Wild West Photo Friday: The Chuck Wagon

Home on the range? When you're on a cattle drive and your bed is a blanket and your pillow is your saddle, then the closest thing to home is the chuck wagon. Even working on the rangeland of one of the big ranches you might be miles from home come lunchtime. This photo was taken by Erwin Smith on the J.A. Ranch, Texas, around 1907. It's titled "A J.A. cook inspecting his stew."

Below is a closeup of the wagon itself. Looks like they got themselves some tasty vittles!

Photo Courtesy Library of Congress.

Radio Hope Blurb (Version 3.1)

Three out of three Spanish astronomers enjoyed reading Radio Hope!

OK, I think I got it now, thanks to D.G. Hudson.

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . .

A gunslinging mother longs to find a safe refuge for her son.

A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump.

In humanity’s last city, the assistant mayor hopes he will never have to take command.

One thing gives them the promise of a better future--Radio Hope, a mysterious station that broadcasts vital information on surviving in a blighted world. But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the land with blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Tinkering with Radio Hope's blurb (version 3.0)

I realized that the blurb for my upcoming novel Radio Hope doesn't actually mention the radio station! So I've added a line. Tell me if you think this flows. One of the things I love about indie publishing is just a week before a book is published, you can fiddle with it.

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . .

A gunslinging mother longs to find a safe refuge for her son.

A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump.

In humanity’s last city, the assistant mayor hopes he will never have to take command.

Their only thing in common is they all listen to Radio Hope, a mysterious station that broadcasts vital information on surviving in a blighted world. But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the world through blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Military History Photo Friday: Romania Defeated in World War One

This is an Austro-Hungarian propaganda poster from 1916 celebrating the defeat of Romania. That year Romania joined the allies fighting Germany and Austro-Hungary on the promise of territorial gains. Their army was woefully out-of-date, however, and a quick offensive by the Central Powers crushed them.

Here a German and Autro-Hungarian soldier are celebrating a round as the prisoners come racing in. In reality both armies had supply shortages by this time. The Austro-Hungarian soldier would have been dressed in tattered clothing and neither would have been drinking beer unless they had plundered it from some Romanian village.

The defeated army is interesting too. Not only does it show Romanian soldiers (who surrendered in droves, often not having fired a shot) and their Russian allies but also British and even a Colonial Sikh soldier. Well, there's nothing like a good bit of propaganda!

An interesting footnote to this campaign is that a young German Lieutenant named Erwin Rommel distinguished himself during the fighting. He wrote an excellent analysis of the campaign. I've read it, but I can't seem to find it online. Any university library should have it, though. It's considered a classic.


Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Book marketing tips, anyone?

The release of my next novel, Radio Hope, is coming up on February 1 and I've been busy building up a virtual book tour. A big "thank you" to all who have offered to help me out!

By a bit of good timing, there was a blogfest on Monday called the Online Marketing Symposium. Lots of different writers gave their two cents about what works and what doesn't. Although I knew some of these tips already (like Goodreads ads being worthless while being a part of Goodreads itself is valuable) these dedicated bloggers gave me much food for thought.

Roland Yeomans made the good point that you have to identify your audience and target them. Not only does this make for more efficient marketing, but it gives you insights into what your audience wants. I've been hanging around on various post-apocalyptic reading groups, both on Goodreads and other places, and I've noticed there's a hunger for PA books that don't involve zombies or aliens. That might stand me in good stead because in Radio Hope, the survivors are dealing with very human mistakes and consequences.

Master blogger Alex Cavanaugh has some good tips about virtual book tours. He's said it all before, but good advice bears repeating.

Sandra Almazan has an interesting post on price pulsing--temporarily lowering the price of your book and advertising the hell out of it. Her post is well worth reading in its entirety.
The Insecure Writers Support Group was one of the few blogs to mention conventions. In this Internet marketing age many writers forget how valuable face-to-face marketing can be. Luckily for me, Worldcon is in London this year so I'm attending! I'll be on some panels and will be sure to have plenty of my books on hand.


Another important piece of advice that most bloggers gave--write the next novel! If your readers like one of your books, make sure there's something else of yours for them to read.

So, my blogging friends, what do you think I should do to market Radio Hope? I'm participating in a bunch of post-apocalyptic boards, doing a virtual book tour, will do the usual Twitter/Facebook/rally-my-friends stuff, and am busy writing the next in the Toxic World series. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated!

Movie Review: The Red Baron (mild spoilers)

I don't usually post movie reviews on this blog, but since I'm on a World War One kick as I'm preparing to start my Trench Raiders series, I've been doing a lot of reading and watching some WWI films.

The Red Baron came out in 2008 and I've been wanting to see it ever since. This week I finally got my chance and I have to say I was disappointed. Matthias Schweighöfer played Manfred von Richthofen and did a flat and uncharismatic performance. The supporting actors were equally unimpressive.

I could have forgiven this if the script were better, but this is where the film really falls down. Despite being two hours long, the movie is jumpy and episodic, often becoming a bit confusing. It was like a real movie stuck on fast forward with some of the scenes missing.

And the missing scenes were the most important, like the dog fight where the Red Baron suffered his head injury and also the final dogfight that ended in his death. They also skipped the epic dogfight between Lt. Werner Voss and eight British aircraft. Instead they added a fictitious love interest between Richthofen and a nurse that came out insipid and smacking of daytime television.

It's a real shame that they cut down on the action scenes because the two aerial battles they do show are brilliantly done, some of best action sequences on film. Why, in a film about a flying ace, are there so few of them?

Then there are the historical inaccuracies, like Richthofen and Canadian pilot Capt. Roy Brown meeting for a friendly drink in No Man's Land, the love interest, heaps of anachronisms, and Richthofen developing pacifistic ideals and the hint that he let himself get shot down in order to hasten the end of the war. Um, no.

