous military and intelligence documents recording these disturbing false flag proposals, known as Operation Northwoods, have since been declassified.

Operation Northwoods remained a secret for 35 years. The sinister proposal first came to the public’s attention in November 1997 when The John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board declassified various top secret military records, which included the Northwoods documents. The following year, the National Security Archive published further revealing information on Northwoods.

A (since declassified) ‘Top Secret’ memo dated March 13, 1962, addressed to the Secretary of Defense and signed by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff makes for interesting reading. Its subject line reads: Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba.

Item No. 1 on that memo reads: “The Joint Chiefs of Staff have considered the attached Memorandum for the Chief of Operations, Cuba Project, which responds to a request of that office for brief but precise description of pretexts which would provide justification for US military intervention in Cuba.”

Operation Northwoods’ plans included the sinking of US war ships, shooting down hijacked passenger planes, killing innocent American citizens, letting off bombs and orchestrating other violent terrorist acts in major cities including Washington DC and Miami.

Every event would be blamed on Fidel Castro and the Cuban regime. The Joint Chiefs of Staff’s logic was that these events would help gain enough support from the American public and the world at large for a US military invasion of Cuba.

Fortunately, President Kennedy immediately rejected the Northwoods proposal and fired one of its main proponents, Lyman Lemnitzer, who was then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

President Kennedy with his Joint Chiefs of Staff incl. Lemnizter (third from left).

The following year, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, while Lemnitzer was appointed Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.

Go figure!

In his 2001 book Body of Secrets, US political journalist and bestselling author James Bamford wrote that Operation Northwoods “called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war”.

Sadly, Bamford is one of the few well-known political commentators to write about Operation Northwoods. When the documents were declassification in 1997, they were almost universally ignored by the media.

Apparently on-the-record discussions within the US Government about murdering its own citizens as propaganda to create a war were not deemed newsworthy.

 

Nine knew from experience it was simply about those powerful few, the secret elite, who manipulated the world’s nations. On his many international assignments over the years, he had discovered the so-called evil countries were all too often controlled by the same people who ran the countries fighting to liberate them.The Ninth Orphan

 

The false flag that began the Vietnam War

On August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson alerted his fellow Americans on national television that North Vietnam had attacked the American destroyer USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Not long after, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave Johnson the green light to begin military operations against North Vietnam. American troops were soon stationed in Vietnam and neighboring countries, and the war that would dominate an era began.

However, President Johnson and his Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, successfully hoodwinked the American people because North Vietnam never attacked the USS Maddox as the Pentagon had claimed, and the so-called unequivocal evidence of a second attack by the North Vietnamese is now commonly acknowledged as being a false report.

A National Security Agency (NSA) report on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, declassified in 2005, concluded that USS Maddox had engaged the North Vietnamese Navy on August 2, 1964, but (and this is a big but) “The Maddox fired three rounds to warn off the communist boats. This initial action was never reported by the Johnson administration, which insisted that the Vietnamese boats fired first.”

Regarding the all-important second attack on August 4 – which effectively caused the Vietnam War – the NSA report concluded there were no North Vietnamese Naval vessels present during the entire incident: “It is not simply that there is a different story as to what happened; it is that no attack happened that night.”

Tonkingunboats.jpg

“No attack happened.” – NSA report on Gulf of Tonkin incident.

If an organization as biased as the NSA says no attack ever happened then it seems very safe to say the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was nothing but a phantom attack on the US Military. It was carefully crafted propaganda devised to manufacture consent for all-out war.

In this instance that propaganda ended up costing approximately 60,000 American lives and three million Vietnamese lives.

 

Factual reporting is all too often propaganda designed to provoke certain reactions from the masses.The Orphan Factory

 

According to our research, WW2 was one of the last legitimate wars. Legitimate in that there was probably no other alternative but war. Nearly all other wars since – especially the Gulf Wars, Vietnam, The Falklands War and the various Afghan wars – have simply been money-spinners spawned by the fear of fabricated enemies or at least unproven enemies.

This all leads to other questions.

Were communists ever a valid threat? When the US pulled out of Vietnam, why didn’t the much hyped Domino Theory ever occur? Why weren’t most other Asian countries overrun by communism as this theory stated was inevitable?

Is it realistic to have a war on ‘terror’ instead of a conventional war against a recognizable nation or group of nations? Can bearded nomads living in caves in Afghanistan or Pakistan really be a genuine threat to superpowers? And can isolated and impoverished nations like North Korea prevent world peace if the rest of the world wants peace?

Would North Korean president Kim Jong-un actually order his military to fire nuclear weapons and incite war? If so, what would be in it for North Korea when they’d obviously be committing suicide by inviting the rest of the world to immediately invade them? Can a leader of any nation really be that stupid?

And why is it leaders of such fiercely independent nations as Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and Libya are usually portrayed as madmen while the likes of George W. Bush are said to be completely sane?

