Radioactive Communist Zombies

Agent of Artifice

Now available from World Castle Publishing: Agent of Artifice.

They live among us. We know they are there. No government can control them; no authority can stop them. Some are evil. Some are good. All are powerful. They inhabit our myths and fairy tales. But what if they were real, the witches, wizards, and fairy godmothers? What if they were called "adepts" and were organized into guilds for mutual protection and benefit? And what if they started mucking around with the affairs of "lessers" (that is, those humans not able to match their powers)?

During the height of the Cold War, Michael Vaughan is a rogue without a guild. He survives by working for the CIA as NOC (Non-Official Cover). Shortly after the funeral of President Joe Kennedy, Jr., he is sent to Cuba to assassinate Castro. There he finds himself in a cat-and-mouse game with adepts working for Fidel.

Available as an eBook direct from the publisher, or on the Kindle, the Nook, on Smashwords eBooks, and trade paperback.

LImited time: The Kindle version is on sale for $3.99 and FREE for Amazon Prime members!

Reviews for Agent of Artifice:

Five out of Five Stars at Simplistik Halloz Books.

Five out of Five Stars at Library Thing

Five out of Five "Golden Hammers" at Mind's Eye U Magazine

4.5 out of Five Stars at Lindsay and Jane's Views and Reviews

Four out of Five Stars at The Draven Witch Series Blog ("A 5 star rating is very hard to get from me. Not that I'm a mean old witch but there are certain things that I require for a 5 star . . . I absolutely loved his book.")

"Agent of Artifice is an exciting adventure that you will not want to put down until the end" from A Tome is Where the Heart Is.

"It’s a great read. You’ll like it too. I truly recommend reading it" from Lissette E. Manning

Amazon.com Five-star review

Amazon.com Four-star review

Goodreads.com Four-star review

Hammer of Thor

Also now available from World Castle Publishing: Hammer of Thor.

They live among us. We know they are there. No government can control them; no authority can stop them. Some are evil. Some are good. All are powerful. They inhabit our myths and fairy tales. But what if they were real, the witches, wizards, and fairy godmothers? What if they were called "adepts" and used talismans to increase their power?

The most powerful talisman in the world is the Hammer of Thor and Hitler stole it from its rightful owners, the Valkyrie. When American adept Francis Kader is reluctantly drawn into the effort to retrieve the Hammer from the Nazis, he begins a journey that leads him to a confrontation with Thor himself. Can a mere human hope to defeat an immortal god?

Available as an eBook direct from the publisher, or on the Kindle, the Nook, on Smashwords eBooks, and trade paperback.

Reviews for Hammer of Thor:

Five out of Five "Golden Hammers" at Mind's Eye U Magazine

Four out of Five "Espresso Shots" at Fuzzy.Coffee.Books

Four out of Five "Dragons" at Azure Dwarf's Horde

"A very interesting read and one that I would have no problem recommending." from Carabosse's Library.

"Hammer of Thor is a non-stop adventure from beginning to end. It sets the bar high and does not disappoint." from A Tome is Where the Heart Is

Amazon.com Five-star review

Amazon.com Five-star review

Amazon.com Four-star review

Sold a Book!

My on line sales of Radioactive Communist Zombies have slowed to a trickle.  When I sell a copy I feel like Al Gore in this classic Simpsons clip:

I will! 

I Am Not a Charity

Just a random rant:

Why is it that some friends/relatives think I should give them free copies of my book?  After investing hours of my time researching and writing it, traveling to Chicago, San Francisco, Key West, and Seattle to get the facts correct, after investing blood, sweat, tears, talent, and yes, money, I should give away my product?  If I owned a store, would you expect free merchandise because you are a friend/relative?  I am not a charity.  I gave away three books for thanks to proofreaders and artists.  But I need to make back the money I invested (I'm apparently going to donate my time).  That means I need to sell my book.  Yes, I'd love for you to read it, but I need you to pay for it, too.

Rant over.

I'm Doing Something Wrong

If you don't want to hear me whine, skip this post.

