What's next on the menu?

Unsavory Delicacies
Three Short Stories of Suspense

Will be served on
April 22, 2011.

www.russellparkway.com

"Hey mom, I got suspended for defending myself."

By now many of us would've seen the video of Casey Heynes, an Australian student, who fought back against his bully by body-slamming him on the concrete. Like most people that I spoke to and with whom I shared the video with, I did not feel sorry for his bully. I still ask myself why did it come to this level in the first place? Why did it come to the point that Heynes had to physically defend himself in order for the school to react? Why was Heynes suspended?

My martial-arts consultant wrote in his blog that:

"Bullies look for easy victims. If they wanted solid opposition, they’d pick kids who fight back, hard. But they never seem to do that and instead focus on the ones who are shy, timid and lack the self confidence to stand up for themselves."

I'd also add that school bullies take advantage of rules that punish victims for fighting back. This is a serious problem. And now with digital technology, something we didn't have when we were growing up, it's about time that schools come out of the stone age and modify their rules. Heynes got suspended. His suspension was wrong because this situation should've been judged on a case-by-case basis. And according to Heynes, he's not new to being a victim. In fact, this had gone on for years. Who wouldn't have expected him to either snap or commit suicide. I'm sure that I speak for everyone that we're happy that he snapped instead. At least he wouldn't be so unfortunate as to suffer any more additional psychological damage. Furthermore, Heynes should be satisfied knowing that he taught his bully a lesson, and has definitely inspired several people—younger and older—to stand up to bullies.

As for Heynes's bully, he'll spend several years humiliated by the fact that the whole planet saw him get his ass kicked. My advice to him would be that he get his name legally changed before he starts filling out those job applications.

Russell Brooks is the author of the International Spy/Thriller, Pandora's Succession.

The Russell Show, Featuring Into the Shadows, by Karly Kirkpatrick.

Russell Brooks is the author of the Action/Thriller, Pandora's Succession.

The Russell Show: How the neighbour pissed me off!

It's normal for us to have problems with our neighbours every once in a while. After all, nobody's perfect. I'm usually a nice guy, but even there's so much that I'm willing to take. For example, I had to repeatedly tell my neighbour whom I share the back balcony with, to scoop up after his dog.

I'm sure many of us have gone through that before. Except my neighbour was a bit slow keeping up with his responsabilities. So here's what happened after I spoke to my neighbour twice in the last two weeks about his dog.



Russell Brooks is the author of the International Spy Thriller, Pandora's Succession.

Dear Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Canadians came up with the idea first

Dear Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show,

I watched the Daily Show, February 17 edition, last night, and as usual was left in stitches. Your feature segment was about finding a solution to the problem about Americans that view Muslims negatively. Your idea was to come up with a Muslim version of The Cosby Show (The Qu'osby Show) where Muslim stereotypes are frequently made fun of. By doing so, maybe Americans that view Muslims negatively will be aware of their errors and be more tolerant.

I thought that I'd let you know that your friendliest neighbor up north has already been broadcasting the very comedy that you thought of. It's called Little Mosque on the Prairie.

The show is currently in its fifth season and is a big hit up here in Canada. Check the clips below.

Here's the link to the February 17, 2011 episode of The Daily Show.

And here's a clip of the Pilot episode of Little Mosque on The Prairie.



Get in touch with show creator, Zarqa Nawaz. I'm sure that he would love to work with Comedy Central to help bring his show south of the border and into American homes.

Best,

Russell Brooks
Author of the International Spy Thriller, Pandora's Succession.

The Russell Show February 2011

Lancelot's Lady: Book Review

Last October 2010 I hosted Ms D’Angelo on her virtual book tour for Lacelot’s Lady. For those that watched my dramatic reading of an excerpt for the book, they would’ve seen how much I was into the story. Reading the entire book was something that I had promised myself to do—and I was not disappointed. Lancelot’s Lady followed the experiences of troubled palliative care nurse, Rihanna McLeod, from the moment that she met the ailing tycoon, JT Lance, to when she was sent on vacation to a secluded island in the Bahamas, where she met Jonathan—a miserable, but well-off loner and owner of his own island. There was a bit of Christopher Plummer/Julie Andrews situation in the beginning of their relationship (If you watched The Sound of Music then you’d know what I’m talking about), but it ended well. Many questions were brought up in the beginning and they were all answered at the very end.

The sleazy private investigator was a nice touch, although I would’ve hated him more had he been introduced a bit earlier in the story.

I’m not big on romance novels, but the characters in Lancelot’s Lady were so well developed with their own flaws that the story held my interest from the beginning straight through to the end.

4 Stars

For more on Lancelot's Lady, by Cherish D'Angelo, visit Here.

Russell Brooks is the author of the action/thriller, Pandora's Succession.