Sunday, June 29, 2014

D.Lawrence Young ~ How and why I write historical novels ~


                                                                         D. Lawrence-Young          

I have always liked learning history, even when I had to suffer three of the world’s most boring history teachers in high school. Fortunately, when I went home and told my parents about what I had studied, my father would ask pointed and cynical questions about the heroes or the events we had concentrated on that day. In that way, I learned that there was more than one way in which I could relate to a specific historical hero or incident.

            Another spin-off of this was, that when I became an English teacher, I would pepper grammatical examples I wrote on the board with historical events. In this way I hoped that this potentially dry subject would be more interesting. Using examples such as “If Henry VIII had not fallen in love with Anne Boleyn…” or “If the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler had succeeded…” In this way I hoped made the learning of the conditional structure in English grammar more exciting.

            From this use of English and history grew my desire to write a complete historical novel. This desire was helped in that I feel I don’t have to specialize in dealing with one particular era or country. Therefore I have been able to write about Australia in Sail Away from Botany Bay, about Israel in Six Million Accusers, about Anglo-Saxon kings in Of Plots & Passions, about Tudor queens in Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard as well writing about the 1605 Gunpowder Plot in Gunpowder, Treason & Plot. In addition, I have also written novels about the two World Wars - Of Guns & Mules and Of Guns, Revenge & Hope. And of course I had to write about Shakespeare and Marlowe. These two Elizabethan playwrights became the subjects of four other historical novels.

            When it comes to the actual writing, this and the necessary background research is the best part. In terms of writing this means selecting the most suitable vocabulary and style; not repeating the same words too often and making sure that what I write flows well and is credible and accurate. Even though I am writing fiction, I cannot allow mistakes such as ‘the American Declaration of Independence of June 4th, 1777’ or ‘After the Confederate victory at Gettysburg…’ to creep in. Therefore I work hard to ascertain that if I do include an historical fact, it is completely accurate. This means I have to check my sources very carefully. As an example of this, I once phoned a friend in England who is an expert on trees to ask him about which sort of trees probably grew in the New Forest, the site where King William II was accidentally (?) shot to death by an arrow.

            Finally, I assume that because I was a teacher for many years as well as being a long-suffering student, that today I work hard to choose interesting topics for books and then to write about them in the most ‘page-turning’ way I can. I love reading and learning about what happened in the past and I want you to do the same.

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"Six Million Accusers" is a historical novel reliving the hunt for, and capture of one of history's most evil criminals - a leading Nazi named Adolf Eichmann. 
Having disappeared after WWII, members of an Israeli organization search the world for Eichmann, hoping to one day capture one of the men responsible for brutally massacring millions of Jews, and others. Following any tip possible, eventually they discover a Jewish father and daughter who swear Eichmann quietly lives in their community, under a new name. The search for Eichmann ramps up, and the agents begin to fervently believe they have found their man. 
As they get closer and closer, a plan must also be created to capture Eichmann, and secretly transport the villain back to Israel. Is it really Eichmann? And if so, what complications may arise that might destroy their plans to have this notorious Nazi held responsible for his crimes? 
"Six Million Accusers" is based on historic detail, and David Lawrence- Young does an excellent job reliving the hunt for, and capture of Adolf Eichmann. Well written and easy to read, "Six Million Accusers" should be a staple of the educational discussion of WWII and the aftermath.
 
BOOK LINKS
 
 
 
 
 
D. Lawrence-Young takes the often pompous and frequently silly “Shakespeare Authorship Controversy” and turns it into a fast-paced page-turning detective story. All the nooks and crannies of rival candidates and claims are traversed in interesting locations and often funny encounters. The SAC has got under the Shakespeare-loving and teaching David Young’s skin and he has turned this irritant into a pleasure to read and from which there is much to learn.
 



 
 




Monday, June 23, 2014

MILITARY MEDICAL MEMOIR, NORTHWEST OF EDEN




Yancy Caruthers (1971- )grew up in Alton, MO, and joined the Army Reserves at 17. He became a nurse, and worked in several areas until finding a passion in emergency medicine, which ultimately led to a job with an air ambulance company. He served in Iraq two different times, and retired from the Army as a Captain.

After this experience, he decided to leave the medical profession and pursue other endeavors. He has now lived on three continents, and is hoping to reside on at least three more. He currently lives with his family in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Author Links - 





Book Genre: Memoir, Military/Medical
Publisher: Independent (CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing)
Release Date: eBook April 2014, paperback May 2014
Buy Link(s):

Book Description: Northwest of Eden is the author's first person account of his experience during Operation Iraqi Freedom as second-in-command of an Army emergency department and leader of an air transport team. The varied cast of characters provides top-notch medical care to service members in harsh conditions, while wielding the darkest humor against each other just to stay sane. Most of the time they succeeded...


