DISPATCH :: Operation Warrior Library salutes Charles Bock
12:32 PM PDT, April 29, 2009
 Every once in awhile you read a book that just crawls into your DNA where it will stay for the rest of your life. So it was with BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN by Charles Bock. I hesitated reading it at first because its topic involves a child that goes missing, and as a parent, I already have that fear deeply ingrained in me and didn't know if I wanted to actually, y'know, face the fear writ on the page. But, in the hands of someone as skillfully righteous as Bock, the disappearance becomes something far more than a plot device, but the opportunity for an artist to explore and describe aworld in which we are living, but most of us are not, hopefully, living in. It's been reviewed extensively and most of the reviews are right in that this is a major book by a major new artist. Bock has written a book that examines just how easily America can break a fragile soul. His journalistic skill is as enviable as his audacious technique - he can pull a narrative apart and put it together again in amazing ways. Not that I feel that I have to always draw things back to Jack London, but in THE PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS, London disappeared into the London underworld of 1902 and came out with a book full of the outrage at the way a society systematically destroys the spirit of an underclass. BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN is a fitting literary successor over a hundred years later. It's obvious Charles has spent much time out amidst the people he's writing about. Get this book. It will stay with you. Thanks to Charles, we have delivered a box of signed copies of BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN to troops in Afghanistan. You can support Charles by buying his book. Remember, any purchase you make in the OWL store goes to helping us get more great books to our troops.
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This is syndicated from Dispatches from Paul, and written by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Malmont).
DISPATCH :: Operation Warrior Library salutes Lewis Robinson
12:32 PM PDT, April 29, 2009
 I'm not the biggest fan of using the shorthand technique to describe a book, or movie, or anything else, for that matter. But I'm going to do in this case, for Lewis Robinson's great book, WATER DOGS and I mean it in the best possible way. This book reminded me of SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS and THE SECRET HISTORY. There, I said it. Robinson delves deeply into the rich lives of characters snowbound in their isolated Maine landscape as they struggle to come to terms with a defining event.Quiet, expertly told, and wonderful. I highly recommend it. Thanks to Lewis, we have delivered copies of his book to troops in Afghanistan. You can support Lewis by purchasing his book. Remember, any proceeds from books purchased in the OWL shop go directly to sending even more great books to our troops.
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This is syndicated from Dispatches from Paul, and written by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Malmont).
DISPATCH :: OPERATION WARRIOR LIBRARY salutes Meg Gardiner
8:20 PM PDT, April 14, 2009
 I'm turning this post over to my wife, Audrey...Author Meg Gardiner is incredibly prolific: she churns out top-drawer thrillers in two series at a fast clip, she really takes care of her fans with frequent signings and conventions, and she writes a witty and aspiring-writer-helpful blog (www.meggardiner.com). And she’s taken care of the troops just as well: she sent us a box filled with a huge selection of her paperbacks and then was kind enough to mention OWL in her blog this week. Further highlighting my own crappy work ethic. Meg Gardiner knows how to keep a person up reading through the night. And the night she kept me up was over a month ago. So apologies to Ms. Gardiner. I selected THE DIRTY SECRETS CLUB out of her box of goodies; this is from her Jo Beckett series, and I need to check out her Evan Delaney series next. Jo is a “deadshrinker.” A nice change of pace from the morgue and scalpels, Jo dissects the psyches and lives of victims to help the police catch killers. Stephen King is absolutely right – he calls her “the next suspense superstar.” Her prose is modern and absolutely jangles with energy. I felt like I was in Jo’s head, the words and action tumble out in nearly stream-of-consciousness style. And the action never stops. Jo is tough yet still vulnerable, and as she solves the mystery of why seemingly unconnected people are committing suicide in spectacular and public ways, we also slowly learn about her broken past. The satellite of characters around her aren’t just cutouts to hold together a clever plot, each feels real and we are given insight into their side of the story. And the surprise twist of the ending is very believable in our political times, where we are faced with lack of ethics and lack of regard for consequences every day lately. Meg Gardiner is fairly new on the scene here in the U.S, but she has been a bestseller in Britain for a while. Which allows readers here the great pleasure of plowing through one of her series in a single swoop. Enjoy! Thanks to Meg we were able to send her books to troops in Afghanistan. You can support Meg by buying her books. Remember, any purchase you make in the OWL store goes directly to covering costs.
