Bert Carson - Huntsville, Alabama, USA - is a Vietnam Veteran who writes stories about men and women who speak the truth and do the right thing.

What is the one book you want us to read (title, genre, and availability).

I’ve published four books on the Kindle/Amazon platform, and self-published another. The one I’m focused on today is Fourth and Forever. Genre is difficult to pinpoint – it has shown up as Men’s fiction, though women love it equally well. Originally I called it mainstream fiction, though I’m no longer sure there is a stream running through the main body of readers. Most recently it has been mentioned as a boomer book. If I were forced to put it in a single genre, it would be inspirational fiction or maybe just, a good read for everyone, though I’m pretty sure that isn’t a category. The short answer is, Fourth and Forever falls into a number of categories and doesn’t fit into anyone of them. Fourth and Forever is available as a Kindle book or a paperback, both from amazon.com. 


Give us a one sentence synopsis.

Fourth and Forever is the story of a man who lost his wife, thought that meant he had lost everything, then discovered that wasn’t true, and built a new life based on his relationship with his son.

Who are the main characters and who would you like to see portray them in a movie?

The main characters are Josh Edwards, a 44 year old Vietnam Vet, and his 18 year old son Bobby. I wrote the first draft more than twenty years ago. In that time, my choice to play Josh has changed a number of times, as actors, like books, age. 

Today, I think I’d opt for either Matthew McConaughey (43) or Josh Brolin (44) to play Josh. I should note that Denzel Washington, George Clooney, and Kevin Spacey have all been serious contenders for the role, then they turned 50. 

I don’t have a choice to play Bobby, since I don’t know any 18 year old male actors. That is probably a product of my being 70 years old. 

Tell us about the story, but please don't reveal too much.

I unintentionally created a marketing obstacle for the book when I titled it Fourth and Forever, which implies that it’s a book about football. It isn’t. The book is about relationships, compassion and love. It also includes a lot of first-hand knowledge about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; what it is, who is affected by it, and how to deal with it. All of that is there, strung on the framework of a story about a man who retires from the Army and joins his son as a freshman at the University of Montana. Of course, the fact that the man, Josh Edwards, becomes the starting quarterback for the University of Montana Grizzlies probably has a lot to do with people’s idea that it’s a football book.

What inspired you to write this book and how long did it take?

From 1985 through 1995, I was a professional speaker, a trade I plied in 48 states, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and tough it was, Tahiti. On my first trip to Missoula, Montana, in November 1987, I left my hotel for an early morning run. I crossed a footbridge and found myself on the campus of The University of Montana just as the first snowfall of the season arrived. 
 
I stopped on the edge of the football practice field and stood a long time in the early Sunday morning silence, as the snow quickly covered the ground. In those magic moments, at age 45, it came to me that I could play football on that field. Instantly the whole story, with the exception of the parts about PTSD sprang into my mind. 
 
I wrote the first draft, between speaking engagements. It took less than a month to make it presentable. But, it was too short to be a novel, so I stuck it in a desk drawer. Then in 1993, I organized a group of Vietnam Veterans – Vietnam Veterans Southern Command. The experiences that came from Vietnam Veterans Southern Command gave me the material I needed to finish the book.

What other books have you written? 

Other books I’ve published on the amazon platform are,Another Place Another Time, Maddog and Miss Kitty, and Southern Investigation.


Which authors inspired you, your style?

There is only one. Before I tell who it is, I should note that I’m only considering author’s with a body of work, not one or two books. By that method of reckoning, I must exclude To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone With the Wind, and a number of other single book authors that I love. However, in all honesty, the one I’m about to mention overshadows them all, as far as I’m concerned. His name is Nevil Shute – actually that’s his pen name. His “real name” is Nevil Shute Norway. He used the pen name to protect his engineering career, since, in the beginning, he wrote only to pass the time after a long work day. Shute wrote twenty-two novels and a play. I read him continuously and learn more with every re-reading of his work. My favorite Shute book is Round the Bend, followed closely by Trustee from the Toolroom, and then whatever I’m currently reading, which, today is So Disdained.

Where can we learn more about you and your books?

I have an Authors Page on Amazon, and three active blog sites: http://bertcarsonauthor.com/ , http://www.bert-blogging.com/ and http://anotherplace-thebook.blogspot.com/ - and one other website that isn’t active, but still has a lot of good content http://bertcarson.com/ 

How can we follow you? Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.

