It occurs to me that time is running out to convince you to buy our books for Christmas. Okay, time actually has run out, depending on how you take delivery, but there are New Year’s presents, of course. It’s traditional in many parts of the world to read a book New Year’s morning while nursing your hangover.

 
I use this photo a lot because it’s handy to remind me about that one book I always forget when listing them.

 

Say, maybe I could sell more books by lying! After all, that’s what fiction is: Making up stories. Some people would say that’s what advertising is, too. Advertising is also short, so I’ll just give you a tasty sample, as if the books were made out of chocolate. (They aren’t—don’t try it.)

At the bottom of this blog, as always, are sites where you can find our books and/or find us. I use "us" in this case because without my wife/editor/cover designer/setup person/IT Department/butt kicker Emily, most of these books would have never seen the light of day.

 

 

Have you ever wished your history teacher stopped lecturing, and did a standup routine making fun of the subject, instead? That's Hoosier Hysterical. I've started taking notes for a sequel.

Imagine you attended a summer camp, and it turned out to be a series of disasters in which you and your friends must become heroes and save everyone. It's like getting a taste of what Harry Potter and his friends do over summer break, only funnier. That's The No-Campfire Girls.

 

 


I used to write a weekly humor column for some small town newspapers. Being paranoid, I wrote a bunch of columns in advance so I wouldn't miss a deadline. Not being paranoid enough, I didn't see it coming when the papers were bought out by a larger newspaper. They went in another, not funny, direction.

 

So all those unpublished columns ended up in a book. Later I collected some of the older published columns and put them in another book, so you can read Slightly Off the Mark and More Slightly Off the Mark without getting newsprint on your hands. And that saves soap.

 

 

 



My first published novel, Storm Chaser pairs a disaster photographer with an overprotective cop who just wants to get rid of her. In real life the whole thing would have led to arrests and protective orders, but this is romantic comedy land. Much to my surprise, it's now a series, including the short story collection Storm Squalls, a spin-off with the cop's sister, The No-Campfire Girls, and The Notorious Ian Grant, currently being prepared for republication. There is, of course, another sequel in the works.

 


As I said, in real life most romantic comedies would end in legal action of some sort. "She's stalking me!" "He's trying to destroy my world!" Coming Attractions involves an actual legal battle, to save a drive-in theater. I put the climactic scene in a courtroom right here in my home town, and although it's completely unrealistic, it's also a lot of fun.

Sadly, there are no (current) plans for a sequel, although just for fun I did once cross this world over with Storm Chaser in a Christmas short story.


Storm Chaser and Radio Red were originally released by the same traditional publisher. After that publisher was bought out, I got the rights back to the Storm Chaser stories. Radio Red doesn't get as much love because I don't have those rights back yet, and in my opinion they have the e-book price set too high for seven year old book by an unknown author. You're welcome to spend the $3.99, of course! And I had a lot of fun writing Radio Red, a romantic comedy pairing a small radio station owner with his new air personality.

But am I an unknown author, really? Well, according to official sources there are some 50,000 book authors traditionally published in the U.S. Including self-published works, about four million new books are published every year. So yes, unknown, just like everyone else. This is why I'm begging working for an audience.


Finally we have Images of America: Albion and Noble County and Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So With the Albion Fire Department. They were a lot of work, but well received by anyone who's read them. But both are local history books, which by nature are usually of interest only to local readers. My newest local history book, Haunted Noble County, Indiana, is with the publisher right now, but should come out late in 2025.


So that's it ... for now. But I have--brace yourself--no less than ten other books in various stages of production, from initial note taking to submitting completed manuscripts to publishers. Meanwhile here's a list of websites where you can peruse books, buy books, or just ponder my genius or lack thereof.



·        Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

·        Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

·        Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

·        Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

·        Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

·        Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

·        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

·        Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

·        Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

·        Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter

·        Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

·        Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914


Remember: Every time a book gets rung up, an author gets his wings.


"If the Beast gave me a library like he gave to Belle, I'd marry him too." -- Aya Ling


 So, my wife's bosses were going through storage units, and had to sort through all the books their daughter collected over the years. Some were damaged, but they offered to give Emily and me most of the rest. Their daughter, they said, read a lot.

Not long after, they filled our Ford Escape with so many books I was afraid it would bottom out on every hill on the way home. A few days later, they did it again. Then again.

 

 

Mountains of books! Forests of books! More books than you'd ever read in a lifetime!

Ahem. If you'll pardon me for quoting Beauty and the Beast. I may have cried a little. I also may have cried a little while we were carrying them all up the steps into the house, but enough about my back.

It was Emily who had to clean up the books because, as it happens, I'm allergic to both dust and mold. Never thought I'd be glad about that. But I forgot, and later when I was cleaning our former bedroom/new reading room (our own library!) I gave myself an allergy attack. Too bad--eight hours of sleeping off the Benadryl, when I could have been reading.

 

Freaking scads of books! 

We're still sorting them, by author and genre. Authors like me, who don't stick to a genre, will be a problem. But many of them were novel series (love a good series), which helped. We unfolded a table and Emily got started while I was cooking and doing the dishes, which is completely understandable when you realize how much more organized her mind is than mine.

