John Eric Vining
NOTABLE INDIE
The Zimmermann Affair and The Great Southwestern War of 1917
$15.95
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CABLE of
FATE
The Zimmermann Affair and The Great Southwestern War of 1917
CABLE OF FATE
COMBAT BOY AND THE MONSTER TOKEN
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W
BY JOHN ERIC VINING
able of Fate is set in the “Great War” of 1914-1918. At the height of the war on the Western Front, Germany’s top leadership realizes that they no longer possess the means to break the stalemate with Great Britain and France in the trenches of northern France. Germany attempts to engage Mexico (through the transmission of the infamous Zimmermann Telegram) to open a “second front” on America’s Southwestern border to even the odds. In a twist of history, Mexico decides to take the gamble. Thus begins a tangled web of plans, stratagems, conspiracies, and treachery as Mexico pursues its campaign. Can the various bickering political factions in Mexico unite to pursue a successful military venture against the United States? Can America successfully parry a Mexican thrust into its Southwestern frontier? A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
“Just beyond America’s Southwestern border is Mexico, from whom the United States took much land in the Nineteenth Century during its “Manifest Destiny” expansion phase. What if Mexico picked a time when the United States was militarily engaged somewhere else — like in Europe fighting World War I — to try to recover some of that land? In the historical novel, I tried to outline just how Mexico could have carved a state out of the American Southwest, and maybe gotten away with it.” 88
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might have been possible for the United States and stern War of 1917.
of
of this genre to look back into history and explore d taken Germany’s 1917 Zimmermann Telegram American Southwest at the height of World War I. rst glance, a further analysis is warranted. What you invasion of the American Southwest quite possible happen in the actual history of World War I!
CA BLE
Les Guerres Imaginaires
century, there emerged a style of writing that was a It was known as Les Guerres Imaginaires, which can War.” It was a literary device used to tell how future of novel was written by military authors who sought ntricate historical and political analyses. Examples ng,” a 1871 short story in Blackwood’s Magazine by Naval War of 1887, written in 1886 by Sir William Robinson; The Great War of 189-, A Forecast, by Rear The War Inevitable (1908), by Alan H. Burgoyne; The and two great novels of the 1920s, Sea Power in the 25), by Hector Bywater.
John E Vining
APRIL/MAY 2018
BY ANGELA JOWELL PURBAUGH
hile visiting San Diego’s ComicCon, twelve-year-old Tom Hock, aka Combat Boy, is thrilled to get an invitation to play Monster Realm, a real, live role-playing competition, battling monsters on the other side of an inter dimensional portal. Tom doesn’t take the contract’s blood-stained signatures and strange wording seriously. He should have. The game is a trap, cutting the players’ souls off from their bodies. Only those who win break free. Fighting hordes of monsters, Tom heads toward a confrontation with Tarbarous, the game’s final boss, but Tom is not alone as he tries to escape. Something within the game wants out. If it makes its escape, San Diego won’t host next year’s Comic-Con, because San Diego won’t exist.
A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
Writing Combat Boy and the Monster Token was an adventure with tests to pass, trials to overcome, and beastly doubts of my writing skills to slay. Finishing the first draft was a victory. Publishing my story and reading the reviews, a thrill. But the best thing about writing it, finding myself in the realm of creation, the sweet spot, where hours pass like minutes and ideas stem from a river of infinite goodness that’s beyond my comprehension. It’s there, I feel like a kid in a candy store with a gift card that has no limit. It’s my happy place where I am free to be as creative as I want.