Excerpt:

My nose hairs stung as I shook the sleep from my head. The putrid smell was back in force, although I hadn’t noticed it the night before. I reminded myself to call someone in housing and have them try to disrupt whatever animal funerals were occurring under my hooch.
I sat down in my office and rested my head on my left hand, feeling stubble there. I hadn’t forgotten to shave, but I’d somehow skipped that half of my face.
“You look like hell,” Maria said.
“I love you, too,” I replied. I went on to tell her the details of the prior night’s flying adventure. I was just wrapping up the story when I looked up to see Sullivan.
“I just wanted to apologize for last night,” she began. “I didn’t mean to leave you hanging with an unstable patient but I had to have eyes out.”
“I understand that. What was going on up there?” I asked. I wanted to ask what was more important than giving our patient CPR, but I held off, figuring Sully would explain it, and she did.
We had taken fire.
Apparently some idiot with a machine gun had opened fire on us, and the pilots had released several clusters of flares to mask our position, then banked sharply to fly sideways to our original course.
Sully laughed as she told me the rest – the bad guy had then turned on a spotlight, trying to shine through the flares to get another crack at us, but he discovered an interesting military fact instead.
The Cobra AH-1 attack helicopter also has a spotlight.
Upon seeing our escort craft, the dirtbag repented of his terroristic ways and ran full speed into the bushes. I waited with anticipation to hear about how the AH-1 fired a rocket up this guy’s ass, but apparently when the medical chopper one is supposed to be protecting takes off in a dead sprint at 150 mph, it’s considered bad form to stick around to shoot one bad guy, so they peeled away and followed us.
Sully’s commander would later tell me that we hadn’t taken “enough” fire for the engagement to qualify as a combat action.
So I was content to know that we got shot at “some.” I was also glad that the guy wasn’t that good at it.