Maybe world leaders and the invisible puppet masters who pull their strings are not that different to Rome’s Emperor Nero all those centuries ago.

And it appears the world has not learnt from the well-documented false flag deceptions of the past, for as at the time of writing, news reports are surfacing that imply a new arms conflict between Russia, the Ukraine and the United States is possible.

Although the disagreement over the disputed region of Crimea appears to be a little more complicated than the North Korea issue, the usual signs of propaganda also seem to be being disseminated by warmongers. Echoing almost verbatim the alarmist news reports on North Korea a year earlier, talk of a return to the days of the Cold War, or even the possibility of World War Three, are being mentioned in the media in regard to this standoff in the Ukraine.

War memorial in Tiraspol,

And here we go again…This time it’s the Ukraine.

We certainly don’t pretend to have all the answers, but we agree with whoever it was who said we should all study the past to understand the present.

Of course, we could be totally wrong in our assumptions concerning wars. In which case, North Korea really may be about to nuke us all! If that’s true, the best advice we could give you is to put this book down immediately and spend what’s left of your precious life in party mode.

 

Read more in The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy – available now via Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Conspiracies-Conspiracy-Theories-ebook/dp/B00J4MPFT6/

A book that’s for the common people.

 

Happy reading! –James & Lance

 

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“The secret history of the 20th Century and the early 21st Century.” – That’s how Dr. Takaaki Musha, a former senior research scientist at the Technical Research and Development Institute of Japan’s Ministry of Defense, describes our new release book, The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy.

Book bridges gap between fiction and fact.

Dr. Musha, who is also Director of Japan’s Advanced-Science Technology Research Organization and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Exploration, kindly penned the Foreword in our book – a book he believes “discloses exactly what is happening right now…in the corridors of power, in prime banks and meetings of the global elite.”

Dr. Takaaki Musha

As the title of our new book suggests, The Orphan Conspiracies examines 29 conspiracy theories highlighted in our top rating international thriller series, The Orphan Trilogy. It fully explores the real-world suppositions, assumptions and theories we included in our fictional series and provides answers to the questions our readers have been asking.

Over the coming weeks, starting today with Dr. Musha’s Foreword, we will feature excerpts from The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy. Conspiracy theories explored range from false flag operations, international banksters, genius techniques of the elite and suppressed science to the Queen’s invisible riches, the Medical Industrial Complex and real-life Manchurian Candidates.

We welcome comment and feedback from you, our readers and followers…

 The Orphan Conspiracies: 29...

THE ORPHAN CONSPIRACIES

Foreword

The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy, by James Morcan & Lance Morcan, contains hard-to-find knowledge. This book is based on the political, scientific and financial insights contained in the Morcans’ bestselling international thriller series The Orphan Trilogy.

Throughout The Orphan Trilogy, James & Lance merge fact with fiction by incorporating real-world theories on known individuals and organizations. Now, with this non-fiction companion volume, they provide detailed analysis for each one of those controversial theories.

In many ways, this exhaustively-researched book is the secret history of the 20th Century and the early 21st Century. But more than a history lesson, it also discloses exactly what is happening right now behind the scenes – in underground bunkers, in the corridors of power, in prime banks and meetings of the global elite.

Currently, the world is in a desperate state due to environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources and food supplies, and economic inequalities. To solve these problems and to reach the next level of Mankind, a “new innovation of technology” is required. But nowadays innovative technologies such as cold fusion, and radical energy sources, including sonoluminescent-triggered fusionand anti-gravitational propulsion, are either being withheld or blocked by governments, old-fashioned science academia and multinational corporations.

The Orphan Conspiracies: 29...

I believe that the Big-Bang Theory and the Evolution Theory, as well as Einstein’s Special Relativity Theory which does not allow for the existence of faster-than-light (superluminal) phenomena, all have flaws in them and must be replaced by new theories that can give Mankind a more concise view of our Universe. But the fact is exceptional discoveries and theories that challenge official science have been ignored by the Establishment for decades.

I was employed for many years as a senior research scientist developing naval underwater weapon systems at the Technical Research and Development Institute of the Ministry of Defense, Japan, and I often suspected there existed extraordinary technologies developed by the world’s superpowers. I am of the opinion that most of these technologies have been concealed from the public’s eyes.

The world’s governments have many classified layers and outsiders rarely gain access to their hidden secrets. And certainly no common man can get confirmation of the existence of exotic technologies.

I was also part of a team of scientists in the Advanced Space Propulsion Investigation Committee (ASPIC), which was organized by the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences in 1994. ASPIC’s purpose was to study all kinds of non-chemical space propulsion systems instead of conventional rocket systems for space missions to nearby planets, the Moon and the outer Solar System. This included field propulsion systems which utilize zero-point energy, the electro-gravitic effect and the non-Newtonian gravitic effect predicted in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity.

The Orphan Conspiracies: 29...

