Declan Finn's Blog, page 15
March 22, 2020
Review: Adam Lane Smith's
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You may previously remember Adam Lane Smith from his work in Burrito Avenger and Making Peace (reviews in the links)
Adam has moved on to Christian Fantasy dystopia.
You have to be pretty flipping awesome to make me get through dystopia of any type. Mostly, you have to be named John Ringo.
If this sounds interesting, then you can get out Adam's main series of Deus Vult Wastelanders. The featured character is Gideon Ira -- imagine Judge Dredd as a crusader knight in powered armor.
I wasn't a fan of book one. I blame the poor editing -- It opened with a fight with a demon, then tried to make us care about Gideon Ira, then put us with a fight against random thugs. Which isn't how you do story structure. Book two of Deus Vult Wastelanders was better.
The one I really liked is Valkyrie Doll and the Ashen Brotherhood. It's a spin-off from the main series, but I think it did a better job of introducing the world through character interactions than the first two books.
Valkyrie Doll and the Ashen Brotherhood has multiple advantages over the main series.
To start with, the Valkyrie has a personality. She's almost charming in her observations. She has a character arc and development.
And let's just say that she has an inventory system that feels like a very meta comedy about video game systems.
Another advantage this has over the main series is that our heroine is working with a team of various personality types. Adam's already got team dynamics down from Making Peace , and it really is one of his strengths.
Overall, this was better than the last two. And if you want better than Larry Correia's Son of the Black Sword, and looks like a cross between Solomon Cane with a protagonist out of Nier: Automata (if Neir Automata was, you know, GOOD), then give Valkyrie Doll and the Ashen Brotherhood a try.
[image error]
You may previously remember Adam Lane Smith from his work in Burrito Avenger and Making Peace (reviews in the links)
Adam has moved on to Christian Fantasy dystopia.
You have to be pretty flipping awesome to make me get through dystopia of any type. Mostly, you have to be named John Ringo.
If this sounds interesting, then you can get out Adam's main series of Deus Vult Wastelanders. The featured character is Gideon Ira -- imagine Judge Dredd as a crusader knight in powered armor.
I wasn't a fan of book one. I blame the poor editing -- It opened with a fight with a demon, then tried to make us care about Gideon Ira, then put us with a fight against random thugs. Which isn't how you do story structure. Book two of Deus Vult Wastelanders was better.
The one I really liked is Valkyrie Doll and the Ashen Brotherhood. It's a spin-off from the main series, but I think it did a better job of introducing the world through character interactions than the first two books.
The Valkyrie revives in a coffin.
As she climbs from her tomb, she finds the end of the world has come and gone. Demons roam the blasted wasteland of what was once America. Humanity hangs by a thread and she, one of the last surviving Valkyries, is tasked with driving the rampaging legions back into Hell.
As she battles waves of demons, raiders, and mutants, the Valkyrie faces far darker questions: Does a created being have a soul? What does it mean to protect mankind as humans prey upon each other? When she confronts the cult of Moloch hidden beneath the ruins of an ancient abortion clinic, her burning need for justice may just prove more powerful than her orders to protect mankind.
The last survivors of humanity need her. Will she be our protector, or our destroyer?
Valkyrie Doll and the Ashen Brotherhood has multiple advantages over the main series.
To start with, the Valkyrie has a personality. She's almost charming in her observations. She has a character arc and development.
And let's just say that she has an inventory system that feels like a very meta comedy about video game systems.
Another advantage this has over the main series is that our heroine is working with a team of various personality types. Adam's already got team dynamics down from Making Peace , and it really is one of his strengths.
Overall, this was better than the last two. And if you want better than Larry Correia's Son of the Black Sword, and looks like a cross between Solomon Cane with a protagonist out of Nier: Automata (if Neir Automata was, you know, GOOD), then give Valkyrie Doll and the Ashen Brotherhood a try.
March 20, 2020
Review: Mel Todd's No Choice
So, what happens when you are a cop in the middle of a bank robbery -- you're held hostage, a child is about to die.
You turn into a giant puma and kill them all, of course.
Officer McKenna Largo is having a very strange day.
But she has No Choice .
![No Choice (Kaylid Chronicles Book 1) by [Todd, Mel]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1584830673i/29143598.jpg)
But millions of people around the world are also changing, shifting into various and sundry furry predators.
And no one knows why.
Officer Largo and her partner are at the heart of the firestorm. A long the way, she has to deal with police regulations, media nutcases, and unwanted celebrity.
Mel Todd is really fairly awesome at this.
Imagine doing cops as well as Grimm or Blue Bloods.
AND doing media relations as well as Carrie Vaugh's Kitty Norville.
AND examining the full spectrum of cultural impacts of the supernatural twenty times better than the Anita Blake novels.
No Choice would be that book.
No Choice is book one. I got the entire set for $.99, and this is more than worth it. I probably would have paid full price if I had heard of them in advance.
5/5 Stars. Easily.
You turn into a giant puma and kill them all, of course.
Officer McKenna Largo is having a very strange day.
But she has No Choice .
Book one in the completed Kaylid Chronicles. Over 500,000 words. Start the journey here.
Being a Cop – difficult but rewarding.
Cougar – WTF? But can be dealt with.
Targeted by drug dealers and dirty cops – Watch out, this cat bites back.
McKenna Largo loves police work and would rather no one focus on her. Transforming into a cougar in the middle of a bank robbery, is a shock. But when a video of the event goes viral, she becomes the reluctant public face of shifters appearing around the globe.
The police department uses her for “PR”, and the governor creates and inclusiveness campaign, putting criminals behind bars seems a million miles away. Trying to juggle the animal she now is, the strange attention, and a society changing faster than anyone expects, McKenna worries she might be a monster. When criminals capture her and innocent young shifters, the cougar and the cop combined must decide where duty takes them.
Will McKenna run scared from the animal inside, or will she save the day and set her inner beast free?
If you like strong characters, fast-paced action, and unique shifters, then you'll love Mel Todd's exhilarating novel. Buy No Choice to shift into a thrilling urban fantasy today!
![No Choice (Kaylid Chronicles Book 1) by [Todd, Mel]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51nq40MJceL.jpg)
But millions of people around the world are also changing, shifting into various and sundry furry predators.
And no one knows why.
Officer Largo and her partner are at the heart of the firestorm. A long the way, she has to deal with police regulations, media nutcases, and unwanted celebrity.
Mel Todd is really fairly awesome at this.
Imagine doing cops as well as Grimm or Blue Bloods.
AND doing media relations as well as Carrie Vaugh's Kitty Norville.
AND examining the full spectrum of cultural impacts of the supernatural twenty times better than the Anita Blake novels.
No Choice would be that book.
No Choice is book one. I got the entire set for $.99, and this is more than worth it. I probably would have paid full price if I had heard of them in advance.
5/5 Stars. Easily.