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This is syndicated from Dispatches from Paul, and written by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Malmont).
DISPATCH :: Operation Warrior Library DELIVERS!
8:59 AM PDT, April 3, 2009
Lots of excitement here today as the mission has been accomplished. Thanks to some wonderful people, yesterday we were able to deliver around 700 books to 1 of the 48th Brigade's Infantry Battalions leaving for Afghanistan next week! The Battalion getting the books is the 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry - commonly called 2nd Foot because of its descent from the 2nd battalion of Infantry raised in the pre-Revolutionary Colony of Georgia.
Here's how it went down.. The first step was to collect a bunch of books from great authors and here are the people who answered the call: Jon Fasman * Tess Gerritsen * Meg Gardiner * Jason Pinter * Charles Bock * Daniyal Mueenuddin * Trish Ryan * George Mastras * Bob Drury and Tom Clavin * Lewis Robinson * Tiffany Baker * Jon Guenther * Robert Buettner * Angie Fox * Chris Ryan * Lily Burana And here is how their contributions stacked up in my garage after we affixed a sticker. To give you an idea of scale - my son, Wesley, who is standing in front of them in his picture is 5' tall! Well, not really, but it's still an impressive stack of books.  So now we've got what's known in the military as a logistical supply chain problem: How do I get these books from our "headquarters" in NJ to Fort McPherson in Georgia. In the past we've paid to ship a few boxes at a time from our own pockets but this, this was much too expensive for us. It's a good kind of problem to have. While the army looked into ways to deliver, we did too. What we came up with was UShip - my new favorite company. These guys let you post your shipment and then truckers can bid on it. Many times trucks have extra room, or are returning from a delivery empty, and it's always good to have a fare. Fortunately for us (and something I didn't know about until I was filling out their simple forms) they have a charity option. This lets drivers know that they might consider bidding less than the usually would. I posted on a Tuesday night. Within a day I had several offers to do it for almost next to nothing. But on Friday, I heard from Jacqueline Wilts, who was in my part of the world and heading south. Jacqueline could be at "headquarters" in a few hours and would deliver the books for nothing. Zero. Zip. A few hours later, as good as her word, the truck rumbled up and out popped Ms. Wilts and her daughter Emmy who was spending spring break on the road with Mom. Here they are with my wife, Audrey...  ...and a few of their other traveling companions.  Off to work we went...     ...and, soon enough, the books were ready to go.  Yesterday, Jacqueline delivered the books into the care of Major Robert Davis who has been helping us distribute the books on his end. He tells me that the books that aren't going out next week with 2nd Foot will be distributed amongst the rest of the 48th Brigade. Several cases of Lily Burana's book, I LOVE A MAN IN UNIFORM, will be delivered to Family Readiness Groups (really the wives groups) to distribute to their members as Lily had hoped they would. Each book has a sticker on it with our logo. The stickers also invite the troops to join the authors and discuss the books with them in a special forum which we've just kicked off. Here's what you can do to help. Obviously the books the authors have donated are books they can't sell. You can buy their books, support them, as they support the troops. You can find all the OWL authors in our OWL Store. Any proceeds from any sales there go directly to helping us send more books. Also, consider UShip the next time you buy a jukebox from ebay.  Sometime very soon I'll be able to post photos from Major Davis of the troops receiving the books. Stay tuned. And if you're an author and want to kick in contact us as warriorlibrary [at] gmail [dot] com.
