Sometimes a discussion beats sales

I went up to the Maysville, Georgia, public library today for a Jackson County Authors Showcase. Along with me were authors Caine Campbell, Pamela Dodd, and Jackie White.

Including the assistant librarian who sat in on the whole event, there were four authors and four in the audience, two of whom had to leave before it was over. I sold one copy of “Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire.”

A waste of time? Not at all. The two people who came both had a lot of questions; one of them has a grand daughter interested in writing and wanted to know if we had any tips. Of course we talked about our books, how we got started, and how we try to market our work.

I had a good time. Plus, it was nice to get away from the house on a sunny Saturday and drive 30 minutes on a country road from my small town to the next small town north of here.

The discussion was worth a lot. Oh, and the library gave each of us a fancy jar of pears, something a starving writer doesn’t buy for himself!

–Malcolm

P.S. Don’t forget this is National Book Store Day, the day in which each of us is expected to go out any buy a pickup truck full of literature from (hopefully) a locally owned store.

USS Ranger Closer to New Home in Portland

from the USS Ranger Museum Foundation

The US Navy announced that the USS Ranger Foundation’s Phase I application for donation of the super-carrier ex-USS Ranger has been approved and moved the group into Phase two of the four-phase process.

Phase two of the process has a 12 month timeline, during which the exact location of the museum complex will be finalized, environmental, marketing, business, neighborhood support and other studies will be completed and updated. Fund raising will increase, and national and international friends will be called upon to support the project.

The timing of this approval could not be better. At the completion of Phase three, the ship will be towed from its current home in Bremerton, Washington to Portland waters. When she arrives, she will bring much-needed jobs to the area, as there will be extensive work to prepare for opening as a museum.

Once open in her new role, the ship will have one of the largest event/conference areas in the area and will attract not only tourists traveling to visit the largest floating museum in the world, but corporate groups looking to hosting their next conference in a unique location.

During the aftermath of 9-11, the carrier museum Intrepid was activated as a command center in New York Harbor allowing communication, coordination and even helicopter operations. Ranger could be used in the same manner for emergency situations, natural as well as man-made. Movie companies have used the Ranger many times including “Top Gun”, and could bring more film opportunities to the Metro area.

We are looking forward to partnering with other local tourist attractions to attract larger groups adding much needed tourists’ dollars to the economy. There are five existing carrier museums spread out around the country. None of them rely on tax dollars to operate. The Pacific Northwest would be well served by Ranger and will be a great addition to the community.
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As a former crew member of the USS Ranger (CVA-61) on two Western Pacific cruises, I fully support the restoration and conversion of this ship into a museum. Best of luck, guys.

–Malcolm

Election in a small town

After living in the Atlanta metro area for over 20 years, there are a lot of reasons why I was more than happy to move out of the sprawl into a small town some 60 miles away a few years ago. (As I saw the news stories yesterday for the giant cruise ship “Oasis of the Seas,” I thought, my goodness, my whole town will fit aboard that ship at one time.)

In contrast to the lines in Atlanta, there are seldom any election-day lines here. This morning I was in an out of the polling place in five minutes, and that counted the time I took chatting to the people I knew. I never saw anyone I knew at an Atlanta polling place.

Here, I know the mayor and the members of the city council. A friend is running for the city council, but even in a small town there are wards, and his seat doesn’t extend to this part of town. I know the city clerk and the city manager. I’ve worked with them, seen them at weddings and funerals, had them over for parties.

Of course, the close-knit nature of things here can lead to a strange apathy. A friend who ran for council two elections ago lost by six votes because a lot of people in her neighborhood didn’t vote. Each had an excuse–at kid was sick, car trouble, the boss made them stay late at work. But oddly, none of them worried about the vote because everyone assumed they were the only ones that were playing hooky from the election.

One way or the other, here you know you’re making a difference. You can see the fact that your vote counts; and you can see the consequences of not voting. I like that because none of us feel like we’re getting lost in the shuffle.

–Malcolm

Montana Historical Society Exhibit Tells Glacier’s Story

from the Montana Historical Society:

Courtesy NPS Glacier

The Montana Historical Society Museum’s new “Land of Many Stories: The People and History of Glacier National Park” is a real adventure.

The Society will have the grand opening of the new exhibit Thursday, Nov. 5, at 6:30 p.m. with opening remarks and ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. Society Director Richard Sims, Glacier Park Deputy Superintendent Stephanie Dubois and other dignitaries will offer opening remarks.

The keynote talk for the event will be by Tim Cahill, founding editor of Outside Magazine. After the talk attendees will be invited across the street to tour the new exhibit with trail mix and coffee, tea and water for authentic refreshments.

The exhibit, which will be up from Nov. 5, 2009, until Feb. 26, 2011, is designed so that visitors actually have the experience of finding their way through it — as though they were on a hike. It is one of the Society’s most ambitious exhibits ever.

The park will be commemorating its centennial in 2010, and the exhibit honors the role it has played in the history of the state. The exhibit features historic photos from the Society collection, artwork, and
artifacts.

