Mother Nature's Intentions in THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ICE by @TheobaldSprague #Climate

One of the main objectives for the trip and documentary was to come away with a fairly precise understanding as to the state of environmental affairs. I’m sorry to say that in this I failed. But I have an excuse. The heft of Mother Nature’s intentions was introduced to us far sooner and to a much larger degree than ever anticipated and became a very large part of our daily lives. By the time we got to The Passage, the scope and aim of the trip was simply to finish in one piece. The time planned for interviews and casual observations had turned into a race against the seasonal clock and we had to be satisfied with the few interviews that we got. Quickly the story of the trip changed focus from overview and observation to not getting hampered by the elements.

To have missed some planned interviews and time spent among the various communities in exchange for surviving the ordeal was fine with me. There’s a saying that in the 1800s, those hearty souls who took a stagecoach journey across the United States started off with great excitement and anticipation of all that they would see and encounter. By the end, they were just happy to reach their destinations alive. Never was it as true as with our trip to and through the Northwest Passage that summer.

The second area I wanted to investigate and learn from was the potential of commercial shipping through The Passage. What I learned from those I interviewed was more focused and defined compared to their beliefs on global warming. While some small commercial shipping does currently exist and some more will certainly start up, all of whom I spoke with felt that the large-scale supertanker-type of shipping would never happen.

I was told that when the area is frozen, perhaps more than three-quarters of the year, it provides not only migratory routes but ice roads as well. To one extent or another, all of the communities from the smallest fishing camps to larger ones like Cambridge Bay depend on these ice roads in and out of their area. Any interest in larger commercial shipping would meet great resistance.

The Northwest Passage is, for the most part, an uncharted area. When we were able to take soundings in some locations, the bottom would be ten- feet deep, then drop to perhaps a hundred feet, then come back up again to ten feet, all in the stretch of perhaps a quarter-mile.

It’s my feeling—as well as that of many of those who live in the Nunavut Territories—that if commercial concerns want to use this shortcut between the two major oceans, there would have to be extensive surveying and dredging to accommodate their needs, perhaps negating some of the immediate profits to be found. In dealing with the ice, shipping will find it to be completely unpredictable and each year it would present its own grave challenges.

Without the promises of immediate profits, I don’t see these concerns to have a large concentration span. Again, these are just my thoughts based on observations by the few who live up there and are by no means steeped in feasibility studies and corporate research.

One area that doesn’t seem to grab the headlines as much as global warming or potential shipping, but to me holds a far more frightening potential for disaster, is that of the natural resources to be found in and around The Passage.

The exploration of lucrative natural resources just under the surface is something that I feel could destroy one of the most delicate and pristine ecosystems on our planet. There are five Arctic powers vying for dominance: Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the United States. Unlike Antarctica, there is very little paperwork in place delineating which nation has what claim to which area. Far too complex to try to break down in this writing, suffice it to say it’s a bit like the Old West, all trying to stake a claim via interpreting antiquated laws and rulings to their benefit.

A sailor and his family’s harrowing and inspiring story of their attempt to sail the treacherous Northwest Passage.

Sprague Theobald, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and expert sailor with over 40,000 offshore miles under his belt, always considered the Northwest Passage–the sea route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific–the ultimate uncharted territory. Since Roald Amundsen completed the first successful crossing of the fabled Northwest Passage in 1906, only twenty-four pleasure craft have followed in his wake. Many more people have gone into space than have traversed the Passage, and a staggering number have died trying. From his home port of Newport, Rhode Island, through the Passage and around Alaska to Seattle, it would be an 8,500-mile trek filled with constant danger from ice, polar bears, and severe weather.

What Theobald couldn’t have known was just how life-changing his journey through the Passage would be. Reuniting his children and stepchildren after a bad divorce more than fifteen years earlier, the family embarks with unanswered questions, untold hurts, and unspoken mistrusts hanging over their heads. Unrelenting cold, hungry polar bears, and a haunting landscape littered with sobering artifacts from the tragic Franklin Expedition of 1845, as well as personality clashes that threaten to tear the crew apart, make The Other Side of the Ice a harrowing story of survival, adventure, and, ultimately, redemption.

