Free (Kindle DRM-free) Wanderers & Nomads: True Stories of Wild Explorers [History]

[ATDrake]

And now for something reasonably different.

The following title feature is technically a repeat, but something we don't really see all that often in the KDP exclusive-or-else slushpile full of paranormal sci-fi romantic serial killer thriller pseudo-incest porn.

From what I've seen on the internet, it's really and truly depressing that so many people seem like they could make a lot use out of anything which gives them a far better grounding in history, science, or even the basic ability to add and subtract simple numbers and write reasonably coherent vaguely grammatical sentences than what skills in those areas they seem to display now.

One way that they can be helped is via Bob the Angry Flower's Bob's Quick Guide to the Apostrophe, You Idiots! which is one of two mandatory reading pieces I will enforce when I am God-Emperor of the planet. (The other will be Richard P. Feynman's Cargo Cult Science).

But in the meantime, here's some history for you to hopefully learn from and enjoy.

Wanderers & Nomads: True Stories of Eccentric and Wild Explorers in the Americas by Stephen R. Bown is slightly revised collection of his columns on the subject of exactly what it says in the title.

These were originally published between 1997-2010 in US and Canadian magazines, most prominently in The Beaver: Canada's History Magazine, which after 90 years of publication went and changed its name because of the exact same snickers you started making 24 words ago.

Don't even try to deny it.

Sometimes I'm seriously tempted to start seeing if I can memeify the use of "bald eagle" as a euphemism for a body part I'm sure you can imagine.

Anyway, Bown is one of our semi-respected pop-historical writers on both global and Canadian history subjects, with books out from Macmillan which get reviewed in The Globe and Mail, and his bio says he's got a bunch of specified award nominations and the occasional win.

Free without DRM for who knows how long (probably just a day, given how long this lasted last time) @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
Wanderers and Nomads is a collection of fifteen true stories of historical adventurers and travelers in the Americas.

From the first tourist voyage in 1536 that ended in shipwreck and cannibalism in Newfoundland, to the four year Arctic survival epic of Captain John Ross in the 1830s, to Lavrenity Zagoskin's first Russian scientific expedition in Alaska in 1842, to a duo of British spies scouting Old Oregon for military installations in 1845, these tales will be sure to bring to light shocking and little-known vignettes from an era when most of North America was still a frontier.

With fourteen maps and dozens of historical images.

Very little in the slushpile today. Probably they're saving it all for tomorrow because authors/publishers love to dump their freebies in with new release Tuesday, which is just about the worst time ever if they wanted their stuff to stand out, but that's when I have a lab exam, so their clever plan has failed since I'm not likely to see any of it until it's too late to do them any good.

We do have some extra Canadiana, and a decent proportion of sf/fantasy self-pubs by established authors.

Minor ISFDBed Derek Clendening returns with a horror short: Blood Verse: The Vampire as Poet

Much-published James Scott Bell who writes how-to books for Writer's Digest and looks to have been published by many of the major Christian fiction publishers and says he has a bunch of suspense awards offers a possibly-secular 50s-style pulp short about a boxer: King Crush (Irish Jimmy Gallagher)

Minor ISFDBed Amber D. Sistla offers another of her fantasy shorts: Unchanting Time (Break Bites)

Berkley-published cozy mystery writer Michele Scott whom we usually see under her self-pub thriller penname A.K. Alexander offers some kind of general litfic/maybe-women's fiction centred around the Napa Valley wine-production scene (apparently she writes wine-related cozies as well): Happy Hour

Minor ISFDBed Canadian Cheryl Kaye Tardif returns with another one in her BC-based psychic government investigative squad supernatural mystery/thrillers, of which we previously received the 1st one free: Divine Justice (Divine series)

Tardif's publisher Imajin also offer another Canadian-written and Ontario-set supernatural mystery/thriller, this one by Catherine Astolfo: Victim (An Emily Taylor Mystery)

Tamelia Tumlin has had a couple of things out from small romance imprint The Wild Rose Press. She offers a paranormal shapeshifter action romance novella: A Dragon's Seduction