It features the important people in the parks history including George Bird
Grinnell, who first came to the area in 1885. “No words can describe the grandeur and majesty of these mountains, and even photographs seem hopelessly to dwarf and belittle the most impressive peaks … the region is a wonderful attraction for the lover of nature,”
Bird wrote.

Others not so famous like Elizabeth Collins, called the Cattle Queen of Montana later used as the title for a motion picture, are also featured. Collins mined with meager luck for three years along a creek in the park now named in her honor.

The exhibit takes the museumgoer from the days that Native Americans honored and used the land now knows as Glacier, all the way up to modern times and the pressures on America’s last wild areas. Bear management, forest fires, the environment, and how people have used the park over the years, are dealt with around different corners of the new exhibit.

The exhibit is a cooperative effort between the Society, Glacier National Park-National Park Service and is made possible by the generosity of Glacier National Park Fund and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Foundation.

The Society’s Montana’s Museum is located just across the street east of the State Capitol in Helena. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
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Malcolm

E-Books for Coalition Troops

I’m happy to be among the authors at Vanilla Heart Publishing participating in Operation E-Book Drop.

The program, which is available to traditionally published and self-published authors via Smashwords.com, connects authors with soldiers interested in receiving free e-books.

The program began when author Ed Patterson learned that troops were not able to get Kindle books while in the field. However, they could connect via e-mail to Smashwords and download books in a format of their choice. As more and more authors became interested, Operation E-Book Drop took shape.

So far, I’ve sent out 41 e-mails to soldiers in the field, giving them a chance to read “Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire.” I’m in good company here on a growing list of participating authors.

When I was in the Navy, I appreciated the support of the folks back home. Now, it’s my turn to say, “thank you for the work that you do,” and provide a comedy/thriller novel for a few hours of entertainment.

Malcolm

‘big bad slam poet’ published

from Barry Campbell…

Poetry by STRAT

A book of poetry, “big bad slam poet,” by Dave Campbell (aka STRAT) was released this month. Campbell, who died last year, is known to many in the Orlando area arts community and beyond as a talented poet and hip hop artist. He won numerous poetry slams and rap battles. He grew up in the Orlando area and refined his poetry and hip hop skills while working at various jobs.

Campbell’s book has insightful poems about relationships and life in general. In addition to the poetry book, a CD with the same name as the book and with Campbell performing 14 of his poems is expected to be released by the end of the year. The name of both the book and the CD are also the title of one of Campbell’s poems.

Curtis Meyer, a five time participant at the National Poetry Slam, said that “it was as if poetry possessed” Campbell. Campbell “oozed charisma and talent” and “epitomized spoken word as an art form” according to Meyer.

Click on the photo link for more information. The book should become available at additional online booksellers in the coming weeks.

To view my FriendFeed posts about books and publishing, click on the icon below.

For writers of short comedy

The deadline for this year’s Mona Schreiber Prize is coming up December 1, 2009.

Entries of 750 words of less (articles, stories and essays, etc.) are accepted via mail with a $5 entry fee.

First prize is $500, second and third prizes also being awarded. Winners will be announced December 24 just in time for a Merry Christmas.

Details: http://www.brashcyber.com/mona.htm

Best of luck,

Malcolm

Will Methane Trump Glacier National Park?

Some 20 years ago, Montana’s Glacier National Park was called the most endangered national park in the system. As the park approaches its 2010 centennial celebration, it remains in peril.

In 1985, the North Fork Preservation Association (of which I was a member) and other groups called “foul” when Rio Algom proposed a strip mine called Cabin Creek a few miles up the Flathead River from Glacier in British Columbia. Many issues surfaced, but the one that stopped the mine was a provision of the US/Canadian Boundary Waters Treaty that forbids either country from polluting the waters of the other.

Now, as BP Energy Corporation of Canada moves forward on plans to create a 50,000-acre coalbed methane field in British Columbia, the problem may again focus on water. The operation involves pulling millions of gallons of water out of the aquifer to release the gas. The ramifications for the downstream ecosystem of the Flathead River and the adjoining Glacier National Park could be disastrous.

The river has protected status in the United States, but not in Canada where attempts to secure the valley by enlarging Canada’s Waterton Park have been pushed back by coal interests.

Glacier, and its sister park across the Canadian border, are combined under separate administrations as the world’s first peace park. Waterton-Glacier was designated a World Heritage Site in 1995. The current threats were brought to the attention of the United Nations World Heritage Committee this past summer, prompting the committee to vote unanimously to investigate. A report is expected by February of next year.

You can learn more about the the current threats to Glacier National Park in the coal mining article on the National Parks and Conservation Association Website. See also the NPCA’s article about Glacier as a World Heritage Site.

You can also follow the issues on the Waterton-Glacier Endangered Website.

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Malcolm’s personal note: I have been a fan and a rabid supporter of Glacier National Park ever since working there in the 1960s. Since then, I have served as an editor for two books about the park, written articles about the shining mountains, and hounded many of the people who thought that maintaining the ecosystem there should take second place to mining and other development. My 2004 novel “The Sun Singer” is set in the park’s Swiftcurrent Valley.