During my time with ASPIC, I strongly felt that some of the gravity control systems could have been realized, or had already been realized, but were being overshadowed by existing science. Such radical space technologies never reach the public because unknown groups do not wish humanity to have access to the highest knowledge or the most advanced scientific inventions. Perhaps this suppression is out of fear that the masses may be able to explore our Solar System and the Universe beyond it.

Whatever the case, it seems they want us to stay at ignorant levels forever.

This book is also about the purposeful bankrupting of nations around the world, the inherently corrupt monetary system and the scam of modern banking – all of which have obviously become major vices of our era. I believe that financial domination is one of the main methods used to enslave the people of this world.

I expect readers of this book will be surprised by the level of knowledge imparted in its pages especially with its revelations of exotic technologies, financial injustices, political deceptions and suppressed scientific discoveries. I also expect readers will be inspired by the lifting of the veil that occurs when long-guarded information is absorbed.

Lastly, I sincerely hope that the publication of this book contributes to a global awakening which assists the future creation of new scientific theories and technologies – including space propulsion systems – that are not currently on the mainstream scientific agenda.

-Dr. Takaaki Musha, Director of the Advanced-Science Technology Research Organization (Japan) / Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Space Exploration (Mehta Press) / Former senior research scientist at the Technical Research and Development Institute of the Ministry of Defense, Japan.

Product Details

The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy is available now as a Kindle ebook via Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Conspiracies-Conspiracy-Theories-ebook/dp/B00J4MPFT6/

 

Happy reading! –Lance & James

 

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Our coming-of-age spy thriller, The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2), is available to Kindle users at the reduced price of 99c via Amazon.com and Amazon.UK until Feb. 17th PST.

4.6 Star average review rating

This top rated thriller is the prequel to The Ninth Orphan, book one in The Orphan Trilogy. It’s an epic, atmospheric story that begins with twenty-three genetically superior orphans being groomed to become elite spies in Chicago’s Pedemont Orphanage and concludes with a political assassination deep in the Amazon jungle. Embark on another frenetic journey with Nine, the ninth-born orphan, as he goes on the run across America.

Here’s a brief synopsis:

In the late 1970’s, in Chicago, Illinois, the secretive Omega Agency initiates the Pedemont Project – a radical experiment utilizing genetic engineering technologies – to create twenty-three orphan babies with the plan to turn them into the world’s most effective assassins.

One of the prodigies will rebel: meet Number Nine, an orphan with a mind of his own.

In 1998, when Nine reaches adulthood and graduates with honors from the Pedemont Orphanage, he is already an adept of the deadly espionage arts. Ordered by his Omega masters to assassinate a survivor of the Jonestown tragedy in Guyana’s Amazon rainforest, Nine is forced to draw upon all of his advanced training just to stay alive.

After 38 reviews, The Orphan Factory maintains its 4.6 Star average review rating on Amazon.

Here’s a sample of Amazon reviewers’ comments:

I loved getting to know more about Nine and his early years, his rivalry with 17 and interaction with other orphans, his self discovery and his ability to survive in a dangerous and deadly world. I am now looking forward to reading the third and final novel in this thrilling trilogy. –Pat O’Meara

Fast paced and never boring. I was drawn into the plot almost right from the beginning. –S.C.M. Hartstra-van Kan

Action and drama prevail in this exciting story. –Sheri A. Wilkinson

This novel explains how the orphans were produced and why and how they were trained…An awesome read. –“Westerntarheel”

A very well written, multifaceted book that is a joy to read. The authors have taken a genre which has been attacked from many angles and woven a modern, distinctive adventure. I am now going to re-read The Ninth Orphan.  –S.J. Hailey

An exceptional read, well written with just the right amount of explosive excitement that makes you sit up and take notice. Looking forward to the first and last in the trilogy which gives me the excuse to read the second one once again. –D. Catterall

The authors remind you The Orphan Factory is available now through to February 17th PST at the sharply discounted price of 99c. It’s available via Kindle at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M9WWKW/

 

Happy reading! –Lance & James

 

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As America – or President Obama at least – seems intent on attacking Syria, I’m reminded of a quote from The Orphan Factory, book two in our conspiracy thriller series, The Orphan Trilogy. In it, Omega Agency Special Agent Tommy Kentbridge asks a young Nine, the ninth-born orphan, “Why else do you think we are permanently at war in various regions all over the world?”

Perhaps the question would be better directed at Obama?

President Barack Obama

Obama soon to announce a new offensive?

Kentbridge, who is Nine’s mentor and the closest thing to a father figure the lad will ever know, also asks, “And why is it the citizens of this country, one of the richest on earth, get poorer each year?”

Good questions – even if we, the writers, say so ourselves!

Here’s some more from The Orphan Factory:

Special Agent Kentbridge had long-since realized America was not the unified country most people thought it was. Due to his position, he was aware of the extremely fragmented, corrupt and sick state of the nation. He also knew that sickness was entirely due to the conflicting agendas of the various shadow organizations that had infiltrated most Government departments and agencies. Within each power group – be it Congress or the Military-Industrial Complex – there were huge divisions as each of the secret factions strived to be top dog.

