LeBron James In His Own Words / Phillip and Jesse Hines

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Sports

Approximate word count: 10-15,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

A recent college graduate, Phillip Hines works for an event management company. He self published this book as well as one on event management. Simon & Schuster recently released another books by Hines, Mitt Romney in His Own Words.

Description:

“LeBron James is the world’s most talked-about active basketball player, stirring adoration—and intense criticism. Sports fans and journalists see the polarizing player as either the most exciting basketball player of his generation—or a selfish underachiever, and sometimes both. This book sets aside the controversy to let James speak for himself in his own words. Culling over 200 quotes on over 100 subjects drawn from print and electronic media—press conferences, magazines, newspapers, websites, television appearances, and Twitter posts—starting with his early years as a promising basketball star in high school—this timely compilation shows the world LeBron James’ unique perspective on life on, and off, court.”

Appraisal:

With the exception of one minor issue (two sections that discuss the same subject, James' starting his own sports marketing company, with different headings), the setup of this book is done well, with an active table of contents and quotes grouped in several different subject areas. If you want to know what LeBron James has said about his hometown of Akron, Ohio, or how he feels about Barack Obama, you’ll be able to quickly find the answer. If you feel a sudden need for James’ thoughts on voting, success, or Nike, you’re covered.

But after reading this book I was left wondering, “why?” I could see two ways to approach this book. The first, to get a sense for LeBron James as a person. How he views life, both on and off the court. This book could do that, to a small degree, but if that is your goal, you’d get a much better sense picking up one of the many biographies available.

The logical method to evaluate this book is as I would typically look at any book of quotations. If the book only includes quotes from one person, I would expect it to be someone considered an expert on the subject of the quotes, whose thoughts and ideas are insightful, or who is especially entertaining in their outlook. George Carlin or, if you want a sports star, Yogi Berra, I could understand. The author’s book with quotes from Mitt Romney might have appeal to some. But the quotes here didn’t seem especially enlightening. Many fell into what I’d call the “generic sports quote” category – they could, and probably have, been said in basically the same way by other sports stars. I didn’t read something and think, “that is a great way to put that” or “I wish I’d said that,” both reactions I’d like to see in a book of quotes. For rabid LeBron James fans who feel a need to have what their favorite star said at their fingertips, this might be worthwhile. For others, I think it’s a pass.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: *** Three stars

Horror Is The Only Genre

Today we have a guest post by horror author Edward Lorn, author of Bay's End, which we reviewed earlier this year. His latest book, Dastardly Bastard, is one of the first  releases from small press Red Adept Publishing and will be reviewed next Friday. Don't miss the chance to enter the giveaway Red Adept Publishing is sponsoring on the blog tour in celebration of Edward's new book.

I don't write horror because I love the genre, but because, to me, it is the only genre. What is horror, other than a delivery device of fear? Any story worth its salt, has an element of horror hidden in the wings.

Here are some examples:

Of Mice and Men tells the story of a man—George—traveling with his mentally challenged companion, Lennie.  If the end of this John Steinbeck masterpiece is not horror, I don't know what the term means. If you don't know how the books ends, skip to the next paragraph because I'm about to spoil it for you. Lennie, a hulking form of a man with the mind of a child, accidently kills a young woman. George, trying to save his friend the repercussions of his actions, kills Lennie. It's an act of love, but it's also an act of murder. The themes of Steinbeck's tale and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein are astoundingly similar. Both Lennie and Frankenstein's monster were misunderstood by society. Neither one knew his own strength. These are fears we all deal with in our daily lives. The terrifying part is that we can relate.

One of the greatest tragedies ever told, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, has a kicker of an ending. Forget that these two lovebirds are mere teenagers, and focus in on the shocking conclusion. Thinking his love dead, Romeo kills himself. The reader knows Juliet isn't dead, and therein lies the fear. The tension builds, hopes soar, you're sure she will open her eyes at any moment and stop Romeo from drinking the poison, but alas, she awakens too late. Juliet kisses Romeo with the hope the poison will transfer to her, but it doesn't work. What's a girl to do? How scary must a world without Romeo be, for Juliet to stab herself in the chest? That is a horrifying concept.