(TO WATCH THE OFFICIAL HD TEASER FOR “The Other Side of The Ice” [book and documentary] PLEASE GO TO: VIMEO.COM/45526226) 

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Genre – Memoir, adventure, family, climate

Rating – PG

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Website www.spraguetheobald.com

T.S. O'Neil's Publishing Pet Peeves & Importance of #Book Covers @tselliot3 #Action #BlogTour

Pet Peeves of the Publishing Industry: The whole agent/publishing house system is a pet peeve of mine. I think that the industry is badly in need of some constructive destruction.    I believe that Amazon and other on-line publishing houses are doing to the publishing industry what Apple did to the music business; liberalize it, in the classic sense of the word. Before, it was extremely hard to get published. The antiquated methods that these gatekeepers employed badly needed to be changed and rebuilt more in line with modern times. There still are agents and publishers that will only respond to queries sent via snail mail in this day and age! I think they would be more comfortable in another era and should probably consider retirement. Of course, there is a lot of garbage out there, but that will get better over time as the self-publishing industry policies itself.  Those authors that continue to publish badly edited books will fail and those that publish good works will hopefully thrive.

Why Book Covers are So Important: Book covers are the reader’s first introduction to your work. They need to be eye catching and able to entice the reader into at least trying a sample. My belief is that if your cover differs significantly from that of a traditionally published book; whether it be an ebook or paper, your sales will suffer. I think a cover and professional editing are two of the most significant factors in determining the success of a book.

Michael Blackfox thought he'd left Marine Force Recon behind, but they had other ideas

The best trained man for a high risk mission is dead and Blackfox is uniquely qualified to be the heir apparent. The trouble is he and his father are currently fugitives on the run from the law.

˃˃˃ Marine Special Operations roughly brings Michael back into the fold, while allowing his father to be arrested and extradited. If Michael cooperates, the government will go easy on his dad.

A Russian arms dealer recovers an ICBM from Iraq during the invasion and sells it to the Iranians. They commission him to reconfigure the missile as an electromagnetic pulse weapon that, if fired, will destroy all electronics in the United States--effectively plunging the country back to the nineteenth century.

The launch pad and assembly building are deep within the Venezuelan jungle. The missile's telemetry system is hosted by a closed network. Michael's job is to parachute into the jungle with a team of Marine Special Operators, hack into the network and deliver a virus that will destroy the missile, while making it all look like an accident

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Genre - Action, Adventure

Rating – PG

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Website www.tsoneil.com

Will Shakespeare & the Ships of Solomon by Christopher Grey @GreyAuthor #Excerpt #Action #TBR

Oak Island was lit with electric lights that could be seen from down the bay. Pulling into Chester at night meant that those lights were the brightest on the coast. Will was as surprised as Dorothy, but not because he didn’t know what the contraption was. No one had been excavating on the island for ten years, and yet there was a massive crane and pulley system, lit with floodlights and surrounded by trucks and tents.

He cursed, and Dorothy raised an eyebrow at him.

“Let’s hope they had a late night.”

Checking his watch confirmed it was still only three-thirty in the morning. Not even the most eager started that early.

“Who are they?” Dorothy asked, now recognizing the contraptions as they came closer.

“Treasure hunters.”

“I thought this was a secret.”

Will shrugged. “The promise of fortune makes people very persistent.”

As they drove down Lighthouse Road, the hoopla surrounding Oak Island seemed somewhat anticlimactic. It was a humble hill of shrubs and sand connected by a man-made bridge. Various rocks created several coves and bays on the small plot, and the largest feature was a massive excavation at the southeast end of the island. The notorious “Money Pit.”

Heaving a sigh, he directed Dorothy to park the car on the edge of the island and turn off the engine. Tapping the steering wheel absently, she waited for him as he considered the best approach. They weren’t going anywhere near the Money Pit; however, their hike would take them close enough. It was still cold, and they had no swimwear.

“I’ll be blunt,” he said. “This is no place for a lady. We’ll have to swim and go into ancient underwater caves. If the treasure hunters find us, we’ll have to get away with no clues as to where we were or why. Tell me now if you aren’t up to it. You can stay in the car and keep watch.”

