Rhineland: Hitler’s Last Defence, 1944–45 by Anthony Tucker-Jones is a dramatic retelling of the desperate battle of the Rhineland during World War II from the German perspective.The Rhineland was where Adolf Hitler sowed the seeds for the Second World War when he remilitarized it in breach of the Treaty of Versailles in 1936, and by late 1944 the Rhine provided the last major obstacle to the advancing Allied armies that were threatening the Fatherland itself.In this new history of this vital campaign, respected military historian Tucker-Jones describes the race against time as the Germans fought to stave off the inevitable. It was essential that the Germans held the west bank in order to protect the Rhine crossings at Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz and Remagen, but Hitler was intent on counter-attacking in the Ardennes in the winter of 1944 and this meant there was little left to bolster the defences of the Rhine.Rhineland relates the course of this desperate defence, describing the build-up of forces and operational plans before going on to tell the story of the campaign from the point of view of the forces involved, from the ordinary German soldier through to the high command.Anthony Tucker-Jones, a former intelligence officer, is a highly prolific writer and military historian with well over 50 books to his name. His work has also been published in an array of magazines and online. He regularly appears on television and radio commenting on current and historical military matters.#rhineland #worldwar2 #hitler #podcast #authorpodcast #anthonytuckerjones #speakingofwriterspodcast

On this episode, Steve Richards interviews book publicity veteran Brian Feinblum, founder of Book Marketing Buzz Blog. and one of the most respected voices in book marketing. They discuss today's publishing landscape, how authors can get published, and what promotional strategies still deliver results.

Brian Feinblum, the creator and author of BookMarketingBuzzBlog, was the chief marketing officer for the nation's largest book promotions firm, Media Connect, and has been involved in book publicity and marketing since 1989. He has served several book publishing companies as a publicist, book editor, and acquisitions editor. Brian, who earned a BA in English from Brooklyn College, became a published author in 1995 when he penned The Florida Homeowner, Condo and Co-Op Handbook. He resides in Westchester, New York with his wife, two children, and an 80-pound American Bulldog.#bookmarketing #bookmarketingbuzzblog #podcast #speakingofwriterspodcast

When a tainted drug starts claiming lives across the city, Detective Harriet Foster and her team race to track down the source…before it takes one of their own.About the Author Tracy Clark is the award-winning author of the acclaimed Detective Harriet Foster series. She is also the author of the Chicago Mystery series featuring Cassandra Raines, a hard-driving, African American PI who works the mean streets of the Windy City, dodging cops, cons, and killers. Clark is the 2024 winner of both the Anthony Award and the Lefty Award, as well as the 2020 and 2022 winner of the G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award, and the 2022 Sara Paretsky Award. She is also a multi-nominated Macavity, Edgar, Shamus, and ITW Thriller Award finalist. Her 2024 novel, Echo, was named one of the 10 Best Mysteries of the Year by The Washington Post, and her debut novel, Broken Places, was short-listed for the American Library Association’s RUSA Reading List and named a CrimeReads Best New PI Book of 2018, a Midwest Connections Pick, and a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Broken Places has since been optioned by Sony Pictures Television. A Chicago native, Clark roots for all Chicago sports teams equally. She is a member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime, and she sits on the boards of Bouchercon National and the Midwest Mystery Conference. You can find the author on Facebook (/tclarkbooks), Instagram (@tclarkwrites), Bluesky (@tracyc1.bsky.social) and her website (tracyclarkbooks.com). #tracyclark #chicagoauthor #speakingofwriterspodcast #authorpodcast #books

Structured in two almost novella-like sections, “Hard Margins” follows Wyoming’s Towuk tribe. The story begins in the spring of 1958 and is told by Danny Hubbard, a Korean war veteran, who has taken this remote BIA position for a chance to remake his life...Out of a mixture of duty and boredom, Hubbard begins to read the reports written by his BIA predecessors, dating back to the 1870s, looking for answers. It’s here he discovers the record left by Agent Dorrance, who almost religiously believed in his mandate, to work “for the welfare and improvement of the Indians.”

Dorrance is an amazing creation, a man who can be admired and reviled on the same page. A Civil War veteran turned correspondent for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, he quickly becomes a devotee of Greeley’s idea of an agrarian utopia in the West, made famous with the phrase, “Go West, young man.”

We often think that ideas such as Manifest Destiny and the needs of a growing population made western expansion a fait accompli, but Delaney’s novel reminds readers about the mood of the country after the Civil War.

The long, bloody conflict gave rise to a generation who wanted to believe their sacrifice meant something, which led many to utopian philosophies about how the spiritual connection of men to the land could undo the corruption of governments and cities. For many, the supposedly unpopulated West could be a chance to reinvent America, and leave behind the worst aspects of human nature.

Edward J. Delaney is an award-winning author, journalist, and filmmaker. His books include the novels Follow the Sun, Broken Irish, and Warp & Weft, and the short story collection The Drowning and Other Stories. His short fiction has also been published in The Atlantic and Best American Short Stories, and featured on PRI’s Selected Shorts program. Among other honors, he has received the PEN/New England Award, O. Henry Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is also the co-author of Born to Play, by Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. As a journalist, Delaney has written for publications including the Denver Post and Chicago Tribune, received the National Education Reporting Award, and has served as an editor at the Neiman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. As a filmmaker, he has directed and produced documentary films including The Times Were Never So Bad: The Life of Andre Dubus and Library of the Early Mind.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Delaney has also spent time in Georgia, Florida, and Colorado, and now lives in Rhode Island, where he teaches at Roger Williams University and edits the literary journal Mount Hope.

