April 15th
 

April 15th isn't just tax day, it's the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, so the cover of this newsletter features my latest book, Morse Code Mysteries and Missives, which contains three stories in Morse Code, then in clear text. The audiobook version has about twelve hours of dits and dahs (dots and dashes) at a default speed of about 12 words per minutes, but is adjustable on most software from half to twice that default speed. Then professional voiceover actor Bruce Pilkenton reads each tale in clear text. There are also print and ebook versions that include triple-spaced Morse Code text, the audio links to the dits and dahs, then clear text. Two of the included stories are by me (historical fiction and steampunk tales) and the third is the actual radio traffic in the North Atlantic the night the Titanic sank.

Morse Code Mysteries and Missives is not only a unique book and conversation piece, but is a great book for puzzle and cryptography fans, ham radio and CW operators, members of the Armed Forces, military veterans, merchant mariners, and anyone who knows or wants to practice their Morse Code on something other than boring practice manuals and short phrases. Sure, it's not a book for everyone, but everyone knows someone who would find this book interesting. And, if you are a member of a CW, Morse Code, or ham radio group that runs contests or has a newletter that reviews books on Morse Code or telegraph equipment, contact me at orphyte@aol.com to see about review or contest copies for your group. More reviews are desperately needed.

And, while we're on the topic of the Titanic, did you know I co-authored a time travel rpg scenario called "White Star Crossing" that takes place on the ship? I also reference the Titanic in my story "Standing Still," which you can find in my story collection Tales Out of Time.

April 22nd

Earth Day

From an author so dedicated to the environment, he arranged to be born on Earth Day sixteen years before it was even created. That's the type of tone you can expect from GREENSWORD: A Tale of Extreme Global Warming.

From Library Journal: "The author of Forced Conversion demonstrates his talent for dark comedy in the style of Kurt Vonnegut and Victor Gischler. Bingle takes aim at both sides of the global warming controversy, addressing global complexities in comedic trappings for a cautionary tale that belongs in most libraries."

They're about to save the world; they just don't want to get caught doing it.

Zeke, Milo, and Brandon are struggling to keep their environmental protest group, GreensWord, alive. It impresses chicks and sure beats getting jobs as corporate serfs in the real world. But their chief benefactor, movie star Matthew Barrington, threatens to cut off funding unless they stop global warming before his Malibu beach house slides into the storm-tossed ocean. In their desperate effort to save the beach house and their organization, the GreensWord trio is willing to try almost anything. No plan is so illegal, so risky, or so stupid that they won't lend it an ear. But nothing is fast enough to stop global warming in time ... until they think of the unthinkable solution.

And although they may be crazed fanatics, they've watched enough T.V. to think they know exactly what to do to foil any investigation of their noble crime. And if their drastic solution to global warming means they also take out the reigning internet tycoon and his monopolistic software company, that's just organic frosting on the vegan cake.

One person can make a difference in the world.
Of course, three people with a plan to stop global warming overnight can make a big difference.

GREENSWORD is a dark comedy about the environment, extremism, stupid criminals, and the lengths to which people will go to avoid getting a real job.

Says USA Today Bestselling Author of the Warlands trilogy, Elizabeth A Vaughan: "I loved GREENSWORD. The characters made me laugh right out loud, but the actions of this group of half-cocked people, with a half-assed plan, had me gasping in horror as their implausible schemes became all too plausibly real. Suddenly, the twists of the chilling plot had me turning the pages, unable to look away from the macabre tale and yet still chuckling guiltily as the story reached its terrifying climax in a horribly real way. GREENSWORD is a darkly humorous, gripping thriller that combines environmental imperatives, terrorist activities, and sex in ways that still make me wake up in a cold sweat, months after reading the book, convinced that it could happen."

