JACK'S BLOG
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1/30/2013 4 Comments Who is more deserving of justice than the men & women who fight to defend our rights?Army LifeA MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE has placed an American soldier behind bars at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The Military Justice System has failed him. Now, only you can bring justice to this young man. You need to write and call your Representative in Congress and your Senators, as well as the President of the United States. You have to encourage your friends and family to join you in this desperate fight. Lastly, you should write to this young man. Like the bugle call of cavalry riding to the rescue, your letter will give him the will to remain strong in the hope that his salvation is on its way. First Lieutenant Michael Behenna was convicted by a court martial after he killed a suspected terror operative. He is now serving 15 years at Ft. Leavenworth for a crime that many believe was an act of self defense. In a video aired on PJTV, Behenna's parents joined Colonel Allen B. West to discuss their son's trial, and the existence of exculpatory evidence that should acquit their son. The interview of Lieutenant Behenna's parents goes well beyond an impassioned plea for justice. Both parents have strong criminal justice backgrounds. His mother is a Federal Prosecutor who worked on the Timothy McVey case in the bombing of the Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, and his father is an intelligence analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Click here to Watch the Interview ) You should also visit the website created by Lieutenant Behenna's family and friends to help publicize this case at Defend Michael. In addition to the evidence of Lieutenant Behenna's innocence, this website offers a petition that you may sign to further help his case. One of the more disturbing revelations that came to me in a brief email exchange with Lieutenant Behenna's family is that terrorists incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have access to computers and the Internet that is denied to this American soldier. I had made the offer of sending free copies of my books to help him pass the time in prison while others work to secure his freedom. I suggested that he might appreciate my journals of my own experiences in the military as well as my novel featuring an Airborne Ranger like himself. Unfortunately, my books are only available on e-readers and computers and he is denied access to those while the terrorists are given access to computers and Skype. One of the principal flaws in Lieutenant Behenna's case was the fact that prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence provided by their own witnesses. It is hard to blame such behavior on misfeasance or the incompetence of the prosecutors. It is too basic an error. However, it is dangerous to charge the prosecutors with malfeasance at a time when Lieutenant Behenna's best chance of exoneration lies in the hands of their superiors. Generally, prosecutorial misconduct arises from political pressures. Either the prosecutors themselves or their superiors are seeking some political advantage that may arise from a conviction in a highly visible case involving a heinous crime that has shocked a community or when the defendant can be used as a scapegoat for some political action that has proven unpopular. Certainly, the war on terrorism has become the focus of public discontent and politicians are beginning to look for cover from the fallout that is certain to ensue when Afghanistan returns to Taliban rule. Unfortunately for the current Administration, they now own that war and blaming it on their predecessor, George Bush, has been overused. The Army and its sister services may soon find themselves in the crosshairs. Again, this is a debate better left for another time. We don't want to deny justice to Lieutenant Behenna by focusing on the political aspects of the case until after he is exonerated. Contact Information:Click here to Find Your Representative Click here to Find Your Senator Click here to Contact the President Send books, money orders and your letters of support to: Michael Behenna #87503 1300 N. Warehouse Road Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027-2304
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1/27/2013 6 Comments Could a literary karaoke bar help us find new authors we like without investing a lot of time and money?WritingI HAD A FRIEND who had a helluva good singing voice. He simply sang whenever and wherever the spirit moved him. We didn't have karaoke bars in those days, so we only got to hear him if we stood outside his bathroom window or plied him with a drink or two at a party. I have often wondered if he might have become a professional singer if we had karaoke bars in those days where more people could have heard him Websites that publish flash fiction and serialized stories are the modern author's equivalent of karaoke bars for storytellers. No agents or publishers are required. Just upload a document file and see what happens.