Sunday, June 22, 2014

Victoria Dougherty's THE BONE CHURCH ~ Follow the tour JUNE 16-JULY31

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Excerpt
Chapter 1
Vatican City: March 11, 1956
The viscount with the dense, copper hair rocked back and forth in the front pew. He whispered to the man next to him.
Felix pretended not to notice the disturbance. He unlocked the tabernacle and retrieved a gold chalice, pyx, paten, and crucifix from its purple silk interior, then arranged them on the altar before the Cardinal. A sweet, breathy gust of air blew in from the only open window in the chapel, making Felix’s cassock flutter against his legs. It felt good – almost like the touch of a woman’s fingertips.
“In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen,” the Cardinal said, making the sign of the cross over his head and breast.
At long last, the viscount looked up from his rocking and whispering. He folded his hands and consigned them to his lap, where Felix could still see on the man’s middle finger the shiny indentation where a bulbous emerald ring had rested until a few weeks ago. It had come time to pay off the Romanian attaché and his pet border guard in exchange for a wispy woman with an advanced case of Parkinson’s disease.
“But what wouldn’t a man do for his mother?” The viscount had said upon their last meeting. Plenty, Felix had thought. He’d once watched a man shoot his mother in the face for a single gold tooth rolled in a piece of blood-stained suede. Of course, the attaché had failed to disclose that the viscount’s mother – in addition to her Parkinson’s – was also in the late stages of dementia, soiling herself and exhibiting a total vocabulary of five words: “Paris, last Christmas” and “hideous curtains!” Still, the viscount appeared grateful for her safe recovery. He’d even remarked that she was eating better.
“Judica me deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta: ab homine iniquo; et doloso erue me.”
Psalm 42. Felix recited it in tandem with the Cardinal. Judge me, O God, distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy; deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man.
Mass was brief – twenty-five minutes start to finish – and Felix was glad of it. Cardinal Carlo Merillini’s obligation to the row of elegant gentlemen bowed in the front pew was fulfilled. The Cardinal now stood in the back of the nave with Primo, his valet, while Felix collected the tithes and thanked the visitors: an Argentine cattleman, an American steel magnate, a Polish-born hotelier, the viscount, and a handful of other influential Catholics.
“Envy and death, Father,” muttered the cattleman.
“I’m sorry?”
“It’s all they know.” He was a little man, fully bald.
“Yes.”
The cattleman spoke lovingly of his Lithuanian wife. Pretty woman. Felix had met her before.
“Envy and death,” the cattleman repeated.
The cattleman’s sister-in-law and young niece had been killed by a Russian soldier at the end of the War. Raped on a bed of horse dung in their stables, then bludgeoned with a bottle of cheap brown vodka. Only his wife’s daughter from a first marriage had survived the incident, hiding behind a bushel of hay and biting a salt lick to keep quiet. The cattleman mouthed the girl’s name.
It was just the year before last when Felix had finally been able to arrange passage for the girl. Already sixteen by then, she’d been instructed to dress as a prostitute – presumably for one of the port guards – but was instead folded into the bowels of a sofa and smuggled over the Baltic Sea into Sweden.
“She still hates horses,” the man said. “And she hates her mother.” The cattleman tapped Felix’s forehead with his index finger. “Poisoned her mind.”
Felix looked the man in the eye and clasped his hand. He then took the cattleman’s envelope and handed it to Primo.
“And this is the acquaintance I wrote to you about.” The cattleman tugged at Felix’s cassock.
Felix nodded at the Polish hotelier, though they hadn’t been officially introduced. The man took Felix’s hand and squeezed, bringing it to his lips and rubbing his twice shaved cheek over the priest’s knuckles.
“A tragic story if I ever heard one,” the cattleman said.
The Pole began to sob.
Felix put his hand on the Pole’s head and assured him that he would speak to the Cardinal on his behalf. “These matters take time,” he explained.
He didn’t have the heart to tell the man how far down in the queue he was – how many dozens had come before him begging about a wife, a husband, a son or daughter, a brother, a lover. And how Felix, too, had begged and prayed until finally his turn had come.
About the Author
03_Victoria Dougherty Victoria Dougherty writes fiction, drama, and essays that often revolve around spies, killers, curses and destinies. Her work has been published or profiled in The New York Times, USA Today, International Herald Tribune and elsewhere. Earlier in her career, while living in Prague, she co-founded Black Box Theater, translating, producing and acting in several Czech plays. She lives with her husband and children in Charlottesville, Virginia.
For more information, please visit Victoria Dougherty’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Pinterest.
The Bone Church Blog Tour Schedule
Monday, June 16
Review at Flashlight Commentary
Interview at Mina’s Bookshelf
Tuesday, June 17
Interview at Flashlight Commentary
Wednesday, June 18
Excerpt at The Musings of ALMYBNENR
Thursday, June 19
Guest Post at I’d So Rather Be Reading
Monday, June 23
Review at Based on a True Story
Tuesday, June 24
Review at Bibliotica
Friday, June 27
Review at Back Porchervations
Monday, June 30
Review at Dianne Ascroft Blog
Review at Oh, For the Hook of a Book
Tuesday, July 1
Interview at Oh, For the Hook of a Book
Wednesday, July 2
Spotlight at CelticLady’s Reviews
Thursday, July 3
Review at leeanna.me
Monday, July 7
Review at Library Educated
Thursday, July 10
Excerpt & Spotlight at Books and Benches
Monday, July 14
Review at 100 Pages a Day
Tuesday, July 15
Review at Kinx’s Book Nook
Thursday, July 17
Guest Post at Savvy Verse & Wit
Friday, July 18
Review at Curling Up By the Fire
Monday, July 21
Review at Book Nerd
Tuesday, July 22
Review at The Lit Bitch
Wednesday, July 23
Review at A Bibliotaph’s Reviews
Thursday, July 24
Review at Mari Reads
Review at bookramblings
Monday, July 28
Review at Queen of All She Reads
Review at Good Friends, Good Books, and a Sleepy Conscience
Guest Post at Historical Tapestry
Tuesday, July 29
Review at Historical Tapestry
Wednesday, July 30
Review at Luxury Reading
Thursday, July 31
Review at From the TBR Pile
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Friday, June 6, 2014

SIX MILLION ACCUSERS : CATCHING ADOLF EICHMAN by D. LAWRENCE YOUNG

IF THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU PLEASE CONTACT ME FOR A REVIEW COPY m_c_v_egan@yahoo.com

Blogspot by David Lawrence-Young re. his latest historical novel: SIX MILLION ACCUSERS: Catching Adolf Eichmann
An Interview with Haim A, one of the team who tracked down and captured the top Nazi, Adolf Eichmann.
First of all, tell us something about your life that isn’t mentioned in “Six Million Accusers.”
image descriptionWell, most of my life story is mentioned at the beginning of the novel: how I came to Palestine as a young boy; joined an underground movement; fought in the Second World War and met my future wife. I also described what I did during the Israeli War of Independence and how I joined the Mossad. What I didn’t include was my love of sport. I love playing football and basketball. I try and play these games when I’m at home and I’m a part-time member of my kibbutz basket-ball team. I enjoy these games, especially as playing them gives me a chance to mix even more with my fellow-kibbutz members.

