@lunalein@bookstodon Your own concerns are things I’ve been thinking of myself. If I start this story it would be dual timeline starting in present day (ok, 2019), jumping back to when the MC was in high school 20 years prior, then back to current. Each jump back would be a bit farther ahead, until reaching current and moving forward. My thought was to use March 2020 as a monkey wrench in an otherwise pretty good life the MC has built, but this would be the final third of the book
@mvilain@leapingwoman@willaful@bookstodon Hi all 👋 If I start this story it would be dual timeline starting in present day (ok, 2019), jumping back to the MC in high school 20 years prior & back to current. The jump back scenes would show the beginnings of relationship with his high school sweetheart, the breakup, then marrying a college sweetheart & having a kid before a divorce a few years later. The 20 year reunion sparks a second chance with the HS girl, then the Covid lockdowns start.
On June 11, 2024, I announced the shutdown of our Mastodonbook.net server and the migration of our project to Mastodon.social. That process is now complete.
If you are looking for Mastodonbooks members or would like to share your book-related posts, please join our group at: https://a.gup.pe/u/mastodonbooks
@mastodonbooks@bookstodon@mastodonbooks
Hi Roger -- I seem to have missed the migration notification. Does that mean my account on the old server is now inaccessible? Which means I have to start all over again? This is an old account I forgot I had. If there's some way I can transfer the old posts, followers etc, please let me know. One of my followers there claims she can still browse through my posts.
Thanks! R.
Today in Labor History June 7, 1929: Striking textile workers battled police in Gastonia, North Carolina, during the Loray Mill Strike. Police Chief O.F. Aderholt was accidentally killed by one of his own officers during a protest march by striking workers. Nevertheless, the authorities arrested six strike leaders. They were all convicted of “conspiracy to murder.”
The strike lasted from April 1 to September 14. It started in response to the “stretch-out” system, where bosses doubled the spinners’ and weavers’ work, while simultaneously lowering their wages. When the women went on strike, the bosses evicted them from their company homes. Masked vigilantes destroyed the union’s headquarters. The NTWU set up a tent city for the workers, with armed guards to protect them from the vigilantes.
One of the main organizers was a poor white woman named Ella May Wiggans. She was a single mother, with nine kids. Rather than living in the tent city, she chose to live in the African American hamlet known as Stumptown. She was instrumental in creating solidarity between black and white workers and rallying them with her music. Some of her songs from the strike were “Mill Mother’s Lament,” and “Big Fat Boss and the Workers.” Her music was later covered by Pete Seeger and Woodie Guthrie, who called her the “pioneer of the protest ballad.” During the strike, vigilantes shot her in the chest. She survived, but later died of whooping cough due to poverty and inadequate medical care.
For really wonderful fictionalized accounts of this strike, read “The Last Ballad,” by Wiley Cash (2017) and “Strike!” by Mary Heaton Vorse (1930).
Today in Labor History May 31, 1889: The infamous Johnstown Flood. 2,209 people died when a dam holding back a private resort lake burst upstream from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It was the deadliest U.S. disaster to date. Bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati. It caused $17 million of damage (about $490 million in 2020 dollars).
Wealthy industrialists, like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick owned and patronized the resort. (Carnegie also owned Homestead Steel, and Frick was the manager in charge of the butchering of striking workers that occurred there in 1892). They had built cottages and a clubhouse and created the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an exclusive and private mountain retreat. They had also lowered the dam to build a road across it and installed a fish screen in the spillway that tended to trap debris. Investigators believe these alterations contributed to the disaster. Yet none of the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club were found guilty of any crimes. Furthermore, survivors repeatedly lost court cases in their attempts to recover damages due to the club members’ wealth and expensive legal team. However, public outrage did prompt changes in American law leading to one of strict liability in future cases.
The flood has been depicted repeatedly in American culture. Bruce Springsteen references it in “Highway Patrolman.” Rudyard Kipling talked about it in his novel “Captains Courageous.” The Paul Newman film, “Slapshot” takes place in Johnstown. It is also referenced in episodes of Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and dozens of other poems, songs, plays, novels, and works of nonfiction.
@MikeDunnAuthor
But just think if Carnegie had been forced to pay reparations then or more than a subsistence wage to his factory workers- he might never have become the philanthropist who built all the libraries with his name emblazoned on them or the famous Carnegie Hall.