March 19, 2020
Music Blog: Hammerfall - Hearts on Fire (Cover by Minniva)
Another bit of music I've used for writing.
If you're new here, check out the books on the side and give them a once over.
If you're not new here, you may wish to check out Coven, from my publisher, Silver Empire.
If you're new here, check out the books on the side and give them a once over.
If you're not new here, you may wish to check out Coven, from my publisher, Silver Empire.
March 17, 2020
Before the #EscapeFromItaly
As the joke goes -- so, Aside from all that, how was the play, Mrs Lincoln?
Yes. You know what leaving from Italy looked like. How about the rest of the vacation?
It was pretty good for the first six days. Even the day we arrived in Italy -- after a seven hour overnight flight where neither of us could sleep -- was pretty good.
We arrived at the airport and grabbed out driver after we spent at least half an hour trying to get from the plane to the exit. We had a driver arranged for by the travel agency (we probably would have just grabbed a taxi, but it came with the service) and we were off.
Now, it's hard to describe the drive from Leonardo da Vinci airport to Rome. But the first thing that comes to mind?
New Jersey.
Not even kidding. Much of the land to either side of us was flat and dead, filled with flora that hadn't seen a good day in a decade. There was the occasional hill springing straight out of the ground. There were small circles of homes placed almost at random. The roofs looked like what Americans would call mission style.
Then there were the projects.
I have no idea what they called the communities in Italy, but I swear we drove past the projects. They were tall apartment buildings almost stacked on top of each other, placed at odd angles to one another. The only real difference was the architecture style, which was mercifully, less 20th-century Soviet and more, well, Italian accented.
We got to our hotel in Municipio II, a block away from Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (Saint Mary of the Angels and Martyrs), a beautiful church that was worked on by Michelangelo (not the Ninja Turtle) out of the repurposed Diocletian baths.
We got into the hotel and fell asleep.
As I said, seven hours overnight flight, and no sleep for either of us.
We only fell asleep for four hours. Otherwise we were going to wake up in the evening and turn into vampires and I've already written that series.
... Though it does bring to mind that I was going to have a follow up series called Honeymoon from Hell. Irony, considering how this trip ended.
Anyway, we were up and moving and ... yeah, then we actually went into Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.
So, yeah, it looked at good as you'd imagine with Michelangelo being involved in the design. You can go to my Facebook page and look at all the photos, so we can look at all of them.
No, I'm not going to post all of them in this post. Does this look like Instagram to you?
Moving right along, we walked past the church. We saw Saint Mary of Victory on Via XX Settembre, then hung a left. Then we hung a right at the four fountains.
We weren't wandering aimlessly, you understand. We were trying to get to the Spanish Steps, as well as a restaurant to the left of the steps and you come off of them.
Italian Pizza
We were highjacked into a restaurant by a charming hustler who fed us so well, we didn't mind the deranged price tag. The restaurant was The Golden Lion. It's a great place, but watch the price tag, it will sneak up on you and club you over the head.
By the time we were done, we were so tired, we walked back to the hotel.
And that was the end of Tuesday the 3rd.
For Wednesday the 4th, we had a plan. My wife wanted to see Trajan's column. I wanted to see the Angelicum and the Gregorianum, then Trevi fountain and finishing at the Spanish steps.
This is the Trevi fountain. Very impressive.
I'm not going to do the history on this one. Because If I lecture about Italian history, I'll just write another book.
I don't think any of us have time for that one.
Trevi, like most of the historic buildings and elements in Rome, is owned by the Italian government.
Because historic monuments are apparently nationalized automatically. Because Europe.
.... Ahem. Enough editorializing.
Our path was as mentioned above (Trajan's column, the Angelicum, the Greg, Trevi, and the steps.)
Trajan's column was interesting. It's located in the ruins of the imperial forum.
One problem: the Kenyans. Yeah. If you think Europe has a gypsy problem, yeah. The Kenyans and the Middle Eastern migrants made the gypsies we saw look like pikers.
We were approached by black fellow asking where we're from, pretty much shoving stuff into our hands and onto our wrists ... and then asking for money.
Yeah. Right. Of course.
We paid off the first guy. Then we flashed our bling at the next few Kenyans, to let them know we'd already been conned, thank you very much.
Which was fine the first day. We won't even go into the rest of the week. After the first few days of being accosted by multiple guys daily, I was about ready to commit assault.
The Gregorianum ("The Greg") is the Jesuit Pontifical university. It's down a narrow street a few blocks down from the Trevi fountain.
It was ... a bit disappointing. The buildings didn't allow visitors. Some of the buildings needed paint. Or a wrecking ball. They didn't even have a good bookstore -- no hats, sweaters, mugs ....
What? My father is a college professor. My family have more college Tchotchkes than we know what to do with. Still. I have polo shirts from CUA that are twenty years old and in great condition.
... Same with the Angelicum.
Thursday was the Vatican.
.... It's the freaking Vatican.
No comment.
Again, check the photo album.
Friday was the archaeology museum, which was the beginning of the Corona BS. They put a cap on people who could come into the building.
Saturday?
Saturday was the Colosseum.
Complete with tour guide.
It was the "emptiest" our tour guide had ever seen.
Considering that this was off season, and I had been nearly run over by multiple people every day during my time in Rome, I wondered what it looked like at peak season.
Sunday, we visited Castel Sant'Angelo.
It was closed.
We knew we were going to have a problem sooner rather than later.
* * * *
As I said on Monday, I liked the people. The government needs to be removed.
If you're interested in throwing us a few pennies, or a few dollars to go after the fee, you can click at the link here.
If you don't want to throw us any cash, could you consider throwing me a nomination for a Dragon Award?
You may want to check out my latest release, Coven, over at the Silver Empire site.
Be well all. Be safe.
Meanwhile, I'm going to be in "quarantine" four two weeks, away from everyone.
Yeah. I'm a writer. Please. Twist my arm.
Yes. You know what leaving from Italy looked like. How about the rest of the vacation?
It was pretty good for the first six days. Even the day we arrived in Italy -- after a seven hour overnight flight where neither of us could sleep -- was pretty good.
We arrived at the airport and grabbed out driver after we spent at least half an hour trying to get from the plane to the exit. We had a driver arranged for by the travel agency (we probably would have just grabbed a taxi, but it came with the service) and we were off.
Now, it's hard to describe the drive from Leonardo da Vinci airport to Rome. But the first thing that comes to mind?
New Jersey.
Not even kidding. Much of the land to either side of us was flat and dead, filled with flora that hadn't seen a good day in a decade. There was the occasional hill springing straight out of the ground. There were small circles of homes placed almost at random. The roofs looked like what Americans would call mission style.
Then there were the projects.
I have no idea what they called the communities in Italy, but I swear we drove past the projects. They were tall apartment buildings almost stacked on top of each other, placed at odd angles to one another. The only real difference was the architecture style, which was mercifully, less 20th-century Soviet and more, well, Italian accented.