“Sir Shakespeare, if you honestly think I’m going to let you go treasure hunting without me, then you really are mad.”

She got out of the car first.

“So mote it be,” he whispered under his breath.

Incensed that Shakespeare said the words “This is no place for a lady,” Dorothy sought not only to prove that women could be here but that it was better that they were. She’d grown up in an island colony, not some farmhouse in Nebraska. America may have its proverbial undies in a wad over the rights and privileges of women, but British colonies sure as hell didn’t. A woman worked just like a man, and, lest men like Shakespeare forget, it was the women who ran their bloody country when the U.S. troops were overseas.

This was no time to discuss it. Much more important matters were at hand, and despite Will’s demeanor, she didn’t believe he meant harm. He was only trying to give proper warning. After all, she was wearing the business suit she’d bought for this purpose. Had her father convinced her not to, she’d have been wearing slacks and a breathing top—like she always did. Often on the island, she wore nothing but a bathing suit. Stuck in recently purchased pumps, a long skirt that was tight around her hips, a button-up top and jacket, she felt more like a Cosmopolitan advert than a Bermuda Wilkinson. With a hat to boot, it was no wonder Shakespeare had warned her of their upcoming adventure.

She’d overreacted, perhaps, but the whole situation seemed wrong. Was this man really trying to protect her, or was she simply being used to get to the property? She’d play his game, but only because it was clear he thought she was naïve. They’d find what was on her property. She’d then give the treasure to the rightful owner, her father. Anything on land he owned belonged to him, and no ridiculous private club of history conjurers and criminals would take her father’s property from him.

We’ll see what sort of place a lady belongs, Sir Shakespeare.

In the fall of 1947, Will Shakespeare saw the world collapse around him. Shakespeare, a secret soldier for the Knights Templar, barely escapes the slaughter of his entire knighthood at the hands of a rogue militant arm of the Vatican in a small Montreal church. With orders to escort Templar business associate Dorothy Wilkinson back to her home in Bermuda, Will must locate and rescue the most important secret treasure in human history before it is devoured by a hurricane in the watery caves beneath her father's property. The spiraling quest sends Will and Dorothy into uncovering dark secrets that make up the origins of the knighthood as they confront the traps and puzzles that masterfully protect the world's most coveted treasure.

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Genre – Action, Adventure

Rating – PG

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Lucien and I by Danny Wynn #excerpt #adventure #bookworm

I was forty-one when Lucien and I were in Istanbul.  He was twenty-six.  We’d met and become friends two years earlier.  Yeah, I know, it’s weird – a guy in his early forties regularly hanging out with a guy in his mid-twenties.

Why did I have such a friendship?  Well, to some extent, for the normal reasons that people are friends – they like each other, have common interests, et cetera – but I also have to admit it had a fair amount to do with the fact that for the first twenty-nine years of my life, I didn’t remotely have the life I wanted.  The palpable wrongness of how those years felt left a gaping hole inside my person, a more or less constant insatiable want.  And when Lucien came along, I was very likely drawn to the chance he gave me to unexpectedly and belatedly have the late twenties I wished I’d had.

- from Lucien and I (being released in autumn 2014)

How far would you go to add excitement to a life you felt was boring and meaningless?

For seventy-three-year-old Jaime, the answer takes him by surprise. Accustomed to a lonely life high up in the mountains on the western coast of Mallorca, his dull routine is suddenly shattered when a man parachutes from a plane and lands nearby. The plane crashes; the man lives.

It’s a drug smuggling operation gone bad. But Stefan, the man from the sky, has escaped with eight kilos of cocaine in a gym bag. Jaime brings Stefan home and is soon entangled in Stefan’s attempts to sell the cocaine and start a new life.

As they dodge Parisian drug dealers and corrupt Mallorcan police, Jaime’s search for excitement and Stefan’s resolve to find stability lead them both down dangerous paths.

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Genre - Literary Fiction, Adventure

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://www.dannywynn.net/

Read Other #Authors in Your Genre & Other #Writing Tips by Michael Reisig #amwriting

There are no secrets here. Most of this is just hard work and paying attention.