Really, the only member of the family who wasn't thrilled was the dog. (This all happened before Beowulf passed away.) When we first put up the table he liked to lay down under it, but as we unpacked more books that space became filled, too. Sometimes he just walked up to the table and looks sadly at his former doghouse.

"I am NOT amused. I can't even read."

 

A large percentage of the books are what's called high fantasy, which I take it are better enjoyed when you're high. Wait, let me check ...

Oh. Well, it means epic in scope, with forces threatening a world that is not our own. Game Of Thrones stuff, and didn't it take us a whole year to read through those massive tomes. The novel I wrote (and am currently trying to sell) is low fantasy: mostly set in the real world, with the addition of magical elements. Now we're talking about Harry Potter and the Giant Dump Truck of Money.

Many others are space opera, again similar to another novel in my submission process. Think Dune, the Lensman books, and of course Star Wars. (My Junior English teacher in high school was the daughter of E.E. Smith, who authored the Hugo-nominated Lensman series. Fun old-timey SF, and possibly an inspiration for the Green Lantern.)

There are also history books, mostly involving World War II, which made me squeal a little. Okay, a lot. There are mysteries, and both nonfiction and fiction books about horses, and encyclopedia yearbooks covering all the earlier years of my life and some before. We have our own library of books--something I always dreamed of.

I took this photo to document that someone decided to leave their shampoo behind, and buy a book instead. If you never leave your couch, you don't need shampoo.

 

It all made me a little sad.

Let's face it: even if I gave up writing and put all my spare time into reading, there's no way I'll ever get to all these books, plus the ones I already have, plus the ones on my reading list. We've still got books in boxes in the garage. I've got friends writing books that I want to read. It makes me want to retire to a rustic cabin in the woods and just become one with a comfortable chair.

Still, just having all those books up on shelves around us will cheer me up substantially, and better too many than not enough. With books, I may never go anywhere again--but I'll go everywhere.

That's a pretty good way to spend your time.


Remember: Every time you don't read a book, the author has an allergy attack. Keep authors healthy.

 


 

We and our books--I mean, the ones we wrote--can be found everywhere:

·        Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

·        Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

·        Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

·        Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

·        Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

·        Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

·        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

·        Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

·        Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

·        Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter

·        Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

·        Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914


 I won't have time to do my regular blog again this weekend, but fear not! Instead I'm linking you to a fun, photo filled monthly newsletter.

Well, there are photos, anyway.

But the thing that may interest you the most is that, in the newsletter, I included the book blurb for Haunted Noble County, Indiana. The publisher has officially given the book that name, by the way. They haven't approved the blurb yet, but it isn't likely to be much different from what you'll see here:

https://mailchi.mp/11840c2e73a9/vacation-time-to-not-get-away

I also talk a little about our vacation, which was generally uneventful, and one of the larger fires in the history of Noble County (Indiana), which was generally very eventful. Sign up for the newsletter! It only goes out once a month unless there's Big News, and it's free. Also, no cost.

If the smoke rises high enough to form a mushroom cloud visible 40 miles away, it's a big fire.



We and our books can be found ... everywhere:


Remember: Not reading books is--spooky.

 At long last I can finally announce that we're finished with Haunted Noble County, Indiana!

I mean, of course, until I get edits back from the publisher. Emily finished her go-through, correcting all my small mistakes and showing me the big mistakes to correct. By the time you read this, our editor at The History Press will be shaking his head and muttering, "You had a whole year, and couldn't clean it up better than this?"

Well, I hope that's not what he's saying.

This is the longest it's ever taken me to write a book, with the exception of Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights. In both cases that includes long delays in which nothing got done at all. Not my fault! Mostly.

Then there were the pictures. We planned on about thirty, most taken by Emily and me; we turned in fifty.

Photography wasn't all that easy when John A. Harkless was doing it.

 

That's the tombstone of John A. Harkless, a photographer who should get his own credit in the book. For this book and for Images of America: Albion and Noble County, we depended on several local sources for historical photos. But most of the older photos, at least from the Albion area, originated with Harkless.

It wasn't unusual for us to find the same photo in more than one collection--sometimes from four or five sources. In that case, we credited the first place we found it. Often that was the Noble County Historical Society (which operates the Old Jail Museum), or the collections of Mike Mapes and Grace Leatherman, or the Stone's Trace Historical Society.

The funny thing is that Haunted Noble County, Indiana isn't an historical book, really. It's supposed to be about ghosts and haunted places, and that means places that are haunted today, doesn't it? But I love to research, and I love history. Whenever we encountered a local ghost story I couldn't help thinking: What events let to a spirit hanging around? How long have they been there? What was the place like when they were alive?

We found this photo of the Wolf Lake Onion Parade in three places, although first through the Noble County Historical Society.

Well, if you love researching, and you get a chance to research, what happens? That's right: rabbit hole. A lot of rabbit holes.

It's not the only thing that delayed the project, of course. I've mentioned before our visit from COVID, which overstayed its welcome. We got so delayed that when I finally saw the finish line, I realized I had to make a dash to reach it. Or, to put it another way, the deadline was approaching like Godzilla on a bender.

This photo was in Mike Mapes' massive collection. (Just to clarify, none of the photos in this blog are in the book--they're just examples of what great history people have preserved.)

