John Wilson's Blog, page 3
September 12, 2014
A John Franklin Journal
With John Franklin hitting the headlines, sales of the eBook,
North with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames
are on the increase (#12 on Amazon.com's Polar Books). If you missed it the first time around, it's a recreation of Fitzjames' journal based on, and including quotes from, the journal he sent back from Greenland before the expedition disappeared.Read more about it on my website.
September 9, 2014
Looks as if the canvas from the winter covering is still ...
Looks as if the canvas from the winter covering is still on.Okay, I went up Helvellyn today, along Striding Edge, awesome, but doesn't even come close to the news that ONE OF JOHN FRANKLIN'S SHIPS HAS BEEN FOUND!!! (Sorry for shouting and the multiple exclamation marks). The ship looks incredibly complete on the sonar images—which ship is it (I've got ten buck on Erebus)—what's inside—documents, human remains, photographs??? Probably not, but the water's cold and preserves a lot in a complete wreck like this.Of course, you all still have the chance to read the real story before the truth messes things up in Graves of Ice.
August 28, 2014
Follow my travels on Facebook
Ammonites in Lyme Regis museum.I'm currently working my way along the south coast of England and adding interesting pieces of information and a few photographs more-or-less every day on Facebook. There's a bit of everything from Iron Age forts, Roman remains, Medieval Cathedrals, Castles and sheep! Drop by and see how things are going. https://www.facebook.com/johnwilson.a...
August 14, 2014
Why we should support indie bookstores.
From The Washington Post:
A reader named Maureen Feinroth sends in this anecdote about her book-shopping experience at a Barnes & Noble in the Washington area:
Me: Hi, I am looking for the new biography of Beethoven. I don’t see it on the shelf.
Salesperson: I can look it up for you. [Typing "b-a-y . . ."]
Me: No, it’s Beethoven: “b-e-e . . .”
Salesperson: Oh “Beethoven.” I LOVED that movie!!! Wait. The dog wrote a book?
On a related note, in Chapters, I once found my biography of Norman Bethune in the medical section beside the Atkins Diet!
A reader named Maureen Feinroth sends in this anecdote about her book-shopping experience at a Barnes & Noble in the Washington area:
Me: Hi, I am looking for the new biography of Beethoven. I don’t see it on the shelf.
Salesperson: I can look it up for you. [Typing "b-a-y . . ."]
Me: No, it’s Beethoven: “b-e-e . . .”
Salesperson: Oh “Beethoven.” I LOVED that movie!!! Wait. The dog wrote a book?
On a related note, in Chapters, I once found my biography of Norman Bethune in the medical section beside the Atkins Diet!
July 31, 2014
New Blog
Five of my books, four novels (And in the Morning, Shot at Dawn, Red Goodwin, Wings of War), and one non-fiction (Desperate Glory: The Story of WWI) are set during the First World War. To mark the 100th anniversary of the war, I have created a new Blog, in which I will upload short extracts from these books (which ever seems appropriate), over the next while.
To begin, here's a short extract from Chapter One of the recently published Wings of War.
Enjoy.
July 22, 2014
Dark clouds forming
I'm not a great believer in decisive battles or moments that changed history, it's all much too complex for that, nevertheless, like saying "What if?", it's fun to spot them.
Everyone points to Princip's shots in Sarajevo as being the trigger to WWI, but things weren't inevitable from that point on. A stronger argument can probably be made for what a couple of stupid self-centered old men did 100 years ago tomorrow as being a more significant point.
http://the-war-to-end-wars.blogspot.ca
July 14, 2014
Procrastination
As you can see from the title, I have stopped delaying and learned how to spell procrastination. Consequently, several months later than originally planned, I have upgraded and updated my website. Drop by and be awed by the bright pictures and fancy links.
July 10, 2014
Free book promotion
Need a break from WWI? How about the 13 century?As a promotion, I've put The Heretic's Secret for free on Amazon (.com and .co.uk) up to an including July 14.
"A gripping piece of well-researched historical fiction with multiple perspectives…Great for fans of Name of the Rose and much more intelligent than DaVinci Code."
Actually, I don't care about the intelligence thing, I just want to sell more copies than Dan Brown!
Feel free to pick up a copy and let your friends know.
June 28, 2014
June 26, 2014
100 years ago today.
Happier days? Not with a corset like that!Only two days to go to the assassination in Sarajevo! How did Franz and Sophie spend today?