We got to our hotel in Municipio II, a block away from Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (Saint Mary of the Angels and Martyrs), a beautiful church that was worked on by Michelangelo (not the Ninja Turtle) out of the repurposed Diocletian baths.We got into the hotel and fell asleep.
As I said, seven hours overnight flight, and no sleep for either of us.We only fell asleep for four hours. Otherwise we were going to wake up in the evening and turn into vampires and I've already written that series.
... Though it does bring to mind that I was going to have a follow up series called Honeymoon from Hell. Irony, considering how this trip ended.
Anyway, we were up and moving and ... yeah, then we actually went into Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.
So, yeah, it looked at good as you'd imagine with Michelangelo being involved in the design. You can go to my Facebook page and look at all the photos, so we can look at all of them.No, I'm not going to post all of them in this post. Does this look like Instagram to you?
Moving right along, we walked past the church. We saw Saint Mary of Victory on Via XX Settembre, then hung a left. Then we hung a right at the four fountains. We weren't wandering aimlessly, you understand. We were trying to get to the Spanish Steps, as well as a restaurant to the left of the steps and you come off of them.
Italian Pizza
We were highjacked into a restaurant by a charming hustler who fed us so well, we didn't mind the deranged price tag. The restaurant was The Golden Lion. It's a great place, but watch the price tag, it will sneak up on you and club you over the head.By the time we were done, we were so tired, we walked back to the hotel.
And that was the end of Tuesday the 3rd.
For Wednesday the 4th, we had a plan. My wife wanted to see Trajan's column. I wanted to see the Angelicum and the Gregorianum, then Trevi fountain and finishing at the Spanish steps.
This is the Trevi fountain. Very impressive.
I'm not going to do the history on this one. Because If I lecture about Italian history, I'll just write another book.
I don't think any of us have time for that one.
Trevi, like most of the historic buildings and elements in Rome, is owned by the Italian government.
Because historic monuments are apparently nationalized automatically. Because Europe.
.... Ahem. Enough editorializing.
Our path was as mentioned above (Trajan's column, the Angelicum, the Greg, Trevi, and the steps.)
Trajan's column was interesting. It's located in the ruins of the imperial forum. One problem: the Kenyans. Yeah. If you think Europe has a gypsy problem, yeah. The Kenyans and the Middle Eastern migrants made the gypsies we saw look like pikers.
We were approached by black fellow asking where we're from, pretty much shoving stuff into our hands and onto our wrists ... and then asking for money.
Yeah. Right. Of course.
We paid off the first guy. Then we flashed our bling at the next few Kenyans, to let them know we'd already been conned, thank you very much.
Which was fine the first day. We won't even go into the rest of the week. After the first few days of being accosted by multiple guys daily, I was about ready to commit assault.
The Gregorianum ("The Greg") is the Jesuit Pontifical university. It's down a narrow street a few blocks down from the Trevi fountain. 
It was ... a bit disappointing. The buildings didn't allow visitors. Some of the buildings needed paint. Or a wrecking ball. They didn't even have a good bookstore -- no hats, sweaters, mugs ....
What? My father is a college professor. My family have more college Tchotchkes than we know what to do with. Still. I have polo shirts from CUA that are twenty years old and in great condition.
... Same with the Angelicum.
Thursday was the Vatican.
.... It's the freaking Vatican.
No comment.
Again, check the photo album.
Friday was the archaeology museum, which was the beginning of the Corona BS. They put a cap on people who could come into the building.
Saturday?
Saturday was the Colosseum.
Complete with tour guide.
It was the "emptiest" our tour guide had ever seen.
Considering that this was off season, and I had been nearly run over by multiple people every day during my time in Rome, I wondered what it looked like at peak season.
Sunday, we visited Castel Sant'Angelo. It was closed.
We knew we were going to have a problem sooner rather than later.
* * * *
As I said on Monday, I liked the people. The government needs to be removed.
If you're interested in throwing us a few pennies, or a few dollars to go after the fee, you can click at the link here.
If you don't want to throw us any cash, could you consider throwing me a nomination for a Dragon Award?
You may want to check out my latest release, Coven, over at the Silver Empire site.
Be well all. Be safe.
Meanwhile, I'm going to be in "quarantine" four two weeks, away from everyone.
Yeah. I'm a writer. Please. Twist my arm.
NEW RELEASE: COVEN
Before I get into the full announcement, a quick note wherein I follow up on the post from yesterday.
For the record
No, I do not have a fever
Yes, I have a cough. It's once every hour or so. I had it before I left for Italy.
I do not have a sore throat, it's more like a mild weakness when I talk or sing.
Yes, I'm taking vitamin C (1000mg / day) and zync is next on the list.
My wife is asymptomatic for the moment.
On to the news of the day...
Just in case you thought I was going to slow down after Italy....You would be wrong.
Because now, the next Saint Tommy novel is life....
And it's live on Silver Empire's website.
Yes, just Silver Empire. It's going to be live for weeks before it goes up on Amazon.
Why?
Because screw Amazon.
Not even joking. Amazon's algorithms have been rejiggered so much, I don't even think Amazon knows what's going on. Kindle Unlimited is becoming so unprofitable, everyone I know seems to be abandoning it (and for good reason).
So now, Coven.
Detective Thomas Nolan has finally returned home.
In typical police fashion, he is welcomed home with a murder case and gunfire.
After one arrest goes spectacularly wrong, Tommy is assigned another case and another dead body.
But everything goes wrong from the start. The deceased is a member of a nearby military base, and no one wants to answer his questions. A local bodega gives him mind-splitting headaches.
Worst of all, someone is after his children.
But just to make matters worse — Tommy no longer has his charisms.
So you can get it here, and have the jump on .... everyone over at Amazon.
Enjoy.
March 16, 2020
I have returned from Italy (Part 1: Oh Corona)
Last week, I made the announcement that I went to Italy.
I'm back just a little bit early.
You can probably guess why.
It rhymes with "Sharona."
But yeah, Italy decided to freak out over the Corona Virus.
You're probably wondering, Declan, why go there in the first place?
Because when we went, it was Lombardi that was the problem. Milan and Venice, et al were the problems.
Lombardi was "under lockdown."
I figured, "It's Lombardi. It's a quarantine. How do you fuck up a quarantine? Close the roads, the border, and shut down planes and trains in and out of the area."
Yeah, it sounds a little fascist, but it's Italy, they should know from fascism, right?
HELL, Pope Francis declared a Jubilee year in 2015; the Italian government decided to "increase security" by putting armed soldiers in the streets with automatic weapons. The guys in fatigues with the automatic rifles are still there. They're not on every street corner (yet) but they're parked at nearly every public place.