From the American Library Association's Booklist: "A novel about three slacker environmentalists may seem an unlikely vehicle for edge-of-the-seat suspense, yet Bingle's satirical ecoterrorist thriller just might haunt readers' nightmares for days. Zeke, Milo, and Brandon are twentysomething conservationists whose only claim to fame, aside from a little TV footage spotlighting their faltering environmentalist organization, GreensWord, is their dubious relationship to action movie star Matthew Barrington. Desperate to save his lavish Malibu beachfront property from global-warming-induced surf damage, Barrington cuts GreensWord a million-dollar check, stipulating that its recipients do something about the ecological crisis immediately. Their ensuing, hare-brained schemes to put the money to good use only generate legal woes until they hit upon one that seems fool-proof ... Needless to say, nothing goes quite as planned, and Bingle's storytelling acumen makes the scenario all too chillingly plausible."--Carl Hays

An Interview with Dick Thornby

It Blows Up Real Good (A blog by Jean Rabe from July 27, 2018, during my blog tour for Wet Work)

I’ve read all of Donald J. Bingle’s novels, and a great many of his short stories. He keeps getting better … and the explosions and threats get bigger.

Wet Work grabbed me from the first page. Contemporary, and exciting. And Dick Thornby intrigues me. I know a lot about Don, we’ve been friends for a couple of decades. But Dick? I’d like to get to know him a little better. So he obliged me and agreed to a Q&A.

You’re an Everyman, the good neighbor, the father, the husband with a sometimes-rocky marriage … the international spy. I’ve read about your exploits in Net Impact and Wet Work, and so I’ve some questions for you.

Of all the careers you could have chosen, why the spy-biz? What about it lured you? And what about it has caused you to stay with it rather than pursue a normal 9-5 that would give you more family time?

There are 9 to 5 jobs? Not that I can tell. Teachers bring tests home to grade, workers are on call around the clock, real estate brokers always have to answer the phone, everyone from salesmen to executives is constantly responding to texts and emails.

Let’s face it. All jobs suck, so you might as well do something you’re good at that makes a difference in the world. None of my jobs have been 9 to 5. Army, Chicago Police Department, Catalyst Crisis Consultant (spy for the Subsidiary). This last job is better than the first couple–more freedom to do what needs to be done and less politics.

Bombs. Pyrotechnics. You seem to be an expert, or at least a fan. What’s the appeal? What are your go-to explosive devices and why? What’s the biggest thing you’ve blown up? And what movie would you recommend that “blows up real good?”

Are you trying to get me in trouble with my boss, Dee Tammany? She was pissed off about my use of explosives before my last couple of missions, so asking me questions about favorite explosives like I’m some kind of pyromaniacal firebug doesn’t do my career prospects any favors. Let’s just say it’s always good to have a few flares in the truck–good warning devices if you break down and they burn hot enough you can light anything that needs lighting in a hurry, even during a storm.

Don’t watch many movies, but Mad Max: Fury Road was nifty on the big screen. That gal can drive and shoot.

The Subsidiary. Tell us a secret about it. Something not revealed in either of your novels.

Not sure I really feel comfortable about this question. Talking about your employer is not something spies do. But Pyotr Nerevsky said to cooperate with this interview and he can be … irksome … when crossed, so here goes. The word is that, sure, the various countries behind the Subsidiary kick in funds to help finance it, but not the kind of money that lets it have the operational freedom and scope it does. There’s an individual behind it with more money than anybody should have. I’m not going to name names, not without some bamboo shoots under my fingernails, but you’d know the name and you’d agree he has money to burn. Glad to see he’s burning it for a good cause.

Globe-hopping—you do it a lot. Of all the places you’ve been, do you have a favorite? And why?

Home sweet home. Traveling is a drag, especially undercover. The biggest part of being a spy is waiting around for something to happen. If you’ve seen one seedy warehouse district in one third-world country, you’ve seen ’em all.

Given the current political climate … regarding the world, the White House, and the intelligence community … how has the spy-game changed?

The Subsidiary was created to keep politics and national rivalries from hindering the missions that need to occur for the good of mankind. When I start a mission, I do what needs to be done and I don’t stop until I accomplish my mission no matter what.

Where are you going next? I heard that your next appearance will be in a novel called Flash Drive. Give us a hint where you’re going and what your adventure might entail … nothing to spoil the story, just something to pique our curiosity.

You know that Australia has almost nothing in the center of the continent–everybody and everything is clustered around the coast. Well, a lot … a lot … can happen in the middle of a great big bunch of nothing. Stuff that would scare you to death, if the critters out back don’t get you first. Some danger is even stranger than the bizarre stuff you can find on the internet.