Many thousand human lives-
Butchered husbands, slaughtered wives
Mangled daughters, bleeding sons,
Hosts of martyred little ones,
(Worse than Herod's awful crime)
Sent to heaven before their time;
Lovers burnt and sweethearts drowned,
Darlings lost but never found!
All the horrors that hell could wish,
Such was the price that was paid for— fish!
Today in Writing History May 22, 1927: Author Peter Matthiessen was born. Matthiessen was an environmental activist and a CIA officer who wrote short stories, novels and nonfiction. He’s the only writer to have won the National Book award in both nonfiction, for The Snow Leopard (1979), and in fiction, for Shadow Country (2008). His story Travelin’ Man was made into the film The Young One (1960) by Luis Bunuel. Perhaps his most famous book was, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1983), which tells the story of Leonard Peltier and the FBI’s war on the American Indian Movement. Peltier is still in prison (over 43 years so far) for a crime he most likely did not commit. The former governor of South Dakota, Bill Janklow, and David Price, an FBI agent who was at the Wounded Knee assault, both sued Viking Press for libel because of statements in the book. Both lawsuits threatened to undermine free speech and further stifle indigenous rights activism. Fortunately, both lawsuits were dismissed.
Today in Labor History May 20, 1911: Anarchist Magonistas published a proclamation calling for the peasants to take collective possession of the land in Baja California. They had already defeated government forces there. Members of the IWW traveled south to help them. During their short revolution, they encouraged the people to take collective possession of the lands. They also supported the creation of cooperatives and opposed the establishment of any new government. Ricardo Flores Magon organized the rebellion from Los Angeles, where he lived. In addition to Tijuana, they also took the cities of Ensenada and Mexicali. However, in the end, the forces of Madero suppressed the uprising. LAPD arrested Magon and his brother Enrique. As a result, both spend nearly two years in prison. Many of the IWW members who fought in the rebellion, later participated in the San Diego free speech fight. Lowell Blaisdell writes about it in his now hard to find book, “The Desert Revolution,” (1962). Read my article on the San Diego Free Speech fight here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2022/02/01/today-in-labor-history-february-1/
@MikeDunnAuthor@bookstadon yeah, i know a lot more about the white supremacists and other fascists because we still are fighting with them. One of the local muncipalities, Santee, is still known by everyone as Klantee for a reason, ugh. If you ever want to share more about that stuff or have suggestions of books, i am here for it! 😁
Have you read Under The Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See, by Mike Davis (same guy who wrote City of Quartz, about L.A.)? Really good history of SD's oligarch forefathers
hello fedi and/or @bookstodon pls demand a story, written by me, for you. Any and all genres and settings welcome. As specific or general as you'd like.
My idea-generator is temporarily burnt out. Parts on backorder.
I will of course never show it to you but it's good practice and maybe I'll show it to you if it somehow turns out well.
Listen, I'm just trying to set expectations here, I'm in my "everything I write is garbage and I know it because I have good, discerning tastes" phase and gotta get past it somehow.
The somehow is ever-increasing word count and facing off against the unfamiliar. Gotta beat up the monsters so I can summon them later.
@subm3rge Replace bear with a man and then maybe. After all, the worst a bear might do is injure/maim/kill/eat you. It won't tell anyone that the way you were dressed meant you were asking for it, or that you secretly wanted it, or actually it was consensual. No bear ever defended another bear with "don't punish him for the rest of his life for a couple minutes of fun."
Real talk though, instead of pretending like you're being sincere: Let it go. This is one of the many reasons why any reasonable person chooses the bear. This is a spiteful, bitter, mean-spirited, asshole response to a genuine question.
I'm not putting up a veneer of "respectability" because quite frankly, your response is shameful. Your behavior is deeply disappointing.
@emeraldzak@bookstodon Wow, just wow. You really read a lot into that, nothing of which I intended, thought or even was aware of - you made me find this whole ”bear thing” (which btw is super weird 😳).
Today in Labor History May 18, 1781: Tupac Amaru II was drawn and quartered in Plaza Mayor del Cuzco, Peru. Tupac II had led a large indigenous uprising against the Spanish conquistadors. As a result of his heroic efforts, he became an inspiration to others in the fight for indigenous rights and against colonialism. The uprising began because of “reforms” by the colonial administration that increased taxes and labor demands on both indigenous and creole populations. However, there was also an ongoing desire to overthrow European rule and restore the pre-conquest Incan empire. And though this would merely replace one feudal power with another, there were also Jacobin and proto-communist elements to the rebellion. Most of the Tupamarista soldiers were poor peasants, artisans and women who saw the uprising as an opportunity to create an egalitarian society, without the cast and class divisions of either the Spanish or Incan feudal systems.
