The book sales are going great

The selling of my library on Amazon is going pretty good. I sold four books today. Not to shabby. It is almost another full time job.

Just what I need.

When your favorite write croaks....what do you do!

We all of us have favorite writers. People who we eagerly await the next book to come out. It could be a series or just the general output of the author.  I have a bunch of guys I follow and get every book that comes out as soon as it is published. Robert B. Parker. Eric Flint. SM Stirling. George RR Martin. Elmore Leonard. Elmer Kelton. Robert Conroy. Harry Turtledove. Sean Chercover. George Peleconos. Dennis Lehane. Loren Estleman. And a bunch more.

Sometimes the author dies. People like John D. MacDonald. Elmore Leonard. Tom Clancy. Robert B. Parker. Then your supply is shut off. Your favorite characters will not be having any new adventures. Series are cut off in the middle of their run.

Now some authors are so popular that other people step up to continue the legacy. Sometimes it is the son or daughter of the author. When Michael Shaara the author of one of my favorite books "The Killer Angels" died his son Jeff picked up the mantle and produced some pretty good books. But more often than not there is no one to carry on the series.

That is not to say that many people don't try to use the famous characters in new stories. The most prominent example is of course Sherlock Holmes who seems to have moved into the public domain. There are innumerable pastiches using Holmes and Watson in stories by fans and authors who pay homage to the great stories first put forth by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Some are great and some are dreck. I always wanted to try my hand at that and the Inspector Lestrade letters are a nod in that direction. Maybe someday I will try.

The estate of Robert B. Parker is trying a different approach. They have several different professional authors to carry forward three of the series. The Jesse Stone novels are being written by Reed Farrell Coleman and more interestingly TV producer Michael Brandman. He is making a cottage industry of Jesse Stone has he has produced a series of TV movies staring Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone. You can catch them on Netflicks and they are pretty good although quite different than some aspects of the books.

Robert B. Parker's Westerns are being carried forward by Robert Knott. Now Parkers Westerns were always his weakest work and this has not changed with a new hand on the reins. I sympathize because I am a big Western fan and wish I could write them as effortlessly as someone like Louis Lamour or Elmer Kelton or Elmore Leonard. It is a noble effort that just doesn't quite cut it.

Finally they hit a bullseye when they got novelist Ace Atkins to pen the new Spenser novels. He is right on the mark. He captures Parkers voice without slavishly copying him. The latest Spenser novel is called "Kickback" and is about the for-profit prison systems that have sprung up to house juveniles in the Northeast. I just bought it and will read it today. Nothing is better than getting one of your favorite authors new books to read. It is not actually Robert B. Parker but it is close enough to top off my jones for hard boiled detective fiction for a while.

Now I have to wait until September for the next SM Stirling book. Waiting sucks.

A book recommendation for you.

I would like to reccomend Dana Perino's new book about her experiences working for President George W. Bush. You might know her from her work on "The Five" and on Fox News. She is very good on both but her book is on a different level.

Here is a link to an except form the book. A short part of  that post;

"But there were exceptions. One mom and dad of a dying soldier from the Caribbean were devastated, the mom beside herself with grief. She yelled at the president, wanting to know why it was her child and not his who lay in that hospital bed.

Her husband tried to calm her and I noticed the president wasn’t in a hurry to leave—he tried offering comfort but then just stood and took it, like he expected and needed to hear the anguish, to try to soak up some of her suffering if he could.

Later as we rode back on Marine One to the White House, no one spoke.

But as the helicopter took off, the president looked at me and said, “That mama sure was mad at me.” Then he turned to look out the window of the helicopter. “And I don’t blame her a bit.”

One tear slipped out the side of his eye and down his face. He didn’t wipe it away, and we flew back to the White House."

The clutching hand?

I did nothing but read when I was in the hospital. I needed to take my mind off of my predicament so I had to transport myself into another place and time.

One of the best books that I read was "The First Family" by Mike Dash. It was about the first real Mafia family in America which was the Morello/Terranova family of Harlem. They were the people of the famous murder barrel and the murder stable and a bunch of murders. Mainly counterfeiters they ran everything from around 1890 to 1918. A good run.

