Kyle Pratt's Blog: Musings & Rantings, page 14

Hacksaw Ridge

The film Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson, is based on the true story of Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist from the hill country of Virginia. The United States entered World War II when Doss was in his early twenties. The young man found work in a shipyard and, despite being offered a deferment due to his work; he enlisted on April 1, 1942.  

However, because of his religious beliefs, Doss was a pacifist and refused to use or even carry a weapon in combat. You can imagine the considerable abuse he suffered from other soldiers due to his pacifist position. Despite the abuse, he does finally become an Army medic. These events are all well portrayed in the first part of the film.

While some of the abuse Doss endures early in the film might be difficult to watch, much of the later portion shows war at its worst. Think of other Mel Gibson movies such as Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ or Apocalypto, but with all the brutality concentrated into one nearly unbroken sequence.

Doss fought in the Battle of Guam and Leyte, but this movie focuses on the Battle of Okinawa and the fight for the Maeda Escarpment where Doss saved the lives of 75 wounded infantrymen. This fight was brutal and is accurately portrayed in the movie.

Corporal Doss receiving the Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman on October 12, 1945

Desmond Doss earned the Medal of Honor, and numerous other awards, including the Bronze Star Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster and "V" Device, and the Purple Heart with two Oak Leaf Clusters.

Those who fought in World War II are often called the greatest generation. What those men and women sacrificed for freedom is difficult to comprehend. I found myself wondering if I could have maintained my Christian principles, or even faith, under the onslaught of such epic evil and brutality. Hopefully, I will never have to face that question, but Desmond Doss did and held tight to his faith. I came away from the movie respecting Doss for both his courage and faith.

I recommend that you buy the ticket and see Hacksaw Ridge, but be forewarned this movie is rated ‘R’ for intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence.

For more film and book reviews from Kyle Pratt click here.

Hacksaw of Faith

The film Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson, is based on the true story of Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist from the hill country of Virginia. The United States entered World War II when Doss was in his early twenties. The young man found work in a shipyard and, despite being offered a deferment due to his work; he enlisted on April 1, 1942.  

However, because of his religious beliefs, Doss was a pacifist and refused to use or even carry a weapon in combat. You can imagine the considerable abuse he suffered from other soldiers due to his pacifist position. Despite the abuse, he does finally become an Army medic. These events are all well portrayed in the first part of the film.

While some of the abuse Doss endures early in the film might be difficult to watch, much of the later portion shows war at its worst. Think of other Mel Gibson movies such as Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ or Apocalypto, but with all the brutality concentrated into one nearly unbroken sequence.

Doss fought in the Battle of Guam and Leyte, but this movie focuses on the Battle of Okinawa and the fight for the Maeda Escarpment where Doss saved the lives of 75 wounded infantrymen. This fight was brutal and is accurately portrayed in the movie.

Corporal Doss receiving the Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman on October 12, 1945

Desmond Doss earned the Medal of Honor, and numerous other awards, including the Bronze Star Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster and "V" Device, and the Purple Heart with two Oak Leaf Clusters.

Those who fought in World War II are often called the greatest generation. What those men and women sacrificed for freedom is difficult to comprehend. I found myself wondering if I could have maintained my Christian principles, or even faith, under the onslaught of such epic evil and brutality. Hopefully, I will never have to face that question, but Desmond Doss did and held tight to his faith. I came away from the movie respecting Doss for both his courage and faith.

I recommend Hacksaw Ridge for adults but be warned, the film is rated ‘R’ for intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence.

For more film and book reviews from Kyle Pratt click here.

Author Rank

Author rankings change constantly, and I tend to be more focused on sales than my position on Amazon, but when I break into the top 10—well, I’ve just got to lean back and enjoy the moment.

Author ranking for Kyle Pratt

For several years, I’ve been happy to be a mid-list author writing stories I enjoy. Every year my sales have grown, but every business needs to advertise. So, we’ve been running a marketing campaign with Through Many Fires and, this has propelled sales higher—and moved up my author rank.

It will slide after the marketing campaign, but right now I’m enjoying the feeling. 

Halloween Special

Scary things are a natural part of Halloween. So, my contribution to this frightening time is to make the ebook edition of Through Many Fires available to more people. Now and through the end of Halloween, Through Many Fires is available for 99 cents.

We started yesterday with a Bookbub deal running in the United States, Canada, Australia, India and the United Kingdom. We continued today with ebooksoda, one of the larger British ebook marketers. After that we’ll be working with other marketers in the United States such as, Fussy Librarian, Reading Deals, EReader News and others.

All of this effort is to let everyone know that, if you’ve never read it, now is the time to turn the lights low, download Through Many Fires, and delve into America after nuclear terrorism.

Winter is Coming

Living close to nature means that there are annual chores that must be performed.

On a sunny day last week I took some time off from writing and prepared the farm for winter. I opened the one beehive we have this year and made sure the colony was healthy. The workers had sealed every crevice and joint with propolis, a good sign. I added a special insulation box to the top and slid in a bottom board. Winter is a hard time for bees, but the colony is now as ready as they can be.

