I am a published author now (Writers)

Name: Cammij

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Product:	Writers
Date:	28.12.02 (149 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, Exciting, Interesting

Disadvantages: Doesn't pay diddly

I just became able to write this opinion this week as I joined the ranks of published authors with the acceptance of a manuscript of a biography adventure I completed four years ago. In the meantime I have published several other books, but alack, I admit through so called "vanity" or "subsidized" presses meaning that after giving signed copies of all my books to everyone I know my father still has quite literally thousands of copies of my books in his attic. And I don't even get him shirts that say "World's Greatest Dad". I think what was wrong is my subject matter was far too specialized, for instance my latest effort was "Famous People from Sandusky County that you did not hear about in school", it focused on the man who invented the paper grocery sack, General McPherson, The Ultimate Fighting Champion Mark Coleman and Oakland Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson. I also had written a book called "Erie County heroes of the Civil War" and another called "Ohio Railroads and the Industrial Frontier". It is kinda sad, I spent months and years researching about things and writing and then nobody cares about it and wants to read it. I take that back, lots of people want to read it, people that think they know everything and then they stalk me and challenge my research and facts. I can't even go to Ryan's on all you can eat steak night and enjoy a meal without 15 people coming up to me and arguing about whether or not Rodger Young's father worked at a Ford or Studebaker factory. Then the waitress comes over and asks why I am so popular and I tell her that people like to argue with me because I am an author and then she says she likes Anne Rice books and I will probaly give her a good tip as I must be rich. She has no clue that most hacks never see a dime for all their efforts, like I said it was a loss everytime I had a book printed and my parents bought all the books because they have a theor



y that if I am busy writing books, however bad, I will be too occupied to go kill Turks in Cyprus or try to run all the Moslems out of Dublin. And to tell the truth this latest book paid me less than what I make each month running trains.

This gets me to my point of this, as a writer, true fame and fortune is only afforded to a handful of writers who will have a long, prosperous and proliferit career. A fewe other people may have a few powerful lines, and even a franchise of a series but maybe 1 out of 1000 professional writers is entirely self sufficient by writing real books. So there has to be another motive, and fortunately I found it.

Writing about dead people never really excited me, it wasn't like the Stillwell guy who invented the papersack was calling out from the grave pleading that his story be told. Hell, he has one of the shittiest streets in Fremont Ohio named after him. But when I started on my real book, "Last Autobahn to Hell" (with a nazi flag on it and subtitled in German on the cover) I was inspired by a real living man (he died on me). But it was so delicious to build a rapport with someone and see their delight that a "Famous important History writer" was telling their story. It made it all worth it to feel the esteem and respect that that man gave me in an attempt to aggrandize himself. He would call up his grandchildren and tell them not to call him as he was being interviewed by a "famous History writer". It felt so good to be called that, it was just that Henrik didn't want to tell people he was telling war stories to some third rate hack.

I am not sure the store of Henrik Gustavsen should be told or sold. He was the worst person on earth to deal with, there was some real skeletons in the closet to deal with about this guy, that I really feared would detract from the telling of his heroic final days of WW2. I had to basically dance around and try to trick
the
reade
r into some Dolce et Decorum Est bullshit about the honor of serving and defending your country no matter if it is right or wrong. That was really my theme, that right or wrong it still is my country. But Henrik wasn't a German, he was a first year Danish math teacher when the Germans took over Denmark (Henrik uses the term "Liberated"). He claims he took up arms with the invad
ers due to a hatred of atheists and communism. I had to ignore his long lectures on how the Soviets were poised to invade all of Europe, how the Halocaust was a sham, how 95% of Soviet commisars were Jews. I got sick of the man, I wanted to say , "shut up, you were a collaborator. You betrayed your country but you did amazing things with a tank and should be recgonized for that". I had moral qualms about dealing with the man and it was a dilema for me. The man was an unrepentent Nazi. I really accept most peoples explanation of their war time activity in that they were drafted or doing what they thought at the time was the prudent or honorable thing. You will find that the people most tolerant of the Waffen SS are then men who fought against them and understand their dedication, bravery and sacrifice. But this guy was still a terrible bigot, which in some ways I respected in the regard that he wasn't going to be emotionally steamrolled into denouncing his own service or discounting what he thought was right. He did not accept that my girlfriend at the time was in a wheelchair. He told me numerous times that he would take out a girl in a wheelchair too, take her out to a forest and leave her for the wolves to eat. This hurt me. he always chided me and asked me why I couldn't get a woman that wasn't crippled and he then decided I had a sexual fetish and asked me if I was a pervert and asked if I wanted to sleep with the dwarf that was in a wheelchair who worked at the mini-mall. All I can say in my own defense is Sally had an incredibl
e grip fro
m running her wheelchair and gave me some intensely potent handjobs and I didn't have to take her many places since she was so insecure about being in crowds.