The main bad guy was Giuseppe Morello who was called the clutching hand because of his withered arm from when he was a kid in Sicily. According to the book he was the "Boss of Bosses" for a good portion of the beginning of the last century. When he got out of prison he was smart enough not to try to get his old spot back but became consigliore to Joe "The Boss" Masseria who is usually where most people start when they talk about the origins of the Mafia.

You find out about immigrant life and the gangs of New York and the Black Hand and lots of really interesting stuff. I highly recommend it to fans of the Mafia.

A great writer has passed.

One of my all time favorite writers has passed this week, Robert B. Parker of the Spenser, Jesse Stone, Sonny Randall and Appalosa fame.

He specialized in my two favorite brands of fiction, tough guy detective and western. I did find that he had started to repeat himself a lot in the Spenser series. Not to say that they weren't a great fast read and that I didn't buy everyone as soon as they came out. But the plots seem to always go the same way. Someone would come into Spenser's office and pose a problem. He would investigate but would pull in one of his friends who were a criminal to help. Sometimes Hawk his sidekick the black hit man. Or Vinnie Morris the Mafia hit man. Or Cholo the Mexican hit man. In one book he got together all of those guys in a sort of homage to the "Magnificent Seven." A fun read but not the most original.

I thought his Jesse Stone mysteries were more intriguing. Stone was an alcoholic police chief struggling with a wife he divorced but couldn't end it with. And he had started a dalliance with another main character in another series, Sonny Randall. So this was shaping up as a fun series to follow.

Sometimes when an author gets older a son will step in to follow in his fathers footsteps and keep the series alive. Michael Shaara's son Jeff did that with the Killer Angels series. WEB Griffin has already integrated his son into his series so he can take over. I don't know if anyone will pick up Robert Parker's mantle but I would hate for the series to end. They have been too much fun for me and too much a part of my life. I will really miss them.

To his wife Joan and his family, I extend my thoughts and prayers and may he rest in peace. He will be remembered fondly by many millions of his fans.

Get a move on!

I got SM Stirling's latest book "The Sword of the Lady" on the first day it was out and read it that night. It was great even though I had already seen the first ten chapters on the web.

So what the hell? Where the hell is the next one. I want it now.

Revisiting old favorites.

I love to reread my old books. The wife thinks I am crazy and wonders why I keep so many of my books but I always like to reread them over and over again. It is like visiting with an old friend. Since I am a very fast reader I zip right through them. But it is always enjoyable. So when I leave in the morning for the train I grab a book off the shelf and reread it.

This week I grabbed a nifty little piece of alternative history called "1901" by Robert Conroy. In it he asks what would happen if Kaiser Wilhelm decided that Germany should have the overseas possessions like Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines that the US had just taken from Spain. So the Germans invade New York to force the issue and get the US to turn over these overseas "colonies." It is a fun read. Not great literature but a page turner. As is usual in these books, the historical figures are fun but the fictional characters that are used as plot devices can get kind of tiresome. But it is still a great way to pass the time while riding the train to work.

The weirdest Custer story of them all!

The weirdest Custer story of them all?

No question about it. It is the "The Year the Cloud Fell " by Kurt R.A. Giambastiani. In it the Indians never are defeated and Custer is scouting in a dirigible which crashes over hostile territory. He falls in love with an Indian princess who bears him a child. Eventually he escapes back to American soil where he eventually runs for President and is elected. So he decides to negotiate a peace treaty with the leaders of the great Indian nations. Which include his bastard son. There is a series of four books in which this incredible story unfolds.

Oh and they ride dinosaurs. Yes that's right you wing nuts. Dinosaurs were never extinct and they were bred for riding.

I wish Luckyoldson would read it. His head would explode.

The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer

One of the first books of alternative history I ever read was Douglas C. Jones The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer which was later made into a crappy TV movie starring that skinny blond bitch Gynnie Platrow's mom. Anyway the book was very interesting and postulated that Custer survived the battle and was brought up on charges in front of a trail board containing many of the failed generals of the Civil War like John Pope, Rosecrans and McDowell.

This was first published in the early seventies and Douglas C. Jones had previously written about the massacre at Wounded Knee and was definitely very sympathetic to the Sioux and Cheyenne and Kiowa who made up the majority of the hostiles at the battle of the Little Bighorn. But with all of that it was surprisingly even handed and interesting. It was reissued as a paperback in 2006 and is available at Amazon.

