Charlie's Tokyo West Blog

Vulture Gold is a finalist

Just got word that my e-book novel, Vulture Gold, is a finalist in the 2011 Global e-Book Awards. You can get it on Amazon, Kindle or Print.

Garet Havelock was a Cherokee half-breed and the marshal of Vulture
City. But that wasn’t enough to stop outlaw kingpin Barnabas Donovan from
sending in three armed men to rob $100,000 in bullion from the Vulture Mine
headquarters, killing two people in the process. Havelock set out to catch the
thieves and recover the gold and in the unforgiving Mojave Desert, Jicarilla Apaches
forced Havelock and Donovan’s bunch together in a cave on Eagle Eye Mountain.
Then there was Laura Donovan, half-sister to the outlaw leader . . . Now
Havelock must survive the Apache ‘run of death” and face Donovan’s gunslingers
to get the gold and the girl.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Vulture+Gold&x=0&y=0

Charles Whipple
aka Chuck Tyrell

[email protected]
[email protected]

http://www.chucktyrell.com

http://chucktyrell-outlawjournal.blogspot.com

http://tokyowest.typepad.com/charlies_blog/

http://www.solsticepublishing.com

The Snake Den
 

Good deals at Book Depository

My Chuck Tyrell Westerns are mostly published by Robert Hale as Black Horse Westerns, and then in large type editions by Thorpe or Thorndike. Book Depository ( http://bookdepository.co.uk ) now has my newest, A Man Called Breed, on pre-order at a reasonable price. The best thing about Book Depository is it ships anywhere in the world free of charge. 


Book Depository is also having a 25% off sale on The Killing Trail, a preorder offer on the large print version, for slightly over $10, shipping free. Good chance to get some good Western reading. 

NOW IN PRINT

The Snake Den is now available in print for $13.99 at Soltice Publishing. Look here: http://tinyurl.com/3pr9gpl



“Sometimes
a man’s gotta take a stand.” – Shawn Brodie, aged 14.Arizona,
1882. Falsely
accused of theft, Shawn Brodie is sent to serve three
years in the Hellhole called Yuma Territorial Prison. Lamb to the slaughter,
maybe?The Mexican Zapata wants to stick him with
a knife, the warden wants him to mend his thieving ways, and the sergeant of
the guard wants to get into Shawn’s pants. If he won’t do what Sergeant
Tarkington wants, he’ll end up in the Snake Den, a cube of iron straps hung from
the ceiling of a dark cave. If he doesn’t do what Zapata says, he’ll end up
with a nail sticking out of his eye. If he can’t convince the warden that he’s
not a thief, he’ll spend his days tromping Colorado River mud to make adobe
bricks.Is his young life going to be made up of
beatings, rape, and incarceration in the deadly Snake Den? The odds seem
stacked against young Shawn ever getting out of Yuma Prison alive.The Mexicans hate the whites, the Chinamen
and blacks stay out of the way, and the whites fight among themselves. Somehow,
Shawn must learn how to defend himself, and chance throws him in with Shoo Lee,
a cellmate, an Oriental proficient in the barehanded fighting technique Kara
Ti. Perhaps if he becomes Shoo Lee’s disciple he can endure...“Though young, Shawn has the strong moral
fiber to survive, no matter what comes his way. Chuck Tyrell has produced a
memorable hero and a grim, gritty yet very real tale of brutality leavened with
kindness, despair salved with hope, and ultimately an inspiring testament to a
young boy’s journey into manhood.”-      
Ross Morton, author of The
$300 Man

Western Writers Arise!!!

Western Writers all

Perhaps you've heard of the Global eBook Awards, sponsored by Dan Poynter. I went to take a look at the site as Solstice Publishing, which published my book The Snake Den, suggested some of their authors might be interested. 

Guess what.

No Westerns category.

I emailed one of the men in charge of the competition, Joseph Dowdy, to ask why no Westerns Category. He said, quote: I can't say why because no one came up with it when we created the categories.

Then he went on to say: I'll ask Dan if we can create one. We'll need judges for this category . . . but you can't judge the category you are in.

A few hours later, Joseph wrote: Do you think you could post something about our competition so that we can get judges and more writers in our competition for this category?

