D.L. Havlin's Blog, page 7

Tis the Season…

 

 

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Outdoor Book Fairs and Shows are more pleasant in fall and winter in Florida – Usually! I’m outdoors for the Cocoa Villages Book Fest.

The fall and winter season is my most active part of the year. The snowbirds return to Florida and local organizations gear up to entertain our sun-seeking guests. With this upturn in activity, my schedule gets busy. Very busy! Between now and December 25th, I’m scheduled to do 19 presentations, book events, etc. That’s in 60 days. (Wow, Christmas is close!) I’d love to meet and chat with you! Check my calendar of events on my web page (www.dlhavlin.com) for a complete schedule of where I’ll be this season.

In the next few weeks there are four places I ‘ll be at that are open to the public. Come visit me. On October 29, I’ll be signing my latest novel, Escaping Skeletons, at the Ft. Myers Beach Book Nook, at 7205 Estero Blvd. Ft Myers Beach – From 10 to 2. Annette, the owner, is a real book person and knows her stuff and stock! It’s one of my favorite spots to visit.

November 2nd, I’ll be speaking and signing books at the Cocoa Village Book Fest. It is located at Brevard Avenue, Cocoa Village. FL. It’s an outdoor event, with stores and restaurants all around, a real fun time! I’ll be speaking at 11 am and will be meeting, greeting and signing from 9 to 3.

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DL doing an historical presenting – this one was on the cattle business in the 1800s

 

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DL with “Dan the fan!” at a previous Port Charlotte Cultural Center event. He has every book and short story DL has written. 

I’ll be preforming two historical presentation/seminars at the Lifelong Learning Center in Punta Gorda, Florida on November 6. (The Loyal 14th Colony-Florida in the Revolutionary War/Florida: The Forgotten Years) They’ll be held on the campus of Florida Southwestern College, 23600 Airport Rd., Punta Gorda, Florida. The excellent programs LLC offers are available to any that wish to sign up. Visit http://www.lifelonglearning-charlotte.org to view their catalog. They’re offering a unique opportunity. If you’d like to talk Florida history and writing I’m available for lunch and chat that day as part of the program. Again, sign up with them!

I’ll be at the Cultural Center of Charlotte County for three days attending their annual Christmas Arts event. I’ll be doing a meet and greet from 9 to 3 Friday and Saturday – 10 to 2 on Sunday. The CCCC is in Port Charlotte Florida at 2800 Aaron Street. This holiday event is always fun – come and do some Christmas shopping.

For those disappointed by not being able to get a copy of Escaping Skeletons, the next printing is done and I’ll have copies to sign. (Book stores & the Internet will have books, too!) Having demand exceed supply is a GOOD thing!

 

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Words Come to Life!

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Entrance to the Cultural Center of Charlotte County, Port Charlotte, Florida

Some of the things that makes life good are the people we meet and the events we can participate in. I’d like to introduce you to one of each.

On January 18th, 2020, the Cultural Center of Charlotte County in Port Charlotte, Florida will inaugurate a series of literary programs titled, Words Come to Life. It’s a way for the public and writers to be able to meet established, published authors, hear them discuss their books and writing, and participate in panel discussions with them. Three authors will be featured. The plan is to hold these programs two, or possibly three times a year. Our objective is to have at least one nationally known author featured. I’m pleased to be involved in the planning and launching of the event.

Words Come to Life will be a three hour program. It will begin with a one hour meet-and-greet where attendees can talk to the guest authors, one-to-one, and purchase signed books. It will begin at 10:00 AM, The first author’s presentation will start at 11:00, the second at 11:30, and the last at noon. The panel discussion will take place from 12:30 until 1:00. Presentations and the panel discussion will be held in the 500 seat auditorium; there will be plenty of room for all! There will be more info on the event in this blog at a later date. 

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The auditorium

The reason we get such great opportunities are people like (K.)Stephen Carter, the Executive Director of the Cultural Center of Charlotte County. He runs a great operation and if you’re looking for a place to hold an event it’s a wonderful place to do it. What makes “Steve” so special is the very real concern and desire he has to provide service to the community. This is his great idea. We need more “Steves.”

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Meeting wonderful people!

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DL with V.P. Jill at the meeting American Association of University Women

 

It was my extreme pleasure to be able to address the American Association of University Women’s September meeting. What a intelligent and powerful group of ladies! I was treated to a great lunch, and most importantly, great conversations. Below are pictures of some of the attendees.

