An Update to My Rant!

Well, we have good news... apparently ChaptersIndigo (or Heather) did listen. Elvis Saves JFK! is now back up on ChaptersIndigo!

I want to congatulate and thank them for coming to the rescue of this independent author. They certainly responded quickly to my tweet on my Twitter feed and my post on this blog, so it shows that they do listen and care.  I feel a lot better about the future of publishing now. So feel free to shop at ChaptersIndigo without guilt; I know I will. Nice people, they are.

A Rant: Now You See it, Now You Don't?

I'm in the habit of checking on the statuses of my ebooks online.  I suppose this can be considered vain, but it's also good business sense. I don't derive much of an income from my work, but I do like to think it's being I'm being fairly treated.

In due course, checked the website of Chapters Indigo, the largest single Canadian book retailer.  As an independent Canadian author, I was proud to have both War Plan Crimson and Elvis Saves JFK! listed for sale, and a few posts back, I even commemorated the fact with fireworks.  But now, suddenly, as if it were yanked away by an invisible hand, Elvis Saves JFK! is no longer available for sale on that site. What gives? Do they honestly think it's as if I sell way too many books as it is, so I obviously don't need these sales? In truth, I'm just getting by, so I was floored when the Powers that Be decided to pull my book without a word to me. The arbitrary and rude nature of this move simply blows me away. It's bad news for indie authors such as me who don't have a huge publishing and promotion machine behind them (You're looking at the machine right here, folks.) Of course, I'm always willing conceede there's been some kind of accident... but talk to me, please folks!

Each time, a book is withdrawn from sale, it represents one less divergent voice that is out there. In the wake of the recent merger between publishing giants Penguin and Random House,  I believe we will see less and less divergent voices being published, as publishers and their corporate owners pursue the safe, mushy (and profitable) middle ground. Over the long term, this means that there will be less and less room for new authors and challenging ideas.

Enough of my rant. For now, thankfully, you can find the distinctly unchallenging Elvis Saves JFK! (and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for that matter) on a whole bunch of other, more polite retail sites, including:

• Barnes and Noble
• Kobo
• Smashwords
• Apple I Tunes Store

If you want to help strike a blow with me and other indie authors who this may be happening to (and honestly, I don't know), you may wish for now, to keep your business away from Chapters Indigo until we work this out.

Are you listening Heather Reisman?

Review: The Company of the Dead and more Updates

A few months ago you’ll recall that in an earlier post, that I had begun reading The Company of the Dead, by David J. Kowalski.  Well, the reviews are in and they’re largely good.

Can one man save the Titanic?  That’s the tantalizing question that leads off the superior time-travel/alternate history thriller by first-time author Kowalski. Or, without giving too much away, should one man save the Titanic?

The bulk of the story takes place in 2012, but not our 2012. It’s a curiously truncated era where the Great War ended prematurely with a German victory, America split again between the Union and the Confederacy and the victorious Japanese Empire occupies the west coast of the United States and New York City. The Kaiser still reigns in Berlin, Hitler never amounted to anything beyond a second-rate artist, and a humbled British Empire is allied with the Germans. Confederate spy Joseph Kennedy knows something’s gone off the rails in history, but can he fix it before the clock runs down and the world is engulfed in nuclear fire?

That’s as much as I’ll say here. This is a good book and you should buy it. But be prepared, at over 700 pages, it‘s a brick and will require an investment of your reading time. However, there are rewards aplenty, with something for every fan of the genre. Kowalski does an excellent job of characterization, but is perhaps a little less successful in fully sketching the world he has built. What is clear is that their technology is behind ours in many ways without both World Wars and the Cold War to provide impetus, but the author seems a little inconsistent in describing this technological level. Biplanes, zeppelins, jet fighters and computers (as well as atom bombs) all seem to co-exist here so it really seems kind of a mash-up and it never seems quite to jell for me. But that’s my only nit-pick and it’s a relatively minor one, at that.

I’ve just latched onto a new book, Osama: A Novel, by Lavie Tidhar, and the premise is an interesting one. I’ve started to read it and I’ll have a review for you soon. It takes place in a world much like our own, but where international terrorism has never taken hold. A private detective gets a job to track down the author of a series of paperback advernture novels with a most unlikely hero: Osama Bin Laden.  It sounds fun.

I’m still reading Stephen King’s 11/22/63, by the way, and hope to have a review on this book soon. I’m enjoying the read, so far.

In the meantime, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing both Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  And if you’re looking for an experienced marketing communications guy, do me a favor and have a look here. Thanks.

Progress Report: 11/22/63 and Destroyermen: Firestorm

My life has been in upheaval as of late.  I moved halfway across the continent from Victoria BC, where I have lived and worked for the past three years, back to Ottawa, Ontario, where I am now sharing a house with an old friend.  The move – which sort of feels like being expelled from paradise – was not my idea, but due to the economic situation – read: lack of job – I found myself in. (If you’re looking for an experienced marketing communications guy, do me a favor and have a look here. Thanks.)

So life sometimes sucks.

However, in many ways, the recent sucky events in my life have been compensated by the excellent books that have fallen into my hands: Stephen King’s masterful 11/22/63 and the latest entry in Taylor Anderson's long-running Destroyermen series: Firestorm. I’m reading both books at the same time and am very pleased by what I am finding.  I won’t spoil either novel but clearly in 11/22/63, King as at the top of his game. Characterization, plot, as well as background details are all expertly handled and I wouldn’t expect it any other way.

As for Firestorm, Anderson picks up where he left off from the previous novel in the series. (If you’ve read last month’s entry, you’ll know how much I like both the author and the series.) Action and details continue to be fast and furious, with Anderson keeping up the pace in a highly satisfying way that neither sacrifices character or plot points.

