Interview with the Founder

The PODBRAM website has evolved through several iterations since its inception a number of years ago. I have remained mostly mute on both my websites for nearly a year, so I think it is time for an update. Many new readers may stumble upon PODBRAM without realizing the true depth of its history, so here is a recap.

The first draft of my first book was composed in 1966-70. After receiving the unsurprising rejection letters from a few prospective publishers, I left the manuscript filed away for the next fifteen years. As real-life maturity arrives, most of us come to recognize in hindsight the immaturity we possessed back when we wrote our college scribblings. This was certainly true of my experience as I realized just how blatantly obtuse, nonsensical, and silly my earliest navel gazing had been. I began writing in 1984 what would be published decades later as my seventh book. I would totally rewrite my first manuscript as my third published work in 2002. My first published book consisted of a collection of stories I had published serially and locally from 1985 through 1994. The point of this convoluted path is that if we are to become serious authors, first of all we must act like it. If you go into the writing game thinking that your first manuscript will be the next bestseller, your delusions of grandeur are most likely preceding your reputation as a future author.

Now on with the show. In this PODBRAM interview I shall be referred to as 77TA66. That is my Discus name. My real name of course is Floyd M. Orr. You can find me all over the Internet if you care to look. The only reason I have a different Discus name is because I thought I had to have one when I first began with Discus years ago. Otherwise I never post or comment anywhere online except under my own real name. If you think you have ever read a comment on a blog that was written by me under any name other than Floyd M. Orr or 77TA66, you are mistaken.

PODBRAM: When did you first try to reach a national audience?

77TA66: When I began composing a serialized set of stories about Corvettes and other sports cars in 1985, I knew that I had a captive audience for them, the local Corvette club, which at that time at least, was the largest such club in the world at more than 100 members. These stories were typed on a 1959 IBM typewriter, but I planned to eventually publish them in a book format.

PODBRAM: What was the next step in your goal of reaching a larger audience?

77TA66: I knew that computers and the Internet would eventually reach a technological development point at which I could move my plan forward. I had fully realized by this time that my subject matter had limited audience appeal and a couple of publishers already completely controlled the genre. They had rejected my submissions by this point and I was not surprised by that. After all I was attempting to launch my own new genre, what I now call Nonfiction in a Fictional Style.

PODBRAM: Then iUniverse was launched in 1997, right?

77TA66: Yes. After thorough research I decided that iU was head and shoulders above the rest. The release of Plastic Ozone Daydream was a project of massive proportion! First of all, I tried to scan the typewritten pages into my Windows 98 computer. That's when I discovered that OCR software was far from perfect! After wasting an enormous amount of time and effort, I wound up retyping the entire book into Word. There were countless hours expended upon the inclusion of about forty photos and numerous other technical issues, but the book was finally released. Then the real fun began!

PODBRAM: I understand that you had few delusions concerning potential book sales. You never expected to set any element of the book market on fire.

77TA66: I thought if I did much of nothing in promotional effort, that I would sell about 200 copies. Many people had already read some of the material in the serialized stories. They had a basic understanding of the content. Some of them were even personally named in the book! I had hoped to spend some time and money on advertising and maybe sell 1000 copies.

PODBRAM: Things did not exactly turn out that way, did they?

77TA66: My wife and I were retired and we spent all our energy on the promotion of Daydream for a couple of years. We purchased and developed numerous mailing lists. We created flyers, posters, bookmarks, and T-shirts. We licked thousands of stamps and envelopes. We bought print advertising. I even went on a local radio show. Before it was over, we had released four books with iUniverse and spent something over $20,000.

PODBRAM: And you have now sold thousands of copies of your books, right?

77TA66: I quit keeping track years ago, but I can swear in court that to this day my first four books have not collectively sold more than 300 copies. The one of the four that my wife and I have always been certain should have the broadest audience appeal, Timeline of America, has yet to sell twenty copies!

PODBRAM: Wow! Let me catch my breath! I cannot believe you are still writing books. What happened next?

77TA66: Somewhere along the line back in 2000-2002, I began to really dig deeply into Internet research about this astounding phenomenon of Print On Demand books. What I discovered began to really open my eyes. It began with an iU author named Solomon Tulbure who called himself Lord Satan on the iU message board. He was a controversial figure who deliberately riled up a lot of people by spamming their in-boxes and message boards back before the government cracked down on such tacky behavior. In my opinion, he may have been tacky in his approach, but he knew what he was talking about! The fact was that iUniverse never gave a rat's ass if any iU author ever sold a single book and he was the first to fully understand this surprising new concept.

PODBRAM: Was he successful in selling his books?

77TA66: Many times more successful than 98% of the rest of us! His Amazon numbers may appear pathetic now, but we are now several years after his untimely death. It was ruled a suicide by the police, but he always claimed while alive that he would soon be murdered. That's another story.

PODBRAM: What was so significant about the Lord Satan story, as it applies to PODBRAM?

77TA66: Tulbure was not only the first to discover that iU cared only about publishing more and more authors who would sell a minimal quantity of books, but that Amazon was the only retailer that mattered for POD books, online or off. To this day, Amazon sells a minimum of 90% of all POD books sold! It matters little whether we are talking about POD, print, Kindle, or CreateSpace, it's practically all Amazon.

PODBRAM: Let's move forward about fifteen years to the present day. What has changed?

77TA66: In two words, CreateSpace and Kindle, both Amazon products, of course. CS has all but knocked competing POD print operations into the dustbin. The technology has advanced to the point that only a prospective author with more money than brains even considers paying iUniverse or one of their direct competitors, and this includes Amazon's own similar, full-service, overpriced imprint. Anyone with a modicum of computer experience can publish with CreateSpace. You may spend a lot of time with the learning curve, but in the end there is no comparable substitute for CS. My first book with iU had forty small B&W photos; my seventh (with CS, under my NIAFS imprint) had over 200 larger, sharper photographs. The only thing that has not changed is that they are still in B&W. Even CS still charges a ridiculous retail price requirement to publish a print book with color photos.

PODBRAM: I'm sure most of your fiction writers and readers want to hear about Kindle. That format has certainly conquered the world of e-books in an unprecedented manner.

77TA66: No doubt about that! If you want to reach a specific genre audience with a low-priced product, Kindle is king. For nonfiction, larger books, heavily researched works requiring higher financial returns for their creators, works with large numbers of photos, the Kindle phenomenon offers a conundrum beyond the scope of that faced by new fiction authors. The Kindle option does allow photos to be published in full color at a consumer price that will not choke an elephant, but even that concept fights an uphill battle against the common Kindle low-price strategy. I tested this premise with the design and release of my seventh and most recently published book. Only 7% of my total sales have been for the Kindle version, even though the price is a few dollars lower than the print version and nearly all of the included photos are in color!

