Read How I Turned into THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Read how Hurricane Carol turned me into THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and caused me to attack a restaurant. A true story right out of the 1950s. http://agauchepress.com/category/whats-new/

THE LATEST E-BOOK STATS:

• In February 2011 e-books ranked as the #1 format in all categories of trade publishing,
• In January/February 2011 e-book sales represented 27% of book sales.
• 2010 e-book sales almost reached $1 billion.
• E-book sales were up in 2010 by 400-600% from 2009.
• 2010 e-book sales revenue was 7-10% of total book sales.
• 2009 e-book sales revenue was just 1%.
• 13 million e-book readers were sold in 2010. 50% of those sales were in last quarter of 2010.  
• Only about 4 million e-book readers were sold in 2009.
• The average  reader of e-books currently reads about 41% of his/her books in digital form.

OPEN INVITATION

If you have a book group, study group or chat group and any of the topics raised in this blog or THE FLIGHT OF THE SORCERESS involve something you want to discuss or debate, feel free to reply to this blog and I am happy to work out a schedule for a time when we can connect. I am available on Gmail video chat as well as through the blog. Barry

COMING SOON! THE NINETEEN SEVENTIES TRILOGY

New novels by Barry S. Willdorf to be published in print and as E books by Whiskey Creek Press.


BURNING QUESTIONS: Someone is burning down all the old resort hotels in Gloucester, MA. Has the son of a town matriarch been killed because he knows who it is? Did he commit suicide by Russian roulette as the town fathers claim?  Or did his girlfriend, Christina Lima, the daughter of a poor Portuguese fisherman have a hand in his death? Nate Lewis is hired to find out, but when he falls in love with Christina they both become lethal targets for powerful interests. (Publication date: August 2011)

A SHOT IN THE ARM: Nate is hired to defend a black militant who is charged with murder after he confronts drug dealers who are flooding San Francisco with potent Asian heroin. When he discovers that the dealers are just the distribution arm of a covert government operation to finance arms dealings with Southeast Asian anti-communist guerrillas his life is in play and only Christina can save him.

THE FOURTH CONSPIRATOR: Soon after Christina takes a job as the PR representative at her cousin’s winery in Mendocino County an inheritance fight begins over its control and Christina is dragged into it. Meanwhile Nate is retained to represent a winery executive charged with killing a thief who is raiding the executive’s marijuana garden. Are the two events connected? It will take more murders to sort this one out.

NOW AVAILABLE AT BARNES & NOBLE!

FLIGHT OF THE SORCERESS is now available as a NOOK book at Barnes& & Noble. Please let your Nook friends know and, if you have read it, I would appreciate your posting a customer comment on their site. Thanks so much, Barry

Another Satisfied Reader!

"I've really enjoyed reading your writing, Barry - you transport me to those places and understand the nuances of the various situations you describe - extremely well done and insightful!"
Loi Eberle, MT

SPECIAL RAPTURE REBATE OFFER

According to the billboards, the Bible “guarantees” that May 21 will be JUDGMENT DAY.  You only have seven days left to download your very own copy of The Flight of the Sorceress.  I have it on very good authority that you CAN take it with you. The lines will be long. There will be plenty of down time to read it, I assure you. And for those of you who are lucky enough to make the trip, I have a very special offer! Present me with proof of rapture and I will personally refund your purchase price. Keep the book. For you, it will be free. DON’T LEAVE EARTH WITHOUT A COPY!
BUY IT AT Wild Child Publishing

COPTS AND SALAFIS FIGHT IT OUT IN EGYPT

Recent headlines from Egypt tell of raging battles between Coptic Christians and Salafi Muslim fundamentalists. The other day 12 people (seven Copts and six Salafis) were killed when Salafis, acting on rumors that a Christian woman converted to Islam and was then kidnapped by Copts, attacked and burned a Christian church. The Copts do not permit women to divorce. The only way a woman can break out of a bad marriage is to leave the church.  Hence, there is a lot of rumor-mongering that women are being “imprisoned” by the Coptic Church.

The Copts are the same intolerant Christians who ruled Alexandria in the fifth century when the story of The Flight of the Sorceress takes place. It was this Christian group, headed by Cyril, the Archbishop of Alexandria, who murdered Hypatia, Alexandria’s last librarian and who set out to exterminate pagans and Jews, as is recounted in the novel. This is also that same sect of Christians who, a short time later, attacked as dissidents and heretics, the Arian and Nestorian Christians. By the mid-to-late fifth century the Copts had split with both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches and named its own pope. Currently, the 117th iteration of that pope is Shenouda III.

While the Copts may be portrayed in the Christian world as the victims of the majority Muslims, this is no sect of shrinking violets. Indeed, despite the Muslim conquest of the country, Egypt remained mostly Coptic Christian until the 12th century. The Copts currently represent about twelve million of Egypt’s eighty million people and they live mostly in the northern part of the country. They are headquartered in Alexandria.

The Salafis in Egypt are extremists and supporters of Osama Bin Laden. They adhere to the reactionary, Saudi Wahabi strain of Islam that is as oppressive to women as the Copts. Salafis believe that it is okay to kill infidels (along with secular Muslims.) These are the folks who went into the streets after Bin Laden was killed and protested his “martyrdom.” Yassir Al-Burhami, a Salafi cleric in Alexandria, was recently quoted as saying “bin Laden was a ‘martyr’ who ‘was killed with his head held high, and God did not hand him over to his enemies.” He does not explain how God permitted whomever to hand bin Laden over to his enemies.  

The clash we are witnessing in Egypt currently is between two of the most fundamentalist, zealous, narrow-minded, intolerant groups of religious fanatics presently on the map. Except for their dogma, they are birds of a feather. As long as they keep the feud to themselves, who can complain if they wipe each other out?