I recommend both books heartily as they have proven excellent and welcome diversions into my favorite genre.

In the meantime, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing both Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.

The "Destroyermen" Series: A Review

I’m back this month with a review of Taylor Anderson’s admirable Destroyermen series.  The seven book (so far) series tells the saga of the elderly "four stacker" destroyer USS Walker thrust into a parallel world though a bizarre storm. It’s clearly an out-of-the-frying-pan and into-the-fire experience for the Walker and its crew as they are catapulted from being on the losing end of the Battle of the Java Sea in the early days of the Pacific War, into a strange world where a life-and-death battle is being waged between the reptilian Grik hordes and the mammalian Lemurians. 

Of course, the Walker, skippered by the chief protagonist, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy, isn’t the only ship to make the transit. The Japanese battlecruiser Amagi has followed the Walker through and it crazed commander has allied the ship with the Grik.

This sets the stage for a truly epic tale. I won’t spoil it here. The only thing I will say is that I have immensely enjoyed the series so far. I will observe that it seems to take place in a parallel universe of an alternate universe for several reasons. First, as Anderson himself readily points out, the Walker was disposed of in 1941, after being reduced to hulk status for some time. Meanwhile, the original Amagi, which was slated to be converted to an aircraft carrier was destroyed on the stocks during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, so the incomplete battleship Kaga took her place. As our history relates, the aircraft carrier Kaga was part of the task force that struck Pearl Harbor in 1941, only to be later sunk at Midway in 1942.  

It's obvious Anderson has some sympathy for what could've been here. Launched as a Wickes-class destroyer, in 1918 USS Walker, DD-163 had a rather uneventful career. One the highlights of her service was that Walker acted as a picket ship for US Navy NC class flying-boats on their long-range Atlantic flights; something that Anderson drew upon for material in his books. After a short time in service, Walker was placed in reserve only to be reactivated for use as a damage control hulk. She was scuttled by naval gunfire on December 28th, 1941. In Anderson's novels, Walker has a far better time of  it.

USS Walker, DD-163

But the real joy is in how Anderson puts things together. The writing is first rate, as is the action and characterization.  With so many individual characters in play, Anderson manages to give us real people (both human and not) with real relationships that we actually care for and want to get to know. It’s this combination that makes each new novel in the series a treat to read. Adding to the fact is that the author seems to have a genuine feel for history and his subject.  As a world-builder, Anderson pays great attention to his setting.

I have one concern. As Anderson builds out his series, adding new plot elements as he goes (and there are many) my hope is that can successfully resolve all his plot points without losing the interest of his reader.   I also have bone to pick with the publisher – that’s you Penguin Books – of withholding release of the paperback version of the sixth book, Firestorm, for so long.

Nevertheless, I do give the Destroyermen series an unqualified recommendation. For alternate universe high adventure at its best, you couldn’t go much further. Here's to more adventures of the good ship Walker and her crew.

In the meantime, you can purchase both Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.

Search for Amelia Earhart Continues

The search for Amelia Earhart is getting interesting.

As readers of this blog will know, we've been keeping track of the efforts of the search by a group of aviation historians and enthusiasts, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR). According to a UPI report today, searchers may have found what what appears to a debris field off of Nikumaroro Island in the Pacific, where it is believed by many that she and her navigator Fred Noonan crashed in their twin-engined Lockheed Electra on the last leg of their round the world flight in 1937.

Searchers believe that Earhart and Noonan likely were able to make it ashore.

Hopefully, the searchers will find more evidence. In the meantime, you can follow Amelia's (fictional) adventures in War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and in Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine online retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Apple's iTunes Store, and ChaptersIndigo.

The Granddaddy of Alternate History

A few years ago, this book fell into my hands for the princely sum of $6.50 at a used bookstore. Needless to say being a devotee of the genre, I recognized it immediately: If it Happened Otherwise: Lapses into Imaginary History, a British anthology edited by poet, writer and historian, J.C. Squire, first published in 1931. With essays by Winston Churchill and G.K. Chesterton among others, it is often considered by many to be among the first alternate history books.

Essays include:

• "If Drouet's Cart Had Stuck" 
• "If Don John of Austria Had Married Mary Queen of Scots" 
• "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg"
•  "If Napoleon Had Escaped to America" 
• "If the Moors in Spain Had Won" 
• "If the General Strike Had Succeeded
• "If the Emperor Frederick Had Not Had Cancer" 
• "If Louis XVI Had an Atom of Firmness" 
• "If It Had Been Discovered in 1930 that Bacon Really Did Write Shakespeare" 
• "If Booth Had Missed Lincoln" 

A subsequent U.S. edition, published later in 1931, eliminated the essay on the General Strike and replaced it with three new essays:

• “If the Dutch Had Kept Neu Amsterdam”
• “A Jacobite Fantasy”
• “If Napoleon Had Won the Battle of Waterloo”

Of all the essays, I found the “If the Moors in Spain Had Won,” by Phillip Guedalla, particularly appealing.  In this history, the Moors hang on to defeat Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, eventually establishing a liberal humanist form of Islam along with a constitutional monarchy. Still later, the Moors fight in World War I on the side of the Allies.  

I found myself wondering what would’ve happened after Guedalla ended his story in 1930. Would Franco have risen if Spain were under Moorish influence?  Would the Moors have participated on the Allied side in the Second World War? I like to think so – I imagine the Moors accepting great numbers of Jewish refugees from Europe as the clouds darkened – perhaps even a certain Professor Einstein. And what influence would the Moors’ humanist form of Islam have on today’s world where we are faced with the extremes of Al-Qaeda? 

It’s a fascinating story that still needs to be told. 

In the meantime, you can read War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and in Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine online retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Apple's iTunes Store, and ChaptersIndigo.