How has Israel changed since when you first arrived there?
When I first arrived, Israel, then called Mandatory Palestine was a very simple, even primitive country by European standards. Today it is as modern as any other Western country. It has also changed politically. At first it was very much the Socialist-flavored country as envisaged by the Founding Fathers such as Ben-Gurion. This has changed a great deal over the past forty years. Today its life-style is very similar to that of the rest of the Western world.

How has being a Mossad agent affected your life?
Being a Mossad agent has certainly affected my life. The downside is that it has made me become secretive in many ways and live my life knowing that I cannot share many of my ‘work’ experiences with my wife and family. They have learned to live with me disappearing from time to time as I go abroad on ‘government business.’ The upside is that I feel I’ve made a serious contribution to protecting my country from all sorts of enemies: internal and external. I’ve also enjoyed much of the foreign travel and have had many ‘work’ experiences which were both exciting and boring. I’ve worked with many good and bad characters, and these I’d never have met if I hadn’t been in the Mossad. Naturally, being one of the team who captured Eichmann was one of the outstanding highlights of my career.

What was your reaction when you first saw Eichmann after you captured him?
I can sum this up in two words – a complete anti-climax! First, catching him meant that I’d accomplished the mission that I had been working on for over two years. Secondly, the man himself was a boring and bland character. As I say in the book, it was almost impossible to believe that this very average looking man who was living in a shabby house in a Buenos Aires slum was one of the most feared Nazis who had organized the genocide of millions of the European Jewish community and others just twenty years earlier.

Did you ever seriously question the legality of illegally spiriting Eichmann out of Argentina and bringing him back to Israel to stand trial?

Never in a serious manner. I did give it some thought and discussed it with my fellow team-members. However, in the end I decided that the moral aspect of bringing him to trial far outweighed the legal niceties of having him tried in Germany or Austria. And remember this was in 1960, fifteen years after the Second World War when many people wanted to put the violent past behind them and start anew.

At the end of the book you say that it would have been better to keep Eichmann in prison for life instead of hanging him. Do you still think that is true?

Yes, and even more so today. When I see how Israel has grown and developed as a country, it would have been a much harsher punishment for him to have spent the rest of his miserable life living in the middle of the country built by the Jews, the people he had done his best to completely annihilate. And this is especially true as he showed absolutely no remorse for the mass-murders he had been responsible for.

What do you think of “Six Million Accusers” as a title for this book? After all, it bears no reference to what you did as a member of the Mossad team.

I think it’s a very good title. As you know, it’s taken from the Israeli Attorney General, Gideon Hauser’s opening speech at Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem. This as you know was not just a trial to seek out justice but it was one that helped to set a precedent for future international criminal trials. These included the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader who was tried for war crimes over a dozen years ago, and also the trial of the Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, who had murdered many of those who’d opposed him during his 25 year reign of terror. In addition, Eichmann’s trial was also one that was geared for international and public education. Remember, this was before the days of Internet, Facebook CNN etc. So having Gideon Hausner open his speech with these words in front of an international audience via their TV stations present in the courtroom was very important.
"Six Million Accusers" is a historical novel reliving the hunt for, and capture of one of history's most evil criminals - a leading Nazi named Adolf Eichmann.

Having disappeared after WWII, members of an Israeli organization search the world for Eichmann, hoping to one day capture one of the men responsible for brutally massacring millions of Jews, and others. Following any tip possible, eventually they discover a Jewish father and daughter who swear Eichmann quietly lives in their community, under a new name. The search for Eichmann ramps up, and the agents begin to fervently believe they have found their man.

As they get closer and closer, a plan must also be created to capture Eichmann, and secretly transport the villain back to Israel. Is it really Eichmann? And if so, what complications may arise that might destroy their plans to have this notorious Nazi held responsible for his crimes?

"Six Million Accusers" is based on historic detail, and David Lawrence- Young does an excellent job reliving the hunt for, and capture of Adolf Eichmann. Well written and easy to read, "Six Million Accusers" should be a staple of the educational discussion of WWII and the aftermath.

~~D. Bettenson




What people are saying...

"D. Lawrence-Young has a knack of bringing history to life with his meticulous research and a style that involves the reader in the dramas of the past.  He has come more up to date with his recent novel which is a compelling account of the Israeli hunt and capture of the mastermind behind the Nazis' "Final Solution", the planned extermination of Europe's Jews, Adolf Eichmann. We see this through the eyes of the only fictional character in the book who becomes one of those tracking down Eichmann to his South American hiding place. The book is full of surprises about what they found there, the way Eichmann was living and his family.  The suspense is maintained even though we know Eichmann was brought to Israel, but right to the last we are kept wondering what might go wrong with his capture and clandestine return to Israel to face trial.

This is a book that's hard to put down until at last justice is served."
- Patrick C. Notchtree Author of: “The Clouds Still Hang”