All of my social media links are here http://bertcarsonauthor.com/ scroll down the page and you’ll find them near the bottom of the right side column

Is there anything else you would like us to know?

I’m in the process of working through the final edit of the sequel to Southern Investigation called Southern Investigation-Tucson. I’m also writing a three volume series called The Mystic Trilogy – the first book in the series is The Sages. It’s being serialized and published in episodes by Venture Galleries – The tenth episode was just posted – click here to read it.

THERE IS EVIDENCE that Batista had communist backing when he returned to Cuba in 1952. If so, how was Batista the darling of the Americans? Throughout the Cold War Era, Latin American dictators easily solicited help from the United States simply by alleging that communists were lurking in their banana plantations. The Marines would land only days ahead of massive foreign aide for the tyrant. As unlikely as it sounds, that policy may not have applied in Cuba, at least not until Castro took over.

Had the Cuban president who replaced Batista in 1944, Grau San Martín, and his successor, Carlos Prío Socarrás, satisfied the revolutionary promises of 1933 and the reformist plan of the 1940 constitution, Cuba might have avoided the strife of Castro's rebellion in the 1950's. Grau committed his administration to industrialization, debt reduction, and agricultural diversification, but every plan failed. So long as America dominated the island's economy, Cuba would never be for Cubans. To make matters worse, Grau and his ministers began misappropriating public funds just as every administration before them. 

When Grau turned over the presidency to Prío in 1948, the Cuban revolutionary movement had no substance. It soon became apparent to Cubans that Grau's Auténtico party didn't represent the authentic spirit of the 1933 revolution any more than Batista had. Prío did sponsor a national bank, promote crop diversification, and encourage low-cost housing, but these hardly touched the major issues of land redistribution and the power of foreign investment.

In 1950, Cuba was still an economic colony. Only Bolivia and Haiti had a more prolonged period of economic stagnation. Most of the sugar plantations remained in the hands of foreign investors who sent their product to industrialized nations at great profits, profits that never made their way back to the island. In 1950, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development surveyed the Cuban economy and concluded that sugar dominated the island more than ever. The IBRD pointed to diversification as the answer. They based their findings on Cuba's favorable geography, fertile soil, mineral resources, and, most importantly, its proximity to the American market.

Although Batista did not enjoy popular support, he was able to return to the Presidential Palace via another barracks coup on March 10, 1952. The military, supported by the labor unions, facilitated a lightning-like strike that restored Batista with the loss of just two lives. Everything was well timed and executed. The police headquarters were seized as the military converged on the presidential palace, and a prepared address was read over Havana radio while union leaders rallied the workers to Batista's banner. Batista was so confident that he didn't even bother to have a plane at his disposal to escape should something have gone wrong.

Obviously, Batista had maintained close relationships with the army officers who had helped win his earlier coup in 1930. However, it also appears that he may have had the appreciation of communist leaders whose party Batista had legitimized while he was president. Probably, of even greater importance, Batista had the financial backing of American businessmen and gangsters who never lost faith that he alone could restore stability in Cuban government and protect their interests and didn't care one wit about the communists.

Lissa Bryan has explored in her imagination, the horrors of catastrophic change. The following is a brief interview with her about her new book, The End of All Things, soon to be released. 

MUCH AS EVERY American politician attempts to position themselves as the true scion of the Spirit of '76, Cuban politicians promoted themselves as the authentic voice of the Revolution of 1933, the year that four successive presidents were deposed beginning with Gerardo Machado in August of that year. Inasmuch as Fulgencio Batista orchestrated that revolution, he could not be blamed for promoting himself as its “first chief”. However, that didn't stop others from pretending to that throne.

Ramón Grau San Martín also had a legitimate claim to the Spirit of the Revolution of 1933. He had led the student protesters until arrested, jailed, and later exiled in 1931. Grau and his associates formed the Auténtico party upon his return to the island. (It doesn't take a linguist to interpret “Auténtico” and infer the implications of the name.) The Auténticos stressed economic nationalism, limitations on foreign property owners, and castigated financial imperialism. They called for immediate national action to regain economic control of the country. Grau condemned American support of the post-Machado regimes and, more importantly, for the Welles mission, which allegedly destroyed the revolutionary goal of Cuba for Cubans. Inasmuch as Batista relied heavily on American backing, it's easy to see that there would be bad blood between the two men. However, Batista allowed the Auténticos to survive during the years of 1940 to 1944 while he was president. 

