Podcast contest

Well, I didn't win, but I came in 5th out of 22 independently published books. Not bad, but I am grateful to all those who voted for my book to be a part of the Podcast. My thanks go out to all of you!

Jeff

Podcast contest

I am involved in a podcast contest where the author who receives the most votes gets a podcast interview. Please go to:  book podcast.com/pol and vote for my book, The Devil's Kettle by Jeffrey Ollman. I am not going to win the contest, but I may get a shoutout if I finish in the top five. Right now I am number 4 out of 22 authors, but a few are close behind. I believe voting closes Friday night, December 15, 2017.

Please vote for my book!

Editorial from Charla White-Words a Plenty

This is not just your ordinary missing person, serial killer, and mystery. Ollman makes it so much more when he keeps throwing in twists that keep you sitting on the edge of your chair with the turn of each page. Just when you think you have it figured out – wham! He does it again. Even with the barrage of twists and turns in the mystery, Ollman keeps the story clear and flowing. The reader never becomes confused about what’s going on - the story flows so well that the reader can do nothing but sit back and wait for the next twist knowing it is coming but not just when or how!

A new bookstore

I just dropped off some copies of The Devil's Kettle at the gift shop in Bluefin Bay Resort. This is my first connection on the North Shore.

Billings

Sitting here in Billings, Montana sipping a glass of Markham cabernet, reading a few chapters in Sanford's Golden Prey, and thinking about my next novel featuring Gerald Hodges. It will take place in Vancouver. I'm sketching out the beginning and plot in my mind---also thinking of organizing my nonfiction-Growing Up Atheist book into time periods.  Ah...but back  to the wine. It's wonderful!

A beginning snippet

Growing Up Atheist

Well, where to begin? I am a sixty-six year old atheist, and was brought up that way. I suppose that I and my brothers and sister are fairly unique in America. My parents were atheists, and my father’s parents were atheists-don’t know about our background before that. My mother was brought up in the church and attended various services until she met my dad and married him at the age of nineteen. That’s when she got religion, or should I say not. All of her sisters and brothers stayed in the church, including the ones who upon marrying into another family discovered their new in-law’s Native American heritage. They embraced their new heritage wholeheartedly. My folks and I even went to one of their ceremonies—very interesting, but that is another story. Even with all the wild religionists in our extended family, none of them has ever held our atheism against us. We were as embraced as any other member of the family at large.

When I first mentioned to my mother that I was going to write a book about our family and atheism (she was 88 at the time-now going on 92) she said, “Wait until I’m dead. I really don’t want you to open up a can of worms.”

Well, she relented about a year ago. She seems more confident now that somehow it’s okay to lay it all out there. Kind of like a gay person having the confidence to finally come out of the closet and let the world know. It does seem liberating, because all of my life-mostly from the time I was of elementary school age, I was aware enough to know that our family was different than the vast majority of Americans.

So, again, where do I go from here? I’ve decided that I’m just going to ramble—it’s easier. I might go back and forth a little bit so it might get a little confusing. I apologize, but I will try to make everything clear!

I might talk to myself here a little, so please indulge me. I’m going to loosely construct the tale of my atheist family from childhood to the present, although, as I commented above, I might switch time frames just a little.

Starting a new book-----nonfiction

I have started writing a book about growing up as an atheist---a fairly unique situation. I am still a non-believer in a deity and want to give my perspective and help dispel myths about atheists and provide background about what it was like to be in my position throughout life. I will post snippets as I write.