The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2), is available via Amazon as a Kindle ebook via: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M9WWKW/

 

Happy reading!Lance & James

 

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This week’s review of our coming-of-age spy thriller The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2) in Chicago web publication Gapers Block has thrown the spotlight on Chicago.

Chicago, the ‘City of the big shoulders’ as hometown poet-made-good Carl Sandburg once called it, is home to the twenty-three orphans who are raised in Chicago’s Pedemont Orphanage. It’s not just any orphanage. It’s home to genetically-engineered orphans who are raised to become the deadliest intelligence operatives the world has ever seen. Their purpose? To help the clandestine Omega Agency achieve its dream of establishing a New World Order.

     

If reader response is anything to go by, Chicago-ites seem to resonate with The Orphan Factory. Not surprising given their hometown figures so prominently in this novel.

The novel’s prologue sets the scene. Have a read and enjoy…

 

Prologue

An old vagrant hummed tunelessly to himself as he warmed his bony hands over a fire he’d lit minutes earlier in a drum long since blackened by perhaps a hundred such fires. Certainly more fires than he, or any of his street cronies, could remember. He stopped humming when, across a busy thoroughfare, a gravel-voiced busker began reciting poetry.

“Stormy, husky, brawling,” the busker rumbled. “City of the big shoulders.” He was reciting verse from the works of hometown poet-made-good, Carl Sandburg. The poem was appropriately titled Chicago. “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.” The busker, a long-haired Vietnam veteran whose only concession to his military past was his VSM service medal which he still wore with pride, looked directly at the old vagrant opposite.

The vagrant imagined the busker smiled at him, though he couldn’t be sure in the fading early evening light. Even so, he flashed a toothless grin in the other’s direction.

Soon, the old man was joined by half a dozen street pals. All homeless like him, they appeared like disheveled ghosts out of the shadows, attracted partly by the warmth of the fire and partly by the busker. They listened intently to the poet’s words that flowed effortlessly from the busker’s mouth. Words that painted images so vivid in their minds it was as if the men were watching a kaleidoscope of their own youth.  

“Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,” the busker continued. “Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs.”

Several passersby paused to listen, but none bothered to drop a donation into the hat that lay at the busker’s feet. Finally, as the busker finished his recital, a business executive threw a quarter into the hat without breaking stride. Encouraged, the busker launched into another Sandberg poem.

Listening to the busker delivering further verses about his beloved Windy City, the old vagrant couldn’t help but note the irony: there wasn’t a breath of wind on this still Chicago evening.

The vagrant’s parents had always assured him the city’s misleading nickname had nothing to do with the weather. His mother had insisted the Windy City label came from the longwinded speeches given by the city’s Nineteenth Century politicians, while his father claimed the moniker had been mischievously bestowed by competitive New Yorkers in their attempt to win the World Trade Fair of 1893.

To add to the contradictions, even though it was February, it was an unusually mild winter’s evening. The vagrants gathered around the fire warming their hands did so more out of habit than necessity on this occasion.

Chicago’s streets were busy and the mood downtown was fairly upbeat. President Jimmy Carter was due to visit the city and greater Illinois the following day. Word had spread: the President would be here soon, and come hell or high water he was going to receive a right, royal Illinois welcome.

As Chicagoans went about their business, hurrying home after a long day at the office or heading out to sample the city’s nightlife, none were remotely aware of the sinister, Nazi-like experiment taking place virtually under their noses.

Despite the experiment’s seventy five million dollar price tag, only a select few knew about it. Those in the know did not include the city’s Mayor or any state politicians; at Federal level, not even the President knew about it.

The experiment was taking place in a laboratory in the concealed basement of a renovated warehouse just off North Michigan Avenue. Seven pregnant women were in various stages of labor in the lab that served as a makeshift maternity hospital.

Like some Orwellian nightmare, the women were giving birth in clockwork-like fashion, almost in unison.

Small teams comprised of doctors and white-coated geneticists assisted the women. A specialist induced latecomers. In the lab’s far corner, two suited men looked on expectantly.

The numerous personnel in attendance were all in the employ of the Omega Agency, a recently formed and highly secretive outfit which would one day become the world’s most powerful shadow organization.

Supervising the eerie experiment was Omega’s own Doctor Frankenstein – better known as Doctor Pedemont, the brilliant biomedical scientist responsible for the radical science behind it. Over the past few years, with the help of his team of geneticists, Doctor Pedemont had painstakingly selected the fetus’ genes from thousands of sperm donations combined with the genes of his female subjects. The donations had come from another medical experiment referred to as the Genius Sperm Bank.

The motivation behind the Genius Sperm Bank, which had been initiated over a decade earlier, was to advance the breeding of super-intelligent people. The bank was stocked full of semen donations solicited from many of the world’s most intelligent men.