Batista seemed to feel assured of reelection. He dismissed the Auténticos as inconsequential while Grau roamed the island, calling for an end to Batista's regime and an end to administrative corruption as well as fulfillment of the promise of agrarian reform. Apparently Grau's message resonated with the islanders and Batista's handpicked successor, Carlos Saladrigas Zayas, lost the 1944 elections to Grau.

Batista was stupefied. He departed Cuba for self-imposed exile in America claiming that he no longer felt safe on the island. He would spend the next eight years luxuriating at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, and a home in Daytona Beach, Florida. He was well financed having emptied the coffers of the government in Havana prior to Grau's inauguration. 

MY BEST PRESENT is my family. I can't remember any toy, any electronic device, any knickknack that has brought me greater joy. It is the one thing that I wished for all my life.

Anyone who has read my stories, especially the early installments of Oh-Dark-Thirty that I have posted on this blog, knows that I am intimately familiar with abuse. I grew up with it. I watched it perpetrated upon my brother until he was old enough to escape and then it was my turn. Still, I dreamed of what a family could be and that is what I wished for.

I suppose that I appreciate my family even more because my first attempt at building one was a failure. I chose the wrong woman. When you grow up loving people that you don't like, it isn't a stretch to imagine that you would marry someone cast out of the same mold. I should have known better, but didn't. I was even foolish enough to pursue her despite repeated rejections. I simply wore her down. The marriage only lasted about three months though we remained together for four years and had two children. One is dead and the other estranged.

Then I met Arlene. No, I didn't really learn my lesson. I simply got lucky. I had a good friend who made the match. He made it well and it stuck. We had two children, now three grandchildren. We are closely engaged in their lives. I have concluded that grandchildren are God's gift to those who suffer parenthood.

Many years ago, when I was a young sailor, there was a popular television show, Adventures in Paradise. Gardner McKay starred as Adam Troy, a World War II veteran who remained in the Pacific Islands to skipper a trading schooner. My mother often remarked that she could envision me living that life. Although I was drawn to it by my love of sailing, the reality of my life proved her wrong. Although my experiences with a dysfunctional family might have pushed me into a lonely life at sea, I was still drawn to a more domesticated fate. I'm glad I was.

It's fun looking back at the old TV shows, even though they're hard to watch today. I suppose I was that handsome when I was young (please allow me my delusions), but didn't wander off on exotic adventures as Michener wrote of. Still, I had many adventures of my own. I've sailed both coasts as well as Hawaii, in everything from tiny cat boats to tall ships. But, I was able to get home most nights to be with my family.

Lest I depress you overly much (that wasn't my intention), let me offer the following video as my Christmas card to all the world.

Merry Christmas

This is a special offer for authors only. (Non-authors may skip to the interview below.) I will post a brief interview featuring your latest publication if you'll agree to publish mine (see below) on your website/weblog. Just leave me a message using my Contact the Author form, including your email address so I can send you the interview questions (in case you didn't notice them below) as well as instructions for sending them to me. If you don't hear back within 24 hours, try again and make sure you provide the correct email address. I can't promise any benefit other than exposure. More than 33,000 visits come to this website/weblog every month. The first author to take me up on this offer received more than 1,000 page views in the first 72 hours.

A brief interview with David Welch, author of Stop The Insanity: Target 2014.

WE ARE INUNDATED with celebrities. Celebrity actors. Celebrity politicians. Celebrity chefs. Celebrity... why are the Kardashians celebrities? We have criminal celebrities. Think about it. Most people can tell you something about Al Capone but nothing about the person who invented The Pill, a pharmaceutical celebrity if ever there was one.

In most cases, celebrities are not more qualified to be a celebrity than others practicing the same craft. For example, our two greatest political celebrities are John Kennedy (his Administration was a celebrity itself – Camelot) and Barack Obama. Celebrity only requires public interest in the celebrity's comings and goings. There is even an industry devoted to their celebrity, the paparazzi. Indeed, the White House press corps has become little more than paparazzi in recent years.

The people who are most interested in celebrities desire to become celebrities themselves. Some stalk celebrities hoping to steal a little fame for themselves even if it means going to jail. Jail time is no impediment to celebrity status. In fact, in many cases it enhances celebrity status. Others attempt to imitate celebrities in the hope that they will reap the same rewards. This syndrome is most often seen in celebrity monsters.

