Taylor Zajonc's Blog, page 3

I’m having a kinda amazing day

[image error]

My new books arrived in a box this afternoon. They were waiting for me on the kitchen counter when I got home. And then I got to pick one up and hold it for a few minutes. And I got to read a bit to my son, ExpeditionKid.

I’d love to share this book with you, too.

 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s | IndieBound

An unknown enemy wreaks havoc in the South China Sea while blaming the destruction on Jonah Blackwell and the crew of the Scorpion,  forcing them to untangle a deadly conspiracy  rooted in a lost technology from World War II.

Join the RED SUN ROGUE book launch party!

[image error]

Come join me for the launch of my upcoming novel RED SUN ROGUE at Broadway Books of Portland! Food, drinks, book signings and friends. If you haven’t already purchased a copy, support the fantastic folks at indie Broadway Books by picking one up at this upcoming event!

DATE: Wednesday, March 8 @ 7pm

LOCATION: Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway St., Portland, OR 97232

Interview & Feature in Typehouse Literary Magazine

[image error]

Really enjoyed my interview for the latest issue of Portland’s own Typehouse Literary Magazine! Check out an excerpt from my interview below:

Typehouse: What is your favorite writing moment?

Taylor: I got myself a decent bottle of scotch and set it on my shelves a

while back. The next two years were spent staring at the unopened

bottle, promising myself that I wouldn’t touch it until I landed a book

deal. But the moment I landed a book deal (actually, a two-book deal)

the bottle went right into the closet where it remains unopened to this

day. I suppose this is a roundabout way of saying that I don’t spend

much time focusing on great moments or victories… I’m always

chasing the next challenge.

[image error]

THE WRECKING CREW gets starred review from Publishers Weekly!

[image error]

I am so excited to announce the Publishers Weekly has given The Wrecking Crew a starred review! Check it out below:

[image error]The Wrecking Crew
by Taylor Zajonc. Blank Slate Press, 2016

Fans of action-packed thrillers with nautical settings will be more than satisfied by Zajonc’s accomplished debut, which kicks off a promising series. A study of a major ecological hazard—a growing red tide infecting the Horn of Africa—ends in disaster over the Somali coast when a missile destroys a plane carrying a peaceful scientific expedition. Among the victims is Dr. Fatima Nassiri, whose only son, Hassan, also a doctor, decides to take extreme measures to recover her body. Hassan travels to Prison 14 of the Moroccan Directorate of Territorial Surveillance, located in the “largest nothingness on earth,” to extract inmate Jonah Blackwell, a highly accomplished marine diver who ran afoul of the authorities for criminal treasure salvage. Hassan persuades Jonah to help with the task of retrieving Fatima’s body by promising to provide him with a new identity that will give him a clean record and remove the shadow of Jonah’s father’s suspected treason. The writing is of a much higher quality than in most similar books. At one point, cynical Jonah observes, “Perhaps the long arc of the universe bent towards justice, but it bent further towards indifference.” (Publishers Weekly)

[image error]

Goodreads Book Giveaway! Win an advance copy of Red Sun Rogue

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;

font-style: normal; background: white; }

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }

.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink {

display: inline-block;

color: #181818;

background-color: #F6F6EE;

border: 1px solid #9D8A78;

border-radius: 3px;

font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;

font-weight: bold;

text-decoration: none;

outline: none;

font-size: 13px;

padding: 8px 12px;

}

.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover {

color: #181818;

background-color: #F7F2ED;

border: 1px solid #AFAFAF;

text-decoration: none;

}


Goodreads Book Giveaway


Red Sun Rogue
by Taylor Zajonc

Giveaway ends February 03, 2017.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

This is it: RED SUN ROGUE cover reveal!

This is it – the Red Sun Rogue cover is final! Can’t wait for the final book to come out on February 28!

[image error]

Red Sun Rogue: A Wrecking Crew Novel will be released by Blank Slate Press on February 28 and is currently available for presale!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s | IndieBound

An unknown enemy wreaks havoc in the South China Sea while blaming the destruction on Jonah Blackwell and the crew of the Scorpion, forcing them to untangle a deadly conspiracy rooted in a lost technology from World War II.

May 6, 1945: A German submarine U-3531 disappears en route to mainland Japan, taking with her a weapon that could have changed the course of the war.

Present day: Salvage diver turned submarine captain Jonah Blackwell and his unproven crew resurface on a mission of mercy, secreting starving refugees from the brutal North Korean regime as a hundred-year winter ravages the northern Pacific. Hunted by the Japanese fleet and forced to surrender, the crew of the Scorpion are blackmailed into investigating a mysteriously quarantined DPRK submarine base. As chaos erupts across the East China Sea, the crew of the Scorpion find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens to reshape the entire region. Now his crew must race against time in an adventure spanning the irradiated waters of Fukushima, flood-beset Tokyo metropolis and the crumbling tropical remains of a secret Japanese research facility. At the center of it all is an enigmatic technology cult with roots in the clandestine weapons program of the Second World War―a cult that has waited seventy years to strike its final blow.