I've had some success on a couple of these. Thousands have “Liked” my short stories at Venture Galleries and the now defunct The Writers Collection, as well as my own website/weblog. I recently received an invitation to publish my short stories on a new one, ReadWave. These websites are there to help you discover new writers, ones who tell stories you like to read. It's a lot easier wading through a lot of badly written prose looking for the gems when the stories are short. Many famous authors began their writing careers penning short stories and serialized novels. Ray Bradbury. Louis L'Amour. Jack London. Mark Twain. Charles Dickens. In times past, they were published in newspapers and the pulps, cheaply produced magazines, as well as glossies, magazines printed on polished paper. These media have largely disappeared, replaced by websites. They provide an opportunity for readers to get to know writers and their style before they commit time and money to read their full length novels. Please look me up on these sites and tell your friends. You'll be doing them and me a favor. WritingThe first installment of Star Wars to be released, Episode IV, was hugely popular. Arguably, it is one of the best science fiction films ever made, and better than the other five episodes. Fortunately for George Lucas, word of mouth drove audiences to theaters. I don't think that the trailer they released in advance of the film helped very much. Audiences laughed at it. I think that the problem with it was that it didn't tell a story. Obviously, a film trailer can't tell the same story as the film it promotes, but it has to at least tell a story about the story. Book trailers should do the same. Have you ever seen a book trailer? Probably not, unless you're one of the many authors and publishers who are trying to figure out how to sell books in this market. We spend a lot of time looking at each other's work. Theater goers are used to seeing trailers on the screen before the feature they've paid to see. Film trailers also get plenty of air time on television and the Internet. There are websites devoted to them, such as Trailer Addict. Unfortunately, there is no practical way of attaching book trailers to books and publishers don't have advertising budgets to pay for them on television. You would think that someone at Amazon might think of attaching links to them on their website. Maybe they have. I haven't seen them. Surely someone could create a website for book trailers as Trailer Addict did for movie trailers. Then again, why doesn't Trailer Addict include a category for them. (I'm just thinking out loud here.) I started to make a trailer for Rebels on the Mountain, but got distracted. I decided instead to recreate the experience that readers enjoy when authors visit bookstores and read from their own novels. Don't get excited if you're an author. My idea didn't sell my book any better than your trailer sold yours. I'm not sure if a book trailer would have worked better than a book reading. The reason is that I didn't do any better than other authors and publishers at cracking the real problem. Distribution. Sure, I embedded it in my website and it's available on YouTube, but those media don't attract nearly enough viewers to have an impact.
You can search for “book trailers” on YouTube. Their website will return more than a half-million results! Not very helpful, is it? They're divided into categories which may help readers, but it doesn't help authors and publishers sell a specific product. That leaves us with the ultimate question. Assuming that book trailers or videos of book readings will help sell novels, how can authors and publishers put theirs in front of the right audiences? 1/15/2013 10 Comments Do you want to know the rest of the story? Show me you're interested. Read Rebels on the MountainSOME OF MY REGULAR blog followers have complained privately. Why didn't I finish the story of Fidel Castro's revolution? Why did I stop telling the story in my blog leaving Fidel and his small band of poorly armed, poorly supplied, and poorly led rebels surrounded on a mountaintop in Eastern Cuba? How did he defeat a modern, well-equipped, and well-trained army of 40,000 with fewer than 300 Fidelistas? How did he accomplish this amazing feat in just two years? It sounds eerily similar to the story of 300 Spartans almost defeating the Persian hordes at Thermopylae, doesn't it? What is the rest of the story? The truth is that I've already told the rest of the story in my novel Rebels on the Mountain. I've used this blog to provide readers with the background story of Cuba, from pre-Columbian Times until the year when Castro and his men arrived from Mexico on the motor yacht Granma. It's all here. I will soon collect these postings into a single volume. I'll let you know when it's available.
Rebels on the Mountain is as historically accurate as I could possibly make it. Still, it is a work of fiction. Too much of the history is lost in hyperbole and propaganda. Also, I used fictional characters to provide readers with a point of view and help explain the events that occurred during Castro's revolution. I have not yet decided whether or not to write a sequel to Rebels on the Mountain to help people understand what happened to Castro after the revolution. How did he transform from a spirited rebel leader into a tyrannical dictator? How did he become an enemy of America? Why did President Eisenhower refuse to meet with him? Why did President Kennedy authorize and then repudiate the Bay of Pigs invasion? I would love to understand how Ernesto Che Guevara became a popular icon when, in fact, he was Castro's murderous executioner until even Fidel could no longer stomach him. That will remain a mystery. However, it is no mystery as to why Castro continued to promote Che as a hero of the revolution. Would you like to know why? That story will be easy to tell if I decide to tell it. What will inspire me? Demand. Your demand. Read Rebels on the Mountain. Then I will know that you really want to hear the rest of the story. Oh-dark-thirtyA BLOG HAS an insatiable appetite for words, hundreds and thousands of them every day, every week. I know. I've fed mine for more than a year and a half now posting every day. I'm beginning to feel like the character, Seymour, in the musical The Little Shop of Horrors who is forced to feed a cannibalistic plant from outer space. My blog hasn't sucked me dry, not yet, but it's taken blood, sweat, and tears that I would rather have invested in a new book.