So once again--I said the same thing in May--sorry to anyone I didn't reconnect with before it was too late. Also, thank you to those I did connect with, and there were many, and thank you again for all those history buffs who helped lead me down those various rabbit holes. Sometimes I ended up in areas that didn't add to this project, but that doesn't mean they weren't fun.

 

The Stone's Trace Historical Society had this photo of downtown Ligonier.

 

 

And when will the results of our hard work be revealed to the world? Well ... I did mention that we missed deadlines, right? Our editor was very understanding, but the world of traditional publishing plods on like an old plow horse, and I wouldn't expect to see it before the spring of 2025--maybe later. I'll keep you updated.


 

 

Remember: Every time you read a book, an ancestor smiles in their grave. Which is actually kind of scary.

The Hoosiers is in no way related to our book Hoosier Hysterical, being separated by a century or so and a barrel of laughs. (That is, the one I wrote is a barrel of laughs. Well, I like to think so.)

Some books I recommend despite knowing most of my readers won't be interested. So it is with this centennial edition of The Hoosiers, which came out in 1915, a year before Indiana's hundredth birthday. My wife's bosses loaned me this original copy, which I'd imagine is pretty rare. I even avoided eating and drinking while leafing through the delicate pages.

Much to my surprise, The Hoosiers is available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Hoosiers-Centennial-Meredith-Nicholson/dp/B00FDZ0EB2

 

 

I don't expect it'll get a lot of sales there, but it had several reprints back in the day. Although Nicholson covers the basics of Indiana history, its main focus is the arts: Nicholson goes into detail about early Indiana writers, poets, and occasionally painters, as well as other notable Hoosiers of what was then the olden days (and today is twice as olden).

Some of the notables and their products from back then might be recognizable to today's Indianians (as Nicholson puts it, despite the book's title). She also goes over other groups that brought "cultivation" to Indiana, including religious leaders, lawyers and politicians, and those involved in what would then have been the relatively recent Civil War.

Together those notables are woven together into a look at what Indiana was when first formed, and also what it became by the time of the book's writing. From that standpoint it can be interesting, considering how much things changed in the previous and following centuries.

Just the same, I can't recommend the book unless you're really invested in the minutia of Indiana history. I found it easier to read than I'd expected, and fascinating, but I can't stress enough how much it appeals to a very limited readership.

 

 

 


 

If you'd like to browse Indiana history in a somewhat lighter way, well ... you know where I'd send you.


 

 

 

 

 


 

History can be funny, even if it makes history teachers roll over in their graves (hopefully not while they’re still alive). In Hoosier Hysterical, Mark and Emily Hunter tour Indiana in an off-the-wall, Indy 500-style race though the past, from Paleo-Indians through the Northwest Territory, to the gas in Gas City.

http://www.markrhunter.com/HoosierHysterical.html

Along the way we encounter killers, heroes, trivia, and of course, Johnny Appleseed. It’s as American as sugar cream pie—Indiana’s state pie, thanks to the efforts of a hard-working state General Assembly. So sit back and have some fun … and if you accidentally learn something along the way, that's just gravy ... on breaded tenderloin.
 

You can order Hoosier Hysterical and our other books in the regular places:

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter


My Fort Wayne TV interview was reposted to a South Bend station, and also to an Evansville station. How cool is that? (Pretty cool!)

21Country: Haunted Noble County https://www.wndu.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/

https://www.14news.com/video/2023/10/26/21country-haunted-noble-county/



 I've been contacted by the Acquisitions Editor for The History Press, which is a part of Arcadia Publishing. They do local and regional history books, and Emily and I wrote Images Of America: Albion and Noble County for them.

On an unrelated note, I noticed the Images Of America books are on sale over the holiday weekend:

https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/

Long story short, I'm starting work on a new book for them. The tentative title is A Haunted History of Noble County, Indiana

Spooky, and I didn't even have to edit. It's an Old Jail--has to be haunted, right?

 

All I need now is you.

Overall it would be the fifth Noble County related book through Arcadia Publishing, and my second. Just as I asked for old photos for our Images Of America book, I'm seeking help from locals, people who used to be locals, and general history and ghost buffs. I need stories: Tales you've heard about supernatural stuff in Noble County (Indiana!), strange things you've witnessed, rumors, general weird stuff, from homes, businesses, cemeteries, isolated roads ... and, of course, any photos of possibly haunted places, old or new.

I do like old photos, but this book will have fewer pictures and more stories than the last one.

This will be my fourth history book: I found copies of the other ones in the Noble County Public Library's history and genealogy room in Albion.

Of course, in the book I'll credit anyone who sends in anything--unless you don't want to be credited, in which case my lips are sealed. And if you have photos, Emily can scan them and get them back to you. We have scanned historical photos already, from the last project, but we don't have them all by a long shot.

I prefer to communicate through the wonders of the web, like e-mail and messaging, because I work nights and sleep when most people are up; but I can act like a regular person and talk by phone or in person. At least, I used to be able to. How hard could it be? We can be contacted at ozma914 at hotmail dot com, if you correct the at and dot and remove the spaces.


