Thursday, September 29, 2022

Truck Driver Doubles as Author and Audiobook Narrator

 

His name is Geoff Sturtevant and he drives a truck. This article interview is from Land Line magazine. I used to review audiobooks for Land Line back when Cracker Barrel stores carried them. You could pick up a title at one store and return it to another. Nowadays people just download to their phones. (Yup, been doing this for 25 years.) Worked for the postal service as a clerk (in Tucson) in the back where they didn't care what you listened to (although I did drive a postal van for a while.) Most guys listened to sports, but I heard 2000 audiobooks, and wrote Postmarked for Death. Anyway, Geoff drives a truck and listens on the road. Writes too. He just finished narrating my book of stories Cat on a Cold Tin Roof, which comes out October 2022. All genres. If you want to check it out go to Flexfiction.com now and in October. Cheers, and let me know if anyone lives in Greenville SC.  @thesportsatheist @burjreview


 Review of Lottery Island HERE.

Monday, September 26, 2022

SAHARA by Clive Cussler (Movie and Audiobooks)

 


All of the Clive Cussler novels are on audio. Many are set in the summer on the ocean. Clive Cussler, of course, was the New York Times bestselling author of five bestselling series, including Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, Oregon Files, Isaac Bell, and Sam and Remi Fargo series. Many of his novels have made the #1 spot of New York Times bestsellers. A movie starring Matthew McConaugh and Penelope Cruz was SAHARA, which had a budget of $130 Million and only grossed $119 Million. Director was Breck Eisner, in 2005. The book dates from 1992. Cussler hated the film, and sued over it (and won.) I liked the film. It's very high concept, and the acting and action sequences never let up. IMDB gives it 6 out of 10 stars. i'll give it 8.  His life nearly parallels that of his hero, Dirk Pitt. Whether searching for lost aircraft or leading expeditions to find famous shipwrecks, he and his NUMA crew of volunteers (yes, NUMA actually exists) have discovered more than sixty lost ships of historic significance, including the long-lost Confederate submarine, Hunley, which was raised in 2000 with much press publicity. Another significant date is when Clive endorsed my own novel “Postmarked for Death” in small press hardcover, which now has a 2019 production on Audible/iTunes. The search for a legendary automobile threatens the careers and lives of husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo in this thrilling adventure in Clive Cussler’s bestselling series. In 1906, a groundbreaking Rolls-Royce prototype known as the Gray Ghost vanishes from the streets of Manchester, England, and it is only the lucky intervention of an American detective named Isaac Bell that prevents it from being lost forever. Not even he can save the good name of Marcus Peyton, however, the man wrongly blamed for the theft, and more than a hundred years later, it is his grandson who turns to Sam and Remi Fargo to help prove his grandfather’s innocence. But there is even more at stake than any of them know. For the car has vanished again, and in it is an object so rare that it has the capacity to change lives. Men with everything to gain and a great deal to lose have a desperate plan to find it–and if anybody gets in their way? They have a plan for that, too. Narrated by Scott Brick, whom I interviewed at this site, and met at the Audie awards. Scott is the busiest voice actor in the business, and winner of multiple awards. Co-author of The Gray Ghost is Robin Burcell, who spent nearly three decades working in California law enforcement as a police officer, detective, hostage negotiator, and FBI-trained forensic artist. She is the author of ten novels.



In another #CliveCussler title, TYPHOON FURY, (an editor's pick at Amazon, click on link) Juan Cabrillo is hired to search for a collection of paintings worth half a billion dollars. The crew of the Oregon soon find themselves in much deeper waters. The vicious leader of a Filipino insurgency is not only using them to finance his attacks, he has stumbled upon one of the most lethal secrets of World War II: a Japanese-developed drug, designed, but never used, to turn soldiers into super-warriors. To stop him, the Oregon must not only take on the rebel commander, but a South African mercenary intent on getting his own hands on the drug, a massive swarm of torpedo drones targeting the U.S. Navy, an approaching megastorm—and, just possibly, a war that could envelop the entire Asian continent. Much fun. Co-writer Boyd Morrison is author of THE VAULT and THE ARK, plus co-author of other Cussler titles such as SHADOW TYRANTS, THE EMPEROR’S REVENGE, and PIRANHA. He is also an actor and engineer who started his career working on the NASA space station project. After earning a PhD in engineering from Virginia Tech, he used his training to develop US patents for various companies as well as manage video game testing for the Xbox division of Microsoft. He lives in Seattle.