Yes, I've had some success as a blogger. About 1,500 people visit this one every day. That's more than came during the first months. However, it was never my intention to become a blogger. I created it to sell books. That's how you sell ebooks these days. Well, that's what everyone told me. Unfortunately, it doesn't, at least not mine. I have dreams of writing several books that I've avoided over the past year and a half while I have posted my blog stories from history, current events, and my imagination. I'm not saying that it hasn't been fun. It has. It's also been useful for developing my craft as a writer. Don't worry. My blog isn't going to disappear. Approximately eighty percent of the visitors to my blog every day are newcomers. Many find something that interests them and there is a repository of more than 400 postings for them to read while I work on my new stories. There will be new postings as well. They won't come every day. I'll try to post at least one each week, but I'm not promising anything. Hopefully, my novels will be “discovered” after I've written a couple or three more. If not, I'll just have to keep on telling my stories as long as the breath is within me, just for the love of doing it. Thus, this isn't goodbye. It's just a promise of better things to come. CubaTHE FEW FIDELISTAS who survived the ambush at Alegrío del Pio when they disembarked from the Granma, had a big job ahead of them. Most of them were from the cities and educated. They had little in common with the recruits who came from the ranks of the outcasts and outlaws who populated the Sierra Madres mountains at the eastern end of Cuba. Inasmuch as I am a trained infantry officer, I understood the kinds of training that they would need. The interesting part of writing Rebels on the Mountain came in creating methods of providing infantry training without the facilities and equipment that I had when I attended Infantry School. There was no record left by the Fidelistas describing their techniques, at least none that I could locate, and the only two surviving rebels, Fidel and Raúl Castro, aren't available for an interview.
Unfortunately, the few descriptions I could find concerning the conduct of the Cuban Revolution, are highly suspect. Like most propaganda, the narratives are mostly apocryphal. Fidel, I suspect, wasn't much use for training the new recruits. He hadn't demonstrated any capacity for battlefield leadership during his aborted raid on the army barracks at Moncada, the one that landed him in jail. Also, during the stay in Mexico while his men were training, Fidel was constantly engaged in raising funds for his invasion. Ultimately, the only references I could find that mentioned Castro's participation in battles referred to the fact that he fired the first shot signaling the commencement of an attack. Raúl Castro and Camile Cienfuegos were Fidel's chief lieutenants during those early days. Camile, hardly known in America outside of Cuban-American communities, probably was Fidel's best field commander. His photographs reveal a man of intelligence and humor, the kind that soldiers like to follow. It is doubtful that Raúl would have held any position of importance except by nepotism. Che was the doctor although he groused continually that he wanted to fight. However, he had no training and, ultimately, proved to be an inept commander, especially at the Bay of Pigs invasion. That left about eight Fidelistas to provide training to approximately 200 recruits. I calculated that they must have been divided into platoons of about thirty each with one Fidelista assigned to lead them in the capacity of a sergeant I supposed. These would be manageable training units. Every recruit brought their own weapon as Castro had none with which to arm them. One can only imagine the problems this created with supplying different caliber ammunition. How they were able to train these men to move, shoot, and communicate, as a combat team is the stuff of legend. I really enjoyed speculating as I wrote Rebels on the Mountain. CubaTHE GRANMA RAN AGROUND about 100 yards offshore. Castro and his Fidelistas had to wade ashore at a place known as Alegrío del Pio, about fifteen miles east of their intended destination. The few survivors reported that they waded through waist deep waters as though in slow motion. This would be consistent with a heavily laden cabin cruiser approaching a sloping beach. Their distress was most likely the result of short rations while living in cramped quarters, unable to move about for seven days. Studying that stretch of coastline, it appears that it is a mangrove swamp. This might explain why the Cuban army and air force had to wait a day or two to spring their ambush. The rebels weren't a good target until they wandered inland. It is doubtful that they found food and water in the swamp and must have made some bad decisions about keeping under cover when they left the mangroves. They came under fire as soon as they entered the edges of a nearby sugar plantation.