PODBRAM: That is a shocker! Most POD authors struggle to sell even a small percentage of their output in print these days. The Kindle seems to have taken over. What about other e-book formats?

77TA66: My four iUniverse books and my one text-only CreateSpace publication have also been released with Smashwords, a company that makes them available in the Nook format for Barnes & Noble and in the miscellaneous other formats. My sales, and certainly my royalties, have been a steady trickle. Even I have been surprised at how pathetic the B&N sales have been, although B&N is clearly the ringleader of all my non-Kindle e-book sales. My CS books with photos are way too large in file size to be published with Smashwords.

PODBRAM: What do you see in the future of publishing?

77TA66: Not a pretty picture, that's for sure! With the caveat that I hope I am not offending the many Kindle fans out there, I have to say that there is a certain unmistakable something for nothing attitude that has become all too prevalent. The low price points of Kindle books on the retail consumer market drives that market, period. If you think the truth is otherwise, I am afraid you are sadly mistaken. If you are a new author trying to break into a genre fiction market, by all means publish in the Kindle format, but if you want to sell any serious numbers, your retail price point must be low, preferably below $5. You nonfiction guys can join me at CreateSpace. No other format or publisher is likely to ever surpass these two for the unknown and little-known author marketplace.

PODBRAM: Some experts think Barnes & Noble and other bookstore chains are already in their death throes? Do you agree with this?

77TA66: A couple of years ago, I was certain of it, but I recently read about a situation of which I was previously unaware. Did you know that once upon a time when Apple was struggling to survive that Microsoft invested a wad of cash in Apple to keep their competitor alive? They did this to avoid an attack of monopoly regulations from the federal government. Smart, huh? If it comes down to the wire, I would not be at all surprised if Amazon does the same thing with B&N. Otherwise, yes, I do expect we shall see the demise of the store chain and website, the latter of which has been quite pathetic since the store corporation took it over a number of years ago. The Kindle has undoubtedly stomped the Nook into the dirt.

PODBRAM: Will we soon see the extinction of print books?

77TA66: Only if the publishers change their outrageous pricing policies of books containing color photos, and only if nonfiction and research and reference books disappear from the culture. In other words, no. I think the dichotomy of Kindle for fiction and print for nonfiction will only grow larger. Unfortunately, the publishing of bullshit by celebrities will also continue to grow while the words of inspiring, intelligent authors will languish. As with everything else in our rotten culture, money screams and everything else falters.

PODBRAM: The current reality sucks, but could we leave this discussion on a somewhat higher note?

77TA66: My most recent book is my largest and most expensive, and it is also my best selling. The irony is that this is that same book that I started out to write and publish in 1984. Back then I changed my mind because I thought the subject matter held the least appeal for a wide audience. As I stated above, my book with potentially the largest and broadest market has been my weakest seller. After well over a decade in the publishing and marketing game, I have to admit that I have learned the lesson from Lord Satan. To become a success as a nobody author, you have to have a target market. You must be able to shoot an arrow into the bull's eye of that target, no matter how small it might be. You can tell potential readers how great your book is in the most perfectly scripted language you can muster and no one will care a whit. You cannot buy their attention with advertising, either. Unless your book's title is so generic and boring as to be nauseating in its lack of creativity, no one will search for it on Amazon. You have to spoon feed the potential audience. You have to hit the target. Think like Robin Hood or Annie Oakley and maybe you will get lucky and sell a few books. Welcome to a very exclusive club!

The Scarlet Kingfisher

The Scarlet Kingfisher: 
Discovery of a New Species 
by Robert Henry Benson
(CreateSpace / 1-500-71684-7 / 978-1-500-71684-4 / August 2014 / 328 pages / Paperback $9.95 / Amazon $8.96 / Kindle $4.99)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM
 

When I was a youngster I went through a period when I read some of my father's whodunnits. One series he particularly loved was by Dick Francis, a one-time British jockey turned mystery writer. Frances must have written forty books set within the world of horse racing and I probably read ten before I went on to something else. Each one featured a different angle on horse racing, from the points of view of a jockey, trainer, bookie, owner, or the like. With each one I felt I had been given an inside glance by an expert into an interesting field I'd never have known about otherwise. To this day I've never seen a horse race live, nor bet on one, but I'm still happy to know a little about an area of our society that, until then, I knew nothing about. A mystery is a mystery, but if you can learn something while being entertained, how could that not be good?

In The Scarlet Kingfisher, a young professor looking to achieve promotion and tenure learns of a possible new species of bird in South Texas, something that is not impossible but extremely rare and noteworthy. Such a discovery would practically guarantee instant fame and a successful academic career. Complications ensue, of course: a dead body, bizarre behavior by the department head, a mysterious Asian billionnaire, being arrested and jailed by a small town sheriff, and more. There will be no spoilers here. It's a mystery.

All this is by way of saying that The Scarlet Kingfisher is an entertaining thriller per se, but perhaps even more interesting as a look at the life of a wildlife scientist, professor, and bird lover. We not only see the severe South Texas ranchland and wildlife through the mind of an expert far more observant than we are, we also get to watch him practice his craft using skills and techniques that are unknown and undreamed of by the general public. The story may change the way you think about "bird watchers."

The book reads cleanly. There are no major editing issues. 

See Also: Robert Henry Benson's Goodreads page
The Big Year, an excellent movie about birdwatching

Two Worlds Daughter

Two Worlds Daughter
by Dr. Al Past
(CreateSpace / 1-496-13199-1 / 978-1-496-13199-7 / March 2014 / 316 pages / $13.66 paperback / $12.29 Amazon / $2.99 Kindle)

 As a reader and reviewer of all six of Al Past's Distant Cousin books, I rate this one as the second best of the sequels. Of course you can never duplicate that first introduction to the exquisite Ana Darcy in the first book! Like my other two favorites, DC1 and DC3, Two Worlds Daughter is one of the longer books in the series, and I like them that way.

This DC6 stars Ana's seventeen-year-old daughter Clio and her ex-Navy SEAL bodyguard, Fergus. Clio discovered earlier in life, and in an earlier book, that she had special healing powers she could impart to patients through a special lightness of touch, an exquisite massage. She had proven prior to finishing high school that she distinctly had possession of a delicate healing power. In a search for more knowledge of this unusual talent, she joins a small entourage of doctors and nurses who are devoting two weeks of their time in a small town in New Mexico. Forever the protective mom, Ana insists that Clio travel only with a protector of both her person and her secret identity.