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest was one of the scariest books I ever read. Nurse Ratched actually terrified me more than Annie Wilkes in Stephen King's Misery. The book gave me that cold, all-encompassing fear when you know there's absolutely nothing you can do to stop the monster because it has complete control. Not to mention, McMurphy getting lobotomized, and then smothered to death. Still makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Don't even get me started on Frank Baum's monster-filled LSD trip, The Wizard of Oz. You have flying monkeys, mindless soldiers hell-bent on following the orders of their mistress, and a witch so murderous and cruel, she would not only like to see Dorothy dead, but her little dog, too.

I'd like to close this diatribe with an oldie, but a goodie: The Bible. Never has one single piece of literature scared so many. If you look up the meaning of the word fear, one of the definitions is “reverential awe,’ as in, the fear of God. Compounding that fact, you have nightmarish tales of being swallowed by a whale, being turned into a pillar of salt, fire and brimstone raining down to smote an entire city, betrayal, crucifixion, seven-headed beasts, and the end of the entire world as we know it. And trumpets. Nothing's scarier than trumpets.

In summation, I would challenge you to tell me one specific book, or movie, where horror is absent from the overall plot of the story. I like being right, but I love being proven wrong. 

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A Kiss Before You Leave Me / James Hulbert

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Literary Fiction/Suspense

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: NO

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“James Hulbert has worked as a bartender, food bank coordinator, government worker, Peace Corps Volunteer, research assistant, teacher, translator, and video rental clerk. He studied literature at Princeton, Freiburg, Geneva, and Yale. He has translated texts by Jacques Derrida and Jacques Lacan, as well as Hans Biedermann's 'Dictionary of Symbolism'. Hulbert is married to the painter Jim Carpenter, for whom he has somehow never posed nude, at least not in a professional capacity.”

For more, visit Hulbert’s blog.

Description:

“Three master manipulators and a woman in love clash in the worlds of surveillance, voyeurism and art. Miranda's ex wants her back. His mother will do anything to keep them apart. Her secret weapon? A seductive Adonis with demons of his own--and plans for Miranda. Both moral tale and guilty pleasure, KISS is a thriller whose violence is emotional--and all the worse because done in the name of love.”

Appraisal:

A Kiss Before You Leave Me is literary fiction (one of those “you know it when you see it” things) with the plot of a suspense novel. The characters are different from the norm enough that guessing their secrets and how it will all work out is virtually impossible. How I felt about different characters kept changing as the story progressed with some significant surprises down the finishing stretch.

One item I noted was what seemed like a change in the point of view from one book (major sections of the novel) to the next. In reality it wasn’t a change in the point of view – it is all in third person – however, it changes from past tense to the narrator describing a series of paintings in present tense which allude, albeit ambiguously, to what happened. I don’t see anything wrong with this practice and these sections were well executed, but it may be off-putting to some readers.

FYI:

Some adult language and situations.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five stars

The Storyteller / Sharon Tillotson

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Spiritual/Metaphysical Fiction

Approximate word count: 130-135,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Sharon knew she was a writer the day several classmates from different classes came up to tell her a high school teacher had read them a story she wrote. She was a bit shy back then but was secretly thrilled when the teacher read the story in front of her English Lit class.”

Sharon Tillotson lives in Vancouver, BC. For more, visit her website.

Description:

“An ordinary human being finding her life purpose... With a little help from her soul...