 

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Chatting before lunch.

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Getting ready to present, “The Patriot War.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DL with President Tina

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The gals chatting. Literacy & books are important to these ladies.

 

 

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Just doing my thing

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“would you believe”

I hope to visit this group again!

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I’d love to see you and chat. Here’s my schedule for the next few weeks:

September 28th – Book signing, meet & greet. Mixon’s Summer’s End Arts & Craft Show at Mixon’s Gift Shop, Bradenton, Florida, 9 to 3….. open to public

October 10th – Historical Presentation—Florida, The Forgotten Years. Stoneybrook Women’s Club, Fort Myers, Florida, 6:30 to 8:30….. closed event

November 2nd – Book Fest at the Villages, Book signing, meet & greet, and I will be one of the speakers. (time not scheduled) Cocoa Beach Villages, Florida, 10 to 4….. event open to public.

 Hope to see you soon!

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Preventing premature birth — of a book that is!

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Producing a quality book is an imperative, not an option

I have an invitation to, and will be speaking at, Book Fest in the Village, November 2. It’s located in Cocoa Beach, FL. The event is from 10 to 3. When contacted, I was tempted to use one of my talks that I’ve presented in other venues. However, in the last few days I’ve decided to address a subject that some authors either ignore or aren’t aware of the subjects importance. That is “finishing” your book.

In the past five weeks, I’ve been asked to read manuscripts for associates who wanted my opinion. Most times, I try to be critically accurate while remaining encouraging and kind when phrasing my thoughts. Maintaining this standard was a true test when reviewing these manuscripts. Of the four that I read, three weren’t even ready for an editor to review. Multitudes of typos, cut and paste errors, misused words, punctuation errors (on one page I recorded twenty-one), contextual mistakes, and some unbelievable sentence construction saturated the works. What horrified me…was in two of the three cases the writer was prepared to send the work to an agent for evaluation. The only evaluation such shoddy writing gets, is which way to fit it into a waste basket.

Unfortunately, many folks engaged in proliferating “literature” don’t have gate keepers to filter stuff that just isn’t ready for prime time. It hurts me. It hurts all writers. It hurts the trash producer most of all. When people purchase something that’s not a market-worthy product, it sours the buyer!

Sometimes a writer tells me, “Oh, my books are only $.99,” or “My books are free!” They’re not. People invest the most important commodity they have in reading a book, their time.

If you’re in the vicinity of Cocoa Beach on November 2, visit the Book Fest. I’ll have some “free” techniques to help you keep from producing the premature birth of your next book.

Notes:  I’ll be doing a historical presentation this Saturday for the American Association of University Women in Fort Myers, FL. Subject–The Patriot War, A war history would like to forget.

I’ll be at the Mixon Gift Shop in Bradenton, FL on the 28th from 9 to 3, to sign books and meet and greet. Later that day I’ll be at the Charlotte County Library Short Story awards program.

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Some Good News! …… And, getting ready for “the season.”

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DL at a book-signing in the Sarasota B&N

When you have a lot news, most of it good, there is the temptation to want to spit it out at one time and inundate those around you and those who read your blog. I hope to fight and win that battle. I’ll spread it out over several posts.

The first great news is that I’ve signed with one of the leading literary agencies in the US and the world. I’m now represented by The Seymour Agency. This is particularly pleasing to me because its founder, Mary Sue Seymour, was one of the people I credit as significantly encouraging me to keep writing. There is a link to The Seymour Agency on this post and one on my web site. I’m really looking forward to working with Nicole, Julie, Lesley, and all of the Seymour team.

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My latest mystery/suspense novel featuring Archaeologist Chessie Partin

The second is that my latest released novel has been greeted with some great five star reviews. Escaping Skeletons, a mystery/suspense, is a story revolving around Operation Paperclip, the military program that was used to locate, extricate, and immigrate German/Nazi scientists to the US (and peripherally to South America). The book is the second of the Chessie Partin, archaeologist series. Chessie was introduced in The Bait Man and has developed quite a fan base. The history portion of this book is intriguing. It deals with a part of the OSS project that many have forgotten and many more would like to forget. Does the end justify the means? Are the unintended consequences of a “mistake” erasable? The novel offers some thoughts on these issues and some really suspenseful reading moments.