Thanks for chatting, Mr. Thornby. I wish you well in your future incendiary adventures.

Now you can get the entire

Dick Thornby Thriller Series

in one ebook.

No One Cares About What's Happening in Austria

I've written before about episodic writing versus mythic arcs in television shows. (You can find my blog post from 2012 here.) You know, the difference between a stand-alone crime/monster/case/misunderstanding of the week versus a long-simmering plot/mystery/soap opera. Law & Order is the king of hour-long episodic television, with little backstory about the main characters and a criminal caught and taken to trial in almost every episode. The Law & Order spin-offs (SVU, Organized Crime) have of late veered from this trend, with multi-episode arcs on specific crimes and a lot ... a lot ... of time spent on the lives of the main characters and their backstories. While, I suppose, appealing to hard-core fans, I have to say that I'm not a fan. I don't want spend a quarter of each episode watching Olivia Benson read to her adopted son, Noah, on SVU. Nor do I care about Stabler's brothers.

But what I dislike even more is when shows bifurcate each episode between two different timelines or locations, like Arrow did with the island or Grimm did with Austria. (A writer friend got a gig writing a Grimm tie-in novel and I immediately wrote him that no one cares what happens in Austria.) I understand that many shows have A plots and B plots (often ultimately intersecting) for each episode so as to provide easier ways to film and use an ensemble cast more evenly and efficiently, but to repeatedly spend 25 to 40 percent of each episode not dealing with the same lame subplot instead of the main plot or an original and diverting subplot, whether episodic or mythic drives me insane. About the only show to pull this off well was Lost, but there the flashbacks were not all about the same thing and informed and gave clues about what was happening in the main plot.

Anyhow, that's my rant for this issue. Keep scrolling for more stuff, including what I'm reading now.

What I'm Reading Now.

THE DEAD OF SLED RUN, BY JEAN RABE

It is almost Christmas and yards glow with twinkling lights. 

All is merry and bright.

But more than chestnuts are roasting. 

A raging fire sweeps through the holiday landscape of Sled Run, destroying the home of Chief Deputy Oren Rosenberg and killing two.

Could this be an accident?

Or did bigoted hate fuel the flames? 

Sheriff Piper Blackwell and Detective Basil Meredith believe Oren Rosenberg was targeted. But how did the arsonist enter a secure, gated subdivision? 

With many clues burned to ashes, can Piper and Basil catch the culprits before they strike again? Or is this blaze just the start of the most murder-filled time of the year? 

 "Jean Rabe returns with another installment in her highly addictive Piper Blackwell series. As masterfully plotted as the previous five volumes, THE DEAD OF SLED RUN is a compelling page-turner that opens with a harrowing scene sure to have readers on the edge of their seats, and only escalates from there. The only flaw I can find in Rabe’s mysteries is they are over too soon, but that’s my fault for being unable to put the book down.” —Brian A. Hopkins, Four-time Bram Stoker Award Winning Author

Get the Entire Piper Blackwell Mystery Series Now! 

Donald J. Bingle is the author of seven books and more than sixty shorter works in the horror, thriller, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, steampunk, romance, comedy, and memoir genres. His books include Forced Conversion (near future military scifi), GREENSWORD (darkly comedic eco-thriller), Frame Shop (murder in a suburban writers' group), and the Dick Thornby spy thriller series (Net Impact, Wet Work, and Flash Drive). He also co-authored (with Jean Rabe) The Love-Haight Case Files series (a three-time Silver Falchion winning paranormal urban fantasy about two lawyers who represent the legal rights of supernatural creatures in a magic-filled San Francisco. Don also edited Familiar Spirits (an anthology of ghost stories). He also put out the oddest book you've ever seen. Morse Code Mysteries and Missives has three tales (two stories by Don and a relevant piece of non-fiction) presented in Morse Code text, then via links in audio dots and dasher, then in plain English.

Many of Don's shorter works can be found in his Writer on Demand TM collections.

Get the audiobook version of Net Impact at Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes and the audiobook version of Wet Work at Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes.

Full disclosure: Various links in my newsletter or on my website may include Amazon Affiliate coding, which gets me a small referral fee (at no cost to you) if you purchase after clicking through.