Bob Mayer's Blog, page 21

We Don’t Want To Believe. Thus We Don’t Prepare

Ukraine

Despite the massive buildup of Russian forces on their border, and the fact they’ve been in conflict with Russia for years from a previous invasion, less than 20% of Ukrainians thought that their country would get attacked.

Even fewer prepared for the possibility.

A week ago their lives were normal; just like ours.

The week before this happened, I had published my Green Beret Area Study Workbook. I have to be honest and say I had mixed feelings. On one hand I knew it was an essential book; one I’ve been working on for years.

Given climate change, and even just day to day living, we all need to do an Area Study of our Area of Operations. But there was a part of me that looked at the parts like the one that walked you through planning your evacuation route and thought “People will think this is over the top”.

Sadly, the events of the past weeks have proved that those parts of the book are essential. Disasters, whether natural or man-made, can strike anywhere at any time. West coast? Earthquake. East coast? Hurricane. Pacific Northwest? Heat Dome. Southwest? Epic drought. Texas? Freeze. The list goes on and on.

Those are things that have already happened or are happening. But there are many others that can occur suddenly. Every week there is a new disaster somewhere in the country. Americans might think they’re safe from what happened in Ukraine, but one in three Americans experienced a climate disaster last year. Sadly, most were under-reported. Worse, almost everyone involved wasn’t prepared.

This isn’t about hunkering in a bunker with a hoard of smoke meat. This is about common sense, day to day, things we should know about and prepare for.

On the far side from doing an Area Study of evacuation routes, there are the simple things one should do in their house to protect themselves, such as being prepared for a fire or having the car adequately prepared.

Do you know your threats and assets? Do you know the priority in which you need to get prepared and the things to be prepared for? Have you made plans that need to be done now, not on the fly while caught in the disaster?

I’m glad I’ve finally published The Green Beret Area Study Workbook as the companion to The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. I truly believe they are the two most important books I’ve written.

Get prepared. Stay safe!

New York Minute: The Green Berets

https://amzn.to/3saytxs

I’ve been more excited about New York Minute and the character of Will Kane than anything in years. I wrote and rewrote this book from the heart. The characters are real to me—and that’s what this book is about: character.

I was thinking about what I wanted to write in terms of thriller a couple of years ago as I’m going back to that genre after years in science fiction. I thought about a Jack Reacher type of character and story; especially given the parallels in Reacher’s fictional life and my real one: Reacher was West Point ’82, I was ’81. Reacher was in Lebanon during the bombing while my unit, 10th Special Forces was running the MTT there when that tragedy occurred. Reacher’s mother is French from Strasbourg; my wife’s mother is French from Strasbourg.

I love Lee Child’s books, but as he says in the new opening to Killing Floor (a must-read), Jack Reacher is a mythical character. A modern knight. I realized I couldn’t write such a character, perhaps because of my own flaws; more on that in a bit. I wanted to write someone like the special ops people I’ve known, warts and all, but with a deep moral code, who is forced, against his will, into making a decision that he swore never to make. I wanted to surround him with a cast of reoccurring characters, each with their own flaws, strengths and backstory, and, most importantly, secrets. There are characters in this book that will grow much deeper as the series goes on.

I set in it in New York during a time period I am familiar with: the late 70s. Son of Sam is in the background—his first shooting occurred just blocks from my house and one of his victims was a classmate of mine. The city at the time was going down the tubes, very different from today. It adds darkness and vibrancy to the story.

The flaw, in retrospect, is starting the book slow, but I had to do that to show how Kane is forced to do something he vowed never to do.

I’m moving Will Kane forward in time from 1977. Not just in New York City, but as he gets involved in events such as the founding of Delta Force and Desert One. So far, I’ve got five books
in the series. BTW, all the titles are from songs with lines that apply to the story. New York Minute is particularly apropos as you’ll see as you read it.

Of particular importance is that Will Kane has Asperger’s. Just as I do. Writing a character with this issue is something I’ll discuss in another post.

Honestly, another one of my goals is to break this book & series out long term as an indie author. I’ve successfully been publishing without the backing of a Big 5 publisher or Amazon for a number of years. In this day and age, entrepreneur can make their own way as I have been doing for a long time. As such, I’m thankful to my readers for their continued support.

Mum: A Comedy Drama both Over The Top and Subtle

Mum

We binged the first two seasons of this half-hour show, Mum, last night on Amazon and were both enthralled and repulsed. Which is a hard thing to pull off and keep you sucked in.