So yeah, you'd figure that Italy, which deploys soldiers for day to day use, would be able to lock down a region using some simple tactics and strategy that could have been learned from the novel The Hot Zone from thirty years ago.
Nope. Totally fucking incompetent. No lockdown of the roads. There were STILL airplanes flying out of Milan and Venice on Friday the 13th. What exactly did the lockdown of Lombardi consist of? Stern language?
But noooo, that would have gone against their open borders policies. EU. Peace and love and acceptance, and apparently, plague pestilence and death.
My wife and I knew shit was hitting the fan on Monday March 9th. "Oh My God! Corona is spreading!" And they promptly shut down all of the museums and public gathering places. The Pope shut down all masses until April 3rd. In fact, my wife and I attended one of the last masses in Rome.
But this announcement shutting down the museums was made in the middle of Sunday night. Sometime after 10PM, because we woke up to it on Monday morning. Our scheduled tour of the Vatican museums were canceled. Everything was canceled. We got to Castel Sant'Angelo, but we only saw the outside.
We knew it was time to leave on March 9th at 5PM that evening (Rome time).
We called the AAA travel agent and said, "Okay, we're out of here."
But the AAA rep was working through Avanti destinations. And apparently, they could only change the time, the place, or the date of the plane out of town -- pick one.
We picked the date, because we weren't going to come back a week from Tuesday.
Because "It wasn't an emergency."
Uh huh. Sure. Italy shutting down its ... entire tourist industry ... wasn't an emergency? Or the sign that it was about to get worse? Heh heh. Right. Whatever you say Avanti, just get us, the fuck, OUT OF HERE.
The AAA agent would get back to us.
Later on, I heard back from the AAA rep. Avanti had come through, under the constraints they were held under.
That we could leave ... on Thursday.
... From Florence.
Why Florence? Because we were originally scheduled to leave from there. We were to take a plane from Florence to Rome to JFK airport. Therefore, we were stuck with leaving from Florence.
Okay, fine. We had a train to Florence on Wednesday night. Far as I was concerned, we could stay in the terminal and stay.
That was all well and good. But since we had the day, my wife and I would pay a visit to the US embassy to Italy on Tuesday the 10th.
However, for reasons I can only guess at, the embassy wouldn't open until two in the afternoon. (It happened to be 9PM in the US, because the US had started Daylight savings, and the Italians wisely hadn't. That's my guess).
We had two Americans ahead of us who wanted to tour the embassy. They were denied, but they had a question about a "hard lockdown." They ended up on the phone with a consulate official.
So my wife talked to them to hear the answer they were given, and the phone was handed to me. I asked about any evacuation plans for Americans still stuck in Italy, since our window opportunity was closing and our options were narrowing.
The official said that there was nothing she could talk to me about, since there were still ways out of the country. For the moment.
At around 10:30PM night, Italy went into "full lock down."
This ended up with a whole bunch of flights being canceled.
So, that shifted the plane from being at 11:30AM from Florence.... to a 6:30AM flight out of Florence.
I wanted to just stay in the airport waiting room and wait there overnight.
So, Monday was the phone call for the evacuation. Tuesday was the embassy. Wednesday was the train to Florence.
Then there's Thursday.
First, it started at two in the morning. I may have gotten four hours of sleep, total.
We got there at 4:30 am. It was a local flight from Florence to Rome, so I only needed to be there two hours in advance.
The check-in took until 5:15 am.
But they decided that I was overweight on every single piece of luggage and I had to pay a hundred euros.
Paying off the luggage took until 5:55 am.
The ticket said that the flight started boarding at ... wait for it ... 5:55 am.
So we had a gate number, so we bolted for it. I still had my laces untied from the security check point. So it sucked.
We got to the gate at 6:15. The gate was EMPTY. Completely empty. We saw the plane o nthe tarmac, and it had a staircase going up to the plane.
Okay, I figure we're screwed. We're going to be stuck there a while.
Then my wife pushed off through the doors onto the tarmac. I followed. Maybe we'd be able to get on the plane after all. Maybe we're not screwed.
The guys on the tarmac turned us back, saying that the gate was changed.
I thought: Really? I only got the ticket twenty minutes before. They changed the gate already? Fine. Let's get on the damn plane.
My wife had to go to the bathroom. I waited.
I was then approached by an airport official who asked if I spoke English. And where was "the other one."
Enter, the cops.
From 6:15 am to 6:45, we ended up with a gathering of three cops. They took our passports and radioed them in to their superiors. They took our luggage tags so they could take our checked-in luggage off the plane.
And they waited for people above to reply.
And waited.
And then, boarding really started. The ticket had lied to us about both the time and the place?
And my wife and I watched as the last plane we had any hope for disappeared. The cops stared at each other with vacant expressions, waiting for someone from on high to tell them what to do and what to think.
At 6:45, they took us to the security office. And they explained that, no, we didn't actually commit a crime. We were not under arrest. We had merely committed an administrative infraction. We would only have to pay a fine.
That fine? That would be two thousand euros .
You can do the conversion rates.
And then we waited.
And we waited.
At quarter to nine, after we had been held in the little concrete room for two hours, I called the American embassy, because despite everything that had said, it really started to feel like we were under arrest.
The embassy emergency people had a chat with them. A guy with terrible English came out and reiterated everything we were already told.
It wasn't until the paperwork came that we realized they meant two thousand euros... EACH.
It's so bad and so stupid, Moira Greyland created a GoFundMe to help us pay off this bullshit.
By the time we were released it was 10:45.
A security guard walked us to the ticket counter and they explained what happened.
When I asked about getting tickets to Rome, then to New York, the idiot behind the ticket counter just shrugged and said, "I can't help you." That's it. He didn't even look it up on his computer. Just So sorry, nothing to be done. Didn't even ask what we would be willing to pay. He was about as useful to us as the floor tiles.
Sorry, that's wrong. I could at least stand on the floor tiles.
.... Okay, fine. We can play that way.
Since I was only in fucking Florence in order to fly back to Rome, because the stupid rules said I had to be, I worried that I would be screwed somehow if I made a move on my own.
I had to wait until 2:30PM, local time, for AAA and Avanti designations to open up.
So I waited. Patiently.
My wife and I sat in the waiting room at the airport, and we read.
By the time I was done, I had managed to finish off Mel Todd's wonderful novel No Choice, which I will review at some point soon.
So, it's 2:30, I've been up over twelve hours already. I was sleep deprived and fatigued.
I also wanted to burn down the airport and everyone in it so they could die screaming. But that's for the next novel.
I called AAA. My travel agent wasn't in that day. The women I did get was willing and eager to help me, but she needed to look up my file.
Fine. I can play this like bingo cards. I called AAA to get them in on it. I called Allianz travel insurance, put them on it. I called Avanti destinations, got them in on it.
The cheapest plane was $2,000. Per ticket. Through Delta.