Benefiting from the efforts of some of Omega’s elite operatives, Doctor Pedemont had unlawfully obtained hundreds of samples from the Genius Sperm Bank. Then, taking the best of the sperm donations, he’d artificially inseminated the very women who were now in the process of giving birth. This meant each child that was about to be born effectively had one mother and numerous fathers.

The legalities of the entire operation were of no concern to Omega. Although still in its formative stages, the agency was already above the law.

A tense Doctor Pedemont and three geneticists fussed over the first mother-to-be, a young redheaded woman, as she entered the final stages of labor. The two suits observing from afar waited anxiously as the geneticists used advanced scientific equipment to monitor the birth.

The redhead gave birth to female twins. They arrived six minutes apart. Doctor Pedemont picked up the first twin. After removing the umbilical cord, he placed the newborn baby on a set of scales. “Number Five,” he announced. “Born 7.43 pm. Weight seven pounds, thirteen ounces.”

One of the geneticists recorded the doctor’s findings in a file labeled Number Five. Sadly, this would be the closest the girl would ever have to a real name.

Doctor Pedemont gave the baby to another geneticist then grabbed her newborn sister and weighed her. “Number Six. Born 7.49 pm. Weight seven pounds, one ounce.”

The advent of twins was no accident, of course. Their arrival had been planned for, like everything else that occurred within the Omega Agency.

The next baby was born minutes later to an African-American woman. It was a boy who was clearly of African descent. However, he had a much lighter skin tone than his mother, indicating most or all of the sperm donations inseminated into the woman were taken from Caucasian men.

“Number Seven,” Doctor Pedemont announced. “Born 7.56 pm. Weighs exactly five pounds. A few weeks prem, but is perfectly healthy.”

Because Number Seven was a premature birth, one of the geneticists immediately placed him in an incubator. Number Eight, who was born quarter of an hour later, was a healthy girl of Oriental descent.

When Number Nine was born, the mother, a beautiful dark-haired woman with striking green eyes, reached out to Doctor Pedemont to indicate she wished to hold the boy she had just birthed. The doctor looked around enquiringly at the two mysterious suits who remained in the corner. After discussing it between themselves, the older of the two nodded.

Doctor Pedemont looked back at the newborn’s mother cautiously. “You know you’ll never see him again, Annette?”

Annette nodded forlornly. She fully understood the ramifications of her agreement with the Omega Agency. Doctor Pedemont reluctantly placed Number Nine in Annette’s arms. The baby boy reached out and placed his tiny hand on the ruby that hung from a silver necklace she wore.

“Sebastian,” Annette whispered tearfully as she looked into her son’s eyes. “I name you Sebastian, after my father.”

Anxious to avoid further bonding between mother and son, Doctor Pedemont took Number Nine from Annette and handed him to one of the geneticists who, without ceremony, jabbed a needle into the boy. Predictably, Nine started screaming. His mother looked on resignedly.

Later that night, two more boys and another girl were born. Like Number Nine, all three were Caucasian.

As Number Twelve, the last of the newborns, was weighed, the two suits approached a relieved Doctor Pedemont. They looked more relaxed now. The older of the two, a short, stocky, dapper individual with heavily pock-marked skin, reached for the doctor’s hand and shook it firmly. This was Andrew Naylor, the Omega Agency’s hard-nosed director who was known for his foul temper as well as for his lazy eye, which never quite managed to focus on whomever he was addressing at the time.

“Congratulations, doctor,” Naylor mumbled without even a hint of a smile.

“Thank you,” a beaming Doctor Pedemont responded, taking care to avoid eye contact with Naylor as he found the other’s lazy eye highly disconcerting.

Naylor’s companion, Special Agent Tommy Kentbridge, patted the doctor on the back in congratulatory fashion. “Well done,” Kentbridge said. Tall and ruggedly handsome – physically the polar opposite of Naylor – the special agent was one of Omega’s young stars. As a field operative, he had the sort of record most agents twice his age would be proud of. Although only in his early twenties, Kentbridge had been assigned to manage the products of this agency experiment. Like it or not, he would be the nearest to a father any of them would have.

It was a long-term experiment and no-one knew exactly what the outcome would be. The experiment was known in Omega circles as The Pedemont Project

 

The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2) is available via Amazon as a Kindle ebook: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M9WWKW/

For more info about The Orphan Trilogy (The Ninth Orphan / The Orphan Factory / The Orphan Uprising), go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/SterlingGateBooks

 

Happy reading! –Lance

 

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In this week’s edition of Chicago web publication Gapers Block, Book Club reviewer Kathryn Pulkrabek says:

Reading, writing, and espionage? It’s back to school for 23 genetically-altered orphans being trained as cold-hearted assassins as part of the shadowy Omega Agency’s Pedemont project in The Orphan Factory by James Morcan and Lance Morcan.