During the brief ambush, the rebel ranks were decimated. The three principal leaders, Fidel, his brother Raúl, and Camile Cienfuegos, remained unscathed. Che Guevara suffered several severe bullet wounds and had to be carried to safety. During the next few days, most of the survivors of the initial onslaught were hunted down and killed or captured. Only eleven of the band of 82 were able to escape into the Sierra Madres Mountains that dominate the Oriente Province at the eastern end of Cuba. Every Cuban revolution began, and was mostly fought, in the Sierra Madres. Pico Turquino, the tallest of them, became the base camp for the Fidelistas. Pico Turquino is the mountain in my novel, Rebels on the Mountain. Fidel lost the majority of his trained forces in that brief attack. Although not mentioned in any record that I could find, they must have been intended as trainers for volunteers that Fidel expected to recruit on the island. One of Fidel's loyal lieutenants from the 26th of July Movement (MR 26-7), Celia Sanchez, had been recruiting in the Sierra Madres mountains in anticipation of his arrival. She had the pick of many outlaws and outcasts who populated the mountains and fought the hated Rural Guards of the Cuban army from the age when they had first been able to pick up a gun. Although they had valuable local knowledge and ample courage, they needed training to become an effective fighting force that could drive the dictator, Fulgencio Batista, and his henchmen from the island. That was the purpose of the trained Fidelistas who had arrived on the Granma. Now, there were just eleven of them remaining. CubaFEW OF THE FIDELISTAS who sailed on the yacht Granma and came to be known as los expedicionarios del Yate Granma, survived their arrival in Cuba. It is ironic that they survived the trip on an ill-suited vessel, to die in an ambush set by the Cuban army and air force. The pilot, Norberto Collado Abreu, a World War II veteran of the Cuban Navy, hadn't allowed for the loss of speed carrying so many men as well as their weapons, ammunition, and supplies, and the voyage lasted two days longer than he had calculated. The worn out engines and transmissions didn't help either. Fortunately, he had brought extra fuel in jerry cans lashed on deck. Even so, they arrived with little remaining in reserve.
I never found a log of the voyage. Most of the Fidelistas died on arrival in Cuba and never had a chance to leave a record of their experiences. Thus, I had to surmise what it must have been like on board the Granma based on many years of experience cruising on similar types of craft. I attempted to depict the conditions on board in my novel, Rebels on the Mountain, as accurately as possible. For example, I imagined the difficulties of 82 men, many seasick, using just two marine toilets. These devices are notoriously cranky and frequently breakdown, especially when they are operated by novices. Also, I suspect that the supplies of food and water were barely adequate for a five day voyage. The extra two days that they spent at sea must have been grueling on short rations. Che Guevara, the rebels' doctor in the early days of the revolution, must have been in charge of rationing supplies during the voyage. It is clear from extant records that Che was a cold and unforgiving man, and his bedside manner was probably more like Doc Martin in the popular BBC series of that name, than Marcus Welby. (For those who aren't familiar with my references, Che probably treated his compañeros curtly. I suspect that many, misled by popular fictional treatment of Che as a glorious hero, will be surprised by my characterization of the man. However, I will offer more substantial proof in another posting wherein I will discuss Che in greater detail.) One event was handed down to us from that voyage. It involved a Fidelista who had been sent to unlash and toss the spare fuel cans overboard as the Granma approached its destination. Although not mentioned by the survivors, it is reasonable to assume that they didn't dispose of the cans one-at-a-time so that they wouldn't leave a trail of them across the Caribbean that would lead any pursuers to their location. The pilots of Jimmy Doolittle's squadron employed the same tactic for this reason during their raid on Tokyo. The man fell overboard as he was working and Fidel ordered searchlights turned on to help find him even though the illumination might lead enemies to the rebel vessel. The Granma circled in the night and Fidel refused to give up. He announced that he would “leave no man behind”. Was this story apocryphal, designed to make Fidel appear more heroic? Possibly. However, I never found anything to suggest that Castro was anything but driven and physically courageous, though of questionable judgment at times. Who isn't? Fidel had planned on landing at Playa Las Coloradas near the municipality of Niquero, near the spot where the Cuban hero, José Martí, had landed at the beginning of another revolution 61 years earlier. Unfortunately, the pilot didn't have an accurate means of gauging their speed and overshot their target by about fifteen miles. He discovered his error in the early morning light. Fidel ordered him to head for Niquero, but quickly changed his mind and chose to head for the nearest land when a Cuban air force warplane spotted them. Good ReadEnjoy this brief interview with a new author, Joseph Mackey. What is the one book you want us to read (title, genre, and availability). My book is called FOOLS! FOOLS! Is an entertainment/humor book. It can be found on Smashwords or Amazon. Give us a one sentence synopsis. Set between 2003 and 2008 FOOLS follows the adventures of Joseph Mackey and David Chandra, as well as the misadventures and actions of various fools. Who are the main characters and who would you like to see portray them in a movie? Me and my friend Dave Chandra are the main characters aside from assorted fools. I would like to see Jim Carrey portray me and Kal Penn play Dave. I think they are both exceptional actors and Jim Carrey is the funniest man alive. Tell us about the story, but please don't reveal too much. In 2003 I meet Dave Chandra and he tells me about a man who drops his suitcase down the toilet. We quickly become friends. After that we go on adventures such as stopping robberies, catching the insane, and hanging out with the Pillsbury Dough Boy. We see and record a lot of stupid things happening which is the focus of the book. The story ends in 2008. What inspired you to write this book and how long did it take? This book started out as a joke between me and my friend Dave Chandra. When I was in college we laughed about it and I didn't work on it until 2006, a year after college was over. I was unemployed at the time and I thought it would be a good project. It took about a month to write on paper but the inspiration took considerably longer. What other books have you written?
