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   Welcome to my new, completely re-tooled, HTML5-spiffy Web site. It's been a bit of work putting it together (I did it all myself), but I had multiple reasons for replacing my previous WordPress site, which had gotten somewhat dated-looking, among other things — shelf lives on the Web are limited in that regard.

 

    When folks ask me what I write about, or what I'm working on now, I like being able to direct them to this site.  I've found that it's a great alternative to what usually ends up being a much longer answer than they really care to hear.

 

   Although I've been plodding along on my second book (see below), I do engage in  little side projects now and then, particularly some short e-books I recently published and which I felt needed a more effective presentation, as well as an occasional magazine article (see navigation buttons above).

   I'm delighted to announce, at long last,  the recent publication of Raymond Chandler: Trenches of France, Streets of L.A., which I'm self-publishing as a Kindle e-book.

 

   Chandler (1888-1959) enlisted with the Canadian Army during World War I and was seriously concussed by German shelling.  Echoes of this episode can be found not only in his hard-boiled detective novels featuring Philip Marlowe, but in the Hollywood screenplays he wrote as well, including The Blue Dahlia and Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train.

Cervantes, Verney

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), who lost the use of his left arm as a Spanish soldier fighting the Turks in the famed Battle of Lepanto.  Afterward, while returning to Spain he was captured by North African pirates and held captive in Algiers for five years.  Both episodes appear in his famed Don Quixote, which he wrote years later.

Vonnegut, Verney
Orwell, Verney

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), who was a POW for a year and half after being captured in WWII’s Battle of the Bulge, during which time he barely survived the firebombing of Dresden. This episode is mentioned in several of his novels, Slaughterhouse-Five in particular.

George Orwell (1903-50), who (along with many Americans) fought against Franco's Fascists during the Spanish Civil War and caught a bullet in the throat before fleeing back into France one step ahead of Stalin’s death squads.  Most people who’ve read Animal Farm don’t know that this, not the Russian Bolshevik Revolution, is the primary historical backdrop to that novel.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), who served four years as a gunnery officer in the Russian Army and saw fighting both against Muslim insurgents in Chechnya and in the Crimean War, including the Battle of Sevastopol.  Doubtless this enhanced his ability to imagine Napoleon’s invasion of Russia so convincingly in War and Peace.

 

   This book is an outgrowth of articles I've published in Military History magazine and elsewhere that focused on writers well-known to the American reading public who'd seen military combat as regular soldiers.  As I sharpened my focus, this project became as much about exclusions as inclusions.  Leaving out non-combatant civilians meant leaving out some very worthy authors known for their war novels, such as Ernest Hemingway (ambulance driver) and Stephen Crane (journalist).

 

   I also distinguished between volunteers and conscripts.  It seems self-evident to me that enlistees fighting for a nation or ideology (excluding mercenaries, of course) demonstrate greater commitment than draftees, generally speaking.  Moreover, all causes are not created equal, and misguided allegiances do not make compelling examples.

 

   I set a high dual bar: my selections were, by prevailng consensus, both good soldiers and great authors.  This book is the first of a series, titled "Pen & Sword: Writers Who Fight," examining the influence of combat experience on several notable writers, including these four:

Tolstoy, Verney

My First Gig as e-Book Editor

   Publishing nine short essays of mine as e–books entailed a bit of a learning curve and added another element to my background in Web site development. Editing and formatting anything for publication as an e–book, as I found out, involves more than correcting grammar or knowing some HTML code. It's a lot more than most writers care to deal with, and given the growing use of e-books by both writers and readers, it seems to me that there's a significant and growing market for E–editors.

 

   An opportunity to pursue this came a bit unexpectedly during a trip to Florida in Fall of '13. Along with visiting my mother and sister in Sarasota, I also went to St. Augustine to visit an old Navy buddy, Carl Soto, with whom I'd kept in touch sporadically but hadn't seen in nearly 30 years.

 

   While I was pursuing my doctorate in English, Carl was earning a law degree from the University of Michigan. During my visit with him, I learned that he'd self–published a book titled How to COPE with Debt Collectors and had been very disappointed by the fact that although he'd invested heavily in marketing the book, sales had been virtually nil.

 

   I thought the book was high quality and very worthwhile, dealing with an important issue affecting the lives of many Americans. I suggested he publish it on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, offering my services as an E–editor. So, after some minor revisions, along with a new cover and title: Beat Debt Collectors at Their Own Game: A Legal Guide to Stop Harassment, Lawsuits & Garnishments, it's now available on Amazon as an E–book.

 

   Written by a real attorney who specializes in consumer law — versus some wannabe — this book provides all the forms, letters and step–by–step instructions needed to immediately stop harassing calls and letters, win lawsuits, halt garnishments and much more. Written for people with no prior legal experience, it explains in straight forward, non–technical language how to beat debt collectors, covering every aspect of the debt collection process: default, collection calls and letters, lawsuits, garnishments, negotiating settlements and appeals.

Carl Soto, debt collectors, stop debt collection

My Newest e-Book Editing Gig:

Melville meets Joyce

   A second opportunity to work with an old friend on a new e-book came when my former grad school academic adviser, Mark Shechner, and I caught up with each other recently.  Knowing that he'd been working  on a novel for some time, I inquired about it. 

 

   It just so happened that he was in the process of self-publishing it (or at least a first edition, without illustrations) titled Call Me Moishe: The True Confessions of a White Whale. After some conversation, it seemed like I was in a good position to act as a graphics  & formatting editor for him, and he agreed. 

 

   Obviously, Professor Shechner needs NO help from me with respect to editing & proofreading his text.  Like Carl,  he's a highly educated, very computer-literate fellow who's more than capable of doing this e-book stuff himself; however, like Carl, his professional & personal commitments leave him without the time for much of it.  I designed the cover (at left), and I must admit, frankly, that I like it!

 

    This narrative tells the story of Moby-Dick, the white whale relentlessly pursued by Captain Ahab in Melville's classic novel -- as (re)told by the whale himself!  It's nowhere near that simple, of course.  After all, Dr. Shechner is widely recognized as a leading James Joyce scholar, so the last thing one might reasonably expect in his fiction (as distinct from his literary & cultural criticism) is something simple and straight-forward!  No, Virginia -- this isn't Hemingway . . .

 

   [click HERE for a concise plot summary]

The Vast Spaces of the American West ... & me

   After purchasing a travel trailer a couple years ago, Kathryn and I dabbled in the camping lifestyle and found we loved it.  Having first done a few weekend excursions to places like Indiana Dunes State Park, the Badlands, and Custer State Park, we started checking out Wyoming with a view to purchasing some land suitable for a more private version of trailer camping.

 

   Consequently, we bought a 40-acre plot of ranchland near Laramie and spent a couple of long weekends there.  The following summer ('14), following Kathryn's retirement, we decided to camp out there all summer.

 

   Kathryn, inspired by couples who've chronicled their various travels on blogs,  thought that it would be a good idea to likewise document our summer at Wild Horse Ranch, and I absolutely agreed.

 

   Hence, A Singular Pursuit  ― our attempt to  share not only our experiences compressing our lives into a 20-foot trailer, but hopefully also to explain why we're doing it. For me, part of this adventure is finding out how productive i can be under  these conditions which present both challenges (often-unrelaible Internet connections) and opportunities (peace, quiet and privacy) to a writer. 

  Freelance Writer

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