Beginning in a Chicago warehouse in the 1970s, this prequel to the Morcans’ The Ninth Orphan recounts the origins of Number Nine, the spy who will eventually rebel against Omega and live life on the run. The inclusion of actual events (such as the Jonestown massacre and Bill Clinton’s presidential election) lends authenticity to the story, while the ease in which they are manipulated by Omega shows that seeing is not necessarily believing– an eerily relevant lesson in our media-saturated world.

The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2) is available via Amazon as a Kindle ebook at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M9WWKW/

It’s one of several young adult novels reviewed in Gapers Block’s Book Club this week. To view them all go to: http://gapersblock.com/bookclub/2013/08/20/in_the_the_book_of/

 

Happy reading! –Lance

 

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Book two in The Orphan Trilogy is a prequel to The Ninth Orphan. It’s an epic, atmospheric story that begins with 23 genetically superior orphans being groomed to become elite spies in Chicago’s Pedemont Orphanage and concludes with a political assassination deep in the Amazon jungle.

With an average review rating of 4.7 out of 5 Stars on Amazon, The Orphan Factory is a coming-of-age spy thriller that sets a frenetic pace. Join Nine, the ninth-born orphan, as he flees his Omega Agency masters and goes on the run across America.

As Amazon review site My Scribe World says, “Buckle up for another wild ride in The Orphan Trilogy.”

Here’s an excerpt from The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2):

The special agent reached into his pocket and pulled out a color photograph, which he handed to the orphan. Nine could tell by its faded color it was old. It was a portrait photo of a dark-haired, green-eyed woman. Nine instinctively knew the woman was his mother, and not just because she was wearing the same ruby necklace Kentbridge had given him a few months earlier and which he now wore around his neck. 

“Sebastian,” Kentbridge whispered.

After a moment, Nine tore his eyes away from the woman in the photograph and looked into his mentor’s eyes.

“Sebastian,” Kentbridge repeated, a little louder this time. “That’s your real name. Your mother named you that when you were born.”

Nine suspected Kentbridge was playing mind games with him. He’d expected that as he was aware Omega’s strategy for dealing with any form of internal dissension was to either terminate the subject or else reprogram them. Given he was still alive – and knowing they’d already invested too much in him to kill him – reprogramming him was the only option. Even so, the information he was being given about his past was so arresting he found it impossible to ignore. “Wish I’d never been born,” he cursed absentmindedly as he studied his mother’s image once more.

“You weren’t born,” Kentbridge reminded him. “You were created. There’s a difference.”

Nine thought on that, but no witty reply came to him.

 

“Your life has a purpose, Sebastian,” the special agent continued. “You should be grateful for that, believe me, because most ordinary citizens just drift through life with zero direction.” Kentbridge nodded toward the fishermen beneath the bridge and council workers enjoying a morning tea break beyond them, indicating he considered them ordinary citizens.

Having had a taste of the world beyond the orphanage and Omega, Nine didn’t agree. However, he remained silent.

“I want you to know I take full responsibility for what happened.” Kentbridge said. “I’m not angry at you. I was at the time, but now in the cold light of day I can see what motivated you to bust out of here.”

Nine noticed his master was talking to him for the first time ever like an adult. He didn’t know whether that was part of the reprogramming or whether his bid for freedom had earned him some respect. Whatever the case, gone was the patronizing tone Kentbridge had always used when talking to him and the other orphans.

About time!

Nine gave Kentbridge his full attention.

“I take total responsibility, Sebastian, because in hindsight I can see my mistake. I never told you or the other orphans the purpose of the Omega Agency. Or what we are fighting for.”

What we are fighting for? Nine thought that was obvious. World domination to line the pockets of Naylor and his cronies. 

“It’s not about greed,” Kentbridge said as if reading the orphan’s mind. “We are the resistance. The last bastion of hope for freedom.”

“Then who are the bad guys?” Nine retorted with more than a hint of sarcasm.

“The fascists. They took over this country straight after World War Two. Kennedy was the last president who knew anything about this. All those who followed him have been in kept the dark.”

Kentbridge was certain all of the US presidents since JFK had been puppets. The lack of any real decision-making power presidents had was reflected in a long-running joke within the agency: One could place a monkey in the White House Oval Office and everything would run just fine.

Nine looked skeptical.

“I’m serious,” Kentbridge insisted. “Why else do you think we are permanently at war in various regions all over the world? And why is it the citizens of this country, one of the richest on earth, get poorer each year?”

The special agent had long-since realized America was not the unified country most people thought it was. Due to his position, he was aware of the extremely fragmented, corrupt and sick state of the nation. He also knew that sickness was entirely due to the conflicting agendas of the various shadow organizations that had infiltrated most Government departments and agencies. Within each power group – be it Congress or the Military-Industrial Complex – there were huge divisions as each of the secret factions strived to be top dog. 

Kentbridge explained all this to Nine.

The orphan thought about the Nexus Foundation, and wondered where it fitted in. As long as he could remember, Omega had been fighting or at least competing with Nexus, and he’d always wondered why. Now that Kentbridge was being so open, he decided to ask. “And what about Nexus?”