Today I've had two reminders that I'm not doing something correctly.  First off was this story (linked by Instapundit) about a woman who has sold 900,000 copies of her e-book.  She sold 100,000 in December.  I've sold, since my book came out in June, 29 net (I sold 30 but one was "returned").  And I've sold through various outlets 84 hard copies (71 of those by myself).  So that's a total of 113 copies, hard and ebook.  Okay, that's better than zero but I'm still in the hole a bit of money for publishing costs.

What am I not doing?  What am I doing wrong?

Then I come across this (again on Instapundit): Someone's 5-year blog anniversary.  And apparently the blogger has a lot of readers, commenters, friends, enemies, and even went to CPAC.  Whereas I'll hit five years in September (and chances are Glen Reynolds won't notice) and I just passed my 45,000 page views.  Which is nothing (no idea on uniques because Typepad doesn't track that).

So what am I doing wrong?  Anyone?

Hollywood: Not Looking for New Ideas

The best movie I've seen recently was Inception. But would you believe it took Christopher Nolan, the successful director of the most recent "Batman" movies, ten years to bring that film to being? Why? Well, according to a piece (Hat Tip Instapundit) in the Los Angeles Times today, Hollywood has become risk-adverse (even more so) and isn't looking for original ideas:

For years now, the notoriously risk-averse Hollywood studios have been spending their money on the safest bets possible, big-budget projects and potential franchise properties that usually are based on a book, a video game, a toy or even an amusement park ride. It's a trend that shows no signs of abatement, with Universal working to bring Stretch Armstrong to the screen, while Paramount develops a Magic 8 Ball movie among many other projects that have been co-opted from the toy aisle.

(Can't wait to see the Magic 8-ball movie.) Hollywood producers want something that's been already proven to be successful. Which means zero new ideas. For example, look at the Oscar-nominated films:

Among the nominees who will be competing for the original screenplay Oscar when the Academy Awards are handed out Feb. 27, writer-director Christopher Nolan spent 10 years on his mind-bending dream heist thriller "Inception" before the film made it to the screen. Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko went through countless drafts in the five years they labored on the script for the Annette Bening-starrer "The Kids Are All Right." And Scott Silver and Paul Tamsay & Eric Johnson, among others, worked on "The Fighter" for five years before cameras rolled on the Boston-based drama in July 2009.

Gone, apparently are the days when a writer could "pitch" an original concept and have any hope that it'll even be considered.

Which must be why a lot of Hollywood films feel same-old-same-old. Haven't I seen this graphic novel before?

An adaptation often has an easier road," says Seidler, whose credits also include 1988's "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" and 1999's animated telling of "The King and I." "[The studio] has a security blanket with a book. [They say], 'We've optioned a book, it was a successful book.... Now, if the script doesn't turn out well, or the film doesn't turn out brilliantly, then that's not my fault. That's the writer's fault.'"

I have an idea for a brilliant book for a movie.

I guess this means more pablum from Hollywood. More sequels, more movies based on other material, fewer original ideas. Meanwhile, us lonely writers are trying to be original but Hollywood apparently isn't interested unless you're already a best seller.

How to be Safe in America

The Tuscon mass shooting may be it.  It may be the event the finally gets the American people so motivated to protect their children they’ll take all the needed steps to ensure a safe America.  If it saves one life, isn’t it worth it?

First thing that has to go: guns.  Not just assault weapons, not just handguns, but all guns.  Yes, the Tuscon shooter used a semiautomatic handgun.  But other shootings involve shotguns and rifles and assault weapons.  Air guns and BB guns while not as dangerous are part of the gun culture we must eliminate.  Even black powder rifles that probably haven’t been used in a crime since the 1800’s have to go, more on that later.  And not just the importation, manufacture or transfer of guns must be banned but we need a gun turn in like in Australia or England.  There is no reason for anyone other than the police or military to own guns.

The Internet, including blogs, has to go or at least be tightly regulated.  Government, to ensure that there is no violent or hate content and no instructions on how to build a bomb, must approve all web sites.  No foreign sites can be allowed to be accessed from the U.S. 

Things that can be made to build bombs must be banned or tightly regulated including but not limited to: black powder, pyrodex, gasoline, diesel fuel, fertilizer, alcohol (ethel), ammonia, ammonium found in instant-cold packs, nitrous oxide found in pressurized whip cream, magnesium firestarters, mineral oil, mercury thermometers (for the mercury), uncharged car batteries (for the sulfuric acid), glycerin, sulfur, charcoal, cotton (cellulose), road flares, fuel oil, white gasoline, propane and other bottled gasses, potassium permanganate (water purification and many laboratory tests), iodine, fireworks, model rocket engines.  Anyone who studies chemistry should be licensed by the state after a background check.