The story unfolds pleasantly, slowly and smoothly through the first half of the book. There may not be much excitement happening, but the reader is easily sucked down the rabbit hole of the storyline. The deep experience and professionalism imparted by the author guides the reader to a second half with considerably more action and surprises. The special relationships among the characters, Ana and her friends and extended family, Clio and her patients, and Clio and her recalcitrant traveling companion, will warm your heart much like that first meeting with Ana Darcy did. The book is never long enough as far as all the Distant Cousin Series go. The ending arrives all too quickly.

Two Worlds Daughter is the sixth book in a very entertaining fiction series suitable for all ages. Dr. Al Past has created a wonderful storyline with broad appeal. I highly recommend that any intellectually curious reader begin with the first book in the series. You will not be able to put it down. I also recommend a perusal of the Ana Darcy Blog (link below) to see the complete three-dimensional story that Al has created. Note that the story has been contracted to a movie agent, a fate it most certainly deserves. As All-American entertaining fiction, the Distant Cousin Series is hot stuff! 

See Also: Al's Ana Darcy Blog
The Original Distant Cousin 

Ghost Ship of the Desert

Ghost Ship of the Desert 

by Michael Cole

(Foremost Press / 1-939-87011-9 / 978-1-939-87011-7 / April 2014 / 200 pages / $13.97 Amazon / $4.99 Kindle)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM

There are two reasons I looked forward to Michael Cole’s Ghost Ship of the Desert:  (1) I love sea stories set in the time wooden ships, and (2), I was raised in El Paso, in the great Chihuahan Desert. To combine both concepts in one story was an intriguing idea. My initial enthusiasm was dimmed somewhat, however, by the cover, which shows an improbable fully rigged ship (though without sails on the yards, true) lying half buried in sand. Its rigging is completely intact, with all lines and ropes tight—even the ratlines! These lines would need daily attention, even hourly attention, to maintain their tautness on a modern vessel, but on a ghost ship in the desert? That’s not going to be the case.

 

Still, I should know better than anyone that a book should not be judged by its cover, since I have penned a number of novels with astronomical photos on the covers though the stories are actually only about ten per cent science fiction, being set solidly on our good Earth. Several hard core sci-fi fans have objected in strong terms. They have a point, even if the stories are good ones.

Fortunately, Ghost Ship of the Desert turned out to be a decent story too, despite the further contradiction that the ship of the title turned out, on page three, to be a Spanish galleon. The ship on the cover is a vessel several centuries newer than the tubby, hardy vessels of the days of the Spanish Empire.

In the story, we find an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times is sent to report on a political squabble over the fate of the Salton Sea, a highly saline, highly toxic dumping ground for various California entities. In so doing, he stumbles into a murder mystery involving, among other things, the ghost ship of the title, a semi-deranged ex-SEAL Native American, rare and valuable black pearls, a gorgeous red-headed scientist with a violent boyfriend, and murder. The result is a mystery that fits squarely in its niche: a detective story replete with danger, romance, and a shadowy perpetrator or perpetrators. (As a bonus, we learn that back in sixteenth century and even later, the Salton Sea, now landlocked, was occasionally open to the sea, so that the occasional ship might indeed have sailed upon it. It’s not difficult to find lost ships and possible lost treasure mentioned online.)

All in the story is not smooth sailing, however. The text reads well enough provided you are not the sort who trips up at comma splices and similar copy editing oversights (as I am). There are some plot holes, not unknown in complex mystery stories. Most are minor, but I have to mention one which this former desert rat had to shake his head at: the notion that a three or four hour sandstorm could completely cover a Spanish galleon (or completely uncover it), and that after centuries under the sand and with some missing planks in the deck, the area below decks will remain open enough for a person to walk around and hunt for treasure chests. My family found the spring sandstorms sent drifts of sand into even a tightly sealed-up house. Left to accumulate for 400 years, I’m certain all our furniture would have been buried. And probably the refrigerator too.

Finally, I found the characters rather flat. The relentless investigative reporter and the traffic-stopping red haired scientist who inevitably falls for him fulfilled their functions in the story but were not quite unique enough to lodge in my long-term memory.

The bottom line is that Ghost Ship of the Desert is a worthwhile read but also a good example of the difficulty of putting out a polished, professional product independently or with a small staff. That requires meticulous attention to detail—to hundreds of details—a daunting task indeed, and that’s the good news. The rest of the story involves marketing, and we won’t even go into that here, except to mention that this blog offers quality advice and a good selection of the most helpful links in the column to the left.

 

See Also: Other Books by Michael Cole

The Dog Did It

The Dog Did It: A Whodunit
by Jim Toombs
(CreateSpace / 1-478-26078-5 / 978-1-478-26078-3 / August 2012 / 274 pages / $10.99 paperback / $9.89 Amazon / $2.99 Kindle)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM
 

I began The Dog Did It -- A Whodunit (Gabe and Tigger Mystery) wondering if it was another in the vein of Dog On It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery, by Spencer Quinn, a mystery told from the point of view of the detective's dog, and rather imaginatively so. I found reading that book something of a high-wire project, with the suspension of disbelief teetering throughout. The Dog Did It is more traditionally narrated, however, and reads well. The protagonist, Gabe Chance is not exactly a licensed detective, and the story isn't a mystery since we meet the bad guys early on and know what they're up to. If one needs a genre for it, adventure would do, or maybe suspense.

Brought back to Texas when his mother's will is probated, Mr. Chance finds that to inherit her money he must live in her house, drive her car, and care for her dog. He does so very reluctantly, and while reconnecting with people he knew in childhood, finds himself ensnared in a murder which eventually leads to further dangers for himself and others...and the dog. The story, flavored by its setting in the famously lovely Texas hill country, costars a Jack Russell terrier, which should appeal to dog lovers and especially to lovers of that breed. The lively critter is based, it seems, on the author's own dog of yore, who apparently inspired the book.

I found the story satisfyingly entertaining, though I could have done with more details regarding the character and history of the main character. For that matter I suspect those not familiar with the Texas hill country could also use a bit more description of that, too. Oddly enough, the most memorable characters were the bad guys, one of whom was a vicious professor and another a frighteningly dangerous (if entertaining in a shivery sort of way) sociopath.

Those who enjoy this book will be happy to know there is a second featuring the same dog and master. Both are attractively priced for Kindle.

See Also: Jim Toombs website

The Poison Ring

The Poison Ring by Freddie Remza

(Outskirts Press / 1-478-70541-8 / 978-1-478-70541-3 / May 2013 / 286 pages / $14.95 paperback / Amazon $13.46 / Kindle $6.99)

Let me begin by saying that, as with all my reviews, I have given a considerable amount of thought to my approach before proceeding. There will be technical criticisms in this review that will not appear in the Amazon review because PODBRAM is a place for authors to learn and Amazon is a place to sell books. Rest assured that I am not going to shred The Poison Ring here because it is a very competent effort deserving of the four stars I shall give it at Amazon. However, this book demonstrates several key lessons that I think are pertinent to the PODBRAM audience of fellow authors.