“Nexus has taken advantage of the malaise that has beset this once great nation. When the Constitution was still respected and followed to the letter, an outfit like Nexus could never have gotten off the ground and there’d be no need for an agency like Omega. Nexus sees us as a threat to its ends and is determined to destroy us, you see.”

Again, Nine wasn’t convinced, and his expression reflected that.

“Think about it, if Omega stood for anything but liberty and the greater good, why would any well-meaning, patriotic group try to prevent us from achieving our goals? I mean, there’s a whole raft of destructive agencies out there Nexus could target. Why pick on us?”

Nine had to admit it was a good question.

 

To order The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2), or view the Amazon reviews, go to: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M9WWKW/

For more about this and other Morcan novels go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/SterlingGateBooks

 

Happy reading! – Lance & James

 

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Average Amazon reviewer rating: 4.7 Stars

In The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2) Nine, the ninth-born orphan, is mentored by Tommy Kentbridge, a father figure and special agent with the shadowy Omega Agency.

Here’s an excerpt from The Orphan Factory. In it, Kentbridge tries to convince a young Nine that America’s, and the world’s, very future depends on the establishment of a New World Order…

“It’s not about greed,” Kentbridge said as if reading the orphan’s mind. “We are the resistance. The last bastion of hope for freedom.”

“Then who are the bad guys?” Nine retorted with more than a hint of sarcasm.

“The fascists. They took over this country straight after World War Two. Kennedy was the last president who knew anything about this. All those who followed him have been in kept the dark.”

Kentbridge was certain all of the US presidents since JFK had been puppets. The lack of any real decision-making power presidents had was reflected in a long-running joke within the agency: One could place a monkey in the White House Oval Office and everything would run just fine.

Nine looked skeptical.

“I’m serious,” Kentbridge insisted. “Why else do you think we are permanently at war in various regions all over the world? And why is it the citizens of this country, one of the richest on earth, get poorer each year?”

The special agent had long-since realized America was not the unified country most people thought it was. Due to his position, he was aware of the extremely fragmented, corrupt and sick state of the nation. He also knew that sickness was entirely due to the conflicting agendas of the various shadow organizations that had infiltrated most Government departments and agencies. Within each power group – be it Congress or the Military-Industrial Complex – there were huge divisions as each of the secret factions strived to be top dog.

Kentbridge explained all this to Nine.

The orphan thought about the Nexus Foundation, and wondered where it fitted in. As long as he could remember, Omega had been fighting or at least competing with Nexus, and he’d always wondered why. Now that Kentbridge was being so open, he decided to ask. “And what about Nexus?”

“Nexus has taken advantage of the malaise that has beset this once great nation. When the Constitution was still respected and followed to the letter, an outfit like Nexus could never have gotten off the ground and there’d be no need for an agency like Omega. Nexus sees us as a threat to its ends and is determined to destroy us, you see.”

Again, Nine wasn’t convinced, and his expression reflected that.

“Think about it, if Omega stood for anything but liberty and the greater good, why would any well-meaning, patriotic group try to prevent us from achieving our goals? I mean, there’s a whole raft of destructive agencies out there Nexus could target. Why pick on us?”

Nine had to admit it was a good question.

Kentbridge continued, “It’s because we stand for something legitimate.”

Although the special agent was making some convincing points, Nine still assumed he was lying to him. This has all got to be an attempt to brainwash me to accept Omega’s dark agenda. But he wasn’t entirely correct.

Kentbridge passionately believed that Omega – or the Light, as Naylor sometimes referred to the agency – was America’s, and the world’s, only hope of ever unifying. And unification was the only solution for he was also aware that while the public was dividing and conquering itself by focusing on banal, media-driven conflicts such as Neoconservatives versus Liberals, democracy versus terrorism and the West versus the rest, destructive covert outfits were slowly but surely growing stronger.

The special agent also understood how groups like Nexus fostered and benefited from the climate of fear perpetuated in television broadcasts and newspaper headlines. As long as Americans were consumed by fear of evildoers, whether these be communists, terrorists, religious extremists or any other potential enemy, he knew they would never realize the greatest enemy of all was operating within – within the West, within America, within their own Government.

“Trust me, Sebastian,” Kentbridge said as he stared out across the river. “We are the resistance fighting for the vision of America’s founding fathers.” He suddenly smiled at the orphan. “Why else do you think I made you guys study the Constitution inside out?”

Again, Nine had no answer. Looking at his mother in the photo he still held, he knew he had a lot to think about…

“So Omega is designing a New World Order?” Nine asked as he and Kentbridge waited for traffic lights to change so they could cross a busy street in downtown Chicago. They’d traveled to the city straight from Little Calumet River as the special agent had wanted to spend more time with Nine and make more of an impression on his young mind.

“Yes, but it’s not like it sounds,” Kentbridge said.