Sadly, this pushes my schedule back on our other book projects, including a second book about the Albion Fire Department, but I promise to get back on those just as quickly as possible. Help me out by sending me those stories! It's a spooky world, so freak me out.

Actually, the genealogy and history section of the library seems to have all my older books, which puzzled me until I realized they were in a local authors section.


 

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

 

 



 

It's selling the soap time!

 

History can be funny, even if it makes history teachers roll over in their graves (hopefully not while they’re still alive). Mark and Emily Hunter tour Indiana in an off-the-wall, Indy 500-style race though the past, from Paleo-Indians through the Northwest Territory, to the gas in Gas City.



Along the way we encounter killers, heroes, trivia, claims to fame, and of course, Johnny Appleseed. It’s as American as sugar cream pie—Indiana’s state pie, thanks to the efforts of a hard-working state General Assembly. So sit back and have some fun … and if you accidentally learn something along the way, at least it will be painless.
 

 In answer to your questions:

1. No, there's not really soap. It's an expression.

2. No, I don't know what the balloons or presents are for, but I'm telling people they're for Easter.

3. I don't have any St. Patrick's Day book photos.

4. I don't like any beer ... even green.

5. Yes, you can still order our books in all the regular places:

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

 

Also, here's a dog.

 

Make him happy: buy a book.
 

 The invasion of Normandy, France, during World War II, was a Big Deal.

If you know anything about history, you were already aware of that. But the battle is also clouded in myth and legend, and author Carlo D'Este decided to wade in and find out the truth of the matter. How hard could it possibly be?

Judging by the pages of acknowledgements, appendixes, and listed sources, I'm thinking it wasn't easy.

D'Este concentrates on the Allied ground commander in chief, General Sir Bernard Montgomery. (Ike Eisenhower had overall command of the entire operation--which maybe explains why he lost all his hair.) It was Montgomery who came up with the master plan for the invasion and its immediate aftermath. It was also Montgomery who tended to not only take credit whether due or not, but also continually insist everything went exactly according to that plan, often against all evidence.

This is a big picture book, concentrating on the various leaders on both sides. All the usual suspects are there, including Patton, Bradley, Rommel, and Churchill, along with a lot of other names that should be remembered more than they are. Often through their own words and writing, we follow their hopes, fears, and frustrations as the invasion threatens to bog down into the horrors of WWI trench warfare.

 


 D'Este has an advantage over earlier authors: Access to a mountain of related material that remained top secret and unavailable for years or even decades after the war. He clearly spent a huge amount of time going through it, as well as tracking down every interview he could find. As a result he had a clear picture, warts and all, of everything that went on from the moment the invasion was decided on (and sometimes earlier), to the Allied breakout weeks later.

 

It's an unflinching look, especially at Alexander. D'Este admires the General's abilities, but isn't afraid to get into the dark side of a leader who was vain, opinionated, and dead set against ever admitting his mistakes. We're left with the picture of a man who was better than some people think, and worse than others believe--in other words only human, just like all of us. The same treatment is given to everyone in the command chain above and below Alexander, and D'Este's conclusions are often surprising--but backed up by facts and witnesses.

Decision in Normandy is no light skimming of history, and as such I suppose it will mostly attract hard core history and war fans. (Maybe "war fans" is the wrong way to put it.) I found it fascinating, but it was certainly also dry in places, as D'Este shovels on facts, maps, and military units. It was also a revelation to me--I've studied WWII all my life, and this book revealed things I never knew--or knew wrong.



http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

 

I originally wrote this seven years ago, but few people read it because it's about history. Ironically, it was one of the last pieces I wrote before my newspaper column became history. 

As I said in the opening of our book "Hoosier Hysterical", history would be a lot more fun if it was made ... well ... fun. So I had fun with this. (It's been changed slightly because I'm six years older.)

 
 
 
            Ever since Christopher Columbus first landed in the New World and hid all the Viking artifacts, America has been a land of opportunity, independence, and smallpox.
 
            Eventually the British colonists decided to go off and form their own country. (Except for Canadians, who were just too polite to leave.) Since our schools don’t teach enough history these days--there’s so much more of it now--I thought I’d give you a quick timeline of how we, the people, went from tea to coffee:
 
            1756: The French and Indian War
 
            This was probably the first World War. No, seriously: Over here we just mention the French and Indians, but the rest of the world called it the Seven Years War. It spread all over the globe, like a viral YouTube video, but with more cannon fire and disease. Nations involved included Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Spain, and Sweden. Oh, and the Indians, who had their own list of nations.
 
            (Later on Prussia, not wanting to be confused with Russia, changed their name to Germany.)
 
            Why does this involve American Independence, which came decades later? Because it cost the British government so much to defeat their enemies (and the Indians) that they began taxing the colonists to help pay for it. And yet they didn’t allow the colonies to raise their own armies, plus there was that whole taxation without representation thing.
 
            Oh, and one more thing: The whole world war began (well, partially) because a young Virginia militia leader ambushed a French scouting party in the far west wilderness … near Pittsburgh. In later years, George Washington would be more careful to start battles after war was declared.
 