Sarah is a Soul who is trying to guide Suzy along her path of rediscovering herself... Or is it redefining? Reinventing? Sarah thinks it might be better defined as remembering, but it's only Suzy who is concerned about the semantics. Sarah just wishes Suz would get on with it. A rather spirited Spirit, Sarah often finds herself rolling her eyes at Suzy's antics and the walls she has built up following the death of her husband. Sarah knows the body/mind/spirit energy who is currently housed in the human called Suzy has faced far more difficult challenges than the one she chose for this reincarnation.”

Appraisal:

For someone who is neither religious, nor very spiritual, it seems my reading material has leaned toward both recently. This book is heavy on the spirituality, but without the religion. Its structure is clever, with narration from a “soul” with interleaved stories of the people she has inhabited in multiple lives spent on earth. If you don’t believe in reincarnation, but don’t have strong beliefs against it, that part of the story shouldn’t be any harder to buy into than most speculative fiction.

I’ve read a few other books like this, where multiple story lines were happening in different times in history, and found that I had a much stronger affinity for one of the story lines compared to the others. That wasn’t true of The Storyteller. Although it was much easier to identify with Suzy, the character living in contemporary times, I didn’t find myself wishing the other characters weren’t there or that I could read through their sections faster. I also thought Tillotson did a very good job in making the voices of the different characters unique in a way that was a positive in reinforcing their differences in time, place, and experience. It was a different kind of story, with a positive message.

Where I had some difficulty was with some writing tics, a minor plot discrepancy, and a plot turn I thought broke what, if it isn’t a rule, should be one. The plot discrepancy really was minor, at least to the story, when a store that was in Sausalito in the first half of the book was mystically transported several hundred miles south to Pasadena in the later half.

The rule (at least in my mind) that was broken was when the main character, who had been mourning the death of her husband and been painting him by both her actions and thoughts as the perfect spouse, suddenly sprung some reasons why he might not have been. Misleading the other characters with words and actions is fine, but misleading the reader in her thoughts, not so much. It seemed like that author might have thought she needed this to justify one of the characters’ actions. It wasn’t.

The writing tic was one of those things that gave me pause the first time, but became an irritant by the end of the book. An example is in the sentence, “He was in charge of both marketing and human resources, he’d informed her on a laugh, …” That “on a laugh” part (sometimes “on a smile”), was also used in dialog tags, in place of “he said” or “she said.” While grammatically correct and better than some of the dialog tag misuses I’ve seen, trying to communicate a characters emotions this way too often feels forced, unnatural, and contrived, which is how it read to me. One final concern was a tendency for the main character to float off into daydream-land in the middle of a conversation. Normally the transitions when this happened worked out okay, but in at least once instance, it happened in the middle of dialog when she was asked a question. By the time she came back to the real world several long paragraphs later and answered, I’d lost track of the pending question.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: *** Three stars

Three Short Stories / Marilyn Peake

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Short Story/Dark Fantasy/Science Fiction

Approximate word count: Each story is roughly 2,500-4,500 words.

Availability    

Coyote Crossing

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO

Cannon Fodder: Operation Horse Whisperer

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO

Bright Moon

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Marilyn Peake is the author of both adult and children’s literature. Her publications have received excellent reviews and won numerous awards. She’s been interviewed on radio shows across the United States and in Canada.”

Peake has four novels and several short stories available. For more, visit her website.

Description:

This is actually three reviews in one, with a review of three short stories available separately.

Coyote Crossing is the story of an illegal immigrant’s journey across the Rio Grande, from Mexico to the US.

Cannon Fodder: Operation Horse Whisperer is Science Fiction with psychological and historical elements.

Bright Moon is dark fantasy, with the story of a small faerie that comes to live with a poor Chinese farming family.

Appraisal:

Each of Peake’s short stories I read shared some common qualities. They are well crafted, with the obvious story being interesting enough to draw you in and wonder how it will end. Each has a twist, with something completely unexpected changing the direction of the story in the middle or an ending far from the expected. Finally, each has a deeper level, prompting questions and thoughts beyond the immediate story.

