The Death of Vella

My Loss is Your Gain - What Happened in the US Election?

Vella is Dead…Long live the Stories it Spawned

I wouldn’t be here without Kindle Vella. Back in October of 2021, an email from Amazon prompted me to take a chance on a fiction writing career. Kindle Vella promised I could write my story one chapter at a time, allowing me to slowly build it while receiving almost instant feedback.

Three weeks ago, every Vella Author was informed that the program is finally coming to an end. Many missteps were made, but in the end they tried to create a market where one doesn’t exist and that meant it didn’t become financial viable in time.

The good news for you is I would still like to find a path to receiving feedback on stories while I’m writing them and for the time being, I’ve decided to make my new stories available for free on a new platform, Inkspired, which has it’s very own app and is available worldwide, unlike Vella.

If you’re so inclined, you’ll find the links to two of the stories I’m currently writing below. I hope you’ll take a look if the blurb catches your interest. There is a subscription option, which will automatically enter you to win prizes, such as autographed copies and I hope to add a tip jar for those who are appreciative, but there will be no obligation to pay.

Many Vella Authors are still grieving the loss of the platform, but I’m grateful as it was essential to getting me writing. Through that platform, I wrote and published six novels and 1 autobiography and I’m working on three more. Thanks Vella, going, going, almost gone.

Historical Fiction

Letters from Urkhammer - Now on Inkspired

I’ve mentioned this book a couple of times in this Newsletter, but now it is available for you to start reading with a free Inkspired account here.

Letters from Urkhammer is a historical fiction mystery with a supernatural bent, inspired by an internet hoax about the mythical town of Urkhammer, Iowa, which supposedly disappeared without a trace. That all changes when a young lady working at the Historical Society receives a box of letters that are postmarked Urkhammer, Iowa from almost a hundred years earlier.

This book will be released as a full novel sometime in mid-2025, but you don’t have to wait. Start reading today and you get a chance to contribute to the story. One person who gives feedback will be chosen to be a character in the novel.

Fantasy

Dutopia - Now on Inkspired

Dutopia is my attempt at writing a cozy fantasy series. It is meant to be a satire, poking fun at world politics, leaders and celebrities through a fantasy story about a woman who is just trying to do her job in the midst of all of the madness. With a tone that is light-hearted and a host of relatable characters, join Penny as she investigates the Kingdom of Dutopia. Start reading for free and let me know what you think. :)

Just to let you know, by following my story on Inkspired and liking and commenting on the episodes, you make it more likely for these stories to be discovered by other readers. Thanks for your help with that. :)

Free Fantasy Books

Thrillers

What Happened? - The US Election

Bail out now if you avoid politics, this is your last chance.

Okay, now that you’ve been warned. I’m a US Citizen who lives outside of the United States. Many of you are not US Citizens, but I know that many of you are curious about the election results. I did not vote in the 2024 election. I’m registered in a US State that leans hard in one direction, so it wasn’t that significant.

First, I’ll just say I wasn’t surprised by the election results. I have friends all across the political spectrum but when you look at what the people on the street were saying about the economy, the border and a general mistrust of government and the media, it didn’t surprise me that the media missed most of their predictions.

Another reason I wasn’t surprised was because of what happened in January. I wrote a post about it for my Vella blog (soon to be discontinued), but here is the post in its entirety. The long and the short of it, Trump is Godzilla.

Let’s Talk about Godzilla - 1/17/24

This weekend, I was listening to a podcast by Andrew Klavan. Klavan is an author who mostly writes mysteries and thrillers, but two of his non-fiction books are my favorites. He hosts a weekly podcast and on the last one he made an interesting point. Trump is Godzilla.

I grew up watching the old Godzilla movies. You know the ones. An embarrassing rubber suit crashing through a model landscape, destroying toy sized cars, buildings and tanks. They were great! The funniest moments were when they started adding rival monsters to the movies and then you would have wrestling matches between two (or more!) people in these ridiculous costumes. Today anybody can afford a better costume for Halloween than what were in these movies.

