J.T. McDaniel Official Website

J.T. McDaniel's latest book is a three-part delight. This and That begins with a collection of short stories, several of them written for this book and never before published.

• Eighteen Hours
  (New story. Submarine action off the east coast during World War II.)
• Blackout
  (Semi-hard boiled murder mystery.)
• Survivor
  (If your ship is torpedoed, what next?)
• The Collinsville UFO
  (New story. A "true" historic mystery. Charles Fort would certainly have collected this one.)
• Conflict of Interest
  (New story. The preacher wants those books banned.)
• Skagerrak
  (An early Hans Kruger story.)
• A Big Disappointment
  (New story. Expansion team baseball humor.)
• Memoir
  (A vampire remembers.)
• Mort's Maid
  (The beautiful maid is mute, and never seems to age.)
• Predator
  (What goes through a serial killer's mind?)
• A Patient Man
  (What really happened to Felder?)
• Castle Grosshelm
  (There's treasure in the ruined Romanian castle, and something else.)
• Mission Twenty-Five
  (An 8th Air Force story).

The book then continues with an autobiographical section, which is divided into School Days, Theatrical Things, and Military Events. In the 1950s and '60s, guns in school meant shop projects, not crime, and the boys all carried pocket knives. McDaniel was in several plays throughout his school years, before he moved to New York after his military service. Though he never got that great Broadway part, he spent a lot of time around the Broadway scene in the early '70s. During that period he became acquainted with a quite a few familiar personalities, including Harold J. Kennedy, Paul Lipson, Jack Cassidy, Sean Dillon, and even Rock Hudson. After returning to Cleveland he got better parts, and at one point found himself sharing the stage with a future Transformer. He also spent several years working in radio.

In Viet Nam, McDaniel served with the 1st Aviation Brigade and the 101st Airborne. From these days come:

• Getting There
• Movie Nights
• The Seabees Pitch In
• Blowing up the Chow Line
• Sebastian Cabot's Arse.

Part Three is called Thoughts on One Thing and Another, and is broken into four sections: Movies, Books, and Entertainment; Political Rants; Random Musings; and Science and Mythology. The first includes essays on subjects ranging from old movies, to vampires, eroticism in horror, old Cleveland theaters, and exploitation movies.

Political Rants includes essays on:

• Common Sense
• Why Trust China?
• Voting
• and Ignorance Defines the Crime.

The collection of essays in the Random Musings sections include:

• Gremlins
• Men's Rules for Relationships
• How to Start Your Own Religion
• Some Stuff I Don't Like
• Some Stuff I Like—or Miss
• Stuff You Probably Don't Want to Hear
• Communication
• and On Sociability

The most potentially controversial section, Science and Mythology, includes these essays:

• What is Mythology?
• Life After Death—Maybe
• Cause and Effect
• Open Minds
• Pray for a Cure
• Genetics vs. Morality
• If There Were No Christianity
• On Free Will
• On Theistic Atheism
• Conspiracy Theories
• Cults
• and Aliens and Demons.