The Poison Ring is obviously a book for Young Adult readers, not for typical adults of all ages, but this fact is not noted on the book's Amazon page. If the prospective buyer checks out the Look Inside, the large print is a hint. I call the storyline Nancy Drew Goes to Nepal. The reading level is simple with lots of short declarative sentences composed in a typical third-person, past-tense style. There is an adequate level of show-don't-tell in the extensive dialog among the characters and the pace of the story is kept brisk to the end. The author is a retired teacher and there are discussion questions at the end. There is another bonus of ten B&W photos from Nepal in the back matter; however, the effect could have been improved by either moving the photos to their respective positions within the text or enlarging them to full-page size, or both. Ms. Remza is attempting to teach her student readers about Nepal and its culture, and she does an adequate job of this with the book. One detail the author missed is that the application of the past perfect tense would have been correct in several instances in the text. The story is told in a straightforward manner and the reader's interest will be held to the end.

This is Freddie Remza's fourth book with Outskirts Press, which brings up several points relevant to the PODBRAM readership. Although my own first four books were published with iUniverse, that is an approximate maximum number for an author to pay many hundreds of dollars to sell a small number of books. It's probably time for Freddie Remza to "graduate" up to CreateSpace. Whether or not the author paid for extra services at Outskirts, The Poison Ring is certainly one of the best proofread POD books I have encountered. Other than a minimum number of typos and the aforementioned tense issue, Freddie's fourth effort is a slick, professional product. If the author can reproduce this quality of work on her own at CS, she could be on her way to making more in royalties than she pays in fees.

The highest compliment I can pay to Ms. Remza is to state that in the genre of YA fiction, this book approaches the quality of that of ex-iUniverse author Dianne Salerni. She's not quite there yet. I think even YA readers could deal with a little more complexity in the plot and sentence structure. Her heart is in the touching zone and the technical quality of the product is commendable.

See Also: Freddie Remza's Amazon Page

Reunification

Reunification: A Monterey Mary Returns to Berlin  

by T.H.E. Hill

(CreateSpace / 1-490-49026-4 / 978-1-490-49026-7 / July 2013 / 226 pages / $12.95 / $11.66 Amazon)

Reviewed by Celia Hayes for PODBRAM

“Alas, poor Cold War, I knew it well. It was a war of infinite jest and most excellent fancy, fought more often in the shadows of the mind than to death, yet the lives of millions hung in the balance. It is a war without monuments, but not without casualties…”

Long-retired from the CIA, Mike Troyan returns to Berlin, where he once served as a military linguist – a Monterey Mary – at the Army Field Station in the 1970s. Now comfortably ensconced in academia, he intends to write a book about the Stasi, the East German secret police, and do a great deal of research in the Stasi archives, where the files they kept on almost anyone of interest have been pieced back together. But on his return he is almost immediately walloped by the realization that there was an informant among his comrades at the Army Field Station, an informant code-named MUSIK. He is also walloped in the face with a plate of currywurst by the mother of the head of the Stasi archives… a woman of his age who just happens to be his one-time Berlin girlfriend.

And with that, Mike begins unpacking and reviewing his suitcase of memories of divided Berlin, memories which are poignantly at odds with the present-day rebuilt, revived, and reunified Berlin. Everything he once knew so very well is either gone or changed almost beyond recognition; the Wall itself is gone, Checkpoint Charlie is a tourist attraction with the golden arches of a McDonalds’ in the background and manned by a pair of badly uniformed actors who pose for pictures with tourists, and one of the main recreational centers for American personnel in Berlin is now something called the “Dahlem Urban Village.”  “The sidewalk was full of people speaking German as they went about their business. All of them were unaware that they were walking down a street full of English-speaking ghosts who shimmered before me on their way to a PX that didn’t exist any more.” And when Mike’s daughter, Samantha comes to Berlin, about halfway through the book, the plot just thickens.

He remembers that particularly vivid past, as he tours present-day Berlin, by himself or with Samantha  – and accounts of the antics of his fellows at Army Field Station are interspersed now and again with how ominous the Stasi was to ordinary Berliners.” “The Stasi could make things not happen,” says one of the former East Berliners that he meets in his peregrinations about the city that he once knew so very well. “Your kids would not get into college. That apartment for which you were  three years on a waiting list was no longer available. The new car that you had paid for in full at the start of a six-year waiting list for delivery was suddenly delayed or postponed… and there was nothing you could do. There was no legal recourse because nothing could be done. There was nothing you could prove. There were no documents.”  For my money, that kind of impersonally deliberate bureaucratic malice is at least as chilling as the threat of overt violence, interrogation, and imprisonment with the threat of a capital sentence.

And now, to people the age of Mike’s daughter, what was once a very real menace is completely toothless, a rather shabby joke when not a focus for a weird kind of nostalgia. Only people the age of Mike and some of his old friends remember that it was all in grim earnest, as concrete as The Wall itself. One day, out of the clear blue sky, it all came down, dissolving into little chips of brick and concrete, valueless coins and clumsy relics like East German-made telephones (pre-bugged) and Trabant automobiles.

Reunification is quite readable, and nicely-plotted: part puzzle, part travelogue, part memoir and part history, with some quite nice turns of phrase, some of which I have quoted here. Mike on setting to work at the archives: “I’d worked in the salt mines of bureaucracy long enough to know the coin of the realm, and how to mint it.” For me, the passages which resounded were the melancholy episodes of re-visiting old haunts; just about every base which I served at in the 1970s and 1980s is either closed entirely, re-purposed by the host government or changed beyond all recognition. You cannot go home again, for strangers have taken it over.

Any criticism I have is directed at the basic formatting of the text itself; the margins are narrow, there is unnecessary spacing between lines and paragraphs, and the use of random fonts to indicate a shift from the present to the past, or to indicate a written document, is a little jarring. There are also inexplicable switches between the English and German conventions for quote marks around dialog. This does not reflect on the quality of writing or ability to tell an engaging story, but it does detract from aesthetic appreciation of the printed version’s pages. 

See Also: Voices Under Berlin, a 2009 PODBRAM Award Winner  

The Bright Lady and the Astral Wind

The Bright Lady and the Astral Wind 

by James Dunning

EXPLICATIO PARANORMALORVM - An Explication of the Paranormal

(Dolmen Tree Press / 1-463-56504-6 / 978-1-463-56504-6 / July 2011 / 270 pages / $14.95 / $14.20 Amazon / $2.99 Kindle)

Let me begin by saying that this book is one of the most professionally produced POD books I have seen. The proofreading errors were few and far between. I received with this book a full-color, two-sided brochure, a postcard, and a personally written letter. The author is a highly educated man from the Atlanta area who is well traveled in the U.S. and Europe, and this is his first book. The Bright Lady is a sort of autobiographical story of one element of the author's life. The action takes place over a seven-year period, beginning when he first sees the aura of a young woman who works for the same corporation, but in the building next door.