None yet, but I am in the process of writing a follow up or sequel. Which authors inspired you, your style? None at the time although my friend Heather Dickson is a writer and she inspires me. Where can we learn more about you and your books? You can find out more about me and my books on my Twitter, Smashwords, and Facebook pages listed below. How can we follow you? Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. You can follow me on Twitter or Facebook as well as Smashwords.com Is there anything else you would like us to know? This book was a lot of fun to write and I am glad to have done so. I loved doing it, and this book makes me laugh every time I pick it up. Hopefully many other people will do so too. At the present time, I am writing a follow up that is a direct sequel. It will take me longer as I have other responsibilities now, but it is a great work in progress. CubaCASTRO'S REVOLUTION MIGHT have ended before it began like a tour to Gilligan's Island. Fidel Castro wanted an airplane to ferry his small band from Mexico to Cuba. He got a cabin cruiser named the Granma. You may have expected that he renamed the boat, something revolutionary and heroic. He didn't. Granma stuck and it became beloved. It became the name of a new province carved from the Oriente (Eastern) end of the island following the successful completion of the revolution. It also became the name of the official newspaper of the Communist Party in Cuba. You may even follow propaganda from Cuba on line at Granma.cu. Some might believe that Castro shared the old sailor's superstition that it's bad luck to rename a boat after it's launched. I couldn't say. He never addressed the issue in any of his speeches or writings so far as I've been able to find. Fidel purchased the boat with $15,000 US provided by Cuban-Americans living in Florida. Fund raising was coordinated by Carlo Prío Socarrás, a former Cuban president living in exile. The Granma was interesting to research. It's length was reported variously between sixty and eighty feet. The confusion may result from the fact that vessels may be measured along the keel or the deck or even the waterline. All three would be different for the same boat. Was it diesel powered or driven by gasoline engines? I found claims for both. However, all sources seem to agree that the Granma's engines were tired from years of use and that the vessel was seriously overburdened on the voyage to Cuba. Inasmuch as I have the advantage of some experience as a sailor, I was able to calculate just how severely the Granma was tested. Approximately 82 men voyaged on the Granma from the Tuxpam River on the East Coast of Mexico to the eastern end of the island of Cuba. (I say approximately because reports vary.) That's about 70 more than I would have attempted to carry on that trip. Allowing 250 pounds for each man and the weapon, ammunition, and supplies he carried, I calculated that the Granma sailed with its normal load line (waterline) submerged by at least six inches. That may not seem alarming to you. The vessel would still have plenty of reserve buoyancy to remain afloat in a mill pond. Unfortunately, they weren't crossing a mill pond. Even more problematic, that load would have greatly raised the boat's center of gravity, making it extremely unstable. Granma's buoyancy and stability were both put to the test as soon as it crossed the bar from the Tuxpam River into the Gulf of Mexico. Records show that the Fidelistas departed at approximately 1:00 am on November 25, 1956, to sneak past Mexican authorities in the dark. There was no guarantee that the Mexicans would permit their voyage to begin from their shores. A waning quarter moon would have provided the helmsman with just enough light to steer the channel, and not enough light to illuminate the yacht for sentries on shore. Records show that a storm was sitting just off shore that night, and it must have been driving waves into the river entrance as the Granma exited. I can only imagine the pilot, Norberto Collado Abreu, a World War II veteran of the Cuban Navy, moving his cargo of men and equipment to make the bow more buoyant so that it could rise with the waves.
In my novel, Rebels on the Mountain, I populated the Fidelistas with a young engineering student from Havana University, to provide readers with a character to interpret the scenario. I imagined that such a man, with his engineering knowledge, would have appreciated the dangers they were facing. I attempted to illustrate this fact for readers by showing his reluctance to board the yacht when he saw how heavily it was laden. I then demonstrated his commitment to the revolution by having him step aboard at the last second as they departed the wharf. |
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