Coyote Crossing prompted questions and thoughts about US immigration policy and the lengths people will go to for a chance at a better life.

Cannon Fodder: Operation Horse Whisperer set me to thinking about the power of government and the costs of war.

Bright Moon raises issues of the role of government, the power of corporations, and what we, as citizens, should do if the line is crossed.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four stars

Author Interview: Walter Knight

"Disillusionment turned to anger, and I stopped querying. However, I kept writing."

I think it is because I enjoy traveling and have been a bit of a nomad much of my life, but I always seem to notice the part of the an author’s bio that mentions where they have lived. That is the biggest part of your official bio and, from what I’m reading it sounds like you grew up in Tucson, did a stint in the army, and then moved to Washington State for college, both undergraduate as law school. How did you end up in Washington and what is it that appealed to you in comparison to Arizona?

I grew up in sunny Tucson, Arizona. It's a great place. However, when I was eighteen, like a country western song, 'happiness was Tucson in my rear view mirror.' I joined the army in 1973, and have been homesick for Tucson ever since.

I always wanted to be a police officer. However, the army would not let me join the MPs because I had too many traffic tickets. Instead, they made me a radio teletype operator, and sent me to Fort Lewis, Washington.

I still wanted to be a police officer, so I earned three years of college while I was in the Army, going to school part time. A year after my discharge, I graduated from Central Washington State College with a degree in Law & Justice. Two weeks later, I was hired as a deputy sheriff with the Grays Harbor Sheriff's Office, on the coast of rural Washington.

I was a deputy at Grays Harbor for ten years, but still continued my schooling, earning a Juris Doctor in Law from the University of Puget Sound School of Law in 1985. However, I flunked the Bar Exam, and never re-took the test.

I'm not sure why I went to law school. I think I just wanted to be rich. I have always had a get rich scheme in the works, owning up to five houses, gambling, law school, stock market investments, working overtime, and now novels.

Washington State is a beautiful state. After all this time, I have not quite got used to the rain. Moss grows everywhere, even on my cars. I missed Arizona. Seeking a compromise, in 1987 I moved with my family to Reno, Nevada, hired as a sheriff's deputy for Washoe County.

Yes, I worked for the real Reno 911. Would you believe all those Reno 911 characters appear to be based on real sheriff's deputies I knew? It's truly amazing. I love Nevada, and still vacation there often. However, police work in Reno was a bit of a culture shock. In Washington, I only dealt with drunks. Reno was full of junkies. Seeking a happier work environment, I returned to Washington, rain and all, where I've been living happily for the last 19 years atop a hill on seven acres with my family, horses, dogs, cats, fish, and other assorted critters. Sorry, but my evil day job is a secret.

 Have you always wanted to be an author?

No. The urge to write just burst forth in a massive energy spurt in early 2008. Maybe it was a mid-life crisis, but it seemed like I suddenly had a lot to say. After writing America's Galactic Foreign Legion (Book 1) Feeling Lucky in a few months, I confidently queried all the big time publishers. All I got was rejection letters. Large publishers aren't much interested in first time authors, or in science fiction. I tried small presses and agents, also rejected.

An agent suggested I write a sequel, saying that one-hit wonders are not marketable or profitable for him to represent. “The best publicity for your first book is to write a second, then a third.” Enthused, I wrote America's Galactic Foreign Legion (Book 2) Reenlistment, and sent my queries out once more. Still no cigar.

Disillusionment turned to anger, and I stopped querying. However, I kept writing. In a two-year period, I wrote ten America's Galactic Foreign Legion books. It was fun, and the ideas just poured out.

With a dozen manuscripts, I began querying again in late 2009. My plan was to build my body of work to the point where I could not be ignored. And, I no longer followed the rules. No more just sending queries and sample chapters. No more using snail mail, or double spacing. I attached the whole dozen manuscripts to E-mails. No more waiting for an invitation. They could hit the delete button any time.