            1770: The Boston Massacre:
 
            No, it wasn’t a sporting event. It started when a group of colonists began throwing snowballs at a squad of British soldiers (In Boston. Sheesh.). That’s not so bad, is it? Then the colonists starting tossing sticks and stones, which, contrary to popular belief, can indeed break bones.
 
            This is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t throw stuff at people with guns. Five colonists died and the soldiers were arrested, but they were mostly acquitted thanks to a crafty defense by a young lawyer names John Adams.
 
            1773: The Boston Tea Party
 
            Tired of high taxes, an unresponsive government, and Earl Gray, colonists (In Boston—sheesh) dressed up as Indians, sneaked aboard ships (In the harbor—sheesh), and tossed 342 chests of tea into the water. In today’s dollars, they turned Boston harbor into the world’s biggest cup, with $750,000 worth of tea. They were led, of course, by the famous Boston patriot Folger “Starbuck” Maxwell.
 
            But why blame the Indians? They didn’t even drink tea.
 
            1774: The First Continental Congress
 
            They didn’t get much done. But in their defense, they were a Congress.
 
Things are starting to heat up.

 
 
            1775: Patrick Henry stirs the pot
 
            With the grievances of the colonists ignored by a remote government—sort of like today, only without Facebook—a radical named Patrick Henry, upset because he had two first names and no last one, began making fiery speeches and resolutions.
 
            The truth is, Henry was kind of a deadbeat. Worse, a lawyer. But man, he sure could talk good, and his actions helped ignite the American Revolution. You’ve probably heard the last line of his big speech, which was “Give me liberty or give me death!” Luckily, he got liberty.
 
            1775: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.
 
            He rode through the countryside yelling, “The British are coming!”
 
            Sleepy residents yelled back, “Shut up, you fool! We are the British!”
 
            Then he got arrested, probably for violating the noise ordinance, and the ride was completed by William Dawes. Unfortunately for Dawes, the name “Paul Revere” sounded better in poetry.
 
            Also 1775 (busy year, there): The Battle of Lexington and Concord
 
            Revere had discovered the British were marching by sea, which slowed them down considerably because the horses didn’t swim well. That gave the Minutemen almost a full two minutes. It was plenty of time to gather in Lexington, to protect stores of arms and gunpowder, and Concord, to protect the grapes.
 
            1775 (saw that coming, didn’t you?): The Second Continental Congress
 
            Didn’t get much done. They made up for it in 1776, though.
 
            1775 or so: The Battle of Bunker Hill
 
            It was actually fought on Breeds Hill.
 
            177—wait for it—5: Patriots occupy Montreal, Canada
 
            Things were looking up, up there. And that’s the last time things looked up for the Revolutionaries in the north, who discovered Canadian hospitality didn’t extend to invasion.
 
 
I wrote about both the American Revolution and Canadian hospitality in Hoosier Hysterical. Did you know Indiana was the location of the westernmost naval battle of the Revolution? You didn't? It's in the book--I'll go sulk, now.
 
 

            1776 (finally!) Egged on by the British, Cherokee Indians attack along the frontier
 
            They were still upset about the whole Tea Party fraud. Also, they were mad about getting named for a country on the other side of the world.
 
            June 7, 1776: Richard Henry Lee points out to the Continental Congress that they’ve been rebelling against the British for more than a year, and wouldn’t it be a good idea to actually declare themselves to be rebelling?
 
            June 11: Five Congressmen are appointed to draft a Declaration of Independence. The other four talk Thomas Jefferson into doing the writing, pointing out that he’s the only one who’s invented a portable desk to use.
 
            June 12-27: Jefferson writes a rough draft, only to receive a rejection letter from the committee.
 
July 1-4: The entire Congress rips apart the Declaration. (Not literally. Sheesh.) Jefferson quits writing and goes into politics.
 
July 2: Congress declares independence, just as the British fleet and army arrive to invade New York. Talk about timing. John Adams declares that July 2 will forever be celebrated as Independence Day.
 
July 4: Having already declared independence, Congress now adopts the Declaration of Independence, declaring something they’ve already declared. John Adams’ head explodes.
 
July 9: George Washington has the Declaration read before the American army. The soldiers nod politely and ask when they’re going to get paid.
 
There was much more to it, of course. In fact, you could say the American Revolution went on until the US Constitution was adopted in 1788, or even until we fought the second Revolutionary war in 1812, which might also be related to the real second World War.

Now, that’s a funny story.


 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

What's that, you ask? Why yes, of course you can celebrate July 4th, or any date, by buying
Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving At All:


Flags are cool. Of course, these flags hang at the Albion Fire Station, so maybe they're hot. Your flag may vary.

 We got a new review of "Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving At All"!

Spoiler alert: They liked it. (If they hadn't, I probably wouldn't have mentioned it.)

 

Anyway, you can see the review on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RT3XQRTQIT7ML/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1533120625

 

Or on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30641159-hoosier-hysterical

 

or on BookBub:

https://www.bookbub.com/books/hoosier-hysterical-how-the-west-became-the-midwest-without-moving-at-all-by-mark-r-hunter

 

Or just give me a call, and I'll tell you they really, really liked it.

And remember: Every time you buy a book, history gets a little more funny.