Every scene happens in or in front of a row house in England. The title character, Cathy, has lost her husband. The first episode is the day of his funeral. Then we jump month by month with each episode.

The repulsed part is the over-the-top characters surrounding her. Their narcissism and lack of awareness is so thorough it batters you. They say the worst things. They are thoughtless. Why does she put up with it?

But at the same time, there’s a deeper level to it. Why are they like this? We get snippets. That doesn’t excuse their atrocious behavior, but it makes it more understandable.

At the same time we see little gestures and moments that give great insight and understanding. There are emotional, subtle moments, that take your breath away. The acting is superb. Hard to believe that Michael, her friend, was Darlene’s husband in Ozark.

We might think Cathy is a saint to put up with all she does and never lose her temper. But is she? Why is she like she is? Is it a good thing? Why does everyone gravitate around her house? Why is she the nexus of all of this?

As part of the trope, there is the best friend of her husband, Michael, who has always carried a torch for her. It’s obvious he loves her, but how long can we keep this going without one or the other bringing it out in the open? For two seasons this drags on, sometimes with humor, sometimes sadly.

What did we love about this series, which we will finish today? It’s about people. Both the good and the ugly and the sad and the pathetic. That old saying that everyone is carrying their burdens and not to judge? Well, we can judge, but we can also try to understand and the writing is excellent to help us do that.

We all know people like these characters. In fact, I’d prefer the over-the-top rather than the sly ones, the passive-aggressive, the malignant narcissists who put on a friendly face while they rip your soul out for their own amusement. That’s the charm. They might be awful, but they’re obvious awful. There is no lying and deception. What you see is what you get. That’s preferable over the other reality.

Highly recommended.

Why Do People Panic Buy Toilet Paper In An Emergency?

Hoarding

We’ve all seen it. Whether in person or in film. Something bad is happening or going to happen and people rush to the stores and load their carts with—- toilet paper.

As if that’s a priority.

After all, we die after three days of no water. But toilet paper?

If the power goes out we’ll need batteries and flashlights. But toilet paper?

And not just one roll. A big bag of it.

It doesn’t make sense.

So. Why?

A lack of knowing exactly what supplies are a priority. The very fact someone is rushing to the store upon notice of an emergency means they weren’t prepared to begin with, so how can they possibly know what the priorities of supplies are?Panic buying leads to more panic buying. They load their cart with cases of water, which is good, but then have a need to grab something and, well, toilet paper. I mean, it will get used.It gives people a sense of control in an uncontrolled situation. They’re doing something.They’re over-preparing. I’m big into being prepared, but toilet paper has never been a high priority, especially in a pending disaster. I focus on the specifics of the problem and prepare for that.We don’t know what to do and we don’t get clear instructions. In the early days of COVID, stores had to ration toilet paper. Many ran out. Yes, there was supply chain issues, but a lot of it was panic buying. But we weren’t getting clear instructions from the powers-that-be as to what we really needed to be doing. Even now, in year three, we’re finally seeing people advising that we get N-95 masks (not that they were available back then).When people get conflicting messages, they resort to extremes.

There’s nothing wrong with having an adequate stockpile of toilet paper. Heck, sometimes I have to walk past my grab-n-go bag to get in the Jeep to go to the store and get toilet paper because a bathroom in the house runs out. My bad.

But it’s much smarter, especially in this time of pandemic and climate change, to be a bit better prepared. My wife asked me the other day if I wanted to go to Costco and I told her I viewed Costco as one of the layers of hell and, no, thank you.

We all live in different situations and that’s why I’ve written two books. One, just coming out, is The Green Beret Area Study Workbook and the other is The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. The first one walks you through looking at your particular situation and Area of Operations and narrowing the focus on what you need to be prepared. The second one tells you how to do it and then what to do in the actual emergency.

Don’t be one of those people with the big pile of toilet paper. In fact, you don’t want to even be anywhere near those stores in the time of panic. Get prepared and be prepared.

And stay safe out there!

My First Published Book– over 30 years ago

Eyes of the Hammer

Eyes of the Hammer. The Green Berets

Idea behind the story: Who can you really trust when operating in the covert world?

Story: What if Special Forces soldiers have to destroy drug trafficking plants in Colombia?

This was my first book published, but not the first one I wrote. That’s typical in traditional publishing. The learning curve is steep to get successfully published.

It introduces Dave Riley, the hero of my first six Green Beret books. Riley is Irish/Puerto Rican from the Bronx which has resonance in my own extended family.