Experts from the FBI frequently comment publicly that the paparazzi should refrain from publicizing monsters such as the one who recently shot 26 at a public elementary school in Connecticut. They contend that such publicity serves to inspire other wannabe monsters. Still, the paparazzi press on. We can't escape the news stories being aired daily. The perpetrator's name and face have become well known. He will live forever as the model of aberrant behavior to be emulated by others who may fear that they will not attain celebrity status unless they raise the body count.

One would hope that we would celebrate the victims and consign the perpetrator to perpetual anonymity. That is not to be. Not only are the paparazzi using the story to build ratings and income, but also ideologues are using the horror of the incident to press their agendas: Gun control, banning violence in games and entertainment, or whatever. They too help build the cache of the celebrity monster to their own purposes without regard for the damage they are causing.

It's interesting to note that the paparazzi and the ideologues don't seem to have a problem with the murders of hundreds, even thousands of children every day, occurring in cities, mostly due to gang violence. Is it possible that this horror doesn't interest them because they feel that no one would care about the loss of life of a black or Latino child? Such incidents wouldn't help their cause. But, let a monster strike in a decent neighborhood and all hell breaks loose.

It would be nice if some of the energy being expended these days to punish law abiding citizens for the act of a monster could be saved for a rational response. Do you think anyone will be interested next month? Do you think that the paparazzi will ask the tough questions? For example, someone called the authorities on the same day as the shootings in Connecticut about another potential monster, and another tragedy was averted. Why didn't someone take the time to report this kid before he became a monster? Given his problems, he was displaying enough “red flags” to form his own May Day Parade in Red Square.

Yes, I know that I've been using the term “paparazzi” to encompass the news media. It is my intention to demonstrate my lack of respect for them.

Unfortunately, the problem is unlikely to resolve itself until we learn to celebrate the deeds of heroes, the performances of entertainers, the accomplishments of sports men and women, and stop celebrating the people themselves. Remember, even the great biblical celebrities were brought low by their own foibles. Noah became a falling-down drunk. Moses so upset God that he was tantalized with the sight of the promised land but forbidden to enter it.

Everyone has feet of clay, even the greatest heroes.  

Meet the author of Mists of Adriana, Roger M. Woodbury

1. What is the one book you want us to read (title, genre, and availability).
   The Mists of Adriana – a romance/thriller set in Maine. On Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions.
   
   
2. Give us a one sentence synopsis.
   He’s a Vietnam vet in his late forties who meets an enchanting woman with a mysterious past and learns that often when things seem too good to be true, they often are.
   
   
3. Who are the main characters and who would you like to see portray them in a movie?
   The book is purely first person narration. He is a man in his late forties who is a former army officer in Vietnam. He is in good shape, but I have NO idea who might portray him on film. SHE is a woman in her early thirties with experience that speaks of advanced “training” on many levels and exotic experience that is not at first revealed. I have NO idea who might portray her. Frankly, I haven’t thought much about it as I am busy writing the second novel in the series.
   
   
4. Tell us about the story, but please don't reveal too much.
   The narrator tells of his background; of the death of his young wife at the end of his first tour of duty in Vietnam and of his retreating to the Maine coast following the conclusion of his ten odd years in the army. He speaks of his interest in his car (Porsche 928) and his meeting on the roadside one chilly morning another Porsche owner who he helps with her flat tire. She insists that he allow her to buy him lunch in Portland, 150 miles away and he reluctantly agrees. She then introduces him to a part of her life no other man has seen, and from then on, this semi-mysterious Adriana Barrows shows him that her life is all that she says, and probably more. He learns more but actually learns less as he descends into “The Mists of Adriana”.
   
   
5. What inspired you to write this book and how long did it take?
   I actually began this book as a monthly serial I started to write as editor to the now defunct 928 Journal, an internet publication of the 928 Owners Club (www.928.org). I thought the idea of meeting a captivating woman possessed of a certain element of mystery would be attractive to readers, which it was. But the monthly journal failed for various reasons and the two episodes lay dormant until I decided to revitalize it in novel form about a year ago. After re-writing the first parts, the novel took on its own life and direction. Now the first book is completed and published and I am working on the second. It will be very different from the first in that the characters will spend more time being developed in the second book, and will concentrate on perils more readily accessible and close to home. The second volume, as yet un-named will be ready for “prime time” by June.
   
