A Little Gloating

Today I shall indulge in a little boasting.  Golden State Blues was favorably reviewed by an honest to God New York Times bestselling author, Burt Boyar.  Burt, in collaboration with his late wife Jane, wrote the ‘autobiography’ of Sammy Davis, Junior, Yes, I Can.  His other works include World Class, Invisible Scars, one of my favorites, Hitler Stopped by Franco and his fascinating memoir, Blessed.

This man has enjoyed a storybook life.  As a columnist in New York in the fifties and sixties he hobnobbed with nearly every celebrity who was popular at the time and thus became best friends with Sammy Davis, Jr.  From that friendship grew the biography that launched his career as a bestselling author.

Then he and Jane traveled to Spain to research the world of professional tennis for their novel, World Class and were so enamored of the place that they stayed for twenty-eight years, improbably renting a house on the beach from the daughter of the dictator, Francisco Franco.  When it comes to falling into primary source material, how lucky can you get?

Tragically, Jane died suddenly, in her sleep, with no prior warning of anything being wrong.  Shortly thereafter Burt returned to the US where he now resides on the West Side of Los Angeles.

You bet I’m going to include the review!  For which I thank Burt Boyar very much.  Scroll down to find links to Burt’s books at Smashwords and Amazon, and Golden State Blues, too.

FABULOUS PAGE-TURNER April 20, 2014

Review of Golden State Blues by Burt Boyar

Verified Purchase

This marvelous book, superbly written, is the story of a man who sees his state of California and all of its God given glory being trampled on and destroyed by self-serving "public servants,” the police and teachers' unions and decides to do something about it by becoming Governor. Once in office he starts to clean house. He addresses issues such as officials of bankrupt towns paying themselves salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. He fires them. When some reject his dismissal because they were voted into office he finds ways to oust them, cutting budgets he controls, etc. He empties the prisons of illegal immigrants (saving California millions) by sending them to Nevada and Colorado. He is a ruthless dream come true who literally fixes a broken state. His actions that eliminate insane spending fill the State's coffers so well that he is able to remove sales tax and state income tax. Some of the many toes he steps on reach out for help to Washington, D.C. and when the lady president of the U.S.A. cannot reach him (he won't take her many calls) she threatens to cut Federal funding, to which he is able to reply, "Keep your money, we don't need it." California is rich again. In the course of his house cleaning he confronts the Legislators in Sacramento who decide "We'll show him" and leave town and their responsibilities. In the absence of a legislature he is able to  assume powers to further clean the mess and crookery. This is not a book for supporters of illegal immigrants and other darlings of the liberal Left. Hopefully it will be an inspiration to some politician who will see that it can be done, that The United States of America can be raised from the dust.

The ending broke my heart, when the Legislators, hungry for their lost power, reconvene, vote for impeachment and are supported by the liberal Left voters and this brilliant man is  removed from office. In his absence they begin to re-instate all of the destructive, unaffordable policies he had abolished and by which he had saved the State.

Sadly, the author who writes and thinks brilliantly, is a realist and understands the inevitable. I strongly recommend this book to everyone, Conservatives who'll say "Yeah!!!" and Liberals who might become influenced by the other side of the aisle's thinking. That is, if they are truly liberal.

This is a great book.

Well, there you go, my head won’t quit swelling.  Scroll down for links to Burt’s books and, of course, Golden State Blues.

 Buy at Smashwords

 Buy at Amazon

 




Buy at Smashwords


Buy at Amazon

Buy at Smashwords


Buy at Amazon

Buy at Smashwords


Buy at Amazon

Buy at Smashwords


Buy at Amazon

Don't Forget!

