THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB discussion
Authors and Their Books
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AUTHORS FORUM- PD ALLEN
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Hello Elizabeth,Yes, I would be glad to provide you with all the links.
Kindle ($1.00): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003...
Print ($7.98): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449...
Smashwords ($0.99): http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
Website: http://www.mountainsentinel.com/
Blog: http://allenpd.blogspot.com/
You can find samples from the book on the website, through the blog and elsewhere.
Best Wishes,
PD Allen
Hi PD,When you were young did you ever envision this is how you would be living as an adult? What was the event in your life that most influenced your decision to live such a rugged life?
I've always loved the wilderness. After graduating from high school, I would regularly venture out into wilderness areas for lengths of time. Later, when I fathered a child, I chose to get a degree in geology largely because it would keep me out in the woods. The life isn't all that rugged. There's much less stress than most people experience in the 'civilized' working world. Most of my time is free to write & play the fiddle and the banjo.
There's really no place I'd rather be.
Best Wishes,
PD
That really does seem peaceful. Do you ever get scared in the middle of the night when you realize how isolated you are? I probably have seen Blair Witch too many times lol
I'm safer out here in the woods than in the city. People are so unpredictable. They're the only thing in nature capable of true evil.
No direct connection. I over-abbreviated in my response.
Tales of da Yoopernatural harkens back to the tradition of spooky stories told around the campfire late at night. Each volume contains frightful tales of adventure and mythos, enchantment and the supernatural, tales of a depth and character to match the land from which they are drawn. Tales of da Yoopernatural.In volume 1, Blood Moon, Connie Hillman follows her former lover into madness. In the ancient Huron Mountains, she encounters ghosts, cannibalistic Weendigo, and a mysterious giant while trying to rescue the man she cannot stop caring about, Phil Waverly, an anthropologist lost in his obsession to prove his own demented theories.
This volume also contains The Buck of Mulligan Plains. Henry Kincaid enters into a mythic hunt that will bring him face to face with the Lord of the Wilderness. Meanwhile, his lover, Lilith Gordon, fears that she will lose him forever.
Current publication schedule:* February 2010 — The Secret Life of Trees; Tales of da Yoopernatural Vol. 2
On his way back to Michigan Technological University after Thanksgiving break, Carl Landau finds a scantily clad women trudging through the snow in the middle of the wilderness. In attempting to help her, he encounters ghosts and supernatural beings in a vendetta that dates back over a century to the logging days of the late 1800s. Also in this volume, The Giant Killer. Five-year-old Rene DeClaire embarks on an adventure with fairies and a giant-killing dwarf.
* April 2010 — Afraid of the Dark; Tales of da Yoopernatural Vol. 3
Erick Anderson and two friends encounter a demonic entity deep in the copper mines of the Keweenaw Peninsula. To survive, Erick must overcome his fear of the dark. Also in this volume, On Ice. Bruce Torvalds encounters an ancient, enchanted sturgeon and struggles to survive a fierce blizzard.
* June 2010 — A Killer's Pride; Tales of da Yoopernatural Vol. 4
Stephen DeClaire follows his best friend into the military and finds himself in the middle of the US empirical war in Iraq. His tribal heritage gives him a unique perspective on this war. In the end, he must choose to follow the Buffalo Maiden or the Beast of Babylon.
* August 2010 — Fiddle Sticks
This is a fantasy novel full of adventure and harrowing encounters, yet not without some deeper meaning. It involves several characters from the earlier Tales of da Yoopernatural stories.
* Fall 2010 — Songs of the March Hare
Short stories and novellas literary, satirical, surreal and humorous.
* Early 2011 — Murderer's Sky, Book 1 of Under Shattered Skies
Albert Hayne, bard and former priest, writes about events in the border town of Heater Arizona and nearby Ridgepoint Air Force Base. The massacre of fifty-eight Mexicans out on the desert is tied to an infection of the atmosphere that threatens all life on the planet.
In a world of economic upheaval and resource depletion, a cabal of the elite is planning to use the planetary collapse for their own gain. They are hijacking a top secret geoengineering project in order to harness dæmonic archetypal powers and become the directing force of an emerging hive mind. Only Albert and the townspeople of Heater stand in their way.
* Spring 2011 — A second (untitled) novel in the Yoopernatural series.
A popular uprising in da UP, eh.
* June 2011 — Dæmon's Sky, Book 2 of Under Shattered Skies
Mod
Well, I could never hunt raccoon. Other than that, I have had some special encounters with fox.
Naive question, have you fished for food? Always wanted to do that.
Mod
Not at all.Yes, I fish a lot. It's about the easiest way to secure protein. In the third volume of Tales of da Yoopernatural, which should come out in April, there will be a story about a guy who goes ice fishing, meets an enchanted sturgeon and gets caught out in a blizzard.
Written from the café:Walt's Bait and Cyber Café
The town of Watersmeet, in Gogebic County of Michigan's UP, is hardly bigger than a stop light, a post office and a bar. When Trance Jorgensen opened the Watersmeet Cyber Café, I thought it was a junk shop stocked from the old landfill off US 2.
Trance had been collecting old computers from the time he was twelve years old. Now they were all cobbled together in makeshift terminals set up all around the ramshackle building everyone around here still thought of as Walt's Bait and Tackle, even though Walt Fowler retired from the business over a decade past.