Hello North Georgia Readers

I’m happy to announce that “Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire” and “The Sun Singer” are both available at the Bookstand of Northeast Georgia in Commerce.

For those of you traveling through the area, that’s at exit 149 on I-85 about 60 miles north of Atlanta.

This bookstore is well organized with hundreds and hundreds of books grouped into easy-to-find categories. Great prices on used books! My books join some other cool books on the LOCAL AUTHORS shelf just a few feet past the register.

The store is on Pottery Factory Drive in Commerce Crossing shopping center, just across the parking lot from OUTBACK STEAK HOUSE.

Buy the book, then read it with a glass of Black Opal Cabernet while waiting for your dinner.

Breaking Satire: FEDs Closing Down Cat Boot Camp

Albino County, October 20, 2009–Drill Instructor Boots Anderson slips quietly into barracks #3724 five minutes before Reveille on a cool Texas morning. The humidity is 68%, the pressure is 30.05 inches, the dew point is 56 degrees, and the 100 felines at the Albino County Rat Army Boot Camp are blissfully sleeping in the calm before the storm.

Anderson scowls at the mess, the random hairballs, the shredded up bunks, the tipped over litter boxes, the complete lack of military grade standards of cleanliness and ambiance, “as though a tornado hit the freaking place during the long hours between taps and dawn,” he muses poetically.

And then it hits. Anderson slings the open, CinchSak (R) 39-gallon lawn and leaf bag of empty cat food cans against the wall. Two hundred eyes pop open, one hundred pairs of ears go back, growls, snarls echo throughout the austere structure. Manx cats comprise company 816, so the denizens can’t turn tail and run, opting for caterwauling instead, the kind that makes Anderson’s skin crawl as though he’s covered in fire ants, the nasty buggers.

“Atten-HUH,” bellows Anderson, though it does little good. He hates himself when he resorts to trickery, but the corps demands it or Manx Company is not going to be wearing cat’s pajamas on graduation day. So, he puts a smile in his voice when he utters the disgusting words, “Food Time! Would my pretty little kitties like an itty bitty ditty bad of treats?”

The cats assemble smartly in the long center aisle between the rows of bunks. Their bearing is is straight and true like those perfectly posed goddess-style cats in art from ancient Egypt.

“So you’re not a lost cause after all, you lousy, good-for-nothing curs, you miserable excuses for ratters, you sloppy-as-dogs critters, you alleyway varmints. You Siamese.” He adds that for good measure, knowing it’s a low thing to say to a Manx.

At this moment (05:25 central), the emergency doors at the far end of the building are kicked open and the Feds, damn their lousy timing, crash into the room with assault rifles, mace, snarling dogs straining on leashes, and enough spotlights to make the cats’ eyes look like his chaotic collection of old marbles before his brother lost them to Dexter Smith in the school yard before the cat got his tongue.

“General Mark Sirius, Homeland Security SWAT Tsar,” shouts the dog-eared fat officer who rolls into the room like like a basset on a acid.

“Are you serious?” yells Anderson.

“If you don’t believe me, read my name tag, you wussie cat lover. We’re shutting down this operation until we sort through the litter and totally understand what kind of shit you people are into in this county.”

“Do you have a warrant?”

“Warrant, why would I need a warrant when I’ve got guns, dogs, mace and the Patriot Act backing me up? Stand down, I say, for Mark Sirius is sitting in the cat bird seat today.”

“It’s a little late for that, General, the cats bugged out when you busted in,” says Anderson.

“What the hell?” Sirius doesn’t look like a cute doggy in the window now. “How did they manage that?”

“Training, General, plus they got those little cat feet; they slipped out like fog.”

“Cats or no cats, we’re shutting you down. For one thing, it just ain’t right, even in Texas. I know what you’re thinking, Anderson. You’re thinking all we do at Homeland Security is make life difficult for honest, everyday people. Not by a long shot. We’ve been studying cats, from cat dancing to catamounts to catacombs.”

“So what,” says Anderson, grinning like a Cheshire cat that’s starting to fade into the woodwork.

“I’ll tell you what, mister smiley face, you organize cats, you gotta a catastrophe. You think you can control them, but you can’t. You whistle and they keep on disobeying your commands, telling secrets, spying, sneaking in under the radar. That’s just anarchy, the kind of cat’s cradle trap our enemies are waiting for us to get our fat paws stuck in while our pants are down.”

Sirius is stoked like a cat on a hot tin roof, but he’s not wagging his tail now because Anderson has faded away into the Texas morning, a morning when the winds are gusting to 23 mph, a morning when the old general should head to the dog house early and hang his head while his masters tell him Sirius is a bad puppy for not putting all those cats in a great big hat and bringing in for questioning.

Anderson laughs from a nearby tree. Once the FEDs leave, it will be back to business as usual. All he has to do is open a can of tuna and the troops will pass in review, soon, if not smartly, the sorry flea-bitten strays.

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For more Jock Stewart absurdity, take a free peek at the first two chapters of “Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire” on Smashwords and see if that wags your tail for you.

Your favorite noir reporter is in hot pursuit of horse thieves, murderers and a full bottle of Scotch in this mystery/thriller with a dash of comedy.