Is it live or is it Memorex? The most difficult part of writing an analysis of this book revolves around the space-cadet plotline conjured by a writer who is something of an expert in psychology, parapsychology, and linguistics. He is also a devoted fan and researcher of the legendary Tolkien Trilogy. He has a doctorate in pharmaceutical research and has held some sort of high-level position at a high-tech suburban firm, although not necessarily in the obvious field. The author is quite obtuse in whatever mentions or descriptions of his career are contained within the storyline. Most of the plot content takes place either at this business or on one of the author's several excursions to Europe, where he wallows in the languages of the area. The Bright Lady is described in a first-person account of Dr. Dunning's prophetic meeting with a mysterious young woman at the unnamed large corporation where they both work. He tells the story as if he himself is uncertain if he had experienced a series of deeply imaginative fever dreams, or if a truly paranormal experience has truly cloaked his mind.

I can understand what the author is trying to convey. The only question I have is how many other readers will enjoy it? As a fellow Psychology major, I read Freud's Delusion and Dream and I was indeed fascinated by somewhat similar, intense dream sequences. To this day, I dream profusely, all in 3D color with a full range of thoughts and emotions. However, my interest in foreign languages or fantasy book series is basically zero. There certainly may be many readers who will ascertain many details from these elements and be deeply moved by the author's applications of these concepts. My favorite parts are the author's deep discussions with his old friend concerning his travails and unexpected delights with The Bright Lady. The final interpretation will have to rest with each individual reader.

The author drew or painted the cover images and there is a bibliography of resources describing the author's detailed influences. Dr. Dunning mentions that he dislikes the distraction of footnotes, and with that I could not agree more. The story flows nicely, whether you take it as gospel nonfiction, the memoir of an eccentric, or a delicately told tale of silent desire and delusion.

See Also: The Author's Website

Submissions Are Open!

Heads up! For a brief period at least, submissions for book reviews are now open at PODBRAM. Why are they open now, after all this time? Because I am bored and I need something new to read. All the previous PODBRAM rules and details apply. If you want to know more, refer to the articles listed in the left column under "Submitting a Book for Review". There are no PODBRAM team members involved in this opening for submissions. I assume they are all still busy with their own projects. It's just little old me, just like in the early days.

Here is a refresher on how to get your book selected for review. (1) Only print books are accepted. (2) All publishers are accepted. (3) No children's books, youth books, fantasy, science fiction, or get rich quick titles will be accepted. (4) Genre romance or Christian will not likely be accepted. (5) Mystery, biography, thriller, horror, and various nonfiction genres will definitely be considered. (6) If you are an unknown, self-published author with few or no reviews at Amazon, your work will be more likely to be accepted for a review simply because you need it. (7) I count errors, and although I accept a higher percentage of these from self-published writers, I am never oblivious to them, no matter how strong the book's content.

If your book is accepted for review, here is what you can expect. (1) The review will be posted at PODBRAM and Amazon within a decent timeframe. (2) These two reviews may or may not be identical, depending upon my opinion of the book and other details. I generally tend to mention the errors and technical flaws more in the PODBRAM review since this site is mainly for self-published authors to learn from each other. (3) I shall read every word of the book, as well as take note of the details of its presentation. (4) My reviews are always direct, honest, and well thought out prior to publication. You are getting the opinion of a writer who has published seven substantial, detailed, nonfiction books since POD was in its infancy, so I know exactly what it takes to properly write and self-publish a book. (5) I view paid book reviewers with disdain. The only cost at PODBRAM is the mailing of a printed copy. Some authors send books directly from Amazon as an easy alternative. (6) Accepted submissions are read and reviewed in the order in which they arrive in my mailbox.

Requests should be sent to ice9 at nctv dot com. A detailed description of the book in the e-mail is unnecessary. A simple link to your book at Amazon is sufficient. Your message will be answered promptly. If accepted, the address to send the book will be included in the reply. Thank you for your support of PODBRAM.

Without Apology

Without Apology

by Jacqueline S. Homan

(Elf Books / 0-981-56795-9 / 978-0-981-56795-2 / March 2013 / 356 pages / $19.95 paperback / Amazon $18.84 / Kindle $5.99)

This will be a difficult review for me to write, since I am a fan and supporter of Jacqueline Homan's work. I have read and reviewed Ms. Homan's previous four books and this one does not veer far from the course of the others. However, I have a very difficult time swallowing the author's premise that all men are bad and all women are good. Of course I cheer on her rants when she goes after the severe disparity in economic justice that has become the relentless status quo in modern America, but the author's premise for this book is overly simplified, to say the least. Ms. Homan states repeatedly throughout this book that men are the problem, as they have been for 6000 years, and women have consistently lacked autonomy and bodily integrity for this reason alone. It would have been much more prudent to include such a statement a couple of times in the book, rather than repeatedly, over and over in much the same language.

Jacqueline's life story and accomplishments deserve the whole hour of an Oprah episode. The mostly female audience would love it! There is great honor in the extreme level of self-improvement that Jacqueline has accomplished. Whenever she goes into research mode in her writing, this book, and all the previous ones, too, show off a level of creativity that is quite commendable. Without Apology is full of such detailed research, and that part of the story is very well told, but, please, enough with the repetitive rants. We get it, you have been abused by men most of your life, but that does not mean that all women have or that all men are the world's villains.

There are a few technical details that scream self-publishing and they should be excised from Ms. Homan's future work. Most of these involve simple proofreading and a little extra time to prepare the book for publication. The back cover blurb is only one short paragraph, leaving mostly white space, and one key word is misspelled. The inside margin is a little tight. The paragraphs are both indented and line spaced. The front matter could be more complete, adding a professional look.

This book is as exciting to read as Jacqueline's previous work. You never know whether she will be in rant mode or research mode from one paragraph to the next, and the surprises are fun to a certain extent. She goes from street language to academia and back with her usual aplomb. I think it is time for Jacqueline to take the next step in the maturation process as an author. The real causes of our nation's severe income inequality issues are somewhat complex. Our history has gone from The Great Depression to the New Deal to the explosive Sixties to the oppressive decades since. The Southern Strategy has been a much more accurate villain for Ms. Homan's rants than have all men. I suggest she consider this fact. Women are the leading church goers; in most cases, they drag their male family members along. In other words, the Southern Strategy is the real cause of Jacqueline's and everybody's misery, and women have been involved in that madness as much as men. This author's writing style and subject matter are commendable, but I honestly thought she might have gotten past all the relentless ranting with her first book. Do not misunderstand. I think Without Apology is quite a good read and a relevant story for our modern culture. I also feel it is time for Jacqueline to look past her ancient rage and mature a little as an author. The core premise of Without Apology is just too simplistic. Unless you are already a raving feminist of the female persuasion, this book will not offer much appeal. I want to see the accomplished author Jacqueline Homan on Oprah!