I would love to see what RC Ocean would have to say about it because he knows more about the Civil War and it's generals of anybody this side of Shelby Foote. Check out his blog for great background on many Civil War battles and generals.(Just skip past all the Barbara Streisand posts, we all have our weird side interests, ya know)

The Reading list.

We were talking about books this week at Althouse and I just finished my third one this week. Ice, Iron and Gold by SM Stirling, which is a collection of some of his short stories. It was very entertaining. I also finished Paddy Whacked, The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster which is about Irish gangsters through the years. And I reread Now and Then a Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker. Re-reading is one of the joys of having a big collection of books. Parker is particularly good to read again and again because they are an easy read on the train.

This week we have lined up a new biography of Frank Niti, The Wolf Sea a Viking adventure and the latest issue of the Grantville Gazette which I downloaded from the website.

The Devils Brood is Pretty cool.

I have been enjoying the Devils Brood by Sharon Kay Penman which the story of King Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine and her sons who include Richard the Lion Heart and John Lackland from Robin Hood fame. It is a pretty good read, but a little too slow moving for my taste. Her earlier works are much more entertaining particularly the mystery series she set in the same time frame. I think she got a little solemn with this one because of the territory but I haven't finished it yet.

One of the best books I have ever read in this genre of historical fiction is King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett. This is the story of Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney, who she posits as the actual Macbeth from Shakespeare's play. This is as good as it gets and I highly recommend it for your reading pleasure.

S M Stirling put out another chapter.

S.M. Stirling has posted another chapter of his latest work "The Sword of the Lady." Catch it on his website along with the rest of his works. He is among the finest science fiction writers around today and his Emberverse series are great reading.

I just wish he would hurry up and finish the latest book for crying out loud.

Lehane's new book The Given Day is great so far.

Blogging is weird. I happened to mention in a post that I had picked up Dennis Lehane's new book "The Given Day" which is about the Boston Police strike. So one of the publiscist for the book read the post and commented. She gave me a link where you can read a few free chapters. This is the link:

http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780688163181&wt.mc_id=pub_wm_av

It's pretty funny that Ii was complaining about free chapters and some one comes to give out info for the exact same thing. I guess that is the new marketing ploy.

Anyway the book is full of interesting characters, especially real life ones like Babe Ruth and Calvin Coolidge and J Edgar Hoover. It is in an especially interesting time for a novel. The years at the end of World War 1 which is a mystery to most Americans. So far it has been a lot of fun and I highly recomend it. Lehane is a very talented writer.

I picked up two great new novels today: The Given Day by Dennis Lehane and The Devils Brood by Sharon Kay Penman.

I picked up two books today to read after the deadline. Both of them look like great reads.

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane which is about the Boston Police strike and shapes up to be a great read. He is a superior mystery writer who wrote the books that became the movies Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone. I hear that they are making a movie out of his insane asylum book Shutter Island and that should be pretty good. Lehane did some yeoman work on the last season of the Wire on HBO. He wrote all the dialogue where the corner boys went “ Yo man.”

Then I picked up Sharon Kay Penman’s latest in the trilogy about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine called “The Devil’s Brood.” A story about all of the familiar characters like Richard the Lionhearted and his wimpy brother John. You know the time of Robin Hood and all that jazz. Her historical books are really wonderful reading. My favorite of her’s is of course The Sunne in Splendor which is the story of Richard III
told in a much more sympathetic way than old Billy Shakespeare. In any event all of her books are well worth reading if you are a student of history.

I have some stuff to read on the train. Hooray!!!!

My top ten favorite SM Stirling Characters.

10. Rudi Mackenzie of the clan Mackenzie the hero of the latest series which includes his latest book the Scourge of God. It's easy to root for this all around hero. Maybe too easy that's why he barely makes the list.

9.Kashitliash the Babylonian King in the Islands in the Sea of Time Series. A tough resourceful king who can lead his people in the face of the wonders from the future. A tough guy but a real smart one.

8.Kathryn Hollard the Nantucket born woman soldier who becomes the wife of Kashitliash. A very complex and interesting character with a very interesting dilemma. She marries what is in effect a Stone Age king. How do you think that is gonna turn out. Not a Yabba dabba do old time. It's a shame the series stopped before we found out more about that.