 

 

 It was ten years ago this summer when my first novel, Storm Chaser, was published. Almost exactly a year before that I received the publishing offer, an event I envisioned as going very differently than it did. I told that story in our latest newsletter:

https://mailchi.mp/200abd2041ac/ten-years-published

Don't forget to subscribe, and in return I'll try to be entertaining. And no, I don't sell my e-mail list to anyone, although I suppose the NSA already has it.

Meanwhile, since then we've (Emily is invaluable) had ten more works published. One of them is Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving At All. I'm highlighting it because today it appears on the Fussy Librarian website, which you'll find at https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/

 You can get it at the same price on the website or Amazon (it's illustrated and everything!) at just $2.99 as an e-book and $10.00 in paperback. You could even hand me the cash and I'll hand you a book--I won't tell.

It's a little silly, but I like to see how many I can sell in a short period of time. I have a theory that if you sell two books on Amazon within an hour, you'll end up in the top ten, and selling ten in that time gives you the ability to brag about being a best seller. Nobody really understands their algorithm, so why not?

If you choose to accept that experiment, the link is here:

https://www.amazon.com/Hoosier-Hysterical-became-midwist-without-ebook/dp/B01H7YJNFE

Or, as usual, you can buy it direct from us here:

http://www.markrhunter.com/

 It's well know, of course, that Hoosier Hysterical is among the top ten humorous Indiana history and trivia books ever written, so far this decade. And to prove it, below the obligatory cover posting is a new excerpt from the book, one which I assume is quite funny. Although as I write this I haven't picked it out, yet, so I could be wrong.



INDIANA FACTS:

He’s Our President! No, He’s Ours!”

 

Three states can lay claim to Abraham Lincoln. You could say he was born in Kentucky, grew up in Indiana, and did all his adult stuff as an Illinois resident.

Well, you can say it if you want—who am I to stop you? It’s a free country, partially thanks to Abe.

A lot of the stuff you hear about Abe Lincoln is, surprisingly, true. His family got to America in 1637, and Thomas Lincoln’s father, the original Abraham, moved his family to Kentucky in 1782. So it took them almost 150 years to reach the Bluegrass State and produce little Abe, but hey—travel took longer back then.

Unfortunately, four years after they arrived Grandpa Abe Lincoln was killed by American Indians, because, after all, he stepped on their proverbial lawn. But Thomas grew up, married Nancy Hanks, and bought a farm near Hodgenville. Hodgenville is south of Louisville along the Lincoln Parkway, although it’s safe to assume the highway didn’t exist at the time.

Just like in the stories, Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin, and later attended school in a log schoolhouse. They laid a lot of logs back then.

In 1816—the same year Indiana became a state—the Lincoln family crossed the Ohio River and settled in Indiana. Abe was six, so we Hoosiers can claim some of his formative years.

And formative they were. At age seven he shot a wild turkey, which upset him so much he never hunted again. It was February, after all, and with no way to keep the turkey until next Thanksgiving, it was wasted.

The next year he got kicked in the head by a horse, and for a time everyone thought he was dead. Personally, that would have put me back on to shooting animals. That same year his mother did die, permanently, from a medical condition called milk sickness.

Like Lincoln, milk sickness was uniquely American—this is the only continent it happened on. It came when cows ate a plant called white snakeroot, and wouldn’t you think the name alone would keep the cows away from it? That’s why learning to read is so important. Today milk sickness is almost unheard of, so we use fast cars to control the population.

Lincoln didn’t attend school much, but he developed a love for reading and would borrow books whenever he could. This was because they had no electricity for his PlayStation. You can’t power a videogame console with candles, but you can sure as heck read by them.

He also got to travel a bit, something many people never did. In 1828 he helped crew a flatboat down the Mississippi, and got his first taste of slavery when he saw a slave auction in progress. During the same trip seven black men tried to rob the flatboat, which could be called ironic. After he fought them off Lincoln didn’t hold a grudge.

Then, in 1830, the Lincoln family moved 200 miles, into Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was never heard from again.

Okay, not really. In fact, that same year Lincoln made his first speech, which urged navigation improvements on the Sangamon River, near Decatur. Over the next several years he read, enlisted in the military, read, ran a business into the ground, read, became a postmaster, got elected to the state legislature, and realized he’d read so much he could start studying law.

So it all worked out pretty well for him.

Okay, there were bumps along the way. He had bouts of depression, lost an election, was unlucky in love, and almost got into a sword duel. All because he left Indiana, so let that be a lesson to you.

In 1900 Lincoln’s son, Todd, gave $1,000 to take care of his grandmother’s Indiana grave. Spencer County officials gave another $800, and bought 16 acres around the gravesite. That place is now the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. I understand there’s also a monument for Abe in Washington.


 

 Looks like all the Arcadia Publishing Images of America books, including Images of America: Albion and Noble County, are on sale for the holiday weekend!

https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467114516

40% off, at least there on the publisher's website; I haven't checked around elsewhere, and it appears to be the paperback version. Still, that makes it $13.19, which is pretty darned good for all those photos and all that history. And hey: If you live near Albion, Michigan or Albion, New York, they also have Images of America books on sale.


Emily and I worked hard on this project, and we're justifiably proud of it. It may not be as amazing as that one time when I did yard work without getting injured, but it's pretty darned close.