See also: Jacqueline Homan's books at B&N
Cla$$ism for Dimwits
Divine Right: The Truth is a Lie
Eyes of a Monster
Nothing You Can Possess

Course Corrections

Course Corrections: 
One Man's Unlikely Journey 
by Larry J. Nevels
(iUniverse / 1-462-01636-7 / 978-1462016365 / July 2011 / 316 pages / $18.95 paperback / $28.95 hardcover / $7.69 Kindle / $8.49 Nook)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM

Course Corrections is the late-in-life memoir of Larry J. Nevels, 1945-2011. Commander Nevels died last year, a retired, carrier-qualified Naval aviator, among other achievements, after a most humble and unlikely beginning. On one level the book he put together is a classic American rags to riches story ("riches" being defined in terms of personal reward rather than mere pelf). That is, it is a testament to gumption, persistence, several doses of luck, and the out-of-the-blue generosity of people who must have sensed his innate drive and decency. On another level, it is simply a terrific read. CDR Nevels had a great memory and a practiced story-teller's eye for detail and timing.

He was born into a broken, dysfunctional family who scorned those who went to college as effete snobs. His "home life" was hardly that, since he lived in a number of foster homes and occasionally struck out on his own when he was barely a teenager. Buoyed inexplicably by great faith, endurance, and optimism, he survived into high school, where he was given timely nurture (and a home) by a legendary teacher and life lessons from a tough, caring football coach. Their support led him to a football scholarship at a good college, and that, with several more strokes of luck, led him to Navy flight school and a long, successful career as a Naval aviator.

Whether one reads for inspiration or entertainment, Course Corrections is a fine book. I shook my head many times, laughed out loud a few times, and admittedly got misty eyed more than once. Few people know more great stories than old Navy veterans, and few Navy veterans know more great stories than old Naval aviators. I'll relate an example from the second category if I may. It's a sea story of the PG-13 variety, and concerns one of the crewmen on his plane rather than CDR Nevels himself.

Naval aviators must endure long deployments away from home, many of which are extended unexpectedly and bring considerable strain to family life. One of CDR Nevels' crewmen once telephoned his wife that he was finally returning home. Come meet the plane, he told her, "with a mattress strapped to your back." Her response: "Don't you worry about me. Just make sure you're the first one off the plane!"

For my part, as a long-time indie author, I have to say that the copy editing of the book leaves something to be desired. The book was rushed into print: only four months after it was published, CDR Nevels succumbed to a protracted battle with cancer. Still, potential readers should know that these problems are small and do not in any way detract from the impact of the prose. The book is great entertainment, documents the life of a remarkable person, and stands as an inspiration to those who read it.

I would never have discovered this book if my wife had not been a high school classmate of CDR Nevels. He visited our town, the town where he graduated from high school, in later years, and I came to know him as a calm, well-adjusted person, with nothing unusual about him except perhaps his life in the Navy. (I had been a non-career surface officer in the Navy myself, so we shared a certain bond.) My wife and I once stayed at the bed and breakfast he and his wife maintained in Fredericksburg, Texas, where we admired his renovation of a period pioneer Texas home and enjoyed his hospitality. Neither she nor I had any inkling of his extraordinary path to the present until we learned of his book.

Course Corrections is a sterling example of the value of independent publishing. I can't imagine any of the literary-industrial complex big four (or is it big three?) taking a risk with a book like this. That's their misfortune. This is a fine, fine book and it is worthy of a much wider readership. CDR Nevels said, of his career in aviation, that the number of his takeoffs equaled the number of his landings, and that is one of the best things you can say about a career as a pilot. My wife and I can only wish this extraordinary man a happy landing on his final journey.

Boys Will Be Boys

Boys Will Be Boys:
Media, Morality, and the Coverup of the Todd Palin Shailey Tripp Sex Scandal
by Shailey M. Tripp (with Vickie Bottoms)
(CreateSpace / 1-470-09102-X / 978-1-470-09102-6 / February 2012 / 280 pages / $21.50 / Amazon & B&N $19.35)

 Boys Will Be Boys is the true story about a young woman who met Todd Palin, probably not inadvertently, in late 2006, just as his wife was being elected Governor of Alaska. Shailey Tripp was working as a substitute teacher at a school in Wasilla when she one day had the honor of being the enforcer of ladylike behavior in the school cafeteria. One of Todd Palin's daughters, Shailey does not specify which daughter, was continually breaking in the cafeteria line and acting most unladylike. Due to the ages at the time, this had to have been either Bristol or Willow Palin. My bet would be preteen Willow. Shailey Tripp did her duty and sent the child home with a note for her parents and Todd did his parental duty and showed up at the school to discuss the issue. Thus began a relationship that would travel through occasional sexual dalliances until it culminated (allegedly) in an interstate prostitution ring. Somebody famous would become the pimp and a certain substitute teacher, who also worked at a massage parlor, would become the prostitute. In case you are wondering how the teacher could also work at a massage parlor, the story is that this particular massage parlor was not one of those massage parlors until Todd Palin sweet-talked his way into the massage therapist's ear.

That's all the plotline you are going to get from me. Some of you may have read pieces of the story in The National Enquirer a couple of years ago. If you want to read the whole story, right from the massage therapist's hands, then this is the book for you. Here is one more little tidbit for you: Shailey Tripp also gave a massage (without a happy ending) to an unpregnant Governor Palin in March 2008. There lies the rub. (I couldn't resist!)

Here are my usual book review criticisms, of which I have become legendary at PODBRAM. There is as yet no Kindle or other e-book version of this book. Unlike all the other reviews I have written here at PODBRAM, this one derives from a PDF of the book. I did that on purpose because, if you have followed my writings on my main author blog, you know that I have been intimately involved with this subject matter for nearly four years. I knew beforehand that many police reports and other documents had been scanned into the book and that the ability to increase the font size would be beneficial to my old eyes. (Cue Sgt. Pepper: "When I'm 64".) When you read the print version, you might have to squint a bit to read the details of many official documents included in the Appendix that substantiate many of Ms. Tripp's seemingly outlandish claims. You may be a little annoyed by the full-size, rather than half-size, paragraph indents throughout the book, as well as much of the content that seems to be a little too often repeated. One segment spanning several pages appears to be literally repeated. In her favor, the number of common proofreading mistakes in a self-published book have been kept within reason. I do think it a bit strange that the subtitle is not included on the cover, though.