Pat Morrison, acquisition editor at Penumbra Publishing, a new small press, expressed an interest. She was a bit put off by some of my characters, finding some not realistic, others not likeable. For example, I had an eyeglasses wearing, briefcase carrying, elderly alien lawyer defending captured legionnaires in an alien court. This was not serious military science fiction. She was right. In my query I had forgot to mention the humor. Pat then reread America's Galactic Foreign Legion in a different light. It had potential.

But a dozen books? No one had ever submitted that many manuscripts at once before. I insisted that marketing and credibility is easier with a book series, and a key to success. Penumbra committed to publishing the whole series. I've since added to the series as the editing process played out. AGFL-15 is on the editor's desk now, and AGFL-16 is a work in progress.

In an ironic twist, after I signed a contract with Penumbra, other small press publishers sent me offers, too. I had to turn them down.

It seems like the typical author with legal training attempts to be the next John Grisham or Scott Turow, writing legal thrillers. You took a completely different route, with humorous science fiction. Why science fiction?

I am always buying science fiction paperbacks from used books stores. There is always a Sci/Fi paperback nearby. Reading science fiction is a hobby.

My other hobby is gambling. Some call it an addiction, but gambling is not really a problem if you win. Denial? Please don't amateur psychoanalyze authors, it's not polite.

Anyway, I was driving from Washington State to Reno to get my gambling fix, when I stopped at an odd roadside park by Oakridge, Oregon. I had stopped there before. It was decorated with road equipment antiques, but I never really investigated. I noticed a war memorial for First Sergeant Maximo Yabes. My oh my, the memorial read something like a John Wayne war movie. Sergeant Yabes' engineer company in Vietnam was overrun by enemy troops, and the man single handedly fought to shield wounded comrades, charging machine gun nests with his rifle and grenades. Just when you thought the citation was over, he attacked again, and again. Sergeant Yabes was a one man army as grenades and bullets knocked him down again and again. Finally Sergeant Yabes just ran out of blood, and died. Sergeant Yabes was awarded the Medal of Honor.

So an idea was born at that park, to write a novel about a compulsive gambler who, joins future America's Foreign Legion to pay off debts, and defies all odds to become a Hero of the Legion in the process. The humor came later. My intent at first was to write serious military science fiction. However, I have a funny bone that works itself into everything. I write parody. That means I am always poking fun at something, or my characters.

I love the parody of The Simpson's. That's not to say my characters are a cartoon. During my childhood, my father took me to the movies every weekend. My pop culture education came from those movies. If you study the Simpson's, its parody often comes from movie characters and the news. I do the same in America's Galactic Foreign Legion, drawing my parody from film, TV, news, the military, history, politics, and science fiction. Did I mention, like The Simpson's? I live near a small town in the shadow of a nuclear power plant. Elma looks just like Springfield, except it's different.

One good thing about writing humorous military science fiction is I have the genre to myself. New authors like me are not going to make the NY Times best selling charts, and so I have to stake out niche. I own the military science fiction niche.

Who are your favorite science fiction authors? Which do you think have had the most influence on your writing?

Harry Turtledove's World War & Colonization 10 book series about aliens attacking Earth during World War II inspired me to write a space opera series using history, action, and culture clash issues.

L Ron Hubbard (Battlefield Earth, and the Mission Earth series) about aliens invading Earth inspired me to write science fiction humor and patriotic themes.

Barry Sadler (Casca series) about a cursed immortal Roman soldier inspired me to make my series as long as possible. I may never stop writing.

Johnnie Clark (Guns Up) This is not science fiction, but it's the best story about American infantry fighting in Vietnam out there, and it's not the usual war protest stuff.

I’ve noticed that humor seems more sensitive to individual tastes than most forms of entertainment, with some people finding nothing funny in what will have others rolling on the floor. How do you approach including humor in your books?