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This is syndicated from Dispatches from Paul, and written by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Malmont).
DISPATCH :: Operation Warrior Library salutes Robert Buettner
8:59 AM PDT, April 3, 2009
 One summer when I was 13 or 14, my best friend's neighbors asked us to organize their books for them. So Chad and I climbed the stairs into a dark, stiflingly hot, attic and I discovered my first lost world. You see, Chad's neighbors were huge science fiction fans and their attic was filled with thousands of paperback novels that they would just finish and toss up the stairs. We were free to take any that looked interesting to us as long as we boxed up all the rest - to make room for more, I guess. To this day I can still smell the scent of dry paperbacks and sweet, aged, attic wood. For a week we straightened up and I came out of that attic with supermarket bags (paper, not plastic) filled with books which we plowed through. I kept going on those bags all summer, even after Chad had lost interest. I read so many titles and stories that they're just jumbled up in my head now - images without author or title. Someday I might start a feature called "What was that book?" and see if some of you can define my query. Of course, some of the best ones are never forgotten. I read the late Philip Jose Farmer's entire RIVERWORLD series (and I owe an in memorium tribute to this writer who passed away last month). That was also the period in which I discovered Robert Heinlein - the best writer of the golden age of sci fi. One of the things that separated Heinlein from all the other writers of his era was his ability to inject genuine emotion into the characters he wrote about. Sure he was writing about rocket jocks but these were men who were not destined to be heroes just because they happened to be the protagonist of a story. They were filled with fear and desire and courage - they doubted their decisions, their convictions, and they suffered for their choices. Heinlein provided the essential ingredient necessary to elevate a whole genre. Another great twist Heinlein was fond of was telling a story not from the usual hero's point of view. Instead of a space captain's story - Heinlein would tell the story of an ordinary soldier, or a teenager, or any other person who might be unremarkable under any other circumstances but the one they find themselves in. Like Juan Rico in STARSHIP TROOPERS (the book, not the movie). Obviously, I'm a fan of Heinlein. I've written about him twice: first in THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL, and now in THE ASTOUNDING, THE AMAZING, AND THE UNKNOWN. Robert Buettner has to be a fan of Heinlein, as well as a student and, perhaps, heir apparent. His novel, ORPHANAGE, tells a similar tale of a potentially wasted youth who joins the army, survives his own weaknesses to make it through basic training, puts his trust in the mission and system around him, and rises to greatness through the events surrounding an alien attack on earth. One of the astonishing things about his book is the verisimilitude of the military sequences. From the fears and pains that plague a new recruit, through the military tactics and chain of command a troop faces on the battlefield, it reads incredibly real. Like Heinlein who was a Naval officer, Buettner has had real (and interesting) experiences with the military (seriously! Check out his site for the details.) That realism, combined with humor, flair, and a sense of awe make the ORPHANAGE series one you should check out. Thanks to Robert, we have a donated box of ORPHANAGE being delivered to troops heading to Afghanistan. There will be a major announcement about that soon! In the meantime, you can support Robert for his donation by picking up one or more (c'mon people, it's a series!) of his books. Remember, the proceeds from any book you purchase in the OWL Store goes to support Operation Warrior Library. Thanks, Robert!
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This is syndicated from Dispatches from Paul, and written by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Malmont).
DISPATCH :: Operation Warrior Library salutes Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
9:34 AM PDT, March 23, 2009
 So it was a little chilly yesterday in New Jersey and I was outside doing a little yard work and I scraped my knuckles. You know how that can sting a little bit more when it's cold out. I was bitching to myself about it when I flashed upon the book I had just finished reading, THE LAST STAND OF FOX COMPANY, and I instantly felt like the world's biggest wuss. Here's the deal - it's 1950 in Korea and a group of about 250 marines are ordered to hold a godforsaken hill against tens of thousands of Communist Chinese soldiers surging down to join the conflict. Over seven days and nights in weather that reached 3o-degree below freezing these brave soldiers did just that. It's one of the most incredible war stories I've ever heard of. It reminds you just how incredible our troops can be when the circumstances require it. Do yourself a favor and read it now. Thanks to Bob and Tom we will be shipping a box of their book to troops in Afghanistan. Please support them by picking up a copy. Remember, the proceeds from any book purchased in the OWL store goes to cover our costs. Thanks Bob and Tom. And Fox Company.