 

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

 I know all of you have thought to yourself, "What makes for a good advertisement? How do those people get me to buy their stuff?"

I dunno.

But I did write my own ad for our most recent published book, and sent it out into the cold, cruel world, where for all I know it's being read by someone in a secret bunker in North Korea even as we speak. It was an interesting challenge, because I put it up on a book site that wanted me to write something about a third of the length this originally was.

 I'm putting it here to show people an example of selling the soap, to ask what others think about it, and to ask if the expression is still "selling the soap". I've never sold soap. Despite that, I occasionally get up on my soapbox.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

 

Is the turn of the last century already ancient history?

In More Slightly Off the Mark: Why I Hate Cats, and Other Lies, Mark R. Hunter collects his 2000-2001 humor pieces—the earliest he put on a computer. In DOS … on a floppy disk.

The change in just twenty years resulted in a complete rewrite, so Hunter inserts his present self into the work—mostly to make fun of his older stuff. Along the way he riffs on everything from history to health, vacations, holidays, and, of course, technology. Weather also, naturally—because everyone talks about that.

It's just $1.99 on Kindle—free on Kindle Unlimited—and is also available in print for $7.50. Find it on Amazon:


https://www.amazon.com/More-Slightly-off-Mark-Other/dp/1709741287

Or on the author's website:

http://www.markrhunter.com/

Remember to support authors—the original self-isolation workers.

 


 

I mentioned in the last newsletter that I set my latest non-fiction project on the back burner several months ago. I was collecting photographs for a very picture-heavy history of our local fire department, which has the working title of Awesome Albion Fire Picture Book Insert Title Here.

I mean, the book has that title--not the fire department. That would be silly, and require us to letter all the trucks A.A.F.P.B.I.T.H.F.D.

Not fiscally responsible.

At the time I had a logical reason for putting it aside and working on some other writing projects, including the first draft of my favorite novel yet, We Love Trouble. (It's about a couple who, well, loves trouble.) I also wanted to get More Slightly Off the Mark published, which we have, although I've delayed promoting it until we have a chance to update the website.

I'm sure you're wondering why I decided to push back the fire photo book, which also has the proposed working title of Firefighting photo folio.

What? You're not wondering about the delay?

Well, I am. Because I have no idea.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, that's the best I can come up with. I really did have a plan, I swear. It's just that I didn't write the plan down. It doesn't help that I have a list of several dozen story ideas waiting to be addressed, from a Storm Chaser prequel to my own Oz book, not to mention the demand for my autobiography should be starting up any time now.

Now I'm back to collecting pictures--I've already got most of the framing text for the book done. You'll probably hear a fair amount in the future of me begging to borrow any photo anyone has involving the Albion Volunteer Fire Department, be it volunteers, firefighting action, the trucks, or the old firehouses. (For those of you not from around here, I'm talking Albion, Indiana, not one of the two dozen others around the USA.)

I'll have been a volunteer forty years this coming July, and I suppose to a certain extent this is my coda, as you music buffs might put it. My tribute to our people and our 130 odd year history, which sometimes could get very odd, indeed. I want to do it right.

So--and here's the part where I beg to borrow--if any of you have any photos involving the AFD you'd be willing to loan me for the project, I'd be greatly appreciative. I (by which I mean my wife) can scan prints into her computer, then return the original. I'd especially like to see our people in the book, past or present--this is about them, more than anything.

By the time I'm done, with any luck at all ... I'll have come up with a better title.


 

 

 
 (It'll be like a combination of these two books -- but more pictures and less talk, which many people have said they'd like to see out of me.)



Oh, and of course you can contact me through our website:

Okay, so I already revealed the cover to More Slightly Off the Mark once, but this time we really, really mean it. We thought the original was a little imbalanced, so Emily added a newspaper nameplate, or banner, or ... whatever it's called. That brought us to this:

(Do I yell "ta da!" now?)

 

Which, yes, is similar to the original Slightly Off the Mark, but it is a sequel, after all. Hopefully it's not too similar. Let's compare:

Yeah, it's different enough. And here's the new book's back cover:

 

 

So, there you go. I've shown you my front side, and I've shown you my backside. Judge me as you will, or get a closer look here:

https://www.amazon.com/More-Slightly-off-Mark-Other/dp/1709741287

Just between us (until the next post), it's up for sale on Amazon, and we'll have it on the website to order soon. If you just can't wait and/or want a signed copy, contact Emily or me and we'll get you taken care of. Come to think of it--how many copies should we order?


I finally finished the Still Slightly Off the Mark manuscript!

By which I mean it's ready for Emily to review, find all the mistakes, and send it back to me for rewrites.

But that's the way we do things in the Hunter household. With these other writing projects we're working on, my final polishing of this was when I could get to it, usually during breaks. That's why there would be food on the pages, if there were pages. (Not to worry, I covered the keyboard.)

It clocks in at just under 60,000 words in nineteen chapters, and has about twenty illustrations, which is a fancy word meaning "pictures". An illustrated manuscript--it's like I dragged myself into the 21st Century, or something.