The germ of the idea was an actual mission called Task Force 6. This is where Special Forces soldiers were detailed to ‘surveil’ the southern border. In order not to break the law, the mission was cloaked in a lot of BS, but essentially they were there as part of the ‘war on drugs’. Special Forces has a long history in Central and South America. In Inside Delta Force, there’s an interesting anecdote about how a fight against guerillas ended with SF advisors on both sides.

The movie Sicario was very realistic and portrayed the reality of the shadowy world of covert operations. I thought it was very well done and Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt were superb in their roles. They also had former Delta guys as their former selves in some scenes.

For Eyes of the Hammer I envisioned a scenario where an SF team was drawn into a mission to conduct payback (which was the original title, and better) for this book.

Aside—lesson learned. Tom Clancy had a similar story, but his was called Clear and Present Danger. Much better title.

If you’re interested, this ebook is free on all eBook platforms. My permanently free books are on this page, along with daily specials. I have so many titles, I rotate discounted and free books in on a daily basic: FREEBIES

The Civil War was a West Point War

One of the things I had to memorize as a plebe at West Point, besides esoteric stuff such as ‘How’s the Cow’ was an interesting piece of not-so-trivia: In sixty of the major battles of the Civil War, West Pointers commanded both sides. In the other five, they commanded one side.

I always found that tidbit troublesome for a number of reasons.

First, was that so many West Pointers became traitors to the country they’d sworn to defend. I’ve heard and read all the various excuses why they did that, but the bottom line is they made the decision to fight against their own country.

Secondly, it explained why the war was so bloody and lasted so long. The commanders on both sides knew each other. They’d been taught by the same people. They’d studied the same strategy and tactics. In the first major engagement, Bull Run, both commanders came up with the same plan. In fact, it was the failure of the Confederates to swiftly implement their plan that allowed them to succeed; that’s how war works. It’s as much luck as skill. Also subliminal but important: many were friends despite now wearing different uniforms. They had deep bonds as members of the Long Gray Line. For example, there is an unsubstantiated long-standing story that James Longstreet was Ulysses S. Grant’s best man at his wedding. What is certain is those two spent three years together at the Academy when the Corps of Cadets was so small, everyone knew everyone else.

Third, it explains the leniency shown after the war to the traitors. Why wasn’t Robert E. Lee and other senior confederate commanders hung? That was the fate for traitors at the time. One can speak of wanting to put the war behind, but we really didn’t. There was a brief period of freedom for former slaves and then Jim Crow raised its ugly head and we had a century of oppression. We had the Klan rise out of the ashes of defeat, often led by former confederate officers. What example was set for future seditionists? This seemed an insignificant point until recently. Also note the image at the beginning of this post– where the traitor is put front and center. By the Academy itself.

This dichotomy bothered me while at the Academy and afterward. Of course, I was always slightly out of step with most of my classmates at the Point. I posted poetry on the company bulletin board. I wrote a psychology paper based on Pink Floyd’s The Wall and delivered the paper inside the album so the instructor could listen to it. Even after graduation, after branching Infantry, I volunteered for Special Forces when we were the red-haired bastards of the Army and I was told several times it would ‘kill my career’.

After I became a writer, I finally was able to delve into this issue. Honestly, I was inspired story-wise by HBO’s miniseries Rome, which I loved. Two common soldiers, one a centurion and the other a spearman, become embroiled in almost every major event in Rome during that pivotal period of time from Caesar to Augusts.

So, I invented two West Point cadets: Cord and Rumble. Put them at West Point in the critical years while Grant, Sherman, Longstreet, Pickett and others were there. And began writing. An intriguing part was the Mexican War which has mostly been forgotten in history but made a lot of the United States what it is now (California and the rest of the southwest) and was the bloodiest war we’ve ever fought percentage wise in terms of casualties. It too, was a West Point war in that it bloodied most of the future generals, but not to the extent of the Civil War.

What resulted was Duty, Honor, Country which is either a very long single book, or three shorter books, depending on your taste. The first part, Duty, is free on all eBook platforms if you want a morsel.

Amazon

Audible

Nook Books

Apple Books

Kobo

Google Play

I tracked Cord and Rumble and all the real historical figures surrounding them from West Point through the Mexican War, the years in between and into the Civil War. I ended Country the first night of the battle of Shiloh. I plan on continuing the story later this year.

One of the hardest parts was writing people like Robert E. Lee who took a stance I totally disagreed with. Of little significance, I also learned, and wrote the scenes, the event which brought about the founding of the school for squids, aka the Naval Academy. Because of a mutiny.