Everyone take note. Some people in the industry are blind to Westerns. We can help change that. Here's the URL to the contest.

http://awardsforebooks.com/

Another book for Tohoku Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Relief

Look here for the story on two books from which all royalties, author's and publisher's, will go to help people in Japan's disaster area.

http://tinyurl.com/3d4recd

Shakin' It Back

On May Day 2011, people gathered at What the Dickens in Ebisu, Tokyo, for a charity event entitled Shakin' It Back. All proceeds went to the victims of the March 11 quake. Many of us read selections from things we had written. Here, in a photo by Tim Newfields, you see Charles Whipple aka Chuck Tyrell reading the story Floating World from the book A Matter of Tea, which was specifically published to help raise money for quake victims. You can buy the book at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52655 in several different formats, or if you prefer a printed version, order it from https://www.createspace.com/3595967 and help the victims of the quake.

Please note that friend and author Nik Morton and publisher Solstice Publishing are putting out When the Flowers are in Bloom, with all proceeds to go to the quake victims. Here's what Nik has to say:

Reading about the cataclysmic devastation that hit Japan in March, I was greatly moved by the attitude of the survivors. People of all ages went out of their way to help each other. Looting seemed a rare event. There was a determination to overcome this terrible adversity. Lives and towns would be rebuilt, eventually, even if it would take years. The people would endure.
 
It is this theme, the strength of the human spirit that I have attempted to capture over the years in many of my short stories. Some of these tales may seem sad or traumatic but, despite that, I trust that hope, love, honor and integrity shine through, transcending the blight of evildoers, disability and natural disaster.

As writers, we strive to walk in the shoes of our characters. Fiction writers lie in order to grasp the truth. In some small way, I hope these stories reveal truths about the human condition.

Look for Nik's book at www.solsticepublishing.com

Sincere Apologies

I see that the video link that I put in my block was something National Geographic held the rights to. I was not aware of this because it was in a tweet and was a Youtube video, which are mostly free access. As an author, I would be the first to say things should only be used with permission (despite the fact that a number of my articles appear on the web without permission). My apologies. And all the proceeds of A Matter of Tea will still go to the victims of the quake and tsunami.

charlie

The way it was

This video is 45 minutes long, and it takes you once again through the experience of Japan's recent earthquake and tsunami disaster. Nearly 40,000 dead or missing. 300 miles of seacoast devastated. 150,000 homes and buildings destroyed. 25,000 households driven out of their abodes by radiation. A disaster like this comes along once in a thousand years (last one was in the 9th century). 

If you'd like to help me help out here in Japan. Spend a dollar and buy a copy of A Matter of Tea. Hundreds of people have purchased the book, and I hope the word will continue to get around.

http://chucktyrell-outlawjournal.blogspot.com

Interview on Book Life Now

This is a shortened URL, not a spam. Jeremy has put up the first part of an interview with me on Book Life Now. Have a read. Part 2 tomorrow.

http://tinyurl.com/3peffmk


Charlie

Buy a book. Help quake victims in Japan

Young Ryo Ishikawa, Japan's 19-year-old golf phenomenon pledged all his winnings in 2011 to the victims of Japan's 3/11 earthquake and once-in-a-thousand-years tsunami. He says the pledge will make him work harder.

Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank, may be Japan's richest man. He pledged 10 billion yen from his own pocket and his salary for the rest of his life.

I can't match these stars. All I can do is write. So I put together a collection of short stories set in Japan and asked Publishing by Rebecca Vickery to publish them. The book, A Matter of Tea, contains the story that won the 2010 Oaxaca International Literature Contest, and others. It has the first chapter of the Chronicles of the Dark Mirror, too. And it only costs US 99 cents.

At first, A Matter of Tea will be an eBook, available on Smashwords and other online retailers for 99 cents. Later a print version will also be available. I'll keep you updated.

My pledge. All the income, for me and for my publisher, will go to help the victims of Japan's fearsome earthquake. I promise it will get to the victims and will not disappear into the salary envelope of any charitable organization. I'll post the numbers and what was done with the donations.

At the moment, the book may not be up yet. Keep trying. It will be at www.smashwords.com very soon.