It looks like we'll be able to get it out before Christmas, despite the previously mentioned other projects we're working on. Until then the working full title is either:

 

Still Slightly Off the Mark

A Celebration of Silliness

 

or more likely

 

Still Slightly Off the Mark:

Why I Hate Cats, and Other Lies

 

What do you think? If neither of those work I was thinking of titling it Harry Potter and the Star Wars Avengers, but Emily thinks that might be just a wee bit misleading.

 

I've finished going through all the CDs and drives I could find, looking for any picture that might be useful in our Albion Fire Department photo book project. (It's a book project about the Albion Fire Department … focusing on photos. Pretty self-explanatory, but I'll look for a catchier title.)

Every photo I found that had even an outside shot of being useful, I transferred to a file and then to a thumb drive. I was pretty loose in my definition of "useful", since Emily can do amazing things with mediocre pictures, of which I've taken many. Then I totaled them all up.

My file now has 7,792 items, taking up 34.4 gigabytes of space.

This does not include a whole box full of photos loaned to us by Phil and Cindy Jacob, many of which Emily is in the process of scanning into her computer. It doesn't include the boxes of prints I have, myself. It also doesn't include any pictures we may yet have loaned to us by anyone else; it's just the ones I had immediately available in electronic form.

So … I've got some sorting to do.

Hopefully we'll get many more good photos donated toward the project, so I don't have to mess with my mediocre ones at all. But I have to admit, I had a lot of fun going through all those files. I've pretty much mastered a complete lack of organization, so I had to go through all my boxes of CDs … music, pictures, backups, documents, everything. I kept saying, "Hey--I remember that!"

I also transferred, to a different file, hundreds of my old humor columns, dating back to between 2000-2004. Basically fourteen to eighteen year old columns, which means many of my readers have never seen them, and the rest have probably forgotten. A project for later this year: Adapt and assemble them into a new book, which I've tentatively titled "Still Slightly Off the Mark".

An easy project in theory, but I'll probably rewrite them, since I'm theoretically better for having a decade and a half more writing experience. What do you think? Do we all need a laugh?

I think so, too.

Old photos--or in this case, video scans--do my heart good.

I noticed a little uptick in sales for Hoosier Hysterical last month, so in the service of shameless self-promotion I decided to throw you a little excerpt from Chapter Three of the book. (Actually, I do feel a little ashamed when I self-promote, but I'm trying to get over it.)

Why Chapter Three? Well, you probably haven't seen that part unless you've actually bought the book yourself.  And even then you may not have seen it. My idea is to build sales uptick on sales uptick, and before you know it: an interview on "Good Morning, America".

Is "Good Morning, America" still running?

Also, I went to all that trouble to learn how to spell "excerpt", not to mention double checking the definition, so I figured I should make it worth something.

(Also because we've officially started another history related book project, but more about that later.)

As all fourteen of my regular readers know, Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving at All is an illustrated humor book about Indiana history and trivia. The book is illustrated, not the humor.

 

 

Chapter Three:

You Say You Want a Revolution?

 

So our story of Indiana in the American Revolution starts in Kentucky, and goes to Virginia.

Haven’t you ever gotten lost on a long trip? 

Not That Clark—The Other One 

George Rogers Clark was a surveyor, and one of the first people to venture into what would be Kentucky. When war broke out, Clark went to Virginia, which claimed most of the lower Midwest at the time, and met with a governor by the name of Patrick Henry.


“Hey Gov, can you help me raise an army and kick Henry Hamilton’s hairy hind end?” 

“Oh, sure, I’ll just hand over money to a surveyor with no military service, so you can leave the real fighting and wander around an Indian infested wilderness nobody cares about.” 

“Exactly! Thanks, Governor!”

“Okay, let’s work on your sense of sarcasm.” 

 

Clark gathered up about two hundred farmers, who brought their own rifles and knives but no uniforms—just buckskin clothes. They reached Indiana at the Falls of the Ohio, which means I’ve mentioned almost all the future states along the Ohio except Illinois. Then they went to Illinois.

Specifically, this untrained rabble of farmers and trappers decided to attack a fort at Kaskaskia, which at the time was on the east bank of the Mississippi River. (Now it’s on the west bank, surrounded by Missouri—long story.) It would, clearly, be a disaster.

They took Kaskaskia without firing a shot.

French settlers remained in the area, and they promised to support Clark if he, in turn, promised to guarantee them freedom of religion. He said “Sure—we’ll work it into a constitution”, and together they marched through frozen swamps back into Indiana, where they found the fort at Vincennes unoccupied.

Clark renamed it Fort Patrick Henry, possibly to guarantee the Virginia governor would keep the supplies coming. But up in Detroit Henry Hamilton heard about it, and led an army that took Vincennes-Patrick Henry back—again, without firing a shot. Hamilton renamed it yet again, so it became Fort Vincennes-Patrick Henry-Sackville.

Clark didn’t like that. Patrick Henry probably wasn’t thrilled, either.

 

 It goes without saying that Hoosier Hysterical and all our books can be found at http://markrhunter.com/, and on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Mark-R.-Hunter/e/B0058CL6OO, and other fun places including the trunk of my car, and yet I said it anyway.

Emily and I previously conspired on--ahem--co-wrote two other history related books and a collection of my humor columns, so I'm calling us semi-pros.

.

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