Red over Red

Red over Red

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Bounty Photos Found

I've been doing a big shovel out/remodel of my office the past few days and came across these photos which I had forgotten about. They must have been taken about ten years ago when I was visiting Robin Walbridge aboard Bounty in Portsmouth, VA. I was working on the book Reign of Iron about the Monitor and the Merrimack. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard would not let me in to see the dry dock where USS Merrimack had been converted to CSS Virginia, so Robin (Bounty's captain) suggested we take Bounty down the river so I could get photos. I climbed up into the main top and Robin took the ship past the dry dock and I snapped away. The folks at the naval shipyard were not happy to see the photos (the dry dock is in a classified area of the yard) but there was nothing indicating you could not take photos from the water. I was hoping they would arrest me (great publicity!) but beyond a few terse words over the phone, that was all I heard.

That kind of thing, the eagerness to help out, the mischievousness, was so typical of Robin. I love the picture of him standing on the rail. I think that will always be the way I remember him, standing there, conning the big blue boat into a tight spot with a bare minimum of maneuvering and fuss.

For those of you who don't know, Robin was lost at sea when Bounty went down in Hurricane Sandy. He is very much missed by the many, many people he touched.

 
 

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Hey, I got Interviewed in a Blog!

So, I'm announcing on my blog that I was just interviewed by another blog. Somehow that all seems vaguely cannibalistic. But what the heck. It was quick and I didn't feel a thing. Interview was courtesy of Mary Jane Adams who writes books that are a wonderful mix of romance and American History, with covers that are steaming. If you want to read it, and who wouldn't, you can do so here.

Hey, did I mention Fin Gall? Sixteen customer reviews on Amazon.com, all four and five stars. Nice to see, but it's costing me a fortune, paying all these people off. The worst part is, even my kids charge me. Down in the four thousands for "Best Seller Rank" on the Kindle Store, which might seem like not a great number, but four thousand out of the approximately three hundred billion Kindle Books is not bad.


The cover of Fin Gall. It has nothing to do with this post, but I have to keep mentioning it.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Not to be Missed!

The new issue of The Quarterdeck is out. For anyone not familiar, this is the newsletter put out by McBooks Press dedicated to maritime fiction in particular, with a smattering of nonfiction as well. It's a great newsletter, well worth reading, and I would say that even if my mug was not on the cover, and it did not feature a review of my new novel Fin Gall (my publicists always tell me to mention books such as Fin Gall often in any interview or article, which is why I mention Fin Gall now, and not a book that is not Fin Gall. Fin Gall).

Among other things, the newsletter has an interview I did with editor George Jepson, discussing, you did guess it, Fin Gall and some thoughts on the current state of publishing. Also has one of my favorite quotes from my daughter, which she will be furious to see in print (we parents live for such moments, don't we?) but you have to read it to see what it is.

Have a great Fin Gall, everyone!