A link to one of the 5-star reviews is included with this post. It will also be on the first page of my web site. — For you Chessie Partin fans, she’s already involved in another investigation. When an Indian midden is discovered on a property to be developed, she and her boss are asked to investigate to see if artifacts exist there. They find some. But, the real interest is in the seventeen sets of remains that are probably the result of a serial killers activities.

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DL at Master the Possibilities earlier this year. His schedule is being doubled this fall/winter.

This will be my busiest fall & winter season yet! My PR person is scheduling me at almost twice the number of venues when compared to last year. I love the contact with my readers…and just readers in general. Readers are thinkers. I firmly believe that, and my writing keeps those folks in mind. I’ll have much more on my historical presentations, seminar classes, and book-signings in later posts as the schedule is completed. If you wish to get me as a speaker, contact:  prlady2016@gmail.com —- quickly. My schedule is filling fast.

One more thing — I’ll be reviving my Newsletter beginning in the 4th quarter of this year. It will contain news about my books, appearances, what’s new, what’s coming and I’ll share some personal happenings that I think will interest you. Visit my website to sign up.

Links:

Review of Escaping Skeletons       https://readersfavorite.com/book-revi...

Website for The Seymour Agency        www.theseymouragency.com

Website for  DL Havlin                           www.dlhavlin.com

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Eating Ourselves – the crime of censorship …

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Censorship is a little like eating yourself.

This post has been in my mind for well over a year. I see sprigs of this…poison ivy…sprouting everywhere. It’s coming from some of the most surprising and discouraging areas. What is this dangerous and malevolent thing that is creeping into our lives and importantly into our writing? Censorship.

It’s sometime disguised. Sometimes, it’s blatantly advocated. We see it in social media. We see it on TV and radio. Worst of all, we see it in our writing. It comes from all sectors of social, economic, academic, and literary life. It’s now acceptable, even fashionable, to believe only one viewpoint is shareable. In fact, if one disagrees with a diverse point of view, it is professed to be acceptable to suppress that viewpoint—violently if necessary. What a perverse intelligence…one which allows us to correctly and importantly embrace diversity of human interaction, yet condemns diversity of thought.

One example. It is fashionable for only a member of a societal group to speak for its values, issues, history, etc. The disguise is that this will afford that group the best representation. Comments are made like, “brown voices who descent are unwelcome.” Really? We ignore history. Abraham Lincoln said, “This is the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war possible.” He was addressing Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862. Her book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is one of the most important and formative pieces of literature ever written. That book spurred the public’s level of aversion to the sickening institution of slavery. And, that produced enough public support for a war to end it. Look at the pictures below.   Harriet was not black. She was an impassioned advocate for black freedom.

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Young Harriet

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Harriet Beecher Stowe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diversity of thought is the food progress requires to exist. We, as literary people, must understand and defend this vital part of human progress. Totalitarianism, requires singularity of thought to control…which it must have to dominate. It destroys.

It is up to the person who disagrees on an issue to counter an opponents argument, not shout it down or suppress it. If you can’t, ask yourself…Is my position correct? If you can’t, maybe you should reconsider what you are advocating.

All of us must have one thing clearly in mind. No matter how repugnant you and I believe something someone else says, believes, espouses…et al, we must form as one to insist that someone has his free and unfettered ability to present it.

 

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Hi, Ho, A-Dario to FAPA I will go

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Getting the opportunity is two fold at conferences of this nature: From the faculty, from your fellow authors!

I’ll be in Orlando this weekend to attend FAPA’s (Florida Authors & Publishers Association) annual conference. If you don’t attend conferences like this one, you’re missing an opportunity to really advance your craft and career. The obvious benefits to the attendee are the presentations made by faculty on all manner of trade related subjects. In this area one of the most obvious benefits is keeping current with what’s happening in publishing. Either fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint, the rate of change is ever increasing. If you let your knowledge of “What’s Happenin'” degrade, you could find yourself in a hole that takes some climbing to get out of! Picking talks about areas you need help or that keep you current really are a short cut to improvement.

The networking and interchange of ideas is another benefit that can be as important as the formal classes. Depending on your publishing path, info like the name of a particularly good editor of books in your genre, an agent looking for clients, name of a new publisher, etc. are tidbits that fly at these meetings. (And at the bar.) Getting to know fellow authors is a great plus. Many, NOT ALL, are willing to share tips and help. It gives you the opportunity to discuss your “product” in an interested venue.