This movie gets two out of five stars. Hopefully some better director with a better script will step forward and give us a Red Baron movie worthy of the name.

My next work in progress: Trench Raiders

Right now I'm busy with preparations for releasing Radio Hope on February 1 and the accompanying virtual book tour. I'm also writing the sequel--Book Two in the Toxic World series, Refugees from the Righteous Horde.

After that, I'll be starting another series, Trench Raiders. These will be action books set in World War One along the lines of Jack Badelaire's excellent Commando series of WWII books. It follows a group of British soldiers as they become a crack trench raiding unit. The first book takes place at the Battle of Aisne in September 1914, the first time that the British Expeditionary Force faced German trenches.

As you might expect, the British got slaughtered, and this is where our heroes come in. They realize that frontal charges across No-Man's Land aren't going to work and so they develop their own techniques. I'm in the midst of researching the battle right now and came across this Wikimedia Commons image of an old German novel titled Hell Fights at the Aisne River. Cool image, but I won't be using it for my own cover. I want a British soldier, not a German one!

The plan is to alternate between my post-apocalyptic Toxic World series and the Trench Raiders series. I also have some stand-alone works simmering in the back of my mind. This year is going to be a busy one!

Teutonic Treasures and Archaeology

When I'm not blogging here, I often do guest blogs at other sites. Recently I did a post for the Black Gate blog on The Church and Treasury of the Teutonic Order, Vienna. Black Gate is a leading fantasy magazine that runs a great blog on all things genre. Last year they published my fantasy novella The Quintessence of Absence, which you can download as a free ebook.

I'm also now the "Archaeology Expert" on the The Scout Project, a fun blog run by former Gadling coworker Libby Zay. It covers all sorts of subjects and encourages readers to go out and explore for themselves. She just interviewed me about my archaeology career.

Expect to see more from me on both these blogs in coming weeks!

Civil War Photo Friday: Crewmen from the USS Hunchback

These two jaunty fellows are from the crew of the USS Hunchback. Before the war this ship was a ferry in New York City. It was purchased by the U.S. government for military service and spent most of the war in the rivers and along the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, seeing action numerous times and chalking up a good record of captured enemy vessels.

Like many gunboats converted from civilian use, the Hunchback had most of its guns on deck. They were simply regular artillery guns put on a ship.

The ship took some hits during the war but survived to see the end, at which point it went back to being a ferry in New York City until the early 1880s.

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

The Missouri Civil War on classic television

While searching through old movies on YouTube the other day, I saw the name of a familiar battle of the Missouri Civil War. Decision at Wilson's Creek was a 25 minute TV movie from the popular show Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater. The show ran from 1956-1961 and many of the episodes were based on stories written by Zane Grey, one of the most famous Western writers.

This episode aired in 1957. I'm not sure if it's a Grey story or not. I can't find a tale by that name although of course it could have been retitled. The story opens with a Confederate officer (played by John Forsythe, the voice from Charlie's Angels) in the army of General Sterling Price resigning his commission and returning to his wife in Springfield. His army buddies deride him for a coward, but it soon turns out he's on a secret mission to find out Union troop strengths before the Battle of Wilson's Creek.

Other than the fictional character, the episode sticks fairly close to history. The main error was showing the Confederates in beautiful new uniforms, when in fact many of Price's men had no uniforms at all, or pretty ragged ones. The acting is fairly good, the writing so-so, and it's worth seeing as a historical curio and for a bit of old-time TV nostalgia.

Civil War Photo Friday: Winter Sentinel

This is for my friends in chilly North America. Stay warm!

Reader News for January 8, 2014

A couple of my writer friends are making waves this week. First up, Jack Badelaire, author of the uber-cool Commando series, has just released a fantasy novella called Spiders and Flies. I've enjoyed everything he's come out with so I'll be picking up this one. Here's the blurb.

In a shady border-town tavern, the swordsman Rovan conspires with his old comrade Arvik Red-Hand to carry out a daring plan to pay off a blood-debt: ride deep into the desert and loot the abandoned temple of a long-dead spider god.
When old enemies come to collect Arvik's head, he and Rovan are rescued by Marquia, a mysterious sorceress, and Souvri, a cunning thief. Believing the two could prove valuable, Arvik and Rovan share the plan with their rescuers, who agree to join the adventure - for a healthy share of the spoils.
The four treasure-hunters face danger on every step of their journey, and finally they discover the spider god's temple might not be abandoned after all... 

In other news, Nicola Jane, who is in my Madrid Writers Group, has signed a contract with Harper Impulse to publish her erotica novel, Follow Your Fantasy. Congratulations Nicola! It's coming out in February and is written in a choose-you-own-adventure format. I'm not into erotica but I have to say that a choose-your-own-adventure erotica novel is marketing genius! I'm sure she'll do well. She recently blogged on Harper Impulse's blog here.

Radio Hope Blurb Version 2.0

After some input on my blogs and Goodreads, here's the latest version of my Radio Hope blurb. Thanks everyone! Input welcome!

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . .

A gunslinging mother longs to find a safe refuge for her son.

A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump.

In humanity’s last city, the assistant mayor hopes he will never have to take command.

But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the world through blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Possible blurb for Radio Hope. What do you think?

My trip to Tangier is winding down and now I need to think about my tough publishing schedule over the next year. First up is my post-apocalyptic novel Radio Hope! Below is the proposed blurb. I'd love to have your feedback. Blurbs are tough.

In a world shattered by war, disease, and pollution. . .

. . .a female gunslinger longs to find a safe refuge for her son. . .

. . .a frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump. . .

. . .the assistant mayor of humanity’s last city hopes he will never have to take command. . .

. . .only to find their lives changing forever when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the world through conquest.