War and Peace

 

I'll be representing Grant Cottage (ie not selling my own books) at this event tomorrow in the Saratoga Springs Public Library (see this link for details about programs cut off at the bottom of the image).

Then on Sunday May 24 I'll be a tour guide at the cottage, maybe taking in a program by my fellow old-timer Steve Trimm. On June 13, Community Day at the cottage, I will be selling my own books and doing some more volunteering on the side. 

Even though my new historical novel, The Detective and Dorothy Day, is partly about a somewhat famous pacifist, I remain connected to the community of local historians and people interested in the American Civil War, which was the main subject of my first three books.

And I remain formed by the Catholic Worker, where I briefly interacted with Dorothy in 1974-5, as the Vietnam War came to an end. Since then, the United States has involved itself in many other conflicts, mostly in the Middle East. 

Ulysses S. Grant avoided foreign wars as president, and had a peace policy with the American Indians -- although it fell apart in 1876. He also, as readers of his Memoirs can attest, was a blunt, honest and forceful critic of the Mexican War, in which he had fought hard as a young officer. Grant, like Washington and Eisenhower, was obviously no pacifist, but I think all three would be almost as appalled as Day at the routine involvement of our country in a seemingly endless series of wars over the past several generations, with a potential all-destroying world war an ever-present possibility.

The remains of 44 people, mostly young soldiers of the Continental Army, are being reinterred this weekend in Lake George. They were veterans of that army's disastrous Canadian campaign of 1775-6, and very likely died from smallpox. It is proper and poignant for their bones to be laid to rest at Lake George Battlefield Park, and for us to remember, celebrating 250 years since the nation's birth, how the turning point of that war came only 30-odd miles south of Lake George. It was the year after their deaths and the Declaration of Independence, when the Continental Army won the battles of Saratoga. 

But I can't help thinking of Iran, how easy it is to start an unnecessary war expecting easy victory, only to become immediately responsible, through an apparent targeting error, for the deaths of many schoolgirls. Easy, too, to get ensnared in escalation when things go wrong instead of cutting losses, theirs and ours.

Boozy Algorithms (updated)

 

I signed up too late to be on this poster, but will indeed be a vendor (ie selling and signing copies of all four of the books I've written) at this event on Saturday evening May 9 in historic Schuylerville, NY. It sounds like fun, though designated drivers might be a good idea.

Sponsored by Advocates for the Schuylerville Public Library (to which I'll donate some books for raffle or whatever), it will be held at the Old Saratoga American Legion on Clancy Street from 6 to 8 pm. My books will be priced from 10 to 20 dollars each, there will be time to chat, so come on down.

Meanwhile, on the bleaker front of cyberspace, Amazon for some reason listed my new novel The Detective and Dorothy Day as "Temporarily out of stock" for at least several days at the beginning of this month. I am informed this had something to do with their mysterious algorithm but didn't really mean what it said -- ie when that notice appears you can still order the book there without any serious delay in shipping -- but it has contributed to a slump in sales on that site, which presumably is not good for said algorithm. The "out of stock" notice has gone now, so I hope sales will recover. (Update May 7: Sales on Amazon have indeed improved.)

Of course you can still order the book from a store if you want to escape Amazon's clutches. The two lines near the bottom of this Publishers Weekly ad refer to HC (hardcover, with a list price of $19.99) and EB (ebook), along with their ISBNs (international standard book numbers), which might be useful for ordering.

But the truth is non-famous writers can't escape Amazon in the modern book marketplace. That's where you'll make most of your sales, and where the book may take off if people notice it. Good reviews on Amazon are particularly helpful, especially if you bought the book there making it a "verified purchase" -- though they are also helpful on other social media, including specialized sites such as goodreads.

Alas I, being on the technologically clueless and tactless side, have been unable to successfully take control of my goodreads page, and have had limited success (despite their graciousness) on the separate site librarything. Amazon, on the other hand, is easy to navigate and I appreciate its author page. I don't plan to give up on them or urge anyone else to do so.

See you in Schuylerville, maybe.