Charles A. Turek's Blog: It All Spills Over Onto Goodreads, page 3
October 8, 2013
Hurry, Giveaways End Soon.
Now in the AuthorsdB top 100!
New Release
OVER 209,000 have seen our promotions, and HUNDREDS have put us on TO-READ LIST or DOWNLOADED a copy of the book. Sales are unbelievable!
WHAT RU WAITING FOR?
Be the first of your friends to read The Steam Locomotive Murders. In paperback or eBook.
Story Cartel Giveaway - Hurry! Ends 10/9!
Click on the Story Cartel logo at left to download a digital copy of the book in return for your honest review and be entered to win one of 3 $10 Amazon giftcards.
September 28, 2013
Are The Steaks Really Worth It?
After marketing my new novel with a railroad fan's slant - The Steam Locomotive Murders - I have to get back to blogging about real Passenger Rail issues.
This article discusses gourmet food on Amtrak:
http://arbutus.patch.com/articles/steaks-on-a-train-amtrak-ups-its-culinary-game-78e29ea9
I've been thinking about it awhile, so it is now time for me to put in my 2 cents. This may be both figuratively and literally, because that's about all I'd give you for so-called gourmet food on Amtrak. At least not until Amtrak learns to get other things right.
First of all, it's not real gourmet food. It's trendy food served as gourmet. These days, any kind of food that has an unusual name and is gluten free is touted as gourmet food. Second, it's going to increase food service costs, or the quality is going to be soooo bad that it'll ruin ridership. Third, it's only a matter of time before Congress decides to cut food service altogether. (The last time was a disaster!) So why bother upping the cost of what we're going to cut?
As I see it, the majority of us want two things when it comes to food on a train. First, we want a dining car, not a snack wagon or a corner of the basement in the lounge car. Second, we want good American cuisine at reasonable prices: Steaks and chops, salads with fresh vegetables, good coffee (without the hoity or the toity), and a desert selection that would make Dr. Oz cringe. I don't see why it would be so hard for Amtrak management to visit successful mom & pop restaurants in each train's geographic area and emulate the menus. Don't hire chefs! Hire people who can cook. And absolutely don't let the pop media govern what you serve! (Did I say management should do something? Horrors. They're too busy pleasing Congress.)
So there's my brief rant about food on Amtrak. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.
© 2013 - C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com
This article discusses gourmet food on Amtrak:
http://arbutus.patch.com/articles/steaks-on-a-train-amtrak-ups-its-culinary-game-78e29ea9
I've been thinking about it awhile, so it is now time for me to put in my 2 cents. This may be both figuratively and literally, because that's about all I'd give you for so-called gourmet food on Amtrak. At least not until Amtrak learns to get other things right.
First of all, it's not real gourmet food. It's trendy food served as gourmet. These days, any kind of food that has an unusual name and is gluten free is touted as gourmet food. Second, it's going to increase food service costs, or the quality is going to be soooo bad that it'll ruin ridership. Third, it's only a matter of time before Congress decides to cut food service altogether. (The last time was a disaster!) So why bother upping the cost of what we're going to cut?
As I see it, the majority of us want two things when it comes to food on a train. First, we want a dining car, not a snack wagon or a corner of the basement in the lounge car. Second, we want good American cuisine at reasonable prices: Steaks and chops, salads with fresh vegetables, good coffee (without the hoity or the toity), and a desert selection that would make Dr. Oz cringe. I don't see why it would be so hard for Amtrak management to visit successful mom & pop restaurants in each train's geographic area and emulate the menus. Don't hire chefs! Hire people who can cook. And absolutely don't let the pop media govern what you serve! (Did I say management should do something? Horrors. They're too busy pleasing Congress.)
So there's my brief rant about food on Amtrak. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.
© 2013 - C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com
September 24, 2013
Why Wait?
Just Released 9/18/13
OVER 61,000 have seen our promotions, and OVER 300 have put us on TO-READ LIST or DOWNLOADED a copy of the book.
WHAT RU WAITING FOR?
Be the first of your friends to read The Steam Locomotive Murders. In paperback or eBook.