Yes, critics abound. Opinion on my humor ranges from hatred to I walk on water. By the way, I've tried walking on water, it doesn't work. One critic said he would rather read toilet paper wrappers than my drivel.

I devoted an entire chapter to spoofing a literary critic. My legionnaire characters surrounded the house where the literary critic lives in his mother's basement, typing out vicious attacks on the internet. After arrest he still rants, so legionnaires throw him out an airlock, and shoot his dog. Fun stuff.

In the cold vacuum of space, no one can hear you laugh.

Who are your favorite comics or humorous writers? What is it about them that appeals to you?

I love Woody Allen because of his self-deprecating humor. There is a scene in AGFL-1 where legionnaires are surrounded by hostile aliens. A legionnaire comments, “I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.” I got that idea from Woody Allen, and he got it from graffiti painted on a city wall. Also, Allen pokes fun of his NY friends, keeping fair and balanced.

I love it when a serious actor does comedy. Robert De Niro in Analyze This played a Mafia boss seeking psychiatric help for his anger management issues and stress. De Niro did not tell jokes. He kept a straight serious face. But, he was very funny shooting a pillow to relieve stress.

Arnold Schwarzenegger had funny moments in Predator and Terminator, as did Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man. Remember Stallone upset about Taco Bell being the future's best restaurant? Funny stuff.

My favorite Clint Eastwood movie is Kelly's Heroes about American soldiers in World War II punching through German lines to rob a bank of its gold. The all-star cast was hilarious, even though it was a shoot 'em up war movie. I aspire to be that funny.

I became a fan of Robert Asprin (Phule's Company) after I wrote America's Galactic Foreign Legion. His humor is a bit off the hook for most military science fiction. Readers turned me on to Asprin after reading my books, and seeing similarities.

World famous science fiction writer Piers Anthony, noted for his humor, wrote me a nice book review, saying of America's Galactic Foreign Legion, “It's wild, improbable, but great adventure.”

Your America’s Galactic Foreign Legion series is up to 14 books, with I believe at least one or two more coming soon. Tell us about this series. Would you advise a reader to start with book 1(Feeling Lucky), or is it possible to read the books stand-alone?

America's Galactic Foreign Legion evolves from a humanity vs. aliens Starship Troopers type action adventure into a battle of American culture against Alien culture. After a series of wars, humanity and aliens are forced to share a distant planet colony. That's when America brings in its heavy artillery to combat the aliens: our culture.

Aliens succumb to fast food, Walmart shopping, casino gambling, drugs, democracy, football, Nike sportswear, Harley motorcycles, the Teamsters Union, Starbucks coffee, skateboards, TV, freedom, Disney, terrorism, and interspecies sex (yuk).

The alien Emperor belatedly tries to pass laws against the Americanization of his half of the planet, but it is too late. He is already addicted to Starbucks and McDonald's hamburgers.

Through war and peace, the aliens gradually lose ground to American culture. Alien kids wearing droopy drawers and a Nike swoosh snubbing their mandibles at the spider commander is funny stuff. Each book stands independent of the others, but I recommend you start from the first.

I use a lot of hidden history. Most of the events are based on something or someone real. For example, Americanization of the world is a number one issue in many countries today.

My editor described America's Galactic Foreign Legion as being politically incorrect, but I do not agree. What do you think, Al? You read the first book. I think for some, anything patriotic is politically incorrect. I created a future world where America dominates Earth, and takes humanity across the galaxy to fight aliens. Is that politically incorrect?

I don't know if humanity will ever leave our solar system. I fear it’s not possible because of space radiation and limits on speed of light travel. But if humanity ever does cross the stars, it will be on American starships. No one else could do it, certainly not the Chinese, Russians, Japanese, English, French, or United Nations. American ingenuity leads all major technological advances.

One of your books is not like the others. Tell us about Vampire in the Outfield. This is a departure.