Only $4.99

Buy at Smashwords

Buy at Amazon

Coming soon in paperback to Createspace

Pacific Paradox

Beresford Branson is the quintessential upper class twit.  As second son of a baronet, he is ineligible to inherit his father’s title so happily he drinks, chases girls and careens his MG through the hedgerows until Sir Branson decides he must be “blooded.”  Exiled to the South Pacific for three years with a modest sum of cash, Berry must learn to make his own way or else.  On landing in Tahiti he confirms his suspicion that not being French, he is forbidden to work, thus he makes his way to Pago Pago working as a deckhand for an American family, thence to British Samoa where he finds unrewarding employment.  However, he is mugged and mystified as to why his American friend and benefactor from Pago Pago is threatening his life over a post office box number in Sydney.  Enter Josh Noble, entrepreneur and business partner with Berry’s father, who puts the young dilettante to work peddling cassava across the South Pacific.  Calling on Guadalcanal at the outbreak of war in the Pacific, Berry is one of two white persons who opt not to evacuate, instead volunteering as coast watchers for the Allied cause.

Pacific Paradox is an absolutely delightful book that lets us sail along during the coming of age of a bon vivant who ultimately spends two years living in caves while spotting Japanese troop and ship movements.  The attention to historical detail with regard to the battles for strategic Guadalcanal shows Kev Richardson’s depth of knowledge.  His prose and pace are excellent and characters well developed.  The end is both true to life and satisfying.  I am going to look into something else by Kev Richardson.

69,680 Words

Price $4.99 Smashwords  $6.00 at Amazon

Buy at Smashwords 

Buy at Amazon

Live at Smashwords

Two men walked into a bar. 

They decided to save the state of California and they almost succeeded.

A king maker in the little town of Claremont decided to solve all the state’s problems, so he took a hardcore Republican, dressed him in Democrat’s clothes and got him elected governor of California, all the while pulling his puppet’s strings from a barstool.  Things start to improve quickly especially after the legislature went on strike leaving Governor Jim’s hands unfettered.  The National Guard did a great job of implementing the governor’s plan until the president can’t take it any longer and tries to have him assassinated.  Then there is that little surprise from Jim’s checkered past that he could have never seen coming.  Golden State Blues is a riotous and outrageous spoof on the sorry state of the Golden State.



71,000 words

Price $4.99

Buy at Smashwords 

Coming Soon

Two men walked into a bar and decided to save the state of California and they almost succeeded.

Coming soon to Smashwords, Amazon and Createspace.

Cryptos Conundrum

Jonathan Chalmers fell on his head at age four.  The resulting brain injury turned him into a
savant who could read fifty pages per minute in multiple texts and instantly
recognize complicated mathematical patterns. 
In 1918 he is inexplicably rescued, wounded, from the trenches of Verdun
by a group of quasi-spiritual, quasi-extraterrestrial beings who make him whole
and instill his brain with some arcane cosmic knowledge.  This experience apparently also retards the
aging process.  As a result of his
youthful appearance he is able to again enlist in the army at the outbreak of
World War II but he is quickly snatched from basic training and recruited by
the OSS which segues into the CIA after the war.  This coincidentally is around the time of the
incident at Roswell so Chalmers finds himself in charge of the alien bodies
which resemble H.R. Giger’s alien from the movie of the same name rather than
the cute little gray guys with big heads we are used to associating with
Roswell.

The above only describes a fraction of this epic length
adventure into the bizarre life of a charter member of the CIA who behind the
scenes is responsible for the protection of everything and everyone.  It is in a word, weird.  At times it is painful.  There are numerous anachronisms and much
verbal gymnastics.  I would like to see
the editor tarred and feathered for allowing the phrase, “Chalmers knew...” to
be used forty-three times.  Seriously, it
annoyed me so much I counted.  That
ignores all the cases of, “He knew...” and when the point of view shifts to the
aliens—yes, even the aliens get a viewpoint—we are made to suffer with, “The
alien knew...”  The aliens’ names are
corny distortions of English words and part of the alien dialog is first given
in nonsensical characters before it is translated for us.  I read the whole thing and never stopped
asking myself why.

In fairness it has its moments of clever situations and
intriguing hypotheses.  Having said all
this, I probably should give some thought to the fact that the author is a
retired CIA spook who surely knows how to get even.