Detective Isaac Bell is featured in THE GANGSTER, a 2016 thrilling novel set in 1906 in New York City. The Italian crime group known as the Black Hand is on a spree: kidnapping, extortion, arson. Bell and the Van Dorn agency are hired to form a special “Black Hand Squad,” but the gangsters appear to be everywhere—so much so that Bell begins to wonder if there are imitators, criminals using the name for the terror effect. And then the murders begin, each one of a man more powerful than the last, and as Bell discovers, to his dismay, the ultimate target may be the most powerful man of all. This is an unusual subject and time period for Cussler and co-author Justin Scott, well read (as usual) by Scott Brick. Co-author Justin Scott is author of the Ben Abbott mystery series, and also writes under the pen name Paul Garrison. His Cussler co-authored titles are THE WRECKER, THE BOOTLEGGER, THE STRIKER, THE THIEF, THE SPY, THE RACE, THE CUTTHROAT, and THE ASSASSIN. Whew! Roll all of them together, and you could win any Banana Republic election. Owner of a fleet of classic cars, Clive divided his time between Colorado and Arizona. Among his other books are RAISE THE TITANIC, GHOST SHIP, NIGHTHAWK, SACRED STONE, DEVIL’S GATE, and THE ROMANOV RANSOM…some written alone, some with his son Dirk, too.  Questions? Leave comments below about the movie and Cussler audiobooks. To read my interview with Cussler go HERE.  #TheSportsAtheist is on Facebook groups. Join the discussion there too!

Saturday, September 24, 2022

Kim in North Korea Instructs Underlings on Proper Use of Stadium Seats

 

LINK

Organized religions and sports are similar. They both adhere to dogma like the hounds of hell. Every problem in society, the economy, and our crumbling infrastructure could be solved if people gave up sports for just one year to work on them. Not going to happen. Not any more likely than our two party system will produce efficient, sustainable prosperity for the ignorant and powerless (whose spare time is spent polishing their AR-15s while watching cage fighters with Jesus tattoos.) What chance do these people have? After all, going to a stadium is like going to a cathedral. Their IDOLS get multi-million dollar contracts to push diabetes water on fat kids. They're told they are nobodies if they don't wear neon tennis shoes with the proper (Nike) label...partly made by children in sweatshops in China.  

You really need to leave your brain behind to take Fox Sports seriously. (Unless you're Neil Cavuto or a concussion victim.) Why is it that sportscasters, being so razor focused on scores, find math and science silly if it's not related to scoring symbolic beheadings against the opposing playpen? And isn't this why we're ranked 37th in math and science versus the rest of the world? Just asking. Now listen to something funny that's the perfect gift for anyone wrestling to overcome sports addiction long enough to take out their empty beer cans and pizza boxes. Go to Audible and search for THIS.


This book is written by Jonathan Lowe. You thought Walter Witty was a real name? It's subtitled "Diary of a Sports Atheist," and that's exactly the perspective you get. Narrator Barry Abrams deftly controls the tone of his delivery. Like a deft race-car driver, he knows when to turn on the sarcasm, when to back off. Or like a coach demanding more from his team, he can ratchet up the emotions that this ranting book demands. The book's premise is that sports obsessions have formed a black hole of meaningless reverence in our culture. Self-aware fans might chuckle, but nonbelievers who have no time for sports will nod like bobbleheads. The book reads like the styles of Rick Reilly, Keith Olbermann, and Dave Barry have all been merged. It's entertaining at this length; any more would be too much. M.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Friday, September 23, 2022

The Sports Atheist

 

 
 

Humor or horror? You decide, as sports atheist Walter Witty renders a play-by-play account of America's own most radical of religions: sports obsessions. From the hundred million plus salaries of sports gods to the games played by politicians and televangelists, Witty whistles and points at both Icons and Emperors prancing in their skivvies. Whatever their faith, he has choice words for them and their stories, while telling his own - including a Lossary of Terms. Sure to enrage or delight, The Umpire Has No Clothes is for anyone wanting to escape their crumb-strewn couch, or for the spouse who hopes they might.




 

 

Links to check out ABOUT Walter Witty and Facebook Groups

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/241197233227589/ Check out https://Jonathan-Lowe.com/ about and https://vimeo.com/755970717 which is new ...