The modern Godzilla movies are more of a spectacle with revitalized effects to rival other big budget blockbusters. These Godzillas aren't so laughable. One of the best films of last year was Godzilla Minus One, a very different take on the genre.

The typical Godzilla story is one of destruction. In most of the mythos, Godzilla arises from the ocean, a result of pollution and/or nuclear experiments gone wrong. It is very much an environmental lesson. It is common for part of the films to be dedicated to the destruction this giant monster brings, but often, Godzilla is the only hope for the people against some greater threat.

The Godzilla stories are similar to the classic Hulk stories of the comic books, the TV show and some of the earlier movies. In those stories, Hulk is a destructive force to be feared more than admired. Not a hero per se, but more of semi-benevolent force to be channeled in the right direction.

Mr. Klavan makes a connection between Mr. Donald J. Trump and the Godzilla monster. People want to know how anyone could vote for the man to be president, and in an attempt to explain it, Klavan makes the connection. "DJT is the Avatar of a human sin, our culture of lies. He is the living cry of people who are tired of being lied to."

It's an interesting premise and fits well with some of the other commentary I've heard about the man. Way back in the summer of 2016, liberal film maker, Michael Moore, made a dramatic prediction in an essay entitled, "5 Reasons Trump Will Win." This was in July of 2016 and most people didn't think such a thing was possible. The vast majority of those of his political persuasion were being told Hillary Clinton would win in a landslide. This is part of the reason there was so much wailing and gnashing of teeth after the 2016 election. Most of those who voted for Hillary were convinced she would win big.

I was overseas in 2016 and I went to bed expecting to wake up to President Hillary and was shocked as well by the outcome. Before 2016, Trump was kind of like a caricature of the arrogant New York billionaire. He didn't seem like a real person, but more of a personality. I don't think most people took him seriously, but in the lead up to the 2016 election, things changed. People saw him differently, many people.

The reason Michael Moore predicted his win was because he didn't live in a bubble. He spent a lot of time in the heartland, in the big industrialized cities of the rustbelt, and talking to the Americans who lived in those areas. He called the 2016 election and the Trump campaign, "The Last Stand of the Angry White Man." Working class people who were tired of politicians lying to them about making things better were looking for something different and if most of them were honest, they were looking for someone willing to tear a lot of it down.

What Moore missed was it wasn't really about race or skin color. More people of color voted for Trump in 2020 than 2016 by both percentages and numbers. These were conservative Hispanic Catholics and working class blacks. Early 2024 polling shows Trump is likely to get even more votes from these groups this time around. These groups were unified behind a general unhappiness with their country. Whether it was policies that were emphasized that didn't seem to have a lot to do with what they wanted, open borders or policies that made the people at the top richer while weakening the middle class and higher end working-class people.

When Klavan called Trump Godzilla, this is the essence of what he was getting at. Elections of candidates from both parties who left these people feeling consistently ignored and betrayed. The America they were promised, whether it was free health care, job growth or family protections, was never delivered. Election after election, they were left with nothing but disappointment.

So here we are. A betrayed voter base wants revenge. They want chaos. They want to see something different. They hope for something better, but if nothing else happens, they're happy to see someone come in and smash. The talking heads call them names like deplorables, extremists and racists.

The 2020 lockdowns were seen as an attack on their class. Many of their jobs couldn't be done remotely. Most of their kids didn't have anyone to watch them if they were sent home. Despite Trump being the one in charge when the lockdowns began, they remember the smirking faces of people like Fauci and Rachel Maddow and the angry proclamations of President Biden against them. Those people and the billionaires who support them and grew far richer during the pandemic are who they blame.

So in 2024 we can expect record numbers of people to turn out and vote for Godzilla. They don't trust anyone else. They may not trust Godzilla entirely, but they feel confident if they turn him loose, it will be a semi-benevolent force of destruction that benefits them far more than just electing another clone of the uniparty.

When November of 2024 rolls around, we might be surprised again. In both 2016 and 2020, there were significant surprises. Whatever happens at the end of this election cycle, our country is likely to never be the same again.