My assumption was an honest enough mistake, considering the décor and the lingering odor of dead minnows and worm fodder. At least I was observant enough to note the store had changed its services.
Untold numbers of disappointed anglers visited the café during its first few months in operation, only to flee in outrage at finding the fish tanks and nightcrawler beds were left empty. Some even made return trips just to tell Trance how outrageous his defacement of a community institution was.
Trance took it all in as part of his experiment in attempting to bring the UP into the modern world, as doomed as the world class used bookstore that operated in Munising for a few years. It was great while it lasted.
He would nod his head as the anglers made their complaints, as they gazed out through his enlarged ear hoop rings, wondering if they could caste a hook through those.
It did not help that he left the old Walt's Bait and Tackle sign on the building's marquee. Also, he needed to stock some chips, beer and a few other groceries like Walt used to do.
And Trance was listening. He saw wisdom in respecting the institutions and traditions of the Yoopers. These were his people. Besides, the place was already set up for it, and several of Walt's old distributors had stopped by to welcome Trance.
It was an easy matter to get the bait shop up and running again. Between bait and groceries, he was able to pay for the cyber café and still have a small profit.
He put in a chess board. And the place became known as Walt's Bait and Cyber Café. Trance looked at it as a tribute to Walt, who was one heck of a guy.
Russell Onsberg and several other locals took to hanging out at Trance's. The place assumed a distinct Yooper atmosphere.
The locals were slow to draw to the computers. But the kids flocked in. Trance offered them free access, as the bait business paid expenses.
Trance had the only internet setup in this end of Gogebic County, other than a few personal dial-up connections through the outdated and failing phone lines. Think internet and crank phones.
Trance had a satellite connection, when he could pick it up. It was supposed to be a stationary satellite, but from his location in Gogebic County, whether because it was so remote, or some effect of the iron rich geology of the region, which was known to interrupt compasses and tv reception, Trance could only pick up a strong signal from around 11 am to about 9:30 pm. Outside of those hours, the signal became weak, even intermittent.
For all that, it was one of the best internet connections in the region. As the reputation of free internet service spread, Trance had visitors from as far away as Houghton, and even Marquette.
Attempting to draw the older Yoopers into the internet age, Trance set the opening page of various browsers to hunting and fishing sites, and the weather service. Soon the kids were helping their parents and grandparents access the pertinent fishing and hunting information. Through forums, they were able share the latest fly hatch anywhere in the UP, or the beginning of the smelt run on the big lakes.
Walt's Bait and Cyber Café became a communications hub for the Western UP. It is not surprising that it was a focal point of the revolution.
I wonder how many places like the one you live in still exist in the U.S....Did you buy the property for your cabin, if you don't mind my asking? Did you build it yourself? How long ago?
Do you have a dog or another kind of pet? (I couldn't live without one is why I ask.)
I believe you can't own property. Just the opposite, in fact. The land will own you after you have died and your body has decomposed. The cabin was built by a manitousiwwuk, but it abandoned the place long ago to immigrate to the World under the Flesh when the trolls came over the bridge.I have a pet dragon named Sparky. I won him in a crap game with a demon. Of course I was cheating. You have to cheat in order to beat a demon. It was worth it though, Sparky does such an excellent job of roasting marshmallows. And he keeps me warm on those long winter nights. Unfortunately, I have to make him sleep outdoors when he has a cold, for fear he will burn the cabin down when he sneezes.
Judith wrote: "I wonder how many places like the one you live in still exist in the U.S....
Did you buy the property for your cabin, if you don't mind my asking? Did you build it yourself? How long ago?
Do you..."
PD wrote: "I believe you can't own property. Just the opposite, in fact. The land will own you after you have died and your body has decomposed. The cabin was built by a manitousiwwuk, but it abandoned the pl..."Stupid questions, huh?
No. But they don't really have to do with my books.
He spends his days hunting, fishing and foraging. He travels around the UP a great deal, gathering folklore and exploring various mysteries. He also practices shamanism, and can sometimes be seen traveling through the wilderness, flying from treetop to treetop under the influence of Amanita Muscaria. Occasionally he assumes the form of a large red fox.
On clear nights when there is a full moon, locals say you can hear him playing his fiddle high up on the mountaintops. The Indians say he plays for the little Manitou, which come out to dance and caper.
At least once per week, he travels twenty-five miles on foot to the nearest cybercafé. There he updates his blog —
BLOOD MOON
Connie Hillman must come to grips with what happened in the remote Huron Mountains, where she survived an encounter with ghosts, giants and cannibalistic Weendigo.
Connie reflects on horrific events in the ancient and remote Huron Mountains, located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Her former lover (and PhD advisor) Phil Waverly stumbles upon an ancient ceremonial site, which he believes will prove his theory of a Pre-Columbian Bronze Age civilization in the Great Lakes region. Can Connie stop Phil from opening a portal between worlds?
This volume also includes The Buck of Mulligan Plains. Henry Kincaid is hunting the biggest buck he has ever seen. A renowned outdoorsman, Henry always sought to be at one with the northern wilderness. Yet he never dreamed of attaining his goal in quite this manner. Meanwhile his lover, Lilith Gordon, fears she will lose him forever.