I love history and I hope you do too. Because that is how we learn to become better.

One Day Special: Free Books and Upcoming Releases

New York Minute Kennedy Endeavor Invasion

Today only, New York Minute, the first book in the Will Kane series, and Area 51: Invasion, which is part of the Area 51 series but can stand on its own as an epic story of alien invasion, and The Kennedy Endeavor, a thriller based on history, are all free.

Additionally, Equinox, a Time Patrol story is only .99 or Kindle Unlimited.

Coming up this month are two new releases:

The Green Beret Area Study Workbook, which is a companion guide to The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. The workbook walks you through looking at your situation and your Area of Operations, the world around you, from the perspective of preparation and survival. It also contains detailed checklists for dealing with natural and man-made disasters. You’ll never look at the world around you the same way. I am currently working with a production company on a proposal for a reality show based on this.

The Green Beret Guide to Great Disasters combines all three previous disaster books in one. 21 of the greatest disasters are detailed with the Cascade Events that led to each one. By examining those, we can learn how to prevent future disasters.

We hope everyone is staying warm and safe.

Spring will soon be here!

Resident Alien and Righteous Gemstones New Seasons—Rocky Start

Watched first episode of season 2 of Resident Alien last night. The first season was enjoyable if a bit rough story wise. But episode 1 of season 2 felt like 8 different writers wrote skits and then someone stuck them all in the same episode with the only connection being they were characters in the same show. There were abrupt shifts between scenes with no segue.

There was the usual crazy humor. And yes, it’s not meant to be taken as reality (there is an alien, after all, who can look like a human because, well, he can), but at points the silly got to be not funny but just silly. There was a hint about where the story is going—more aliens coming to destroy Earth, but overall, it was a very uneven watch. There were serious scenes with little, to no, connection, such as the two cups of coffee. Perhaps foreshadowing?

My wife commented that it felt like the original season was written as a one off, did well, and suddenly the writers went—“Hey! We need to write more stuff.” I’ve been in that position and if you have enough time it works, but if it’s on a tight schedule, a lot harder to do, especially during a pandemic.

The Righteous Gemstones also debuted its second season after a wicked satire of a first season.

The problem seems to be one of tone. It’s dark comedy, but the dark is starting to overshadow the comedy. We’ve got murders and secrets and child abandonment while also seeing a silly baptism.

The bathroom scene is brilliant. Edi Patterson as Judy Gemstone was hilarious and one can easily see her in a Christopher Guest movie ad-libbing. But John Goodman’s father figure seems to be a dark brooding cloud over everything. Broken thumbs are in.

To come: Dexter finally ends; I finally binge all of Yellowstone and am following 1883. Also rewatched the 2nd Battlestar Galactica and am slogging through the last season and all the talk of God. Anyone else ever try to figure out what the hybrid is saying? I tried it on my wife earlier trying to distract her and she was not so easily fooled.

Anywho. Stay warm out there.

What If You Know The Moment Of Your Death?

First Fig

What is more valuable than money? Time. That was the premise for Burners, one of my favorite books. After all, we’re already seeing the discrepancy in life expectancies between the rich and poor grow. As we move forward and expensive medical procedures, especially in terms of nanotechnology advance, the gap will grow larger.

Burners is set in a post-apocalyptic future in an area that is today’s Puget Sound. Society is stratified with four groups of people: The People who have an indeterminate Death Date. The Evermores and the Middlemores who have Death Dates but reasonable life expectancies.

And then there are the Burners whose death date hovers around 25. The title comes from the Edna St. Vincent Millay poem First Fig:

Burners play hard, party hard and die young. Before they die, they get 30 days in Heaven.

This is the way it’s been for generations. But it is now 30 days until Grace’s Deathday.

That is the fate on the red card Grace was dealt at age six on Dealing Day. A burner. Her twin sister, Millay, was dealt a white card. A People. No Deathday.

For twenty years, the sisters have lived different lives. In different places.

Then there’s the wild card, Ryker, a burner, who has no memories of his own past.

In what was left of the world after the Chaos, mankind surrendered control to Dealer, a powerful computer that has kept society running for centuries.

But truths don’t come easy. And everyone and everything is not as they appear.

The mantra in following Dealer’s edicts: It is what it is.

Until today.

