Thanks to Emily Bond of PR by the Book, LLC, I am giving away one print copy of ‘Chariots In the Sky by Larry Freeland.
Description Chariots In the Sky by Larry Freeland
Chariots in the Sky is the story of Captain Taylor St. James, a dedicated Army helicopter pilot, who is sent to Vietnam. While performing his duties, Taylor will be challenged and tested beyond any measure he could have ever envisioned.
He is assigned to the Eagles, a Huey Assault Company with the 101st Airborne Division in I Corps. Their flying exploits take them into many familiar places to include: A Shau Valley, Khe Sanh, Quang Tri Province, Hue, DMZ, North Vietnam and Laos.
Along the way, Taylor participated in Lam Son 719, the last major American Offensive Operation of the war. This historical campaign lasted for sixty days and involved over 750 helicopters flying in and out of Laos, supporting the South Vietnamese incursion into Laos. Lam Son 719 was the costliest period of helicopter warfare for the Americans. More helicopters were shot down and sustained battle damage than any other period during the Vietnam War.
About Larry Freeland
Larry Freeland was born in Canton, Ohio. Since his father was an officer with the United States Air Force he grew up on many Air Force bases across this country. After graduating from High School at Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico, he attended the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. He graduated in 1968 with a degree in mathematics and a concentration in finance.
He joined the U.S. Army and served one tour in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division as an Infantry Officer and a CH-47 helicopter pilot. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Medal, with 10 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Bronze Star, and various other military service medals.
Upon release from active duty in 1973, Larry returned to civilian life and pursued a career in the Financial Industry. During his professional career, he continued his education, earning graduate degrees in Management and Banking. He worked for 29 years in the banking business with Trust Company of Georgia, Citizen and Southern Corporation, now Bank of America, and Wachovia, now Wells Fargo. After retiring from banking, he worked as an independent financial consultant for 3 years in the Atlanta area and then worked as an instructor for 6 years with Lanier Technical College in their Management and Leadership Development Program.
Larry is now retired and lives in North Georgia with his wife Linda, a retired school teacher. They stay involved in various activities, most notably those associated with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Veterans related organizations. They also enjoy traveling together and spending as much time as possible with their two daughters, three grandsons, and two granddaughters.
Publisher: Hawkeye Publishers, (April 14, 2020) Category: Fiction: Coming of Age; War and Military; Family Saga Tour dates: May & June, 2020 ISBN: 978-1-946005-34-2 Available in Print and ebook, 400 pages
Description As Good As Can Be by William A. Glass
‘As Good As Can Be’ is a novel about the wayward son of an alcoholic army officer. As his dysfunctional family moves from one military base to the next, Dave Knight develops a give-a-damn attitude that goes well with his ironic sense of humor. In high school he joins other delinquents in a series of escapades, some dangerous, others funny, and a few that would be worthy of jail time should the troublemakers be caught.
After barely graduating Dave gets drafted into the army and sent to guard a nuclear weapons depot in Korea. There he runs afoul of his sergeant and must scramble to avoid dishonorable discharge.
‘As Good As Can Be’ draws on the author’s experiences growing up in an out-of-control military family during the 1950’s and his own military experience.
Advance Praise As Good As Can Be by William A. Glass
“A sweeping family saga that takes you into the world of a military family. A great read.”
“William’s book flows magically, I had a stack of papers to grade one night but thought I would read a chapter before I started. Next thing I knew it was 2:00 am and I hadn’t graded anything!”
Interview William A. Glass
TR: Please tell us something about the book that is not in the summary. (About the book, character you particularly enjoyed writing etc.)
WG: The summary does not do justice to the ironic humor which pervades the book. One reviewer said that she was “worried this would be darker than it was,” but after reading it, she concluded that “As Good As Can Be is a cheeky, enjoyable read.” The summary also leaves out subplots, including one about a dramatic event that has many repercussions. The summary is faithful to the primary plotline, however.
TR: What is your favorite scene in the book? Why?