Vampire in the Outfield is about a rookie baseball player who discovers he can hit and play better after being bitten by a lovely vampire. Of course, he still has a problem with day games.

Johnny Black signs a contract to play for the Seattle Mariners, but there are many problems. Drug dealers want him to fly cocaine across the border. Gamblers want games fixed. His vampire girl friend wants Black to meet her parents. The Baseball Commissioner is in league with the Devil, and the Evil Empire (New York Yankees) and the ghost of Alex Rodriguez are on to his vampire ways, as is an FBI agent. They will not allow the integrity of the game to be tarnished.

I had a lot of fun with Vampire in the Outfield and I am very proud of this book. However, it has not sold well, so besides the 99 cents Kindle book, I give it away free at the end of America's Galactic Foreign Legion (Book 12) The Ark.

What do you like to do in your leisure time?

Leisure time? What's that? I'm married with children. I like to gamble at the casinos. On vacation, I enjoy exploring Nevada ghost towns and cross-country car trips. I like to gamble. I like historical sites, and will be visiting the Alamo next month. Are there casinos in Texas? With maps, I hunt for hot springs, and enjoy a good swim.

Books and Pals uses a wide definition of indie in defining our niche of indie books. Many are self-published books while others are published by small presses, in your case Penumbra Publishing. What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of taking this route to publication as opposed to going it alone or being published by one of the Big 6?

Self-publishing and publishing through a small press are very similar. Penumbra Publishing is an author's cooperative of titles that otherwise would not have been published. Penumbra's catalog is heavily weighted with girl books. By that I mean books written by women, about women, or both. Personally, I do not prefer stories about emotions, family, interpretation of dreams, falling in love, or politically correct female warriors. Some vampire books are cool.

My books buck that trend. I write guy books, and have suggested Penumbra diversify. I even edited a friend's military action adventure novel for submission to Penumbra, and he was offered a contract last week. I believe in Karma. If I do a good turn, good things happen in return.

Penumbra Publishing is only a few years old, and America's Galactic Foreign Legion easily outsold its entire catalog combined. AGFL sales, mostly Kindle E-books, are at 30,000+. We are still learning the business together. Editor Patricia Morrison is a real pro, cleaning up my grammar and organizing my stories. The volunteer artists (slaves) are as good as anyone in the industry.

I am not published through a Big 6 New York publisher because they did not want me. It does not matter because my main business is Kindle. My books are just as visible as any Big Six book, and my editor faster. I'm competitive with the big Six, and that's all most first time authors can hope for.

I am jealous of the Big 6 in one regard. I sell my paperbacks on Amazon, too, but I cannot sell them at bookstores. The Big Six have a monopoly on bookstore distribution that small presses cannot break. Bookstores insist unsold books be taken back, and small presses cannot afford to do that.

I still seek the validation of seeing my science fiction on a bookstore shelf, but will have to settle for just making lots of money. The Amazon Kindle revolution allowed me and other mid-list authors to make our dreams come true. God bless Amazon and Kindle.

What are your future writing plans?

My goal now is sustained sales for America's Galactic Foreign Legion. Kindle ownership is increasing, and Amazon is expanding to the world, so the future looks bright. My books are even selling well in the UK. E-books are forever.

Sales are a struggle. I've crossed the most important hurdle of finally being noticed. In January 2011, with six novels published, I was selling 2,300 books a month. Now, with 14 novels published, I am only selling about 800 books per month. It's a disappointment. I thought I was going to get rich, and be able quit my evil day job.

However, I am still sticking to my original strategy of increasing my body of work to a point where I cannot be ignored. America's Galactic Foreign Legion (Book 15) Lieutenant Columbus is on the editor's desk now. AGFL-15 is about a time traveling Christopher Columbus and General Patton who enlist in America's Foreign Legion. America rewards its heroes with a second chance, fame, and fortune.