I watch the plane boards cancel planes one by one. Every plane to every where gets canceled.
By the time I hung up with Aventi the first time, all but two planes out of Toscano Airport were canceled.
But by 4:30 PM, we had a plan.
I would get on a train back to fucking Rome, Avanti would put us up in a Rome airport hotel, and book us on a Norwegian airline flight. In first class. And both tickets for Norwegian were cheaper than one ticket for Delta for economy class.
Fine. We went back to Rome. We paid for the train directly.
We made it to the Fiuminco airport Hilton by nine at night. We would be leaving from Rome airport at the Norwegian 6:30 PM.
We got there ... and the airport was all but shut down.
Norwegian airlines had one person at their check-in counter.
The flight was canceled only hours after we had booked it. There were no notifications to us from anybody.
So, back to square one.
We put Avanti and AAA back on task while I went around to the ticket counters... you know, the four that were open.
One ticket counter lied to me directly, telling me there were no flights to New York City. Anywhere. Ever again. And it wasn't their fault, it's all Trump's fault.
Funny, the EU travel ban had over eight hours before it went into effect. Trump wasn't canceling these fucking flights. Perhaps spiteful government Italians.
After striking out there, I called the American embassy. Surprise, they couldn't help.
Bingo card number three, Allianz travel insurance, put us onto a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, which would take us to Heathrow, which would take us home.
Great. Awesome.
Run down two terminals to find Lufthansa's ticket seller.
"It's sold out already. Can't help you."
Funny, I didn't even ask for any further help yet, how could you know what I wanted from you, you malingering son of a bitch?
I talked to AAA, who told me that we would have to be more aggressive and "proactive" in talking to people at the ticket booths.
I explained that people were either directly lying to us, or that they were so stupid that they couldn't figure out how to operate their own fucking systems.
After waiting two more hours, Avanti had finagled an Al Italia flight out ... for Saturday morning. At 2:30 pm.
Back to yet a different hotel.
At this point, we had a few dozen friends on Facebook and Twitter pulling for us-- they were praying, and more importantly, they were coming up with back up plans. I think they had come up with plan M after a while. One person looked into trains out of Italy to the UK. Another looked into a ferry to a train to the Chunnel. Another suggested we climb over the Alps singing "Climb every mountain." Someone suggested we go to military bases and hitchhike. Elephants over the alps? Flaps your wings and try to fly?
Saturday came. We showed up at the airport at 11:30.
The flight wasn't canceled...
Yet.
We went to the Al Italia counter and the moderately long line. It was processed quickly. We came to the counter.
"Americans?"
I showed her the passports.
"No," she said.
No? What do you mean no? Are you going to cancel our flight again? Am I going to have to leap across your sad, pathetic Corona rope line and throttle you into giving us a boarding pass out of this Hell hole? How much more ransom do we have to pay to get us out of here!
She took an abnormally long breath, thought about what she had to say next, and continued, "Other check in, around the corner."
Whew. No manslaughter charges for me today.
We went to the other check-in counter. We were the first ones up, since everyone else had checked in while we were on the other line, probably -- all fifty people for this one flight.
They processed us with a little extra paperwork explaining where we'd been in relation to quarantine zones -- Rome and the Vatican, full stop.
We were given the boarding passes ... but no gate.
We made our way through the airport ghost town. We didn't have a gate yet.
But there was "direct flights to the US" security. There was "all boarding passes" security. There were at least three checkpoints we had to traverse before we could break free to actually look for our suite of gates.
By the time we made it to the "E-gates," it was one in the afternoon.
We had to wait ten more lousy minutes.
At 1:09, I was parked in front of a departures board, waiting for the gate to be announced. I left my wife to have a seat in the comfy chairs about a hundred feet away from the board.
Some people talk about the longest minutes of one's life. This was pretty much it for me.
Then 1:10 hit.
The gate number hadn't changed.
I double checked my phone's time against the time on the board. The board said 1:09.
That's fine. Nothing odd about being a few seconds off.
Now I just waited for the board to acknowledge the time.
Finally, one minute passed....
The gate didn't change.
I thought, hey, it's Italian time. Italians are never on time. Italian time means siesta, right?
It took at least thirty seconds to shift over. It's the only wait to explain why it felt like thirty minutes.
The flight gate number went blank.
"Please God, not canceled again."
Then it turned to E24.
We had a gate.
WE HAD A GATE! YES! FUCKING ITALIAN POLITICO HACKS CAN'T KEEP US HERE!
...Right? They couldn't just cancel the flight with checked in passengers and a boarding gate, right?
Less than an hour later, we were boarding. All fifty passengers of AZ 610 to JFK airport.
We got home. We landed at around 7:20-something Saturday night.
.... And then we taxied.
We continued to taxi.
Huh.
After the first twenty minutes of taxi-ing, I became worried. Were they going to send us back? Naw. That would be stupid. And costly. And I'd have to kill someone.
At 8:10, we stopped. And they were finally going to let us off the plane.
But NOT JUST YET.
The CDC had paperwork for us to fill out. And temperatures to take.
At 8:45 PM, we had our bags, we had our taxi, and we were on our way home.
* * * *
I would like to state, right here and now, for everyone who pulled through for us in all of this. From the people who sent prayers to the people who sent backup plans. I'm relatively certain the only reason we got out was due to a miracle.
As for us .... two weeks of self isolation.
Gee, I'm a writer. This is what I call a work day.
My feelings on the matter? Let's just say that I am pissed off enough that I will no longer admit to Italian heritage. My mother is Sicilian. Which means I'd sooner cut one of these Tuscan mutherfuckers than look at them.
... Anyway. What did I think of Italy? I liked the people. The government, though? Well, I at least know where the Red Brigade went -- into management.
If you're interested in throwing us a few pennies, or a few dollars to go after the fee, you can click at the link here.
If you don't want to throw us any cash, could you consider throwing me a nomination for a Dragon Award?
If you're reading this on Saint Patrick's Day, 2020, or later, you may want to check out my latest release, Coven, over at the Silver Empire site.
Be well all. Be safe.
And for the love of God, don't go to Italy if you can help it.
I'm back just a little bit early.
You can probably guess why.
It rhymes with "Sharona."
But yeah, Italy decided to freak out over the Corona Virus.
You're probably wondering, Declan, why go there in the first place?
Because when we went, it was Lombardi that was the problem. Milan and Venice, et al were the problems.
Lombardi was "under lockdown."
I figured, "It's Lombardi. It's a quarantine. How do you fuck up a quarantine? Close the roads, the border, and shut down planes and trains in and out of the area."
Yeah, it sounds a little fascist, but it's Italy, they should know from fascism, right?
HELL, Pope Francis declared a Jubilee year in 2015; the Italian government decided to "increase security" by putting armed soldiers in the streets with automatic weapons. The guys in fatigues with the automatic rifles are still there. They're not on every street corner (yet) but they're parked at nearly every public place.