WG: My favorite scene is Dave’s last conversation with his mother. I cried when I wrote it, and that was the first time I’ve been able to let my feelings go about my own mother’s death. Also, the scene includes one of the few obvious clues in the book about the major theme. The title of the book comes from that scene.
TR: ‘As Good As Can Be’ is based on your childhood with your family, why did you decide to fictionalize it?
WG: I tried writing a memoir, got about half-way done, then kept procrastinating working on it because I hated it. In the meantime, I wrote a short story that worked. One day it occurred to me that the main character in the short story was a self-reflection and that I could write a novel about him drawing on my life experiences. The short story was written in the third person, present tense. That gave it an immediacy my aborted memoir lacked. Also, it had an omniscient narrator, which made it possible to relate important scenes where the protagonist was not present. So that’s the approach I used in writing the novel, and it flows much better than the memoir did.
TR: I always enjoy looking at the names that authors choose to give their characters. Where do you derive the names of your characters? Are they based on real people you knew or now know in real life? How do you create names for your characters?
WG: I guess it’s OK to admit that many characters in the book are inspired by people I knew. So, while writing the book, I often used real names. That helped me visualize the characters and capture their idiosyncrasies. The hard part came in going back and renaming everybody. In doing so, I just tried to pick names that fit the person. I confess that for minor characters, I sometimes resorted to using names of acquaintances or looking up popular names using Google!
TR: How long did it take you to write this book from concept to fruition?
WG: As Good As Can Be took me eight years to complete after I ditched the memoir. I had a very demanding day job coaching college soccer during that time.
TR: What writers have you drawn inspiration from?
WG:I have many favorite writers, but to answer your question, I’ll say Harper Lee, Jack Kerouac, and J.D. Salinger because their books had the most long-lasting impact on me. More recently, Rick Bragg and Frank McCourt have inspired me to get my story down on paper.
TR: Where did you get the inspiration for your cover? Did you design it yourself?
WG: I’m working with a wonderful indie publisher. His name is Timber Hawkeye. I showed Timber pictures of WWII era wooden army buildings and examples of 1950’s station wagon ads and suggested we put them together somehow. He came up with a great concept, then we played around with it until we agreed on the final cover. It was a team effort!
TR: Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead character from ‘As Good As Can Be’?
WG: If I had written this many years ago, a young Adam Sandler would have made a great Dave Knight! Don’t laugh; I’m thinking of his performance in “Reign Over Me.” Also, a young Sean Penn comes to mind. He was a hoot in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I’m not up to speed enough on current movies to pick a contemporary young actor.
TR: What do you do when you are not writing?
WG: My job as a college soccer coach is fun, but it takes up a lot of time including some nights and weekends. I also enjoy exercising and taking long walks with my wife, Bettina. Our rescue dog, Scout, accompanies us. When we can get away, we go camping in the mountains or spend time walking along the South Carolina shore. I often commute to the college where I work on my motorcycle, and that’s a blast. I compare it to taking a roller coaster to work! Finally, of course, I always have one or two books going. I read a while every night before turning out the light.
TR: What was your first job?
WG: My first job was a summer gig working at the Augusta Georgia Coca-Cola bottling company while in high school. It was funny because I was a 90-pound weakling and the other students who worked there were all football players from our school’s 4-A team. We would pull wooden cases of full Coca-Cola bottles off the fill line and stack them. Whew!
TR: What are you currently working on?
WG: I’m working on a sequel to As Good As Can Be.
TR: What book/s are you reading at present?
WG: I’ve been on a Ulysses S. Grant binge. First, I read Ronald White’s recent biography, and then I read the memoir Grant wrote while dying of throat cancer. He wrote it to provide for his wife, and it became a huge bestseller. Now I’m reading Sherman’s memoir. He was Grant’s best friend and a very quotable guy. It was Sherman who said, “War is hell.” But my favorite quote of his came when someone criticized Grant. Sherman answered, “Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, now by God, we stand by each other.” Please bear in mind that William Tecumseh Sherman is the most hated man living or dead where I live, so I need to keep my admiration for the general on the down low!