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This is syndicated from Dispatches from Paul, and written by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Malmont).
DISPATCH :: Operation Warrior Library salutes George Mastras
9:34 AM PDT, March 23, 2009
 One of the questions I get asked about having written about Jack London is whether or not anyone today has the balls to set off after adventure and then write about it honestly the way he did. Let me introduce you to George Mastras and his unbelievable novel, FIDALI'S WAY. George was a lawyer who left it all behind to answer the call of the wild and go exploring. He's no armchair adventurer - his wanderings took him to some of the world's most notorious danger zones in Pakistan and India. He's turned his adventures into a remarkable novel of a young American who gets himself into trouble of the worst kind. The cruelty and horrors he experiences is only offset by the kindness and hope of the people he encounters. What makes it so worthy of Jack London is just how honest and unsparing it is. He combines a reporter's eye with an artist's heart. If you want a glimpse into the world America has stumbled into then look no further. Thanks to George we are able to ship a case of his book to troops in Afghanistan. Please support George by checking out his book. Remember, if you buy a book in the OWL store the proceeds go to help cover our costs. Thanks George.
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This is syndicated from Dispatches from Paul, and written by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Malmont).
DISPATCH :: Jacksonville's Big Read, THE CALL OF THE WILD, and me.
8:23 PM PDT, March 12, 2009
The Big Read is a national program created by the NEA intended to inspire and motivate communities to read. Library systems pick a book from a number of classic titles and then offer events and programs in support of the book.
Last week I had the honor to deliver the opening address for the Jacksonville Library's Big Read events. They've built a fantastic library down there and after the Much Ado About Books Festival they kept me around to talk to local families about THE CALL OF THE WILD. For what it's worth, I decided to post my speech: === I’d like to thank the Jacksonville Public Library for having me down here where it’s warm instead of freezing in New Jersey. Thanks to Keith McLaughlin and everyone here at this fantastic library. My mother and grandmother were both children’s librarians so I grew up in libraries – I can’t tell you what an important part libraries have played in my life. Libraries were also incredibly important to young Jack London. He was born into a life of grinding poverty. If you think you’re poor today, compared to Jack, you’re not. There was no social net to protect him at all. Wits and will was how people got along. A free library was a gift to a young man with a thirst for knowledge. It’s where he educated himself. And if it hadn’t been for a librarian who took an interest in him and pointed him in the right direction each time he needed it, who knows where he might have ended up. That’s what a great librarian truly does – helps guide a questing mind. I’d like to welcome all of you to the Kick-off event for this year’s JaxRead program. This is part of a nationwide program called the Big Read, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Its mission is simple, to inspire people across the country to pick up a good book. I am the author of a new novel called Jack London in Paradise. I can’t think of a better good book to pick up than the book JaxRead has selected and that I’m here to talk about tonight, Jack London’s Call of the Wild. It’s hard to believe that this amazing book is over a hundred years old. It was published in 1903 but you could be led to think that it was just written last week. That’s one of the reasons that The Call of the Wild is such an important book – it is what they call a timeless tale. Jack was twenty-six years old when he wrote it. It was his second novel in what would become an amazing string of fifty books over the next fourteen years with over twenty of them novels. The Call of the Wild is not a very long book but it took Jack London a long time to write it. He hadn’t seen his friends in a long time while he was working on it. When he finished it he brought all his friends to his home and read the whole thing to them. All of them knew by the next morning that it was