So yeah, you'd figure that Italy, which deploys soldiers for day to day use, would be able to lock down a region using some simple tactics and strategy that could have been learned from the novel The Hot Zone from thirty years ago.
Nope. Totally fucking incompetent. No lockdown of the roads. There were STILL airplanes flying out of Milan and Venice on Friday the 13th. What exactly did the lockdown of Lombardi consist of? Stern language?
But noooo, that would have gone against their open borders policies. EU. Peace and love and acceptance, and apparently, plague pestilence and death.
My wife and I knew shit was hitting the fan on Monday March 9th. "Oh My God! Corona is spreading!" And they promptly shut down all of the museums and public gathering places. The Pope shut down all masses until April 3rd. In fact, my wife and I attended one of the last masses in Rome.
But this announcement shutting down the museums was made in the middle of Sunday night. Sometime after 10PM, because we woke up to it on Monday morning. Our scheduled tour of the Vatican museums were canceled. Everything was canceled. We got to Castel Sant'Angelo, but we only saw the outside.
We knew it was time to leave on March 9th at 5PM that evening (Rome time).
We called the AAA travel agent and said, "Okay, we're out of here."
But the AAA rep was working through Avanti destinations. And apparently, they could only change the time, the place, or the date of the plane out of town -- pick one.
We picked the date, because we weren't going to come back a week from Tuesday.
Because "It wasn't an emergency."
Uh huh. Sure. Italy shutting down its ... entire tourist industry ... wasn't an emergency? Or the sign that it was about to get worse? Heh heh. Right. Whatever you say Avanti, just get us, the fuck, OUT OF HERE.
The AAA agent would get back to us.
Later on, I heard back from the AAA rep. Avanti had come through, under the constraints they were held under.
That we could leave ... on Thursday.
... From Florence.
Why Florence? Because we were originally scheduled to leave from there. We were to take a plane from Florence to Rome to JFK airport. Therefore, we were stuck with leaving from Florence.
Okay, fine. We had a train to Florence on Wednesday night. Far as I was concerned, we could stay in the terminal and stay.
That was all well and good. But since we had the day, my wife and I would pay a visit to the US embassy to Italy on Tuesday the 10th.
However, for reasons I can only guess at, the embassy wouldn't open until two in the afternoon. (It happened to be 9PM in the US, because the US had started Daylight savings, and the Italians wisely hadn't. That's my guess).
We had two Americans ahead of us who wanted to tour the embassy. They were denied, but they had a question about a "hard lockdown." They ended up on the phone with a consulate official.
So my wife talked to them to hear the answer they were given, and the phone was handed to me. I asked about any evacuation plans for Americans still stuck in Italy, since our window opportunity was closing and our options were narrowing.
The official said that there was nothing she could talk to me about, since there were still ways out of the country. For the moment.
At around 10:30PM night, Italy went into "full lock down."
This ended up with a whole bunch of flights being canceled.
So, that shifted the plane from being at 11:30AM from Florence.... to a 6:30AM flight out of Florence.
I wanted to just stay in the airport waiting room and wait there overnight.
So, Monday was the phone call for the evacuation. Tuesday was the embassy. Wednesday was the train to Florence.
Then there's Thursday.
First, it started at two in the morning. I may have gotten four hours of sleep, total.
We got there at 4:30 am. It was a local flight from Florence to Rome, so I only needed to be there two hours in advance.
The check-in took until 5:15 am.
But they decided that I was overweight on every single piece of luggage and I had to pay a hundred euros.
Paying off the luggage took until 5:55 am.
The ticket said that the flight started boarding at ... wait for it ... 5:55 am.
So we had a gate number, so we bolted for it. I still had my laces untied from the security check point. So it sucked.
We got to the gate at 6:15. The gate was EMPTY. Completely empty. We saw the plane o nthe tarmac, and it had a staircase going up to the plane.
Okay, I figure we're screwed. We're going to be stuck there a while.
Then my wife pushed off through the doors onto the tarmac. I followed. Maybe we'd be able to get on the plane after all. Maybe we're not screwed.
The guys on the tarmac turned us back, saying that the gate was changed.
I thought: Really? I only got the ticket twenty minutes before. They changed the gate already? Fine. Let's get on the damn plane.
My wife had to go to the bathroom. I waited.
I was then approached by an airport official who asked if I spoke English. And where was "the other one."
Enter, the cops.
From 6:15 am to 6:45, we ended up with a gathering of three cops. They took our passports and radioed them in to their superiors. They took our luggage tags so they could take our checked-in luggage off the plane.
And they waited for people above to reply.
And waited.
And then, boarding really started. The ticket had lied to us about both the time and the place?
And my wife and I watched as the last plane we had any hope for disappeared. The cops stared at each other with vacant expressions, waiting for someone from on high to tell them what to do and what to think.
At 6:45, they took us to the security office. And they explained that, no, we didn't actually commit a crime. We were not under arrest. We had merely committed an administrative infraction. We would only have to pay a fine.
That fine? That would be two thousand euros .
You can do the conversion rates.
And then we waited.
And we waited.
At quarter to nine, after we had been held in the little concrete room for two hours, I called the American embassy, because despite everything that had said, it really started to feel like we were under arrest.
The embassy emergency people had a chat with them. A guy with terrible English came out and reiterated everything we were already told.
It wasn't until the paperwork came that we realized they meant two thousand euros... EACH.
It's so bad and so stupid, Moira Greyland created a GoFundMe to help us pay off this bullshit.
By the time we were released it was 10:45.
A security guard walked us to the ticket counter and they explained what happened.
When I asked about getting tickets to Rome, then to New York, the idiot behind the ticket counter just shrugged and said, "I can't help you." That's it. He didn't even look it up on his computer. Just So sorry, nothing to be done. Didn't even ask what we would be willing to pay. He was about as useful to us as the floor tiles.
Sorry, that's wrong. I could at least stand on the floor tiles.
.... Okay, fine. We can play that way.
Since I was only in fucking Florence in order to fly back to Rome, because the stupid rules said I had to be, I worried that I would be screwed somehow if I made a move on my own.
I had to wait until 2:30PM, local time, for AAA and Avanti designations to open up.
So I waited. Patiently.
My wife and I sat in the waiting room at the airport, and we read.
By the time I was done, I had managed to finish off Mel Todd's wonderful novel No Choice, which I will review at some point soon.
So, it's 2:30, I've been up over twelve hours already. I was sleep deprived and fatigued.
I also wanted to burn down the airport and everyone in it so they could die screaming. But that's for the next novel.
I called AAA. My travel agent wasn't in that day. The women I did get was willing and eager to help me, but she needed to look up my file.
Fine. I can play this like bingo cards. I called AAA to get them in on it. I called Allianz travel insurance, put them on it. I called Avanti destinations, got them in on it.
