For book/ebook authors, publishers, & self-publishers

Karl's Fiction

Hi, my name's Karl Larew. I'm a semi-retired history professor at Towson University, specializing in military history and philosophy of history. I have six novels on Amazon.com/Kindle; one of them is also on Barnes and Noble (Nook) and Smashwords. I'm talking about "Candles in the Window," a psychological study of the sex/love lives of a bunch of college students at the University of Connecticut in the 1950s. Feeling the generation gap, they form an artificial family for mutual support, centered on a beautiful, extremely talented, but enigmatic girl nicknamed "Silky." They view her from different perspectives, leaving the idea of "truth" up for grabs. A priest with homosexual urges provides a counterpoint to the students' story. There is some coming-of-age, some nostalgia, some (non-genre) romance. This book was originally published in 1999 and got well reviewed in the "Baltimore Sun," the reviewer being so impressed by the realistic and "lively" prose that he assumed it was a memoir rather than pure fiction. (I graduated from UConn in 1959.) It was also used in an English literature course as required reading. Now I have slightly revised the text and reissued it on Amazon/Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. The Amazon/Kindle version has a different cover from the Nook and Smashwords version (which reproduces the 1999 cover), but the text is the same, i.e., the 2010 revision.

I'll say something about my other novels later. Cheers, Karl

Next Post >

Comment

You need to be a member of The Book Marketing Network to add comments!

Join The Book Marketing Network

Comment by Karl G. Larew on December 29, 2010 at 12:28pm: As I promised (threatened), I want to tell you about my other books. "Paul, Betty, and Pearl" is about an Army officer in WWII whose career is threatened by investigations into what happened at Pearl Harbor, and also by his love affair with a married woman (with a 6 year old daughter). Paul takes part in the Normandy landing and the Battle of the Bulge, but his greatest professional headache is the accusations about Pearl Harbor. He must decide what to do about his love affair and its dangers to him, Betty, and her daughter. This is the first of a trilogy. The 2nd is "Daddypaul and the Yo-yo War," about Paul's post-WWII/Korean War era experiences, including episodes involving child molestation, post-partum depression, Pentagon politics, the Korean War, and the McCarthy era witch hunts. The 3rd is "Gran'paul's Family," in which Paul's family weathers the Cold War/Vietnam War eras, with worries about homosexuality, a case of enemy espionage, divorces, and the anti-war movement. Each of these three volumes can be read on its own. All three are on Amazon.com and Kindle.

     I also have a two-book series (each can be read on its own), spoofs of James Bond/vampire/werewolf stories. "Bad Vampires" and "Nazi Werewoofs." Both are on Amazon.com and Kindle. Good vampires are humans with a metabolic need for little sips of blood, which they get from willing donors, usually normal humans. Bad vampires are the same but they kill their unwilling donors for fun. Good vampire Lance and his normal girlfriend Carol, and their friends, battle Bad Vampire Elmer and his cohort, Mad Scientist Dr. Beasly. In the next volume, they battle Bad Vampire Baron Wolfgang von Verdammte, who is trying to create a neo-Nazi empire by creating werewolves to battle the Good Vampires. This volume features double, triple, and quadruple agents in each others' camps, along with the Baron's prize possession, the Body of Hitler. These books are filled with puns and allusions to popular culture from the past half century.

     I had fun writing these books and hope you will download samples and see if they'll please you!

                               Karl