I tried not to make it a story of the collaborators, over a million men in occupied and allied countries (Schweden, Norway, Holland, Belgie and even the USA and Canada) joined the Waffen SS. Their story has never really been told except by a fraud named Sven Hassel who never was even in the German army. If you ever want to read about them look up "Wiking SS" online. It is interesting stuff.

Anyways after a distinguished career on the Russian front Henrik ends up in Berlin as Zhukov's juggernaut closes in. That is where his story really begins. He is given command of 16 tanks and a few trucks of infantry and is told to deliver a passenger to Kiel Germany along with a truck load of "artwork". The passenger is an unheard of former window washer named Kurt Steibl who Hitler claimed to feel indebted to, why? Because for the past 6 years he had been Hitler's double. He had given up meat, tobacco, and even a testicle to become an exact image of the public Hitler who by late April was bearded and had most of his hair removed as a disguise. Henrik was ostensibly chosen to lead the break out due to his daring resourcefullness and courage. I will skip
the story about how he breaks through the Russian lines, losing not a single man, and is hounded across Germany while cleverly refueling, surviving and still reigning destruction on the Soviets. Meanwhile the real Hitler fled in a plane called a Storch that took off from a boulevard in Berlin as the city was being shattered. The Nazi's subsequently allowed radio intercepts and information to get to known spies that Hitler is fleeing in the convoy. The Brits and Americans watch closely as the convo
y plods West. That is really the whole story, how he holds this group together while playing a ha
nd of cards fro
m a stacked deck. It just doesn't appeal to the genral public, the tale of a collaborator trying to rescue Hitler. BTW Henrik did not know his passenger was not Hilter. General Remer who dispatched Henrik believed that Henrik would fight to the death due to the poor treatment he could expect to be given by the Soviets if captured and they imagined that he would not allow "Hitler" to be taken alive.

They surrendered to a British Battalion's mess hall. And Henrik still believed Steibl was Hitler until a clever British colonel bluffed them by saying that Hitler had been captured in Berlin and which point instead of continuing the charade Steibl asks for a Ham Sandwich and a good steak as he hasn't eaten meat in four years. So the game was up and Henriks efforts, which had been watched nonstop actually got him a commission in the American Army where he subsequently developed American Armor warfare tactics and developed the plans for breaking out of Berlin during the Crisis there.

The story contains one real blockbuster. I had to fight Henrik the whole way to avoid his commands to debunk the Halocaust, to mitigate German responsibility for the war and to portray the Americans as cautious to the point of cowardice. But I had to drop a real bomb on the world. Henrik visited the commando extraordinaire named Otto Skorzen
y (he rescued Il Duce and kidnapped Horthy's son) in Spain in the mid sixities. Henrik showed me his stamps and his used airline tickets and even his picture with Skorzeny. He says that Skorzeny, who was reputed to head the Odessa organization that supported Nazis on the run before his murder, told him that his diversion worked and Hitler had made it to Argentina in a submarine, ironically to drown when a mechanical mishap caused the boat to sink killing all but two sailors who the USA subsequently murdered rather tha
n have the world know how porous and lackadasial their nazi-catchi
ng efforts were and
to avoid embarassment of Argentina for their open doors to fascists.

I think you should all read this book, it will come out in May 2004 and Amazon.com will have it.

I tell you the greatest thrill of being a writer is having my own segment at the young writers conference they hold each year at the middle school. I get all these young kids in there to hear about my opinions on writing and then we do some creative activities and then they ask me that why I drive such a junky truck if I have published so many books. I also like to do local appearences/book signings at bookstores, that is a big ego trip, but all my pride is tempered when I go to the evrythings a pound store since I am destitute and see my books on sale there. One time I got so depressed I went home and drew a hot bath and sat in the tub with a straight razor in my hand but I didn't have teh guts to make the final cut.

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