   
6. What other books have you written?
   I have written “Slave to Saint: The Amazing Life of St. Vincent de Paul”, also in paperback and Kindle editions on Amazon.com. This book was researched and written under a contract to a producer in Australia who wanted to write story that would be inspirational to his young children in their pursuit of religious education and also be of benefit to “The Sisters of Charity”, a charitable organization in Australia. This is a sort of “novella/biography” suitable for young male audiences of all ages, and could well be read as an adventure story for “youth of all ages”. It was written as a biographical story of St. Vincent, but written so as to combat video games and other diversions that beset our youth. I had no idea it was going to be published, nor less idea that the producer who paid for my work would attribute the writing to me. I am very, very grateful for this demonstration that honor is not yet dead in commerce.
   
   
7. Which authors inspired you, your style?
   My most favorite authors are Ernest Hemmingway and Robert Ruark. From them I have learned over and over that fewer words properly chosen are of more value than mere words assembled correctly, and that beautiful descriptions worded well are as valuable as mere photographs.
   
   
8. Where can we learn more about you and your books?
   I guess this is pretty hard. I am on Twitter (@rogermwoodbury) and Facebook (RMWoodbury). I have a blog at https://www.umenow.com/frontpage/blog/236 but to be truthful, I am not really dedicated to my blog at this moment. I am trying to write more than chat although I know that I must “market” through all of the social media outlets and the blogosphere.
   
   
9. How can we follow you? Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.
   You can follow me on Twitter (@rogermwoodbury) and on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/roger.woodbury.3#!/), and I am on LinkedIn, too.
   
   
10. Is there anything else you would like us to know?
    This is the first time I have taken time out in my life to just write. I have pieces published in publications from The Maine Writers Project, and the Goose River Anthology-2012 among others. I have been writing for sixty years and now since NASA won’t accept my application for astronaut training and there are limited opportunities of mercenaries who are approaching their seventieth birthday, I am just now fully engaged as a writer. I intent to write the stories I have stockpiled in my mind over the years now, some fact and some fiction. I write about real people having real experiences. Sometimes their experiences are way beyond what they expect and they must rely on their training, instinct and perhaps their overall sense of honor and integrity to survive or succeed in the face of the challenge presented. I do not like “magic thinking” or make-believe that makes people “super” in one way or another. My goal is to have the reader see the person and say, “Yeah. I think I KNOW someone who is like that.” Or perhaps, “Yeah, I believe I COULD know someone like that.” Or even, “Yeah, if I was there, that’s what I would try to do.” I believe that real people make the best predators and the best prey.
    
    

THE UNITED STATES stood behind Fulgencio Batista as caudillo and as Presidente of Cuba even though he legitimized the Communist Party in Cuba and instituted progressive reforms that might have caused concern among American businessmen. Even though these same acts by Fidel Castro would incur the wrath of Washington, President Roosevelt and his Administration overlooked them. The Americans didn't think they were anything more than political show, and Batista became a valuable ally in World War II.

German u-boats were the scourge of shipping along the shores of North and South America, and throughout the Caribbean. They were attempting to cut the pipeline of strategic supplies to the Allies fighting in Europe and North Africa. Operational cooperation between the United States and Latin American countries allowed America to deploy the greater part of its forces to the front lines. A fleet of U.S. Navy blimps patrolled the coast of South America where merchant fleets from Argentina and Brazil passed before transiting the Atlantic. Their crews coordinated attacks by the Brazilian Air Force and Navy on the u-boats. The American Coast Guard helped the Argentinian Navy patrol its nation's ports.

Batista increased his military: He augmented the army to 14,000 soldiers, the marines to 3,000, the Havana police to 3,000, and the rural police to 3,000. The United States provided him with warships. During World War II, the Cubans helped patrol and protect the strategic shipping lanes from Galveston and New Orleans as well as the waterways to the Panama Canal. A lieutenant in the Cuban Navy, who served on one of these warships and helped sink a u-boat, later became a member of the Fidelistas and piloted their invasion from Mexico to Cuba aboard the motor yacht Granma.

Even Ernest Hemingway, a long time Havana resident, got in on the act. He and his drinking buddies used Hemingway's fishing boat, El Pilar, to mount patrols searching for German u-boats. Their exploits, some contended floating drinking parties, mirrored patrols mounted by American civilians on both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. (I think that I, too, would have been drinking before I went to sea piloting a 30 foot cabin cruiser, armed with Tommy Guns, searching for German warships.)

Ultimately, Cuba received more than $7 million in arms and ammunition. Furthermore, to offset the loss of trade with Europe during the war, the United States guaranteed a scheme to purchase the entire 1942 sugar crop through the Federal Loan Agency. At least in war, Cuba benefited more from its commercial ties to the United States than at any other time.