Burners

Notes to a Midlist Author (All authors actually)

I wrote this in response to a blog post by a midlist author, Michael Mammay posted here where he talks about the lessons he’s learned in the last 4 years as a midlist science fiction author. These lessons apply to all authors working with a traditional publisher. Here is the blog. So:

You have a realistic view of things. I’ve been making a living as a writer for three decades and few people have heard of me. True, I did write under 5 pen names for a while. But, like you, I learned all these lessons the hard way. I had no idea what to expect when I signed my first book deal in 1991. No clue my advance was tied to where I would be on the list and what my print run would be. In essence, my future was pretty much determined before the book even came out. There are exceptions to that, which I’ve also experienced, but generally, if a trad author tells me their advance, I can predict what will happen to the book.

I had to laugh when you said no one is “bottom list” although, yes, someone has to be. I’ve experienced the spectrum of treatment by publishers from bottom list to top list, NY Times bestselling, and they are very different worlds.

One key is they offered you a new contract so you’re not doing the higher percentage sales, lower print run death spiral, but I suspect that’s changed because of eBooks which is a positive. A publisher can recoup a lot of investment now with little capital output in terms of printing because of eBooks. So authors who bitch about Amazon need to realize that Amazon is keeping a lot of this business alive. And a lot more authors alive. Indie bookstores are great, but they are not focused on mid and bottom list authors. That’s a harsh reality few want to admit publicly. Barnes and Noble is a friend, but is slowly losing shelf space and stores.

I’ve said what you’re saying many years ago to publishers, editors and publicists: just tell me the truth. Which is usually: We’re not committing much at all to publicity for you. If anything. We’re throwing the book out there. There’s too much smoke blown up author’s asses on that. Too much vague promising without follow through. I finally got a publicist at Random House to be honest after all the vague promises turned out to be nothing on one series that ended up selling over a million copies in paperback. She said they put the vast majority of their marketing money behind their bestsellers. At first, I was outraged. But then I saw the light. They really can’t “make” a bestseller, although they think they can. But once they get one? They can ride that sucker forever; even beyond the author’s death. In fact, bestselling authors subsidize the mid and bottom list to a large extent so we can’t complain they get the big bucks and the publicity.

The only marketing money that made any impact in years past was placement. Where you were racked. The same is true now even with eBooks although it’s via AMS and Bookbub ads and the like. All else is fluff.

I’ve found science fiction as a genre to be behind the times in terms of the business of publishing. I’ve hit bestseller lists in several genres including scifi. The savviest genre? Romance. Where I’ve also hit the lists. I’m not slamming scifi, but from the outside it just seems really inwardly focused and cliquish. I’ve been a member of SFWA and it’s gotten better but it could do a better job of teaching new authors. Then again, RWA which did a great job has turned on itself and is imploding.  Bottom line—the info is out there but hard to find among all the background noiae.

The few times I’m around scifi authors at conferences (I don’t get invited to cons– no one knows my name although I’ve been #1 in science fiction on Amazon numerous times—I even got told at one con hat I wasn’t a science fiction author which was humorous). I listen to them talk and realize most are woefully uninformed. I tell any midlist author that if they aren’t indie publishing at the same time, they are pretty much doomed. Unless, of course, lightning strikes, and they break out. That’s a whole ‘nother story, though, which I don’t have the time to cover here.

I’ve been published traditionally, 45 titles, and by 47North which is Amazon’s scifi imprint when it was first starting out, 9 titles, and indie published. Luckily, I got the rights back to all my trad books. Which means I failed in trad publishing. But that turned out to be a great blessing in disguise. The day I got my rights back to my Area 51 series from Random House, I told my wife that I got a good chunk of our retirement in place. Which has turned out to be true even though I signed those rights to Amazon Encore when it was first starting out since I got a spectacular royalty deal since it was the golden age of eBooks. I did as well with that as if I was indie publishing those books and I have the added advantage of Amazon promoting those books. Plus, I then continued the series with indie titles. That was a designed plan on my part that has worked well. Which is key: have a long-term plan to have a wide income base. I’ve also invested over $80,000 in Audible ACX titles over the years. I ran my own indie press for a while. It took three years to learn how to indie publish correctly. It’s not as easy as people think.

That’s one thing to do—can you indie publish titles that are in the series your publisher is doing? Or, at least, ancillary to the series? I’ve heard horror stories of publishers not allowing that, even though it’s a win-win for both. An author making 70% eBook royalty every month on a book is a hell of a lot more invested in promoting than one who hasn’t earned out in a trad deal. At the very least, indie publish in the same genre.

I applaud the fact you aren’t blaming your editor, agent, publisher but simply saying: “Tell me the real deal and let me work with that.” Exactly. You have the right attitude and it will stand you in good stead in you publishing future. All the best.