The uprising began with the execution of Spanish colonial Governor Antonio de Arriaga by his own slave, Antonio Oblitas. Tupac Amaru II then made a proclamation claiming to be fighting against the abuses of Spain and for the peace and well-being of Indians, mestizos, mambos, native-born whites and blacks. They then proceeded to march toward Cuzco, killing Spaniards and looting their properties. Everywhere they went, they overthrew the Spanish authority. Tupac’s wife, Michaela Bastidas commanded a battalion of insurgents. Many claimed she was more daring and a superior strategist than her husband.
However, despite their strength and courage, the rebels failed to take Cuzco. The Spaniards brought in reinforcements from Lima. Many creoles abandoned the Inca army and joined the Spanish, fearing for their own safety after seeing the wanton slaughter of Spanish civilians. In the end, Tupac was betrayed by two of his officers and handed over to the Spanish. However, before they killed him, the Spanish forced him to watch them execute his wife, eldest son, uncle, brother-in-law, and several of his captains. They cut out both his wife’s and son’s tongue before hanging them.
As a result of Tupac’s leadership and success against the Spanish, he became a mythical figure in the Peruvian struggle for independence and in the indigenous rights movement. The Tupamaros revolutionary movement in Uruguay (1960s-1970s) took their name from him. As did the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary guerrilla group, in Peru, and the Venezuelan Marxist political party Tupamaro. American rapper, Tupac Amaru Shakur, was also named after him. Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, wrote a poem called “Tupac Amaru (1781).” And Clive Cussler’s book, “Inca Gold,” has a villain who claims to be descended from the revolutionary leader.
Today in Writing History May 9, 1981: Nelson Algren, American novelist and short story writer died. His most famous book was “The Man With The Golden Arm,” which was made into a film in 1955. He was called the “bard of the down-and-outer” based on his numerous stories about the poor, beaten down and addicted. Algren was also called a “gut radical.” His heroes included Big Bill Haywood, Eugene Debs and Clarence Darrow. He claims he never joined the Communist Party, but he participated in the John Reed Club and was an honorary co-chair of the “Save Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Committee.” The FBI surveilled him and had a 500-page dossier on him.
Please join us Saturday, May 11 at 4:30 for a very special book release: Vallejo resident Roberta Tracy’s “Zig Zag Woman, joined by Mike Dunn, author of “Anywhere but Schuylkill”! This is going to be so much fun!
Agreed about the solidarity. However, most writers are lucky to be able to get a publisher in the 1st place. Few have the money to pay for hand drawn art. And in this case, I believe the art was done by a book cover art company. There are lots of such company's out there. If this is AI, maybe most of them are using AI
@MikeDunnAuthor 1. I’m an illustrator with 20 years experience so it’s quite obvious to me. But take a look at it closely and you’ll see plenty of hallmarks particularly in the chest area.
2. Illustrators make very little too, but I think you’d agree that using an AI to write a visual novel instead of contracting a writer would be unethical.
If you're in Vegas for the Punk Rock and Bowling festival this Memorial Day weekend, be sure to stop by Avantpop Books, Sunday, May 26, noon. I'll be reading from my working-class historical novel, "Anywhere But Schuylkill." Billy Bragg will be headlining, with his book, "Roots, Rockers and Radicals."
Today in Labor History April 30 1945: Eva Braun and Adolph Hitler committed suicide, in Berlin, after being married for less than 40 hours. Many Nazis were tried, convicted and executed. And literally thousands were secreted into the U.S., given false identities, and put to work as spies, intelligence officers, informants, and rocket scientists in the Cold War. Some of them had even been high-ranking Nazi Party officials, secret police chiefs, and heads of concentration camps. In fact, during the first few years after WWII ended, it was easier to get into the U.S. as a Nazi than it was as a Jewish concentration camp survivor. There were policy makers in Washington who said the Jews shouldn’t be let in because they’re “lazy” and “self-entitled.” For more on this sordid history, read “The Nazis Next Door
How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men,” By Eric Lichtblau.