The cheapest plane was $2,000. Per ticket. Through Delta.
I watch the plane boards cancel planes one by one. Every plane to every where gets canceled.
By the time I hung up with Aventi the first time, all but two planes out of Toscano Airport were canceled.
But by 4:30 PM, we had a plan.
I would get on a train back to fucking Rome, Avanti would put us up in a Rome airport hotel, and book us on a Norwegian airline flight. In first class. And both tickets for Norwegian were cheaper than one ticket for Delta for economy class.
Fine. We went back to Rome. We paid for the train directly.
We made it to the Fiuminco airport Hilton by nine at night. We would be leaving from Rome airport at the Norwegian 6:30 PM.
We got there ... and the airport was all but shut down.
Norwegian airlines had one person at their check-in counter.
The flight was canceled only hours after we had booked it. There were no notifications to us from anybody.
So, back to square one.
We put Avanti and AAA back on task while I went around to the ticket counters... you know, the four that were open.
One ticket counter lied to me directly, telling me there were no flights to New York City. Anywhere. Ever again. And it wasn't their fault, it's all Trump's fault.
Funny, the EU travel ban had over eight hours before it went into effect. Trump wasn't canceling these fucking flights. Perhaps spiteful government Italians.
After striking out there, I called the American embassy. Surprise, they couldn't help.
Bingo card number three, Allianz travel insurance, put us onto a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, which would take us to Heathrow, which would take us home.
Great. Awesome.
Run down two terminals to find Lufthansa's ticket seller.
"It's sold out already. Can't help you."
Funny, I didn't even ask for any further help yet, how could you know what I wanted from you, you malingering son of a bitch?
I talked to AAA, who told me that we would have to be more aggressive and "proactive" in talking to people at the ticket booths.
I explained that people were either directly lying to us, or that they were so stupid that they couldn't figure out how to operate their own fucking systems.
After waiting two more hours, Avanti had finagled an Al Italia flight out ... for Saturday morning. At 2:30 pm.
Back to yet a different hotel.
At this point, we had a few dozen friends on Facebook and Twitter pulling for us-- they were praying, and more importantly, they were coming up with back up plans. I think they had come up with plan M after a while. One person looked into trains out of Italy to the UK. Another looked into a ferry to a train to the Chunnel. Another suggested we climb over the Alps singing "Climb every mountain." Someone suggested we go to military bases and hitchhike. Elephants over the alps? Flaps your wings and try to fly?
Saturday came. We showed up at the airport at 11:30.
The flight wasn't canceled...
Yet.
We went to the Al Italia counter and the moderately long line. It was processed quickly. We came to the counter.
"Americans?"
I showed her the passports.
"No," she said.
No? What do you mean no? Are you going to cancel our flight again? Am I going to have to leap across your sad, pathetic Corona rope line and throttle you into giving us a boarding pass out of this Hell hole? How much more ransom do we have to pay to get us out of here!
She took an abnormally long breath, thought about what she had to say next, and continued, "Other check in, around the corner."
Whew. No manslaughter charges for me today.
We went to the other check-in counter. We were the first ones up, since everyone else had checked in while we were on the other line, probably -- all fifty people for this one flight.
They processed us with a little extra paperwork explaining where we'd been in relation to quarantine zones -- Rome and the Vatican, full stop.
We were given the boarding passes ... but no gate.
We made our way through the airport ghost town. We didn't have a gate yet.
But there was "direct flights to the US" security. There was "all boarding passes" security. There were at least three checkpoints we had to traverse before we could break free to actually look for our suite of gates.
By the time we made it to the "E-gates," it was one in the afternoon.
We had to wait ten more lousy minutes.
At 1:09, I was parked in front of a departures board, waiting for the gate to be announced. I left my wife to have a seat in the comfy chairs about a hundred feet away from the board.
Some people talk about the longest minutes of one's life. This was pretty much it for me.
Then 1:10 hit.
The gate number hadn't changed.
I double checked my phone's time against the time on the board. The board said 1:09.
That's fine. Nothing odd about being a few seconds off.
Now I just waited for the board to acknowledge the time.
Finally, one minute passed....
The gate didn't change.
I thought, hey, it's Italian time. Italians are never on time. Italian time means siesta, right?
It took at least thirty seconds to shift over. It's the only wait to explain why it felt like thirty minutes.
The flight gate number went blank.
"Please God, not canceled again."
Then it turned to E24.
We had a gate.
WE HAD A GATE! YES! FUCKING ITALIAN POLITICO HACKS CAN'T KEEP US HERE!
...Right? They couldn't just cancel the flight with checked in passengers and a boarding gate, right?
Less than an hour later, we were boarding. All fifty passengers of AZ 610 to JFK airport.
We got home. We landed at around 7:20-something Saturday night.
.... And then we taxied.
We continued to taxi.
Huh.
After the first twenty minutes of taxi-ing, I became worried. Were they going to send us back? Naw. That would be stupid. And costly. And I'd have to kill someone.
At 8:10, we stopped. And they were finally going to let us off the plane.
But NOT JUST YET.
The CDC had paperwork for us to fill out. And temperatures to take.
At 8:45 PM, we had our bags, we had our taxi, and we were on our way home.
* * * *
I would like to state, right here and now, for everyone who pulled through for us in all of this. From the people who sent prayers to the people who sent backup plans. I'm relatively certain the only reason we got out was due to a miracle.
As for us .... two weeks of self isolation.
Gee, I'm a writer. This is what I call a work day.
My feelings on the matter? Let's just say that I am pissed off enough that I will no longer admit to Italian heritage. My mother is Sicilian. Which means I'd sooner cut one of these Tuscan mutherfuckers than look at them.
... Anyway. What did I think of Italy? I liked the people. The government, though? Well, I at least know where the Red Brigade went -- into management.
If you're interested in throwing us a few pennies, or a few dollars to go after the fee, you can click at the link here.
If you don't want to throw us any cash, could you consider throwing me a nomination for a Dragon Award?
If you're reading this on Saint Patrick's Day, 2020, or later, you may want to check out my latest release, Coven, over at the Silver Empire site.
Be well all. Be safe.
And for the love of God, don't go to Italy if you can help it.
March 12, 2020
Music: Sabaton - Resist and Bite (Minniva cover)
While I'm away, a little mood music.
March 8, 2020
Gone Fission
So, it's been a week, and if you've been following me on social media you'll note that I'm even more absent than usual.
There's a good reason for that.
No, it's not because I'm busy writing the next book.... the next book is written.
Actually, the next two books are written.
The third is outlined.
I'm in Italy. Rome, to be exact.
And tomorrow, I'm going to be in Florence -- assuming that all goes well and some idiot doesn't start closing even more cities over the Corona Virus.
You see, my family decided a few things.
One, going to DragonCon isn't "a honeymoon" if I'm working it.