All entertainment and information, no matter the medium, must be highly regulated to eliminate violent or hate content.  All books must be approved for printing by the Government.  Also all newspapers, magazines, comic books, funny papers, textbooks, and other printed material must meet Government standards.  All television shows and movies must be checked for violent or hate content and only those meeting Government requirements are released to the public.  All talk programs and/or music played on the radio must be cleared by the Government.  Even the news must be checked which will probably result in the “news” becoming the “olds” as approval to release it may take some time.  A license to produce these materials is a reasonable control that no one should object to.

Since computers allow anyone to create violent or hate content they must be banned or tightly controlled. This would also eliminate the problem with violent video games and the Internet.  Video games for console machines will have to face the same approval as all other forms of entertainment.  Copy and fax machines must be banned since they allow easy distribution of homegrown contraband literature.  Typewriters will have to be tightly regulated, too.  Video and movie cameras will also have to be banned except for Government licensed and approved entertainers.

All books, magazines, newspapers, video cassettes/discs, video games, or anything else in peoples homes now that do not meet Government Standards for content must be immediately turned over to the state to be destroyed.  We could make a party of it as we burn them all in the town square.  And what a lesson that would be to the purveyors of hate and violence!

Old, pre-ban entertainment may be re-released after appropriate editing by the Government.

But since the people cannot be trusted to cooperate voluntarily and even our war on drugs has not eliminated the drug trade, we will have to check up on folks.  Random home visits by the police, social workers, child protective services, BATF, and other government agencies will allow for searches for contraband.  Rewards will be in place for people who turn in their neighbors who might have contraband materials in their houses.  Also children will be encouraged at school to inform on their parents who might be hiding a non-government-approved copy of the Bible or other banned material in their house.

And hateful and violent speech must be banned.  Again, we will rely on “turn in your neighbor, co-worker, parent, teacher, or spouse” campaigns to control inappropriate and unapproved vocalizations.

And a lot of people won’t like these restrictions and will vote against them.  So we will have to eliminate voting and democracy for the leadership of the enlightened few.  Protest will have to be banned and protesters jailed because we can’t have people calling into question the leadership of the nation in public.  Or in private, for that matter.  Another good use of the “turn in your neighbor” campaigns.

And then we will have given "our children the safe childhood they deserve" as President Clinton called for during his presidency.  America will finally be safe for its children.

New Novel

I'm actually writing.  This is a change for me; I haven't written much since for over a year other than this blog.   I'm working on a new novel which is nothing like my previous book.  One hundred percent zombie free!  It's based on my own experiences but not autobiographical at all.

It's been a challenge.  There's no action sequences (my favorite part of writing) and is a character driven novel when I spend a lot of time in my character's heads.  But it feels good to be writing again.  I'm hoping, since this is a more main-stream book it will have a better chance of selling and I won't have to self-publish it.

I'm aiming for 100,000 words and right now I'm at 32,000.  Almost a third done. 

I'll let you know when it's finished. 

New Year Reading Suggestions

Happy New Year.  It's 2011, eleven years after I was supposed to be living on the Moon married to Valerie Bertinelli.

However, it's a new year and hopefully a better year for the economy (but I'm afraid that may have to wait until we evict the Keynesians from the White House and the uber-regulators from the agencies).  And you might be looking for some reading suggestions to get you through the year.  And, luckily, I have a few.  You'll note some (most) of these are listed to the left in "Recently Read Books."

1. Run, don't walk, to your nearest newstand and get the December 31, 2010 edition of National Review (NRODT).  Turn to page 28 and read "Welcome to the Machine" by Kevin D. Williamson.  (Alternatively, you can subscribe to the digital version of NRODT on the National Review website and yes, I realize a "digital" version of a print magazine is rather an oxymoron.)  In about 3,400 words Mr. Williamson explains why government programs don't work and free economies do work.  And he does it with humor and style.  Definitely worth the $3.95 newsstand price of admission.