Preparing equipment was my big job of the day. I did some last minute chainsaw cutting, then cleaned the saw and put it on the shelf. I may need it during the winter if a tree falls, but the woodshed is already full.

This place is really just an oversized hobby farm so I use mowers and tillers, not tractors or combines. I cleaned each and emptied the last of the fuel and oil.  

While I performed these chores Lorraine cleaned the hen house. This has to be done often, but it sure is nicer to do it on sunny days. After that, she harvested the last of the fruit from the trees and vegetables from the garden. In the days to come, she will be making pies, applesauce and dehydrating the rest.

Spring has its own special chores, but that is another story.

A Few More Pictures

This year’s Southwest Washington Writers Conference is over and we’re already being asked if there will be one next year.

Yes.

Author Kyle Pratt teaching at the 2016 Southwest Washington Writers conference

As some of you know I’ve been involved in the planning of this conference from the start and this year, like those past, it did well. The organizing committee quickly decided to proceed with the fourth annual conference. Preliminary planning will begin soon. If you’re interested in attending the conference next year, the best way to stay informed is to sign up for the Southwest Washington Writers Conference newsletter.

This is our cookies. Cookies featuring the staff of the 2016 Southwest Washington Writers conference

Since I blogged about this past conference in the This is my Cookie post, I’ve received many more pictures. Some very nice pictures were taken of me, and I didn’t even know it had happened. I can’t show them all, but decided to share a few more in this post.

If you were there, let me know what you thought of the conference and, if you have pictures from any of the previous Southwest Washington conferences, send them also.

This is my Cookie

The third annual Southwest Washington Writers Conference was held this last weekend in Centralia, a nearby town to where I live in western Washington state. I’ve been involved in the planning and operation of this conference all three years, and believe this conference was the best one yet.

Author Kyle Pratt with his cookie.

One of the conference organizers had cookies made. Within the frosting of each treat was the edible image and class title of each presenter. This is my cookie. See, it has my name on it.

This year I taught a class with bestselling local author, Carolyn McCray, on indie book distribution or, should indie authors use only Amazon or use other distributors. I favored using many distributors, such as Nook, Google Play, Kobo and Smashwords, while Carolyn likes staying exclusive with Amazon.

Authors Carolyn McCray and Kyle Pratt

In the picture Carolyn says she looks insane. Because of the kind of books she writes, I thought it might be a marketing technique. I also attended a class on Social Media Strategies with marketing professional Veronika Noize and another class on on indie publishing with author Maggie Lynch.

I’m glad we’re done for this year, but I had a great time.

Now on Walmart.com

I’m excited to announce that the print editions of my novels are now available on Walmart.com.

Kyle Pratt with the four novels now on Walmart.com

Since writing is my business I work hard to expand the distribution of my stories, but I didn’t have anything to do with the addition of Walmart distribution. I didn’t even realize my books were on Walmart.com until a fellow author mentioned that their books were. So I checked.

Imagine my surprise.

From what I’m hearing from other authors this is all due to an agreement between Amazon and Walmart. I'm just thankful it happened.   

At least for now, Walmart.com is only selling print books, not audio or ebooks. The four novels that are available on Walmart.com are Through Many Fires, A Time to Endure, Braving the Storms and Titan Encounter.

The Internet is down

Well, at least at my house.

As I write this, the service has been down for eight days. Fortunately, the phone part of the service still works so I’ve been able to call (nag?) my provider, CenturyLink.

Author Kyle Pratt writing at The Station in Centralia

I have DSL service through CenturyLink. That’s the only option I’m aware of for high-speed Internet.  The service comes over the same copper wire that the phone uses, and is much faster than dial-up (which I had before) but it does go down every once in a while, usually for just minutes or a couple of hours.

Now CenturyLink is saying they’re waiting on something called a DSlam and have no estimate for the restoral of service.

As a writer, I’m online all day. So, for the last several days I’ve traveled to The Station Coffee Bar and Bistro in Centralia and done my marketing, and social media work there. Maybe the big monopoly CenturyLink doesn’t appreciate my business, but The Station seems glad to see me.

My Best Year

This has been my best year ever.

Since I released my debut novel, Titan Encounter, in 2012, my book sales have grown each year, but this year has been exceptional. With more than a third of the year remaining, my sales have already exceeded those of 2015.

When I released Titan Encounter I was a novice writer with a minimal website and no mailing list. While the novel received good reviews, sales were slow.

In August of 2013 I released Through Many Fires, and readers loved it. However, I still had only a basic website and no mailing list. When sales continued to be strong beyond the opening month, I talked with my wife, Lorraine, about quitting my job as a teacher and writing fulltime. It was a scary proposition. Typically, the sales for Through Many Fires would peak soon and then slowly decline. I had started writing the next book in the series, but it could bomb.

Despite my fears, Lorraine encouraged me to write. So, I turned in my resignation with the end of the 2014 school year. Sales of Through Many Fires remained strong well into 2014 and, when sales did slow, the second book in the series, A Time to Endure, was ready for release.

I've released other novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories since then, and remain thrilled with how you have received them.   

Because of you, my readers, I have never regretted the decision to become a fulltime writer. Thank you, for everything, especially this incredible, year!