TR: Is there a question that you would have liked me or another blogger to ask but didn’t? Please answer your question as well.
WG: What impelled you to write As Good As Can Be?A. I wanted to leave behind more than a dusty urn in some crypt when I go. Now I can happily picture someone somewhere in the future randomly taking a musty tome from a bookshelf and getting immersed in my story.
About William A. Glass
William A. Glass, formerly a VP at Gallup, now coaches soccer at a small college in South Carolina and writes. He lives with wife, Bettina, who is a high school German teacher. They have three sons who have all moved away to pursue careers.
This giveaway is for the winner’s choice of print or ebook however, print is open to the U.S. only and ebook is available worldwide. There will be 3 winners. This giveaway ends July 1, 2020,midnight pacific time. Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.
Thanks to Jennifer Vance of JKS Communications, I am giving away one print copy of ‘Seventh Flag’ by Sid Balman Jr..
Description Seventh Flag by Sid Balman Jr.
The US and Europe have unraveled since World War II and radicalism has metastasized into every community, tearing away the decency, optimism, and security that shaped those robust democracies for more than eight decades. No place is immune, including the small West Texas town of Dell City, where four generations of an iconic American family and a Syrian Muslim family carve a farming empire out of the unforgiving high desert.
These families’ partnership is as unlikely as the idea of a United States, and their powerful friendship can be traced back to a bloody knife fight in a Juarez cantina just after World War II. The bond forged that night between Jack Laws, an Irish American who staked his claim in West Texas after the war, and Ali Zarkan, whose great-grandfather sailed from the Middle East to Texas in the mid-1800s as part of President Franklin Pierce’s attempt to create the US Army Camel Corps, shapes each generation of the families as they come of age and adapt to shifting paradigms of gender, commerce, patriotism, loyalty, religion, and sexuality.
From the beaches of the Western Pacific to the battlefields of the Middle East and from the lawless streets of Juarez to the darkest corners of the Internet, the two families fight real and perceived enemies―journeying, as they do, through the football fields of Texas and West Point, the hippie playgrounds of Asia, the music halls of Austin, the terrorist cells of Europe and the political backrooms where fortunes are gained or lost over the rights to Western water. Underlying their experiences is the basic question of what constitutes identity and citizenship in America, or in Texas, a land over which six flags have flown. The seventh flag, ultimately, is not one of a state or a nation, but of a mosaic of cultures, religions, and people from every corner of the world―all struggling to define what it means to be unified under an ambiguous banner.
Praise Seventh Flag by Sid Balman Jr.
“To me, what made this book stand out was the core belief that ‘we are all Americans’ together in this battle against extremism, racial bigotry, and hate, in whatever form it may take.”– Readers’ Favorite
“At precisely the moment when our diverse and multi-ethnic nation needs a spiritual lift, Sid Balman gives us a portrait of the complex racial and generational relations that define who we really are as Americans. You can smell the creosote of the desert and taste the huevos rancheros in this tale of West Texas . . . a splendid account of what being American is all about, a rich portrait useful to us all.”– Mike McCurry, former White House Press Secretary (1995–1998) and Director/Professor, Center for Public Theology, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington DC
About Sid Balman Jr.
A Pulitzer-nominated national security correspondent, Sid Balman Jr. has covered wars in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo, and has traveled extensively with two American presidents and four secretaries of state on overseas diplomatic missions.
With the emergence of the web and the commoditizing of content, Balman moved into the business side of communications. In that role, over two decades, he helped found a news syndicate focused on the interests of women and girls, served as communications chief for the largest consortium of U.S. international development organizations, led two successful progressive campaigning companies, and launched a new division at a large international development firm centered on violent radicalism and other security issues on behalf of governments and nonprofits.
A fourth-generation Texan, as well as a climber, surfer, paddler, and benefactor to Smith College, Balman lives in Washington DC with his wife, three kids, and two dogs.
Chariots In the Sky by Larry Freeland
Seventh Flag by Sid Balman Jr.