The lights changed and the pair crossed the street with other pedestrians.

Kentbridge continued, “There are different types of New World Order scenarios. One would be a world government ruled by a totalitarian regime like the Nazis were working toward. That would obviously be destructive. Another scenario would be one in which a fairer world is created. That’s what we are aiming for. We can unite everybody worldwide and create everlasting peace.”

Nine noticed they were approaching a familiar fountain in a public square. It was very close to where he’d fled from Kentbridge during his escape from the city. The special agent gave no sign that he remembered that escapade.

“Countries, religions, racial disharmony,” Kentbridge continued. “These are the things that have messed up our planet.”

“But surely countries represent different values and belief systems? Can there ever be a single government that unites all these different groups?”

“The only salvation for civilization lies in the creation of a world government,” Kentbridge retorted. “Do you know who said that?”

Nine shook his head, indicating he didn’t.

“Albert Einstein. He warned us decades ago that unless we eventually eradicate countries, new world wars will be inevitable. And before that, centuries earlier, Alexander the Great believed the same thing and was on a mission to conquer and unite the whole world.”

“But if the average citizen knew about our organization, they’d say we are evil, destructive, traitors, elitist and–”

“Correct,” Kentbridge interjected. “But then the average American doesn’t know about the threats this country is under and how their freedoms are being thwarted.”

“Well, if Omega really stands for all things good, what about the killings?” Nine lowered his voice. He knew such topics were not for others’ ears. “I mean, you’ve made it clear we are being trained to kill. Like assassins.” The last word was whispered.

“By all means necessary is our motto,” Kentbridge said ominously. “Small evils are needed in order to fulfill the grand plan of world peace and unification.”

Nine thought about everything his master was telling him. It was a lot to take in. “So what are we orphans then? Mere pawns in Omega’s New World Order agenda?”

“You kids are being molded for greatness. Like members of the Royal Family. They have incredible wealth and opportunities to shape the world, but they also are born into roles they must play out for the sake of tradition. From childhood on they must suffer, and they can never be like others, like ordinary people. You orphans are the same, but I promise you the pay-off for all these struggles will be worth it when you get older. You will do amazing things, Sebastian.”

 

The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2) is coming-of-age spy thriller – an epic, atmospheric story that begins with 23 genetically superior orphans being groomed to become elite spies in Chicago’s Pedemont Orphanage and concludes with a political assassination deep in the Amazon jungle.

This top rated book is available via kindle. Here’s the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M9WWKW/

 

Happy reading!  –Lance

 

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Amazon reviewer Lynelle Clark describes our coming-of-age spy thriller, The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2), as “a wonderful continuous of book one” in her 5-star review just posted.

In her review, Lynelle says The Orphan Factory has a ‘well developed plot line with crafty skilled twists to keep you at the edge of your seat”.

Here’s Lynelle’s review for The Orphan Factory:

In Book 2 many questions are answered. Here we are better acquainted with Nine, Seventeen and Tommy Kentridge, the main characters of Book 1 and we learn more about the Omega agency and their quest to a New World Order with the help of 23 created Orphans.

Each uniquely formed for their skills and abilities to become great field operatives or assassins. Clinical and greedy the orphans were formed and prepared for the task. They were seen as science projects and investments and the normal childhood pains were not allowed.

From drugs, to sleep learning, to speed reading (I would have loved to have this ability myself LOL), to fighting martial arts and resuming the identities of others with even greater skill, these children were equipped with one thing in mind and that was to further the members with their dreams of power and more money they could count. Using every thing the authorities have to their disposal.

Nine, our main character rebelled and cleverly escaped. Searching for his independence and freedom. His journey takes us over the states borders to California where he meet up with a girl he was infatuated with. But Helen did not accept him for who he was and at the end this youngster learned early on not to trust any
one.

Meeting interesting characters during this time period of two weeks the story was well written and entertaining. The plans he made to get to California told you why Nine was the best, already a (threat) at the age of twelve.

I loved the way that the authors used the current news of the day to strengthen the plot line, making it more believable and interesting, creating more conspiracy theories. Bill Clinton’s rise to the presidency and how the Agency use it to further their cause. Using the Jonestown Cult story to bring down an ex-operative. All perfectly timed within the story.

The hatred and jealousy that consumed Seventeen from the start and leads her to almost succeed in killing Nine.

I must admit that I became fond of Nine, his strong character superbly developed so that you could be part of his world and his experiences.

Drawn into the secretive world of DNA faltering, power and greed and the extend people in authority would go to acquire even more. Excellent read for all who loves a good spy thriller and I can recommend it for Young Adults as well.

Well developed plot line with crafty skilled twists to keep you at the edge of your seat.

This review can also be viewed at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Factory-Trilogy-ebook/product-reviews/B008M9WWKW/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R28UP9TF9S4UUW

Lynelle’s literary blog site is well worth visiting also – at:  lynelleclarkaspiredwriter.blogspot.com/

Happy reading!Lance

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