Two, I may have been working too hard without a break.
Can't imagine what gave them that idea.
And three, I think they just wanted me far, far away for a while.
So, people chipped in, and told us to go to Rome.
Conveniently, the book I have outlined? Takes place in Italy. So, win-win.
So, I'll actually be coming back on Saint Patrick's day.
Yes, I go to Italy for two weeks, and come back in time for my corned beef. Ain't the timing grand?
Granted, since Italy is six hours ahead of Eastern, trying to adjust for the trip has been an utter pain.
Anyway, I will be back soon. With photos.
There's a good reason for that.
No, it's not because I'm busy writing the next book.... the next book is written.
Actually, the next two books are written.
The third is outlined.
I'm in Italy. Rome, to be exact.
And tomorrow, I'm going to be in Florence -- assuming that all goes well and some idiot doesn't start closing even more cities over the Corona Virus.
You see, my family decided a few things.
One, going to DragonCon isn't "a honeymoon" if I'm working it.
Two, I may have been working too hard without a break.
Can't imagine what gave them that idea.
And three, I think they just wanted me far, far away for a while.
So, people chipped in, and told us to go to Rome.
Conveniently, the book I have outlined? Takes place in Italy. So, win-win.
So, I'll actually be coming back on Saint Patrick's day.
Yes, I go to Italy for two weeks, and come back in time for my corned beef. Ain't the timing grand?
Granted, since Italy is six hours ahead of Eastern, trying to adjust for the trip has been an utter pain.
Anyway, I will be back soon. With photos.
March 2, 2020
Pre-Order, NEW RELEASE: Clerical Error
So it's time to talk about a new release.
No, not something from Silver Empire -- much to my publisher's relief.
This is something from the distant past, brought to you by someone who was there.
Obviously, any similarities between real persons or events is completely coincidental. Wink. Wink.
Enter: Clerical Error .
And, I have a new co-author.
Dr. John Konecsni is a veteran of academia for decades. Primarily teaching philosophy or shuffling papers in a college office.
Who is this man and why is he important?
First of all, he's my father.
... What? You thought I magically managed to have been born with as cool an author name as Declan Finn?
Second of all, he is my co-author on Clerical Error .
Clerical Error is what you might call a "cozy." It's a nice, laid-back murder mystery, without a lot of running around and shooting. In fact, more of the book is almost a comedic historical set piece, back in the sands of time that were the 1970s.
Let's just say that Dr. Konecsni spent a lot of time in Bedford-Stuyvesant, aka, Bed-Sty, hanging out with a college classmate of his.
The classmate happened to be the pastor of a church.
And the "hanging out" meant becoming an assistant pastor for the entire parish.
Take all that together, add a dead body, and you have the plot of Clerical Error .
James is a college philosophy professor with too much time on his hands. When an old classmate asks for a favor, he drops in with little notion of what’s ready for him.
The year is 1976, during the dark times – for both the Catholic Church and New York City.
James’ college classmate is Father Gus Sadowski, the pastor of Saints Gabriel, Columcille, and Rocco church in the middle of Bed-Sty, where there drive by criminals are on one side of the parish, and the mob is one the other. Father Gus is all alone to run the parish, and needs some help – because the live-in priest in the attic, Father Timothy A. Lessner, is worse than useless.
When Lessner takes a tumble down the stairs in the middle of the night, the casual favor has turned into a nightmare.
Can James solve the mystery of who killed Lessner before he finds himself the main suspect?
I came along, edited the book, added a few touches, and thought it was more than good enough to publish.
Clerical Error is up for pre-order.
And anything else I've got up for sale can be found here.
March 1, 2020
New platform? No problem
So, something new is coming down the pike.
In my circles on social media, everyone likes to talk about building new platforms.
"WE NEED SOMETHING OTHER THAN AMAZON! / YOUTUBE! / whatever."
Naturally, none of these f***ers wants to show up and do anything about it.
But congratulations, we've got someone who's actually -- gasp -- doing it.
I present to you.... Silver Empire.
The following is the press release announcing a new platform that is one part book of the month club and one part audible subscription.
THE SILVER EMPIRE BOOK CLUB BEGINS
Huntsville, AL March 1, 2020 — Today, Silver Empire, publisher of heroic, wondrous, adventure fiction, launches its new Book Club service. Fans of fantasy, science fiction, and other genre fiction will now be able to save money on ebooks, paperbacks, or hardcovers of their choice through our new subscription service.
“We wanted to give our fans a way to get all of our latest stuff easily and at the best possible price,” Russell Newquist, Co-founder and Publisher at Silver Empire confirmed.
Subscriptions come in the forms of monthly or annual credit allotments. Monthly plans provide a monthly allotment of credits suitable to purchase a book in the user’s preferred format – ebook, paperback, or hardcover. However, credits can be used interchangeably on alternate formats and they never expire.
Silver Empire found that Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited service fails to provide many readers with books they actually want to read. Furthermore, it means that readers are only renting books rather than owning their favorites. Most of all, it had no options for those readers who still prefer the feel of an actual book in their hands.
Subscription services are live now and can be purchased here. Early subscribers will be able to score notable savings on hardcover subscription plans through March 31.
Contact:
Russell Newquist
russell@silverempire.org
https://silverempire.org/book-club
In my circles on social media, everyone likes to talk about building new platforms.
"WE NEED SOMETHING OTHER THAN AMAZON! / YOUTUBE! / whatever."
Naturally, none of these f***ers wants to show up and do anything about it.
But congratulations, we've got someone who's actually -- gasp -- doing it.
I present to you.... Silver Empire.
The following is the press release announcing a new platform that is one part book of the month club and one part audible subscription.
THE SILVER EMPIRE BOOK CLUB BEGINS
Huntsville, AL March 1, 2020 — Today, Silver Empire, publisher of heroic, wondrous, adventure fiction, launches its new Book Club service. Fans of fantasy, science fiction, and other genre fiction will now be able to save money on ebooks, paperbacks, or hardcovers of their choice through our new subscription service.
“We wanted to give our fans a way to get all of our latest stuff easily and at the best possible price,” Russell Newquist, Co-founder and Publisher at Silver Empire confirmed.
Subscriptions come in the forms of monthly or annual credit allotments. Monthly plans provide a monthly allotment of credits suitable to purchase a book in the user’s preferred format – ebook, paperback, or hardcover. However, credits can be used interchangeably on alternate formats and they never expire.
Silver Empire found that Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited service fails to provide many readers with books they actually want to read. Furthermore, it means that readers are only renting books rather than owning their favorites. Most of all, it had no options for those readers who still prefer the feel of an actual book in their hands.
Subscription services are live now and can be purchased here. Early subscribers will be able to score notable savings on hardcover subscription plans through March 31.
Contact:
Russell Newquist
russell@silverempire.org
https://silverempire.org/book-club