Mundania Press-published Elaine Corvidae, one of whose fantasies I bought during a recent Fictionwise coupon sale, offers a steampunk assassin adventure which looks reasonably lengthy: Angel of Brass

Newbie startup minor ISFDBed horror press Dark Continents offers a story from Daniel I. Russell : Critique

Minor ISFDBed Phoenix C. Sullivan runs the Steel Magnolia Press imprint which has mostly sf/fantasy but also a few romance and is offering a mix of new and repeats including Sullivan's own biomedical sfnal thriller: Linkage for the lot of 9 which I can see from Canada

The only really notable repeats I spotted were from Anthony Neil Smith (crime) and Catherine Czerkawska (litfic), who are both award nominees for decent fiction prizes in their respective fields. As usual, Books We Love/BWLPP are offering a mix of new and repeat stuff, some by established authors when you search for their imprint names.

Happy reading, if you manage to spot anything you think you might like, or manage to learn interesting things that originally came from Canada's History Magazine which has dropped its original nationally symbolic title out of a misplaced sense of shame*. <-- because this is the closest related smiley we have, and I could make a joke about nuts, but I won't

* Still better than the idiot MP actually a Senator† who wanted to swap in the polar bear, which is directly endangered and dying out because of her party's lack-of-environmental policies, as our national symbol instead.

Sic semper toothy tyrannis.

(ETA: Bonus infographic to help you better understand the "debate"!)

† Which, unfortunately, means that we don't even have the possibility of turfing her for a cardboard box painted with the relevant party colours during the next election, which would probably do a better job anyway and cost less in perks and travel/aide expenses.

[Dr. Drib]

Found one that I had missed earlier today.

Thanks!



Don

[ATDrake]

If the one you found happens not to be the James Scott Bell short, that one's set at a carnival, if you're interested.

[Synamon]

Sinfandel by Gina Cresse. Wine, murder, lying cheating ex...

Not surprisingly the punny title and wine theme caught my eye and the blurb sounded decent, so I clicked the author's name and got nada on the Amazon site. When I did a google search to my astonishment up popped a fantastic fiction page for this author. Apparently she had a prior mystery series published in hardcover by Avalon. I backtracked and sure enough, her 5 hardcovers show up under the books category at Amazon.

[mitford13]

[QUOTE=Synamon;2036399...When I did a google search to my astonishment up popped a fantastic fiction page for this author. Apparently she had a prior mystery series published in hardcover by Avalon. I backtracked and sure enough, her 5 hardcovers show up under the books category at Amazon.[/QUOTE]

D'oh...my spidey-sense let me down on that one; just looked at it briefly but skipped over. I put it on my ereaderiq pricewatch since it's on offer as a KOLL-title - hopefully will pop up free again on one of the other give-away days.

ETA - seem to have garbled the quote function....sorry Synamon.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by mitford13

D'oh...my spidey-sense let me down on that one; just looked at it briefly but skipped over. I put it on my ereaderiq pricewatch since it's on offer as a KOLL-title - hopefully will pop up free again on one of the other give-away days.

ETA - seem to have garbled the quote function....sorry Synamon.

Easy to miss, it had no reviews and the author link wasn't to her Amazon book page. I only persevered with a google search since the title appealed to me. I actually hunted down a website for the author and found a contact email and dropped her a note letting her know that the author link for the ebook was funky. She's now got the link going to her main author page.

[mitford13]

Originally Posted by Synamon

Sinfandel by Gina Cresse. Wine, murder, lying cheating ex...

Not surprisingly the punny title and wine theme caught my eye and the blurb sounded decent, so I clicked the author's name and got nada on the Amazon site. When I did a google search to my astonishment up popped a fantastic fiction page for this author. Apparently she had a prior mystery series published in hardcover by Avalon. I backtracked and sure enough, her 5 hardcovers show up under the books category at Amazon.

Just got the ereaderiq notice that this one is free again - thanks Synamon!
[I do pay for books too - just nice to find the bargains as well....]

[carpetmojo]

"Wanderers & Nomads: .........."

This is great !!