#authorpodcast #podcast #edwardjdelaney #speakingofwriterspodcast

Set in present-day, a disgraced former Secret Service office and a Jesuit professor join forces to delve into the mysteries surrounding the events of November 22, 1963. Fixated on deciphering the conspiracies behind the history-changing assassination, they are oblivious to the fact that the cabal is still active—and may face an end as bloody as the carnage in Dealey Plaza. Will they be able to uncover the truth in time? Or will they become two more footnotes in history? Chris Hauty was born in 1956 in San Antonio, Texas, and raised in Delaware, a geographic and cultural relocation made more tolerable by virtue of his relative youth and an obsession with Greek mythology. He graduated from Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, then moved to New York, where he supported his playwriting habit as a bike messenger and graphic artist. His plays produced Off-Off-Broadway included South of American Business and Shut Eye, Big Mouth. The sale of his first screenplay, Don Coyote, to 20th Century Fox prompted a move to Los Angeles. Employed for the last thirty years as a screenwriter, he has worked for every major movie studio, in nearly all genres, and in collaboration with Hollywood professionals ranging from Mel Gibson to Jessica Alba. #chrishauty #authorpodcast #speakingofwriterspodcast #podcast

At the height of America’s postwar boom, no region was more vital to the nation’s economic strength than the Great Lakes. It was the beating heart of the global economy—possessing all the power and prestige that Silicon Valley enjoys today. This industrial dominance depended on Great Lakes freighters getting iron ore from the shores of Lake Superior to the factories in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland.Few endeavors have bound time so mercilessly to money as Great Lakes shipping did at its peak, and no vessel had been more perfectly designed to maximize both than the S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald. At 75 feet wide and 729 feet long, the Fitzgerald was at the time of her launch the largest ship on the lakes, and she repeatedly broke her own records for the largest loads, the fastest runs, and the biggest season hauls throughout her career. She was a champion heavyweight, sprinter, and workhorse, all in one.But on November 10, 1975, when the “storm of the century” threw 100 mile-per-hour winds and 50-foot waves on Lake Superior, the Mighty Fitz found itself at the worst possible place, at the worst possible time. When she sank, she took all 29 men onboard down with her, leaving the tragedy shrouded in mystery for a half century. In THE GALES OF NOVEMBER, award-winning journalist John U. Bacon presents the definitive account of the disaster, drawing on more than 100 interviews with the families, friends, and former crewmates of those lost. Bacon explores the vital role Great Lakes shipping played in America’s economic boom, the uncommon lives the sailors led, the sinking’s most likely causes, and the heartbreaking aftermath for those left behind—“the wives, the sons, and the daughters” as Gordon Lightfoot sang in his unforgettable ballad.Focused on those directly affected by the tragedy, THE GALES OF NOVEMBER is both an emotional tribute to the Fitzgerald’s captain and crew and a propulsive, page-turning narrative history of America’s most-mourned shipwreck.About the Author:John U. Bacon has authored fourteen books on sports, business, and history, the last seven of which are critically acclaimed national bestsellers, including five New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Ann Arbor and Northern Michigan with his wife and son.#edmundfitzgerald #authorpodcast #podcast #johnubacon

Drawing on vivid contemporary accounts, this is a fascinating exploration of how and why the Revolutionary War descended into a brutal existential struggle.This engrossing history of the Revolutionary War conclusively shows that those caught up in it believed they had nothing to lose by fighting without regard for the rules of so-called “civilized warfare.” The clarion call to arms “Liberty or Death” was far more than just rhetoric. At its grimmest level, it was a conflict in which military restraint was more the exception than the rule, a struggle in which combatants believed their very existence was in question. This led to an acceptance of violence against persons and property as preferable to a defeat equated with political, cultural, and even physical extinction. It was war with an expectation and acceptance of ferocity and brutality – anything to avoid defeat.A number of historians have previously concluded that United States' founding struggle reached a level of ferocity few Americans now associate with the movement for independence. However, these studies have described what happened, without looking in detail at why the conflict took such a violent a turn. Written by two esteemed Revolutionary War historians, War Without Mercy does exactly that. Based on years of research and enlivened by little known primary sources, this is an intriguing and fresh look at a period of history we thought we knew.Mark Edward Lender is Professor Emeritus of History at Kean University. He is author or co-author of more than a dozen books including, with James Kirby Martin, the acclaimed A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763–1789 (Wiley, 2015) – which for several years was required reading at West Point – and, with Garry Wheeler Stone, the award-winning Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle (University of Oklahoma Press, 2016). He served on the design team for the Army’s special 250th Anniversary Exhibit at the National Museum of the U.S. Army. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.#americanrevolution #americanrevolutionarywar #1776 #authorpodcast #speakingofwriterspodcast

REAR WINDOW: The Making of a Hitchcock Masterpiece in the Golden Age of Hollywood examines this complex, fascinating film, its multiple layers and subsequent cinematic impact. Made at his creative peak, Hitchcock’s Rear Window influenced filmmaking in the years that followed, and its timeless themes now align with today’s digital culture. This deep dive will also strike a chord with cultural history buffs fascinated by the turbulent politics of Hollywood and America in the 1950s.Jennifer O’Callaghan has worked as a reporter for Metro News, Shaw TV, and CKUA radio in news, entertainment, and lifestyle beats. She has also appeared as a red-carpet reporter for the web entertainment site MyBroadway.com, and as host on Paradetown USA on NYC-TV. She has interviewed celebrities including Will Ferrell, Meryl Streep, Liza Minnelli, and Cameron Diaz, and appeared as a featured model on The Today Show and The View. She currently lives in Toronto.#speakingofwriterspodcast #alfredhitchcock #authorpodcast #podcast #jennifer O'Callaghan #books #bookpodcast