Thursday, August 21, 2014

Frigatefire, a New Novel by John Wilkes


Dear Friends,

For those of you who might be interested, I would like you to know that my second novel, Frigatefire, is now available along with the reprinted Raventross. Frigatefire is a sequel to Raventross, so if you have not read Raventross and want to do so, I strongly recommend you read it before reading Frigatefire. Writing these novels has been a source of great enjoyment for me. While they will soon be available through distribution sources like Amazon, if you want to order any books, I would appreciate it very much if you would do it through my publisher’s web site,www.cdespublishing.com or my web site www.johnburwellwilkes.com. The cost would be the same to you, but Amazon, like all book distributors takes a huge chunk of the proceeds on the books they sell. If you should decide you really like either of them, I would also be much obliged if you send a testimonial to the publishing company for posting on their web site and also tell everyone you know about it.

The reason for this is that in today’s environment it is virtually impossible to make much money selling books, and I have no expectation of getting large royalty checks. The distributors like Amazon and Barnes & Noble take so much of the purchase price; there is nothing left after publication and printing expenses. The publishing company and I can make a modest profit with books sold by the publishing company. With the new “print on demand” logic, we hope the profit we make from in house sales will finance the large scale printing of books to go to the big distributors who can sell worldwide.

Instead of making money, my real dream is that we can sell enough books and generate enough interest that it will excite some movie maker into taking up the project. I have been able to retain all movie rights to my books. I know my dream is a real long shot, but I also remember that the most common early reaction I received from readers of Raventross is the opinion it would make an outstanding movie. I can’t think of anything that would be more fun than being an author/advisor on a movie set.

It is my understanding that the printed versions are $12.95 plus postage and the kindle versions are $9.95. There is a planned Audible.com release of the audio book version of Raventross; it will also be available via Amazon, and iTunes. If things go according to plan, that should be available within the next week or two, but we haven’t been given a price yet. 


You can listen to the first audio chapter on the www.raventross.com web site. Eventually there will be an audio version ofFrigatefire, but that is still a few months down the road. By the way, you might also get a laugh out of listening to me sing a couple of old Irish tunes on my web site,www.johnburwellwilkes.com.

In any case, if you have a desire to read my books, I hope you will enjoy them, and I will be anxious to know what you think about them.

Very best regards,

JOHN WILKES



Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Memorial, Day Parade Beverly, Morgan Park, Mount Greenwood, Chicago





Fun to watch the Memorial Day Parade back in my old neighborhood in the south side of Chicago.


Video of the Start of the parade.



The parade kicked off from 110th and Longwood Drive and proceeded north. The Color Guard was from 2/24, the Marine Infantry Battalion on the west side of Chicago.  I marched in a parade on Longwood Drive leading a platoon of Marines in 1973.  I spotted my MPHS Russian teacher Miss Petrus. We were trained to greet her, so I belted out
Strastvooey te, Soyia Sergeevna, a kok vi pushaviatee!!

Soyia Sergeevna frantically looked around trying to find who was calling her, clearly one of her former students. But she did not see me and I had to keep marching in front of the platoon. Dosvedanya, Soyia Sergeevna.







Click to see the Video of The Jesse White Tumblers






The Model A Roadster above looks like the Model A Roadster I drove on Longwood Drive to MPHS in 65, although the one in the photo is in much better condition.

My Model A at modelahullinger.blogspot.com




Click for a Bagpipe Video





My personal favorite - this bus from Smith Village carried a number of World War II and Korean Veterans, including my father Clif Hullinger. 



More about Clif's service in North Africa and Italy at: 



109thengineers34thdivision.blogspot.com





The group above are the Southsiders for Peace.  They were on the sidewalk and told us they had been prevented from marching in the parade

southsidersforpeace.org


The dance group below showing some energetic moves.





I'm getting in just under the wire here for this holiday-related blog,
which deals in part with the Memorial Day Parade down Longwood Drive.  I'd love to hear what memories of that event others have, to see how they do or don't jibe with my own.

Thanks to all who have served, and absolute gratitude to those who paid for our freedoms with their lives.

Taffy Cannon, June '66
Carlsbad, California


Click below to read a blog post written by Taffy about Decoration Day:

thaliapressauthors.wordpress.com/2014/05/26/decoration-day


Sunday, May 25, 2014

Memorial Day



Remembering our fallen comrades - and those who made it back.



Semper Fi


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Ken Morey Jumping Out of a Perfectly Good Airplane


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