Be The First
The Steam Locomotive MurdersJust Released 9/18/13OVER 61,000 have seen our promotions, and OVER 300 have put us on TO-READ LIST or DOWNLOADED a copy of the book.WHAT RU WAITING FOR?Be the first of your friends to read The Steam Locomotive Murders. In paperback or eBook.September 19, 2013
The Steam Locomotive Murders Now Available
The Steam Locomotive Murders launched yesterday.You can get a free download in return for your honest review--and enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card--by clicking the Story Cartel logo. (Please be patient, Story Cartel is sometimes very busy and may be unavailable.)Clicking the book cover will take you to my home page.
© 2013 - C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com
September 15, 2013
Steam Locomotive Book This Week
Those of you who read this blog (ir)regularly know that I am also an author of fiction novels. My latest, The Steam Locomotive Murders, officially launches this week, 9/18/13. This is the second in the Charlie Komensky detective crime fiction series. In addition to being a fictional detective, Charlie is also a railroad fan. This book features settings that include the narrow gauge of northern New Mexico, the Milwaukee Road and Santa Fe northern type steam locomotives, and "in and around" Chicago Union Station., as well as having the detective spend hours on Amtrak.
The first book of the series, The Flat Tire Murders, included visits to the CRANDIC and Mason City in Iowa, as well as other railroad settings and references.Both are available through Amazon and CreateSpace.
September 2, 2013
August 31, 2013
New Launch September 18, 2013
Latest News & Info
August 31 - Sept. 7, 2013
<<Official Release 9/18/13>>
My new novel,
The Steam Locomotive Murders
, launches on Wednesday, September 18, 2013.
I am teaming up with
Story Cartel
to offer digital copies of the new book in all reader formats FREE in return for your review of the book. Your review can also enter you into a drawing for a free Amazon gift card or other prizes. Register at Story Cartel so you will be ready to enter when the giveaway starts.
P lease also watch for a contest on Goodreads to win an autographed copy of the paperback of The Steam Locomotive Murders.
I
f you'd like me to send you an email with more news and information, please click the EASY CONTACT tab and fill in the requested fields using "newsletter" in the comment box.
A new updated 2nd Edition of the first in the Charlie K series will be released concurrent with The Steam Locomotive Murders. To whet your appetite for more Charlie Komensky, a free download of the Charlie Komensky short story, Wheel Deadly is now available. You can download your copy of Wheel Deadly for your eReader here.
If you enjoy a sendup, put your tongue firmly in cheek and make a visit to Charlie Komensky Private Eye .
<<Re-release on 9/18/13>>
A new updated 2nd Edition of the first in the Charlie K series will be released concurrent with The Steam Locomotive Murders. To whet your appetite for more Charlie Komensky, a free download of the Charlie Komensky short story, Wheel Deadly is now available. You can download your copy of Wheel Deadly for your eReader here.
I
n keeping with
my recent price policy, you can read all of my eBooks, including the newest titles, The Steam Locomotive Murders, and The Flat Tire Murders for $0.99, on any platform**.
If you enjoy a sendup, put your tongue firmly in cheek and make a visit to Charlie Komensky Private Eye .
August 27, 2013
Any Future At All?
I've started many posts to this blog with something like: "It got me thinking." I guess that's what's supposed to happen in the blogosphere.
Today, I read an article published by Railway Age and written by Frank Wilner. The topic of the article is two very new pieces of tech that could make the railroads obsolete in 10 years. You may link to the article [here]. Prognosticators are more often wrong than right--it's the old 50-50 chance with a little thrown in on the "against" side because of the inherent risk in trying to predict an unpredictable future.
Nonetheless, I agree with the basic thesis, and that is this: You've got to stay ahead of technology if you want to stay in business. There was a time when railroads, and Passenger Rail railroads in particular, were always ahead of that curve. In fact, they were the cutting edge of technology in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Not so today.
I've often marveled at how the basic concept of wheels with flanges running on gauged track has not changed since the 1850s. Science has certainly developed better materials for the wheel-rail interaction, and maybe that's what has kept the basic engineering viable a century and a half later. In all fairness, monorail (in the 1940s - 1960s) and maglev (more recently and continuing) have promised the same thing that Musk's "hyperloop"--as mentioned in the article--promises for Passenger Rail. Basically, it's higher speeds, greater safety, and greater comfort. Neither mono- nor mag-rail has panned out.
The other tech mentioned in the article, the 3-D printer, has the greater probability of putting pressure on railroads through the lowering of demand to ship parts, particularly small, light parts. But this is for freight rail to worry about.
