Rick McBee's Writings
Explore the magic of new ideas and books to read as well as see what books I have written, my favorite photos, my opinions on may subjects, including Science, Africa, the Caribbean, the Civil War, my Book Reviews, and Much More!
Africa Keeps Calling Me Back!
If you’ve lived on the continent, especially in the Kalahari or the Rain forests of the west coast, you can understand how the sights, smells and sounds elsewhere in the world can keep sending you into flashbacks of your former existence.
This picture: 
takes me right back to watching 6 big tuskers in 1976, feeding on the edge of a big lagoon in Chitabe area of Botswana, with my friend John Enright. This was after an hour of high stepping it over swamp mangroves and coming out on a sandy strip all torn up with elephant trails and feeding by breaking off the Makolwane palms for the nuts. How I wished I had my camera that day instead of the 458 Winchester. Truly magnificent animals! They deserve our respect and protection.
This picture: takes my into the village of Buyuku near Sasse, outside of Buea in 1966 where I worked for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I was visiting a village celebration and the kids were all practicing their drumming and dances in order to show their stuff to their elders. A prime example of how kids of all ages learn by modelling the behaviors of their older siblings and their parents. Great fun here with my to-become wife, Jill, an IVS volunteer and Mickey Johnson, also PC Cameroon 1966.
This one! Wow, 1973! Riding our horses, owned by George Riggs of Ngami Trading in Maun during the 
big drought in which all of the rivers including the Shashi, seen here, had dried up and kids were taking the last fish out of a pool with their short spears!
If you haven’t been there yet, it’s time to go! I recommend Jenman Safari’s for the whole range of travel from rough camping to luxury suites!Click here for Jenman’s site!
If you need reading for your trip, get “The Ghosts of Ukuthula” Ghosts of Ukuthula being purchased! Or you can buy it directly from the publisher: www.createspace.com6210014
My Word! Can you believe the Shells?
I once thought I’d been to the best shelling areas in the Caribbean! Now I’m up padding along the sands of Sanibel, Captiva and Cayo Costa near Ft.Myers, FL.
No, they aren’t all lined up – cat’s paws, jewel boxes, calico shells … until you get back fro an hour’s crawl and sort them. But it’s hard to believe your eyes! Like it was on the Pacific coast in the 40’s and 50’s for those of you who can remember back that far! More inspiration for revising my book! Click here to check my books!
My favorite of the day! A great Rigid Pen Shell!
Sanibel Island – Revisioning the 2014 Book!
So here I am walking the beaches of Sanibel, Captiva and Pine islands to check out my 2014 book “Beachcomber Seashells of the Caribbean” (ASIN: B00IP954W2) and thinking of adding some more pages. You ne
ver find all the shells and there are definitely a lot of shells here! In two days I’ve found three shells I didn’t have decent specimens for photographs. Now I’ve got them. It will probably be a year before I get the new one out because I want to do a touch screen version. Going to Caribbean? Here’s the Ticket to Fun!!
Here’s one of my nicer shells in the past days! 
It’s an Egg Cockle Shell: Laevicardium laevicatum.
More in the next coupe of days!
Ghosts of Ukuthula being purchased!
Still Time on the 50% discount! Africa at its best!
Order at: http://www.createspace.com/6210014 Click here to buy!
Select the # of copies to purchase, then in the Discount put #: S694KLHD
Recalculate and your 50% will show up in the price then go to Checkout! Pay! Done!
Read it! Recommend it! Review it!
Those of you interested in BLACK “MAGIC”
Extraordinary sights – in India.
Source: BLACK “MAGIC”
Going to Caribbean? Here’s the Ticket to Fun!
Beachcomber Seashells of the Caribbean https://amazon.com/author/rickmcbee (Kindle users will find this book free at this site until June 10).
Don’t have a Kindle? So get your Kindle App!It’s free! 
Here’s the best e-book for the ID of your beach shells. It works along all the coasts of the Caribbean from Florida to Venezuela.
Pictorial keys make it easy!
Civil War Book – Still Free? Wow!
Rough Enough (Nonfiction) Get it for your Kindle app for any computer – Now! Free!
https://amazon.com/author/rickmcbee (Kindle users will find this book free at this site until June 10).
The History and Life of 17 year old Richard H. Clow, as seen through his Civil War letters and diary. His wartime experiences, thoughts, frontier living and mining for gold in Deadwood, S.D.
Only a couple more days all you buffs! Get it!
The Sales Continue! Accelerating
Don’t forget to check out my newest book,
The Ghosts of Ukuthula.
2 days left of the 50% discount: June 9,& 10.
Use promotion code S694KLHD at Order Here
I’m looking for 10 First Reviewers on AMAZON! When I do reprint of the book, they will go on a page inside the book. Don’t miss the chance for your name in print!
Note the cover done by Artist Gigi McBee! Like it!
Scoundrels! – Western History – A Must!
![A Majority of Scoundrels: An Informal History of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company [A Comstock Edition]](https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437413191m/25946270.jpg)
A Majority of Scoundrels: An Informal History of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company [A Comstock Edition] by Don Berry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is an old book (1961). Therefore, don’t go into it expecting it to read like the more upbeat modern history tomes. But Don Berry did a great job of researching it and documenting the facts of the early mountain men and explorers on the western frontier. The book is written in proper time sequence, so you are able to follow the events leading up to Hugh Glass’s ordeal, currently rewritten in The Revenant and made into a film. You will note that Don Berry doesn’t take as much author license with the facts, including what actually happened following that incident. The begin of the demise of the fur trading industry is documented at the end of the book, of course, those who were flexible moved on, and those who didn’t … I enjoyed the book and will use some references for later writing ideas when I get onto the the writing of my western series.
Two Big Kindle Promotions This Week!
I have just set up two kindle promotions for this week now that the summer holidays are here and you will have vacation time. Monday, June 6 through Friday, June 10 2016!
1. If you will be in the Gulf Coast Region or Caribbean and want to collect and identify your seashells! Here’s the ticket! Take that kindle to the beach and ID them on the spot with picture keys that really work! ASIN: BOOIP954W2 There is a paper version of this for persons who love to look a pictures and feel the book ISBN-13: 978-1495464034 and ISBN-10: 1495464032 You will want this for your coffee table and home, probably not the beach.
2. If you are a Civil War Fan and you have any interest at all in the battle of Petersburg, VA and the end of the Civil War, then you want to read “Rough Enough.” It follows young Richard Clow through the bloody end of the war and then for the next 20 years of his life fighting Indians on the Montana/Dakota frontier, working at a fur trading post, farming in Iowa and striking it rich in Deadwood during the times of Wild Bill. ASIN: BOOHCQNBBO Also available in paperback ISBN-13: 9781494257668 and ISBN-10: 1494257661
NEW! Then, if you really are needing some further reading! Going Live in the next 24 hours on Kindle as well as already on Create Space Books and other worldwide options for purchase is my newest novel: “The Ghosts of Ukuthula.” Africa lie it was in the 70’s through the 90’s with the African Liberation movement in Southern Africa: Adventure, Blood Diamonds, Witch Doctors and more across the Okavango Swamps and the Kalahari Desert.
ISBN-13: 9781532995347 and ISBN – 10:1532995342 ASIN Coming!
Keep me posted on what you like and want more of!
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Rick McBee's Writings 