I don’t know if an space is available to attend the FAPA conference, but if you live in Florida I’d highly recommend you make that last minute decision to check it out and come. Do a search on FAPA to get the info.

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This is one of my “products” I’ll be talking about.

Hope to see you there!

 

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And now for a little rest…….

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One of three sessions at Master the Possibilities on July 18th.

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Set up at “Mango Mania” under a tent to save us from the sun. Florida can be brutal in the summer.

Whew! Last week was a busy one! Last weekend I was at two events, one in Cape Coral, the other in Port Charlotte. That stretched me a bit. Then I had presentations in Gainesville and Ocala on Wednesday and three presentations in Ocala on Thursday. Friday was a rest day and I was in Venice on Saturday. All but one was inside. That one was like sitting in a sauna. This week I’ll finally get some time to write.

I really enjoy teaching at Master the Possibilities in Ocala. It’s a lifelong learning center that’s devoted to providing quality educational opportunities to area residents.

The Florida Authors and Publishers Association convention is the weekend of August 2nd thru the 4th. I’m looking forward to attending it. If you haven’t been to one of these, go. They have great programs to keep you current if you’re involved in the business. Check their website – I think there are still some tickets available!

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Florida’s historic places and history museums were my subject at the Windsor.

 

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Visit my web page for information on my latest books and speaking locations.  http://www.dlhavlin.com

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See You Thursday?

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DL at Master the Possibilities earlier this year.

Hi all —- I’d like to see you in Ocala, Florida, on Thursday July 18th at Master the Possibilities! It is a lifelong learning organization dedicated to those wish to gain knowledge of the new and the old.

I’ll be teaching a writing class with tips for the novice and established writer called “I’ve met the enemy and he is me.”  In the afternoon, “Flaming Florida and it’s violent birthright” will be one presentation and “A glimpse into Hell,” the Nazi invasion of Ukraine, will be my second historical talk. Go to http://www.masterthepossibilities.org  for sign up information.

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Escaping Skeletons – another look at Operation Paperclip

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The individual you see between LBJ & JFK is a Nazi who came to the USA as part of Operation Paperclip

My latest book, Escaping Skeletons, revolves around a part of history that has largely been forgotten and I’m sure many government officials are happy that it is. In the last frantic days of WWII, there was a race between the USA, British, and the Russians to obtain as many German scientists and technology as they could. The US part of the race was managed by Major General William J. (Wild Bill) Donovan. Donovan was head of the OSS or Office of Strategic Services…the predecessor to the CIA. “WIld BIll” was a believer in the ends justifying the means. Finding those scientists wasn’t easy in those chaotic times. Rumors abounded he used SS and Gestapo people who knew their whereabouts to find them. As a result, some of them were allowed to “slip in.”

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Otto Skorzeny and Wernor von Braun are two of the more famous refuges. Skorzeny was Hitler’s “Super Spy” and was central to many high profile events such as rescuing Mussolini and behind the lines activity during the Battle of the Bulge. He ended up in Argentina and was Eva Peron’s bodyguard for a period of time. Von Braun was the central figure in the Nazi rocketry program (V-1 & V-2) who was a key individual in the US space program. Obviously, von Braun fits the scientist portion of the program. Otto did not!

[image error] [image error] The pictures you see are taken in Misiones Province in Argentina the destination for many Nazis after the War. Rumors that Hitler somehow faked his death and ended his life there are hard to completely dismiss, particularly when some of the evidence is looked at objectively. Forget looking for any information our government might provide. Everything and everybody has been very skillfully hidden. But consider Klaus Barbie and the like survived in South America for years.

The pictures you see were taken by Archaeologists at a site in the remote province. There’s no doubt this was a Nazi compound.

 

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A wall built from native available at the site.

Pictured below is William J. Donovan, the architect of Operation Paperclip. Were the actions he and the US took a needed expediency to shorten the war in the Pacific? Was Paperclip a free pass for some of the most notorious Nazi? Everyone should judge for themselves. Read Escaping Skeletons and examine some possibilities.

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Come visit me!  I’ll be at the Charlotte County Cultural Center (on Aaron Street) July 12,13, & 14  — I’ll also be at Mango Mania in Cape Coral, a Pine Island Chamber of Commerce event, in the Matlacha Menagerie booth part time on the July 13 & 14.  I’m at Master the possibilities in Ocala, July 18 – I’ll be teaching a writing class and presenting two historical talks. Check with http://www.masterthepossibilities.org  for scheduling and more information.

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