America's Galactic Foreign Legion (Book 16) Galactic Disney is a work in progress, eight chapters so far. Galactic Disney is about building a Disney Amusement Park on another planet. Of course, it's a plot to dominate the aliens even more with our culture. America will win. Resistance is futile.

The best publicity for a book is to write another. I will continue writing. I might even write a sequel to Vampire in the Outfield, and have already given Johnny Black a cameo appearance in AGFL-14.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thank you Al for your interest in my work. Someday I would like you to review the entire America's Galactic Foreign Legion series. This interview was way too short. Maybe we can do this again, discuss pop culture, or the current state of science fiction.

I believe science fiction is dominated by too many stories of evil corporations, a failed America, failed ecology, anti military rhetoric, politically correct female warriors, and United Nations type governments. Give me science fiction where an evil alien is shot or stabbed by a marine, and I'm a happy camper. Hoorah!

For More Walter:

For more, visit Walter's website, or the website of his publisher, Penumbra Publishing.

Bibliography:

America's Galactic Foreign Legion series

Book 1: Feeling Lucky                 Review  Amazon US UK Paper

Book 2: Reenlistment                             Amazon US UK Paper

Book 3: Silent Invasion                           Amazon US UK Paper

Book 4: Demilitarized Zone                      Amazon US UK Paper

Book 5: Insurgency                                 Amazon US UK Paper

Book 6: Culture Ware                              Amazon US UK Paper

Book 7: Enemies                                    Amazon US UK Paper

Book 8: Allies                                        Amazon US UK Paper

Book 9: Scorpions                                  Amazon US UK Paper

Book 10: Peacekeepers                           Amazon US UK Paper

Book 11: Cemetery City                          Amazon US UK Paper

Book 12: The Ark                                   Amazon US UK Paper

Book 13: Salesman from Mars                  Amazon US UK Paper

Book 14: Embassy War                           Amazon US UK Paper

Others

Vampire in the Outfield                         Amazon US UK

Loathsome, Dark and Deep / Aaron Polson

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Horror/Historical

Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Aaron Polson currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife, two sons, and a tattooed rabbit. To pay the bills, Aaron attempts to teach high school students the difference between irony and coincidence while cultivating a healthy relationship with the works of William Shakespeare.”

For more, visit Polson’s website.

Description:

“After months of silence from the H&P Lumber and Pulp logging camp, strange raving madmen have wandered out of the woods. Henry Barlow hasn’t carried a gun since his wife’s brutal murder, a memory he drowns nightly with bourbon and whiskey. When reports of the strange goings on at the Lewis River camp reach H&P, they send Barlow and a small band of armed mercenaries upriver to investigate.”

Appraisal:

Sometimes I feel like the master of the bad analogy. I have another one for you here. Imagine you’re driving on a narrow, winding, two-lane mountain road with very little traffic. As you drive around curves in the road, you keep hitting potholes, which force you to slow down. If you want to get to the destination enough, you deal with it, but they’re still an irritant.

That’s how I felt reading Loathsome, Dark and Deep. The potholes in this case were copy-editing misses, each one minor, but coming frequently enough to slow me down. And I do mean minor. Things like a missing ‘a’, ‘the’, or ‘of’. An occasional verb tense or homonym error. If you tend to skim past those things, you won’t notice them here. If you’ve trained your internal editor to pay attention, it will slow you down. On the plus side, you’ll have more time to look at the scenery.

Despite taking my reading off cruise control and paying too much attention to the road, I liked the story. It takes place in what was then the Oregon Territory, and is now Oregon and Washington State, in the 1800s. Although primarily a horror story with a large dose of adventure in a historical setting, it has elements of mystery and what I’ll describe as primitive steam punk. Although it doesn’t have zombies, it comes darn close, for those who are into the living dead. As you would expect, with this kind of genre mashing, it will also keep you guessing.

Format/Typo Issues:

A large number of minor copy-editing misses.

Rating: *** Three stars