a masterpiece. The Call of the Wild is an adventure story. It’s an adventure story about a dog. A dog named Buck. Nowadays we’re used to realistic stories where animals are the heroes: classics like The Yearling, Misty of Chincoteague, The Black Stallion, Black Beauty, even Bambi. If you haven’t read those books, you ought to. But remember, when Jack wrote The Call of the Wild no one had ever down it before. It was crazy. And an incredible leap of imagination. And it was a huge bestseller. Although The Call of the Wild is a book about a dog, it’s not really a children’s book. It’s an adventure story and it’s violent and sometimes very scary. After all it’s called The Call of the Wild, not The Call of the Backyard. London writes about the dog’s feelings, he doesn’t try to make Buck think like you or me. Buck the dog is stolen from his happy home and taken to the frozen land of Alaska during a period known as the Gold Rush, when people from all over went there to try and discover their fortunes. It was a very difficult environment to survive in. People, and dogs, were sometimes mean and life is not always fair. Bad people don’t always get punished and good people sometimes get hurt. Buck doesn’t even know he’s on an adventure, he’s just trying to survive in his new life. Buck not only conquers the weather, the harshness of the men, the other dogs and the wolves he comes into contact with, he thrives. What makes the story so great is that Buck sees the worst and best in people along the way until he finds his own place to be happy. Why is The Call of the Wild still being read a hundred years after it was written? After all, there are no wizards, nor vampires, nor ‘droids in this book. And yet a lot of people like this library, and the NEA and me, think you should take a look at this book. Don’t you hate having to read a book that everyone says is important? Well, I’m here to tell you that, yes, this book is important, but it’s also an exciting story that will blow your mind, as my young son would say. The Call of the Wild is really about answering the call to go on an adventure. Jack London, the writer, heard this call and went on an incredible adventure to the Gold Rush when he was only twenty-one. Now to some of you, twenty-one might seem like an incredibly old age, but I’m here to tell you that when Jack did this, he was a young man indeed. He traveled by boat, by foot, and by dog-sled, over mountains, rivers, and frozen tundra and he was hoping to find a gold mine. What he found instead was gold of a different sort. Remarkable stories like “To Build a Fire”, “An Odyssey of the North,” and White Fang came out of his time in the Yukon. Jack London reminds us even today that sometimes we all have to look for adventures in our lives. We should all answer the call of the wild, every now and then. Jack took many adventures in his life. He sailed the ocean, traveled the country, explored the world. He lived a life that wasn’t safe in an age when you couldn’t use your cell-phone to call for help. He discovered the great freedom and beauty to be found when in exploring the wilderness and that you can discover wonderful things about yourself as well. Now I’m not suggesting that everyone here rush out in search of adventure. Remember, adventure found Buck. And adventure will find you some day. Meanwhile, books can be much safer. And not every adventure will lead you into the wild. Reading a book like The Call of the Wild or My Side of the Mountain, The Island of the Blue Dolphins or Hoot can help you appreciate nature and the environment even if you’re just taking a walk in the park. You may not be able to explore the Yukon anytime soon to search for fortune and glory, but the whole idea of adventure in our age may have changed. But the wild hasn’t. Now when we answer the Call of the Wild it is to help preserve those wild places, be it the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge, or here, closer to your home, the Everglades, for future generations. Because a hundred years from now people will still be reading The Call of the Wild and we want to make sure that a hundred years from now there are still some wild places where that call can be heard and answered by someone who needs a little adventure in their lives. Thank you.
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This is syndicated from Dispatches from Paul, and written by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Malmont).