Passenger Rail is in dire need of a high-tech innovation that is incremental, rather than all-or-nothing. (The 3-D printer is an example of incremental--a logical and progressive extension through generations of engineering refinement starting with the line-printer and up through dot-matrix to now. The hyperloop is all-or-nothing, requiring a radical change in almost everything engineered around transportation needs today.) People like change, but they don't like radical change. The general Public may ride a bullet-train-like high-speed railroad today, but I'd bet the farm they won't allow themselves to be shot through the ground in tubes yet.
It took eleven years after the Wright brothers for air travel to be come a commercial enterprise, but it took another 35 years for it to become a competing form of passenger transport. It was advanced, cutting edge tech, but it was too "out there" for the average passenger. I still believe it was largely because of WWII and the number of military personnel who were exposed to flight during that period that airlines of the 1950s took off as they did--pun intended. "If we could do it during wartime, then it's a piece of cake with nobody shooting at us!"
I keep hoping that those incremental changes I talked about will keep people riding Passenger Rail for the short term, so it won't die out as a transport mode before something realistic in the way of high tech comes along.
©2013 - C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com
Today, I read an article published by Railway Age and written by Frank Wilner. The topic of the article is two very new pieces of tech that could make the railroads obsolete in 10 years. You may link to the article [here]. Prognosticators are more often wrong than right--it's the old 50-50 chance with a little thrown in on the "against" side because of the inherent risk in trying to predict an unpredictable future.
Nonetheless, I agree with the basic thesis, and that is this: You've got to stay ahead of technology if you want to stay in business. There was a time when railroads, and Passenger Rail railroads in particular, were always ahead of that curve. In fact, they were the cutting edge of technology in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Not so today.
I've often marveled at how the basic concept of wheels with flanges running on gauged track has not changed since the 1850s. Science has certainly developed better materials for the wheel-rail interaction, and maybe that's what has kept the basic engineering viable a century and a half later. In all fairness, monorail (in the 1940s - 1960s) and maglev (more recently and continuing) have promised the same thing that Musk's "hyperloop"--as mentioned in the article--promises for Passenger Rail. Basically, it's higher speeds, greater safety, and greater comfort. Neither mono- nor mag-rail has panned out.
The other tech mentioned in the article, the 3-D printer, has the greater probability of putting pressure on railroads through the lowering of demand to ship parts, particularly small, light parts. But this is for freight rail to worry about.
Passenger Rail is in dire need of a high-tech innovation that is incremental, rather than all-or-nothing. (The 3-D printer is an example of incremental--a logical and progressive extension through generations of engineering refinement starting with the line-printer and up through dot-matrix to now. The hyperloop is all-or-nothing, requiring a radical change in almost everything engineered around transportation needs today.) People like change, but they don't like radical change. The general Public may ride a bullet-train-like high-speed railroad today, but I'd bet the farm they won't allow themselves to be shot through the ground in tubes yet.
It took eleven years after the Wright brothers for air travel to be come a commercial enterprise, but it took another 35 years for it to become a competing form of passenger transport. It was advanced, cutting edge tech, but it was too "out there" for the average passenger. I still believe it was largely because of WWII and the number of military personnel who were exposed to flight during that period that airlines of the 1950s took off as they did--pun intended. "If we could do it during wartime, then it's a piece of cake with nobody shooting at us!"
I keep hoping that those incremental changes I talked about will keep people riding Passenger Rail for the short term, so it won't die out as a transport mode before something realistic in the way of high tech comes along.
©2013 - C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com
August 26, 2013
New Launch
->
L
aunch To Be Announced 9/1!
I am teaming up with Story Cartel to offer digital copies of the new book in all reader formats FREE in return for your review of the book. Your review can also enter you into a contest for a free Amazon gift card or other prizes. Register at Story Cartel after the release date is announced for more details.
I am teaming up with Story Cartel to offer digital copies of the new book in all reader formats FREE in return for your review of the book. Your review can also enter you into a contest for a free Amazon gift card or other prizes. Register at Story Cartel after the release date is announced for more details.
It All Spills Over Onto Goodreads
I've tried several titles for this blog, and this is the one that seems most pertinent at present. I write and blog about many things, and manage many sites to the end that it helps market my books. T
...more
- Charles A. Turek's profile
- 16 followers