Boys Will Be Boys is a very important contribution to American political culture. Anyone who wishes to know the whole truth of our recent national politics should read it. Of course they should read my own Paradigm Shift, too, but that's another story... or is it?

See Also: A very different perspective at NIAFS.

This Mobius Strip of Ifs

This Möbius Strip of Ifs
by Mathias B. Freese
(Wheatmark / 1604947233 / 978-1604947236 / February 2012 / 186 pages / $10.95 / Kindle $9.99)

Reviewed by Malcolm R. Campbell for PODBRAM

Mathematician and physicist Clifford A. Pickover has called the Möbius strip “a metaphor for change, strangeness, looping and rejuvenation.” Like the surface of a Möbius strip, the thirty-six essays folded into This Möbius Strip of Ifs ultimately have no front or back or beginning or end because Mathias B. Freese views his life, his work and his world as a continuous and open-ended process of awareness without the conventional limitations of meaning or dogma.

In “Untidy Lives, I Say to Myself,” Freese writes “That awareness of the moment or the one after that is about all this old man wants at this point in his life. I am working—by not working—on being ‘spot on’—love that phrase. A pastrami sandwich and a good pickle and Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda is an epiphany for me if I am aware of it.”

Like the other eighteen essays in Part I, Knowledge is Death growing out of Freese’s experiences as a writer, teacher and psychotherapist, “Untidy Lives” explores the raw awareness and infinite potentialities open to individuals who risk true autonomy. The “risk,” as Jane Holt Freese suggests in her introduction, is that “to know who we are requires that we ‘die’ to many ideas we have about ourselves. Paradoxically, this ‘death’ quickens awareness, makes us more alive and sensitive.”

In “Teachers Have No Chance to Give Their Best” and “The Unheard Scream,” Freese—who taught for twenty-two years before becoming a therapist—decries the fact that school systems don’t provide environments conducive to learning. We have regimentation and conformity with energy being “siphoned off into empty rituals” in a system that conditions students and teachers to accept rote truths rather than to explore oneself without boundaries.

In “Jefferson,” Freese describes the profound and lasting impact of reading the words inscribed in the rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial during a college-years Washington, D. C. visit: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

“I felt I was Moses before the burning bush, on hallowed ground,” writes Freese, “as those words were inscribed in flame into my mind—alas, not my heart. I etched them info myself. I have never forgotten them.”

Readers of these essays may infer that Jefferson’s words opposing a Constitutionally recognized state religion became for Freese, if not a mantra, a Möbius-strip axiom that threaded its way in loops within loops through every aspect of his life and work. Jefferson’s influence is certainly apparent when, in “Introductory Remarks on Retirement from a Therapist” and “Therapist as Artist: A Short Talk to the Stony Brook Psychological Society.” In Freese’s view (and no doubt in Jefferson’s) therapists help clients find self-truths rather than conditioning them to adapt to society’s truths because “society is essentially corrupt and corrupting.” The therapist, then, sees life as an artist sees life.

In addition to Jefferson, the truths of Jiddu Krishnamurti, Nikos Kazantzakis and Albert Camus weave the essays in This Möbius Strip together into a unified whole. Freese is the Freese he is not only because of his parents’ lack of parenting and the personal suffering following the loss of a daughter and a wife, but because of his formless evaluation and appreciation of the work of these men. Their spirits remain close at hand in the Freese’s essays about education, therapy, writing and book reviewing and the Holocaust in Part I, Knowledge is Death as well as in the film essays in Part II, Metaphorical Noodles and the family recollections in Part III, The Seawall.

Freese’s Metaphorical Noodles celebrate the work of passionate actors and filmmakers who fought for artistic freedom in a movie business that pushed conformity with the same fervor as school systems and preachers: Buster Keaton, Peter Lorre, Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, and Clint Eastwood. Freese’s The Seawall celebrates family, from his daughter Caryn, who committed suicide in 1998, after a long battle with Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) to his wife Rochelle, who died in an automobile accident in 1999, to his “wayfarer” Grandma Fanny and World War II veteran Uncle Seymour.

In the final essay, “Reflections on Rummaging,” Freese summarizes everything else in this astute and profoundly engaging collection of essays while sitting in his garage with several boxes containing the collected records and mementos of a lifetime when he thinks that the riches and adventures of the world can’t give him what he needs most: “To enter into a moment of awareness—I’m not greedy—in which I can feel and experience congruity with myself.”

Somewhat cautionary, occasionally prescriptive, and always uncompromising and unapologetic, This Möbius Strip of Ifs offers readers the observations of one man’s lifetime of bucking the system and seeking a harmonious environment for the ever-awakening psyche within.

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of four novels, including the contemporary fantasy “Sarabande.”

See Also: The i Tetralogy

Distant Cousin: Recirculation

Distant Cousin: Recirculation
by Al Past
(CreateSpace / 1-460-94624-3 / 978-1-460-94624-4 / February 2011 / 324 pages / $13.95 / Kindle $4.99)

Let me begin by saying that this is one of the most accurately proofread books I have reviewed for PODBRAM. I found exactly one extraneous word and the use of ellipses in dialog is a little overdone, but the buck stops right there. However, there are a few glitches in the formatting of the print version that I read. I cannot speak for the Kindle version, of course, and I am aware that the majority of the readers of Dr. Past's legendary Distant Cousin books read them on a Kindle, so maybe these formatting issues are somewhat irrelevant. The problems boil down to two issues. First, the front matter is all but nonexistent, and this makes the printed book appear amateurish at first glance as soon as the first page is turned. Al could spend a little time on this and the book would have a much more professional look. In contrast, the back-matter is outstanding! The final page, describing Ana Darcy's personal website, should be added to the first four books in the series. (Of course I realize this is out of the question for the print versions, but this page could easily be added to the Kindle ones.) The second formatting issue is more complicated (and more annoying). Recirculation should have been only about 200 pages, possibly lowering the price even further. The font is too large, the text is not justified, and each page begins with a new paragraph. I understand technically how this happened, but I am sure most readers would be quite confused by it. The result is that many pages containing a few large paragraphs show large expanses of white space at the bottom. Pages with many short paragraphs of dialog are less affected. Readers of a future DC6 would probably appreciate it if Al would work on some of this technical mumbo-jumbo.