[image error]

Advance Reader Copies Are In!

So much more news to announce in the coming weeks; in the meantime just wanted to share a few favorite photos from the big stack of advanced reader copies I just got in the mail! I’ll be sending these out to reviewers and other such folks shortly. Perhaps this .gif is in order…?

Red Sun Rogue: A Wrecking Crew Novel Now Available for Pre-Sale!

So pleased to announce that my next book, Red Sun Rogue: A Wrecking Crew Novel will be released by Blank Slate Press on February 28, 2017 and is now available for presale!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s | IndieBound

An unknown enemy wreaks havoc in the South China Sea while blaming the destruction on Jonah Blackwell and the crew of the Scorpion,  forcing them to untangle a deadly conspiracy  rooted in a lost technology from World War II.

May 6, 1945: A German submarine U-3531 disappears en route to mainland Japan, taking with her a weapon that could have changed the course of the war.

Present day: Salvage diver turned submarine captain Jonah Blackwell and his unproven crew resurface on a mission of mercy, secreting starving refugees from the brutal North Korean regime as a hundred-year winter ravages the northern Pacific. Hunted by the Japanese fleet and forced to surrender, the crew of the Scorpion are blackmailed into investigating a mysteriously quarantined DPRK submarine base. As chaos erupts across the East China Sea, the crew of the Scorpion find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens to reshape the entire region.  Now his crew must race against time in an adventure spanning the irradiated waters of Fukushima, flood-beset Tokyo metropolis and the crumbling tropical remains of a secret Japanese research facility. At the center of it all is an enigmatic technology cult with roots in the clandestine weapons program of the Second World War―a cult that has waited seventy years to strike its final blow.

Stay tuned for more news soon!

Missing Warships in the Java Sea? Not So Fast.

The headlines read like something out of an alien invasion film: “Mystery as wrecks of three Dutch WWII ships vanish from Java seabed.” Blame quickly went to “scrappers,” groups of war-grave targeting metal scavengers with the supposed ability to scavenge thousands of tons of scrap metal from depths exceeding 200 feet below the surface. Could this have theoretically happened? Perhaps. Is this the most likely explanation for the missing warships? Absolutely not.

First and foremost, illegal salvors do not respect war graves, especially in certain parts of the remote Pacific Ocean. Ship parts such as bronze propellers can be worth the incredibly dangerous operation necessary to pull them off the ocean bottom. There may be other valuable metals in the engine compartments worth the risks.

But three or more armored warships, lock, stock and barrel? There’s been too little evidence to seriously suggest this ever happened. Even after the story became international news, no evidence of the scrap steel or other artifacts have turned up. (Also, keep in mind that most of this steel would have been in very poor condition.) More importantly, the investigation thus far has released no bottom imagery beyond sonar data; meaning that the entire “missing ship” postulation is far from proven.

Here’s the most likely scenario. First and foremost, yes, illegal salvors likely pillaged the propellers and other highly valuable components the wreck. Parts of the wrecks likely collapsed on their own as well due to age. However, the most likely cause of the destruction of these ships (which are likely not missing at all, but instead scattered across a larger debris field than they were previously) is commercial fishing activity.

Fish like to hide in wrecks. Fishermen like to catch fish. Heavy industrial fishing activity often involves towing heavy nets that drag across the ocean bottom as close to known wrecks as possible. They very often hit these wrecks, sometimes damaging their fishing gear but always damaging the wrecks. It’s a little hard to communicate the sheer scale and force of these trawling operations, but suffice to say they are more than powerful enough to tear apart even a heavily armored warship, bit by bit, year by by year.

I’m no defender of illegal salvors–not for a moment. However, if we blame somebody we should blame those actually responsible… after a proper investigation, of course.

Not to say I told you so or otherwise rub in my point, but I hope this incident is the final nail in the coffin of so-called “in situ” preservation model for shipwrecks. Here’s an excerpt from a previous post:

The truth is, “in-situ” preservation of shipwrecks at depth remains an unproven theory. Indeed, much of the evidence collected to date shows that fishing activity and natural degradation over time has a profoundly adverse effect on these critical sites, a situation compounded by incidents such as the BP oil spill. As technology to find and recover historic shipwrecks continues to evolve by leaps and bounds, we must recognize our collective responsibility to find, document, monitor and excavate these underwater cultural resources. Given the confluence of factors working against us, now may be the only chance we have.

So are these lost warships damaged or destroyed? Absolutely. But missing? Let’s do a little more research before we make such an incredible claim.

“All Things Risk” Podcast

Had an absolute blast speaking with Ben Cattaneo on his podcast “All Things Risk.” Check it out below!