Operation Warrior Library thanks Jason Pinter
7:24 AM PDT, March 10, 2009
 Jason Pinter has done us a real solid by sending a box chock full of his books featuring his hero reporter Henry Parker. The series includes THE MARK, THE STOLEN, and THE GUILTY. I started off with THE MARK (which was a good choice as it turns out to be the first in the series!) and I couldn't have picked a better book to take with me on my trip to the Much Ado About Books Festival in Jacksonville last week. Ever since I read THE STAND in junior high I realized that if one was going to live in New York as I intended to, then one needed an escape plan from the city. Whether it was to escape the ravages of an apocalyptic plague or the (inevitable) zombie wars it was good to know more than one way to get out. My emergency escape plan included making my way to one of the city's marinas and slipping away on a boat. Jason Pinter has given the New York escape plan some thought to and come up with as good a reason as the zombie wars to want to get out and that's if the whole city thinks you're a cop-killer, a vengeful detective is searching for you, oh, and so is a psychotic mob hitman with vendetta issues. Your face is splattered across all the local newspapers including the one you write for - you've got no friends, nowhere to turn, and time is running out. How do you get out of town? Jason's figured it out. Can't wait to see how he follows it up. You can support Jason by picking up his books. Remember, any purchase you make in the OWL store goes to helping us send these books on to troops in Afghanistan. Thanks, Jason.
addthis_pub = 'pmalmont';
This is syndicated from Dispatches from Paul, and written by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Malmont).
DISPATCH :: Operation Warrior Library thanks Tess Gerritsen
1:05 PM PST, February 28, 2009
 Since we've received close to 500 books from nearly two dozen authors, I need a little help reading and posting all these books in a timely manner. So, guest reading and blogging today about Tess Gerritsen is my lovely wife. Take it away, Audrey!I had given up on forensic procedural thrillers. Sure, I loved Scarpetta and Brennan. For a while I couldn’t get enough. But then I OD’d on a gazillion CSI episodes – like millions of other viewers, I could BE a forensic investigator myself by now. I was many bodies past the saturation level.* But here it is, well past midnight and my bedtime. Turns out there was a really sick serial killer story I hadn’t heard before. And now my bedside light is gonna stay on all night. Ms. Gerritsen was kind enough to donate a big box of her books to Operation Warrior Library. The titles tantalized me, I’m sure I had that look in my eye that I sometimes see in Paul’s (he’s a former smoker and can occasionally be enticed for a few puffs by my mother, of all people). But it was the back cover copy of Body Double that sealed the deal. A pathologist finds her doppelganger on her own dissecting table? Got me. And there went the next 4 or so hours. I don’t want to risk spoiling the mystery with too many details. But this plot is sure to resonate with – and freak out – women my age,** particularly those who are pregnant or who struggled with infertility or have adopted. Yeah, it’s effing twisted. But even better than the creepy buried-alive scenes and icky intricate details of crushed skulls are the characters – Dr. Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli are fully realized and interesting beyond their careers. No placeholder people for medical techniques and police jargon here. And while Rizzoli might be a little obsessed with her weight, it’s only because she’s pregnant, not because her entire characterization is supposed to be summed up in her never being happy with her outfit because she thinks she looks fat. Cool women you’d want to know, except that would mean you’d have a dead husband and were prime suspect or something. As the cover for the paperback tells you, Tess Gerritsen is a bestselling author and doesn’t really need me promoting her. But if, like me, thought you had read it all in this genre, YOU ARE MISSING OUT. We’ve made it really easy to order books from OWL authors, just click here. Proceeds help pay for shipping costs on new book donations. * Full disclosure: I do actually watch Bones, but because of my Buffy allegiance only originally. Best partner chemistry since Dave and Maddie on Moonlighting, I swear, so now I’m hooked. ** Argh. Now I have to admit I’m turning 40 in a few months.
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This is syndicated from Dispatches from Paul, and written by Paul Malmont.
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Bio
I have lived in New York for over 20 years and currently reside in Brooklyn with my wife and my sons. "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril" is my first novel.
As much as I love writing, I would also dig being a Disney Imagineer - I like the idea of creating virtual story events that put the guest in the starring role. So when you see my favorites, you'll see a lot of Disney stuff.
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