I can see it coming already. Ana's half-alien, genius son will be exposed by nosy media personnel. Somebody in the editing room will see that boring footage that the gossip show left on the cutting room floor and all hell will break loose! The best thing about Recirculation is the storyline and the Spielbergian character development, as is the case with the four previous Distant Cousin books. This part of the friendly space alien saga features the teenaged twins, Julio and Clio. We learn much more detail about Julio's engineering acumen and Clio discovers healing powers she did not realize she had. There is a section of the book that takes me back to the Don Juan books of the wonderful Sixties when Clio goes to Mexico to meet with a traditional healer. Ana's flying pod takes the crew on yet another adventure, leaving the reader salivating for DC6. What more could the readers ask?

There is a lot I could say about the plot, but of course I won't. If you have gotten this far in the series, you already know what to expect. The best thing about the Distant Cousin books is that the reader can so easily visualize the movie in his or her head with very little provocation. The storyline is new, yet familiar. The essence of Spielberg's Close Encounters or E.T. remains pervasive throughout. The characters and dialog tell the story. The whole thing is show, don't tell in a manner that any reader can appreciate. The storyline flows, the characters develop comfortably, and you feel as if you are so glad that you know these people! I was particularly pleased with the pacing of this fifth in the series, the way it begins slowly and gradually accelerates to the end. Personally this is my third favorite, behind Reincarnation ( DC3) and Distant Cousin, and clearly ahead of DC2 (more action and less character development) and DC4 (emphasis on new ancillary characters rather than Ana Darcy). My final grades are: formatting C-, editing and proofreading A+, storyline A.

"Hey, Joe, come over here a minute. Have you seen this? I know most people would think that kid is just shining on his captive audience for a goof, but I've heard of that fancy thing he's talking about. It's been discussed in certain scientific papers. Some experts think it will be a real breakthrough. I'm going to make a few calls...."

See also: Distant Cousin
Distant Cousin: Repatriation
Distant Cousin: Reincarnation
Distant Cousin: Regeneration
Interview with Dr. Al Past

El Secreto Submergido

El Secreto Sumergido
by Cristian Perfumo
(Amazon Digital Services / Kindle Edition B004VS7LMC / (no date of publication) / 341 KB / $2.99)

Reviewed by Dr. Al Past for PODBRAM

Although my last class in literature in Spanish was 40 years ago, I undertook to read this El Secreto Sumergido because the subject matter interested me, and I thought it would be a good review for me. It was worth it. I like a good adventure story and I like a mystery, and I particularly like stories connected with the sea. El Secreto Sumergido was both, with the dividend that it offered a glimpse into a part of the world that I was barely aware of: Patagonian Argentina. As a bonus, the unpleasantness of the "Falklands War," as the English speaking world knows it, that is, the dispute between England and Argentina over the possession of Las Islas Malvinas, in the south Atlantic east of Argentina, also figures in, mainly in the epilog.

Basically, a high school student in the (real) town of Deseado learns of a (real) British shipwreck 200 years earlier on the rocks of the mouth of the river where his town is located. As a new but enthusiastic SCUBA diver, he decides to investigate, and perhaps locate the wreck. When the retired seaman who provides him with early documentation of the wreck is mysteriously murdered, that sets off a train of events that the young man and his friends pursue to their violent end. It is a rollicking tale.

Keeping in mind that my skills in Spanish are a bit rusty, I will say that I found the book well and cleanly written. As a former non-SCUBA diving officer in the American surface navy, I'll add that the details of diving in the cold tidal waters of the mouth of a river, and of the hazards of undersea salvage, struck me as accurate.

The English-dominant reader who is intrigued by the book and who has some skill in Spanish and a decent desk dictionary should enjoy El Secreto Sumergido as much as I did.

Dr. Al Past is the author of the five Distant Cousin novels, a popular adventure/romance/sci-fi series, the photographic collaborator for Barry Yelton's On Wings of Gentle Power, the author of a book of treble clef duets from Charles Colin, a reviewer for PODBRAM, and a member of the Independent Authors Guild. He lives on a ranch in south Texas.

Uncle Denny

Uncle Denny
by Don Meyer

(Two Peas Publishing / 0-984-07739-1 / 978-0-984-07739-7 / June 2011 / 318 pages / $14.95 paperback / $11.66 Amazon / $7.99 Kindle / $14.36 B&N / $7.99 Nook)

Uncle Denny is Don Meyer's completion of the Sheriff Tom Monason Trilogy, a series of crime thrillers set in an unnamed ski town high in the mountains of California. The sheriff is an experienced cop from the big city, now nearing semi-retirement age and running a tiny, informal police department in what should be a sleepy town, but rarely is, sort of like Paradise MA or Cabot Cove ME. As you may have already guessed, most of the charm of Don's trilogy comes from his quiet town of amiable characters. The main distinction from those similar settings of novels and television is that blizzards and heavy snow often play key parts in the crimes solved by Sheriff Monason, and the plot of Uncle Denny is no exception.

Key storyline elements from Winter Ghost and McKenzie Affair have been woven into this third book, but the story pretty much stands alone for any reader who has not read the earlier books. You can read my reviews of these earlier two by clicking the links, and I highly encourage you to do so, since I am not repeating much of that material here.

I personally enjoyed McKenzie Affair the most of the three, and Uncle Denny the least. This is the direct result of so much of this newest storyline surrounding two groups of feuding mobsters in Chicago. Mr. Meyer explains this concept in closing remarks at the end of the book. The author describes how he spent most of his life in Chicago and that he wanted at least one part of the trilogy to evolve from this experience. That is fine if you like mobsters, but these sorts of characters have little appeal to my tastes. Maybe yours are different. I have memorized all the Andy Griffith reruns, but I have never watched The Sopranos. Enough said?

The title derives from a mispronunciation of a lead character's name, that of a Russian mobster. An FBI agent phones Sheriff Monason to explain that several criminals from Chicago are headed to Monason’s town. Because of a severe blizzard in the area, FBI personnel cannot reach the scene quickly enough, so the sheriff and his few deputies need to head off the mobsters at the pass, as they used to say in old westerns. The reader is introduced to the malicious modus operandi of Uncle Denny early in the story, and then the plot begins to unroll.

Don Meyer writes in a very direct, concise manner, telling his story mostly through incisive dialogue with little extraneous descriptive detail. Uncle Denny is a somewhat satisfying read, but proper editing and punctuation are sorely lacking. There are way too many repeated phrases. A few examples are that cell phones are always pinched closed and Sheriff Monason’s desk chair always squeaks; however, I was most annoyed that Uncle Denny always drives a big black SUV. It is never a sport utility vehicle, a Cadillac, an Escalade, a truck, a snow-covered vehicle, or even a black SUV or a big SUV. An editor should mention these to you. Do you get my snowdrift, Don? I really like your settings, plotlines, and most of all, your folksy characters, and I think most readers will, too.

See Also: Winter Ghost at Amazon
McKenzie Affair at Amazon
The Protected Will Never Know
Don Meyer's website