7.John Horldle of the Dies the Fire Series. The "Little John" figure of the Englishman who flee Europe to come to the Willamette Valley to join the Clan Mackenzie. His good humored ferocity reminds of a lot other favorite characters such as Harper from the Sharpe books or Stockdale from the Bolitho novels or Ben Grimm from the Fantastic Four. It's seldom you see a huge man with a brain in his head.

5.Suzette Whitehall the scheming wife of Raj Whitehall the General in the series of the same name. She is a shifty bitch but just the one you want on your side if you are in the middle of reestablishing the rule of a galactic empire under the guidance of a super computer. Great character.

4.William Walker the villain of the Nantucket series. He has such a "I don't give a shit" attitude that must have been a lot of fun to write. A real scumbag but a very entertaining one. Builds an empire in Ancient Greece and wins the loyalty of lot of people through force of personality. He definitely would have been very effective in the world set up in the premise of these novels.

3. Sandra Arminger the Regent of the Portland Protective Association in the Dies the Fire books and the new trilogy. They call her the Spider and is another in the long line of nasty women in Mr. Stirling's work. Nasty but very, very smart and a very entertaining character. You know who she reminds me of believe it or not: Elizabeth of England. Good Queen Bess. Or in reality Not so Good Queen Bess. A masterful character who I hope has a lot more to do in future books. Evil is so much more interesting than good ya know.

2. Adrian Gellert the scholar warrior in the book The Reformer in the General Series. He has the memories of Raj Whitehall and the super computer as he strives to manipulate various factions into bringing civilization back to his planet. A very interesting character.

1. My favorite all time Stirling character is kinda weird. It's Isketerol of Tartessos the merchant turned ruler who is smart enough to realize that the new technology will allow the Nantucket people of the Eagle to rule the world. So he steals enough of it to force his way into the reckoning and is still standing when the wars are all over. I think he is a fascinating character. It's just that novels are not often written from the point of view of a character who is a "villain." Still that would be pretty cool.

Hey they might be idiosyncratic but that's the way I like it.

Why Psycho is a great movie

Did you ever see Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie Psycho. The movie starts out about this beautiful woman (with pointy tits for blake) who steals some money from her job. We start out watching the movie from her point of view. Then all of a sudden she gets murdered. We are in a whole different story. Everything that went before was a set up and wasn't important. Hitchcock called it the Mac Guffin, something that seems important but really isn't in the whole scheme of things.

It is very unusual for someone to set up a story and make it from the point of view of one character and then to kill off that character in the middle of the story. Most writers prefer a much more linear approach. Hero arrives, goes through a lot of stuff, suffers but not too much, wins and lives happily after after. Very few books or movies has the hero killed off in the middle of the story. I just think that approach would be very interesting.

Did S.M. Stirling really drop a comment at Trooper York?

Someone used the name of S.M. Stirling to write a comment on my post about putting out snippets or sample chapters of their books online. If it was really him than that is way cool.

Mr. Stirling is one of my favorite authors who has written several great series of science fiction books that I heartily recommend to any one who enjoys great stories.

His series The Island in The Sea of Time (The Nantucket series) is a great exercise in alternative history. The companion series "Dies the Fire" and "The Sunrise Lands" deal with the effects of what happened in the Nantucket series from another perspective. Pick up these books today and you will have a lot of fun.

I just can't believe that someone that famous would read my little blog. I thought it was just me and blake and aj and rc and knox and reader and pogo and dust bunny and 1jpb and Zach Sire and Montana and perchia and few others. This is way cool for an chootch from Brooklyn let me tell you.

Advance Reader Copies are a qyp man.

Baen books publishes some of my favorite science fiction authors like Eric Flint where you can buy the book in advance of publication. So you get the new book in your favorite series a month or so before it is actually published. Now I buy it but I don't read it on the computer or a kindle or whatever. I print out the pages and read it like a regular book. The problem is that it is on regular 8 1/2 by 11 paper which is a lot bigger than a regular book. Plus if you drop them on the floor you are screwed. Anyway what sucks is that when the book finally comes out in hardcover, you already have read it. That sucks.

Also the practice of putting sample chapters or snippets on the net sucks moose cock. I mean SM Stirling put 10 chapters of his latest The Scourge of God online and then only added about four more chapters. I already read most of the book online. WTF. Don't put more than two or three chapters up and let us get something for our money. Jeeez.