2. The House Boom and Bustby Thomas Sowell.  A slim volume explaining how our current economic problems were caused by government and exacerbated by government.  A very good read and very educational, as most Sowell books are.

3. One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs.  An updated account of the Cuban Missile Crisis that reads like a suspense novel.  Ignore Dobbs political post script comparing Kennedy with Bush and enjoy the history that boils off every page.

4. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.  Science Fiction at its best.  Explores three cultures, human, "piggy" (an alien race) and "bugger" (another alien race).  And in the human culture there's sub cultures and computer culture and meanwhile the mystery of the piggies runs through all of it.  Intelligent and well written.  And you don't need to read the book it's a sequel to (Enders Game) to understand it.

5. Young Flandry and Captain Flandry by Poul Anderson.  Two books of old science fiction.  Space opera doesn't get any funner than Anderson's Flandry stories.  And unlike a lot of space adventure stories, you don't have to put your brain in park.  These are intelligent, scientifically accurate (for the time they were written) and densely layered.  I have yet read the last book in the series Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra although I doubt it won't be just as good as the first two.

6. Finally, still have to recommend Radioactive Communist Zombies.  Why?  Because I wrote it!

Welcome Everyone From Amazon.com

This blog is now being fed via RSS to my author page at Amazon.com.  So now everyone at Amazon.com can know what a right-wing crazy I am.  And then buy my book!

Advertisements Coming to Books?

You plop down fifty bucks for a video game (after plopping down several more for a video game system) and you start the game and it's full of . . . ads and product placement.

Could the same thing happen to books?  Ron Adner and William Vincent writing in today's Wall Street Journal (sub probably required) say, yes, most likely:

For consumers, the free samples of digital books now available would surely include ads. Because not every consumer who reads a sample chapter will buy the book, it's reasonable for the publisher to extract some additional value. Seeing ads in the sample may also convince a reader to pay for a premium, non-ad version of the full-length book. The old market segmentation of paperbacks and hardcovers will be replaced by ad-supported or ad-free books.

This is all going to happen, they say, due to the huge changes coming to publishing, mostly digital books:

Take the first seven months of 2010 alone: In April, Apple came out with the iPad and quickly sold over three million units. Apple also launched its own proprietary bookstore, iBooks. In June, Barnes & Noble lowered the price of its Wi-Fi- and 3G-enabled Nook reader to $199. Only hours later, Amazon slashed the price of its 3G-enabled Kindle 2 to $189. On July 28, Amazon announced the forthcoming Kindle 3, priced at $139 for Wi-Fi-only and $189 for Wi-Fi and 3G. Barnes & Noble is rumored to have a new version of the Nook ready by the end of the year.

Not to be left out, Google plans to launch its own bookstore, Google Editions, later this year. Google Editions would be the world's largest bookstore, offering millions of trade, technical and out-of-copyright (which would also be free) books. They'd be available on any device with Internet access except Kindle, which for now maintains a closed system.

Add in stagnant sales and higher costs and you have a market ripe for new sources of revenue, i.e., advertising.  And that could change the dynamics of publishing and what is a successful book:

Publishers will need to come up with new ways of evaluating a book's commercial value. What is a best seller? Today the criteria is simple: total unit sales. Yet with advertising in the mix, a book downloaded 100,000 times but never read (think of that yet-to-be-opened prize-winning 600-pager) may be worth less than one downloaded 50,000 times and read cover-to-cover. Unread books suddenly become less profitable to a publisher.

And, of course, writers will be affected by this:

Authors are likely to be concerned not only with the idea of ads, but with what particular ads are placed in their books. Imagine the value—and controversy—of placing pharmaceutical ads in healthy-living guides, or partisan attacks in political memoirs. Writers, agents and publishers will have to negotiate a fundamentally new arrangement when ad-driven e-books become a reality.

(Perhaps authors could negotiate product placement in the manuscript phase or even negotiate what products/services would be advertised in their books.  Just a thought.)

I used to complain (still do) when a book I buy has an excerpt from another book in the back thinking "I paid for all of these pages, I don't want to pay for an advertisement."  But it might get blatant with Viagra ads in books that appeal to older men, perhaps.

I know one book that has no advertisements or product placements, however.  I think the only brand mentioned is "Cadillac."