1)    Read other authors in your genre  – read other authors in your genre – READ OTHER AUTHORS IN YOUR GENRE.

2)    If you haven’t already, you should be taking courses on creative writing, literature, and grammar.

3)    One of the biggest things is “live” – Live life to the fullest, experience, experience, experience; that makes the great writers.

4)    Constantly challenge yourself with creative ideas – never stay “in the box” for the sake of comfort.

5)    Talk with other authors – learn the things they’ve discovered. Never be shy, or too certain of yourself – almost anyone can teach you something if you’re paying attention.

6)    Learn to use the web as not only a source of information, but a source of ideas. Don’t plagiarize, but learn from how other people say things, approach situations, etc. Find new ways to forge existing concepts – because there are very few things that are actually “new.”

7)    Listen to your friends when they read your stuff – if they don’t like something, it doesn’t make them wrong.

8)    Don’t ever be afraid to rewrite. Some of the best books written took many turns before they arrive at the best-seller list.

9)    Don’t allow your ego to override your intelligence. Beware of “vanity publishers” who tell you how wonderful you are while holding out their hands for your money.

10)  Have faith in yourself. Never give up. You would be amazed how many of the top selling authors today pasted their walls with rejection slips. You could be the next Clancy or Hemmingway. It would happen, if you don’t give up, if you continue to hone your craft.

The Road to Key West is an adventurous/humorous sojourn that cavorts its way through the 1970s Caribbean, from Key West and the Bahamas, to Cuba and Central America.

In August of 1971, Kansas Stamps and Will Bell set out to become nothing more than commercial divers in the Florida Keys, but adventure, or misadventure, seems to dog them at every turn. They encounter a parade of bizarre characters, from part-time pirates and heartless larcenists, to Voodoo bokors, a wacky Jamaican soothsayer, and a handful of drug smugglers. Adding even more flavor to this Caribbean brew is a complicated romance, a lost Spanish treasure, and a pre antediluvian artifact created by a distant congregation who truly understood the term, “pyramid power.”
Pour yourself a margarita, sit back, and slide into the ‘70s for a while as you follow Kansas and Will through this cocktail of madcap adventures – on The Road To Key West.

IF YOU ENJOY THIS NOVEL BE SURE TO READ THE SEQUEL, "BACK ON THE ROAD TO KEY WEST" (To be released in late August or early September, 2013)

"Jimmy Buffett should set this tropical tale to music! The best Key West stories can only be written by those who have lived here, and Reisig expertly captures the steamy, seedy, beautiful allure of the islands. “The Road to Key West” takes readers on a hysterical journey through the humidity and humanity that only exists in the lower latitudes. And much like the Keys in the 1970s, it’s a hell of a trip.
—Mandy Bolen, The Key West Citizen

"The Road to Key West" combines the dry cleverness of Lewis Grizzard, the wit of Dave Barry, and Reisig's impeccable sense of timing. It's an action-packed, romantic, charming, hilarious take on the ‘70s and its generation. A must-read!
—John Archibald, Ouachita Life Magazine

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From the best-selling author of “The Road To Key West” comes a sequel guaranteed to take the reader even higher – another rollicking, hilarious Caribbean adventure that will have you ripping at the pages and laughing out loud.

“Back On The Road To Key West” reintroduces the somewhat reluctant adventurers Kansas Stamps and Will Bell, casting them into one bizarre situation after another while capturing the true flavor and feel of Key West and the Caribbean in the early 1980s.

An ancient map and a lost pirate treasure, a larcenous Bahamian scoundrel and his gang of cutthroats, a wild and crazy journey into South America in search of a magical antediluvian device, and perilous/hilarious encounters with outlandish villains and zany friends will keep you locked to your seat and giggling maniacally. (Not to mention headhunters, smugglers, and beautiful women with poisonous pet spiders.) You’ll also welcome back Rufus, the wacky, mystical Jamaican Rastaman, and be captivated by another “complicated romance” as Kansas and Will struggle with finding and keeping “the girls of their dreams.”

So pour yourself a margarita, and get comfortable. You’re in for another rousing medley of madcap adventures in paradise, with “Back On The Road To Key West.”

IF YOU ENJOY THIS BOOK BE SURE TO GET THE THIRD IN MICHAEL’S SERIES; “ALONG THE ROAD TO KEY WEST”!
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Michael Reisig takes us back once again to the Key West I wish I had known – and that others wish they remembered more clearly. Kansas and Will are back in “Back on the Road to Key West,” with their trademark penchant for sultry sarcasm and sun-drenched excitement. Once again Reisig captures the character of the Keys in a way that proves he’s been here – and perhaps done that. No one wraps us in humidity and surrounds us with saltwater like this guy, whose tales of the tropics draw us constantly back to their welcoming, yet provocative shores. -- Mandy Miles, The Key West Citizen

Having lived in Key West in the late '70's and early '80's, at a time when Mel Fisher still hunted the Atocha, shrimp boats filled the harbors, and ‘square grouper’ were still an abundant species, Michael Reisig's Back on the Road to Key West, transports me back in time. Will Bell and Kansas Stamps face an assortment of ruthless antagonists and chase adventure with the abandon of the era, and whether you lived it or not, don't miss the chance to now. Vivid imagery, strong prose and an exciting plot make this trip with the boys worth taking. Enjoy the ride!"
-- John H. Cunningham, author of the Buck Reilly Adventure Series

Stumbling their way in and out of trouble and fortune, Kansas Stamps and Will Bell continue to be the idols of what every true Parrot Head imagines real life in The Keys would be -- full of spontaneous adventure. What a great read!
– Bryan Crews, former president, Tampa Parrot Head Club

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WHAT IF YOU DISCOVERED A DEVICE THAT MADE PEOPLE TELL THE TRUTH?
Fast-paced humor-adventure with wacky pilots, quirky con men, bold women, mad villains, and a gadget to die for…

In the third book of Michael Reisig’s captivating series, Florida Keys adventurers Kansas Stamps and
Will Bell find their lives turned upside down when they discover a truth device hidden in the temple of an ancient civilization. Enthralled by the virtue (and entertainment value) of personally dispensing truth and justice with this unique tool, they take it all a step too far and discover that everyone wants what they have.

Seasoned with outrageous humor and sultry romances, Along The Road To Key West carries you through one wild adventure after another. This time, Kansas and Will are forced to wrest veracity and lies from con artists, divine hustlers, and political power brokers while trying to stay one step ahead of a persistent assembly of very bad guys with guns.

In the process, from Key West, into the Caribbean, and back to America’s heartland, our inadvertent heroes gather a bizarre collage of friends and enemies – from a whacked-out, one-eyed pilot, and a mystical Rastaman, to a ruthless problem-solver for a prominent religious sect, a zany flimflamming sociopath, and a Cuban intelligence agent. In the end, it all comes down to a frantic gamble – to save far more than the truth. So pour yourself a margarita and settle back. You’re in for a high intensity Caribbean carnival ride!

NOTE: Much of this book was originally published as a novel of mine called, “The Truthmaker.” But with the growing popularity of my “Road To Key West” series, I decided to rewrite it and publish it as “Along The Road To Key West.” – Michael Reisig

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Genre - Caribbean Humor, Adventure

Rating – PG

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The Sovereign Order of Monte Cristo by Holy Ghost Writer #Adventure #Mystery

The Sovereign Order of Monte Cristo is a continuation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Book I), related through the voice of Sherlock Holmes and The Sultan of Monte Cristo (Book II). It includes exhilarating new adventures, characters, and ideas, carrying the reader past book I and II and into book III of an ever-expanding new series based on the classic.

Those who have already had the pleasure of reading The Sultan of Monte Cristo will certainly appreciate the unique way in which the Holy Ghost Writer has expanded the original story without the help of anyone (except perhaps from the ghosts of Dumas and Doyle).

In addition to comprising a 3rd sequel to The Count of Monte Cristo, The Sovereign Order of Monte Cristo serves as a prequel to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

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Genre – Action, Adventure

Rating – PG-15

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Website http://holyghostwriterbooks.blogspot.ca/