I received notice today that my new audiobook Poachers Were My Prey by R.T. Stewart has gone live on Audible.

The book is the autobiographical account of nearly two decades of undercover wildlife law enforcement work by Stewart as a wildlife officer in Ohio. It recounts many of his biggest undercover operations, and goes into deep detail about the people, situations and temptations he encountered. I had no idea before reading this book that undercover wildlife law enforcement was so dangerous!

This was a lot of fun to read, and I learned a lot. It’s a thrilling book and if you listen to it I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s a great story.

Over the weekend I had an interesting experience. I recently completed narrating Thunder Below! by Eugene Fluckey, a Rear Admiral in the US Navy. A friend who knew I had narrated the book forwarded me an email he had received- one of those “FW:FW:FW” ones that we all get from friends and family members, you know the ones I mean…

This one was about the Barb! It described in great detail some of the exploits she undertook in WWII, focusing mostly on the fact that the Barb‘s crew “sank a train”, or more literally- blew one up by planting a scuttling charge from their own ship under the railbed and rigging a switch that would set it off when the train went over.

I’m sure glad to know that people are interested in the Barb, but it’s also just a sort of interesting thing- life and work kind of intersecting in strange ways. It also reminded me of how entertained I was when narrating Thunder Below! – the image of the Barb coming into port with her battle flag flying and the people on shore seeing a train on it- that must have been a head-check moment!

It’s just another reminder of why I’m so privileged to do this for a living. I get to give life to these amazing stories. It’s humbling.

Thunder Below is being released in audiobook format on August 12th from Tantor Audio. You can preorder it on Tantor.com or enter to win one of five free copies on GoodReads.

I’m super-pleased to announce that Tantor Audio has agreed to give away five MP3-CD editions of Thunder Below!, an audiobook I narrated recently. Thunder Below! is a riveting account of the exploits of the USS Barb, a submarine in WWII that had one of the most remarkable battle records in WWII, having sunk the most tonnage, conducting a land operation on the Japanese home islands (the only one!), and defining new doctrines of submarine warfare that are still in use today.

This book was a real pleasure to read, but also one of the most challenging I’ve done. You’ll hear everything from dry descriptions of inspections and loading of cargo to me shouting things like “DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!” and “LEFT FULL RUDDER! ALL AHEAD FLANK!” and even making dive klaxon noise (AA-OOO-GA!). The book is written in the first person and while technically a memoir often feels more like a thriller with its “you’re right there” dialog and writing.

Thunder Below! is scheduled to be published August 12, but we’re running a giveaway on GoodReads until then! So if you want your own copy, head over to GoodReads and sign up for the drawing!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Thunder Below!

by Eugene F. Fluckey

Giveaway ends August 12, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I am super-excited about a new book I was just tapped to narrate by Tantor Audio. It’s called Thunder Below! by US Navy Rear Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey.

I’ve been privileged to find something of a niche in the audiobook world- military history. Over a quarter of my published books fall into that genre, starting with Valor in Vietnam, continuing through Black Hearts, The Guerrilla Factory and None Braver, I’ve really enjoyed reading and narrating these books, because they tell such incredible stories of the deeply human experience that is warfare- the heroism and the tragedy alike. I literally wept while reading Black Hearts at times, and had equally strong reactions to every one of the stories I’ve been asked to tell.

As a former soldier and a combat veteran myself, it’s both an honor and maybe even a bit of a duty to tell these stories, and to do them the justice they really deserve.

But when I got the email about this one- wow! To say I was stoked would be doing a disservice to the word. I have been fascinated with submarine warfare in WWII for many years. I blame my then girlfriend (now wife) Robin, who only a few weeks after I met her, figuratively dragged me to see “Das Boot” at the local cinema in 1995 (she had a bit of a thing for Jürgen Prochnow). It was the really long cut and had an actual intermission. I went, prepared to be bored out of my skull.

Boy, was I wrong. After seeing that film I began devouring everything I could about submarine warfare in that era. From the German U-Boats to the American Gato, Balao and Tench class subs, I was fascinated. I was lucky that Robin had a pretty sizable collection of books on the topic already.

Rear Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey

Thunder Below! is the story of the USS Barb (SS-220), a Gato-class submarine in WWII. It was commanded by Eugene B. Fluckey and has one of the most  amazing service records of any submarine that served in World War II. Among the things Barb accomplished while Fluckey was in command:

• Sank a large number of Japanese cargo ships and support vessels.
• Launched torpedoes into a group of 30+ enemy vessels at anchor in water nine meters (about 30 feet) deep, getting 8 direct hits on ammunition transports and doing massive secondary damage, then ran at 150% engines (setting a speed record of 44 km/h) for a full hour through uncharted, rock-strewn and mined waters to escape. Unharmed.
• Was the first submarine to use rockets successfully against enemy targets.
• Pioneered whole new doctrines of submarine warfare.
• Conducted the only land operation on the Japanese home islands during WWII, planting charges and destroying a railroad train after landing a shore party. These were sailors, trained to operate a submarine, not Marines trained for land combat.

Eugene Fluckey was awarded the Medal of Honor for Barb‘s actions during her 11th combat patrol. 

I knew a bit about Barb and Fluckey before being tapped for this book, but after doing a bit more research, I can tell I’m going to really enjoy reading this book. It brings together a number of my interests, and Fluckey has some of the most compelling stories there are to tell about WWII, and every review I’ve read says he wrote it in a very engaging and accessible style.

I will be starting narration on it in early July and I imagine it will be out by August. Once I have a publication date, I’ll update this post.

Greetings my friends,

I’ve just now finished uploading and updating my website with a brand new shiny logo, courtesy of 504 Design Studio. I’ve also put together a whole set of new audiobook demos, including several genres:

• Military History
• Fantasy/Sci-Fi
• Horror
• Memoir

Unlike some of my older demos, these are all 100% from published works you can get right now on Audible.

I’m also excited to announce that I’m adding audiobook production to the list of services I provide to my clients. If you need proofing, editing, or mastering of your audiobook project, look no further. My prices are competitive and I’m fun and easy to work with.

I look forward to your feedback on the site and the new demos! Stay tuned for more great stuff coming, I’ve got a lot of things in the works.

Thanks to the generosity of the kind folks over at Tantor Audio, I am extremely pleased to announce a giveaway of a FREE copy of my recently narrated book, Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent Into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death. It’s a harrowing and unflinching look at the events that led up to one of the most horrifying war crimes committed by American soldiers since Vietnam.

Written by Jim Frederick, executive editor of TIME Magazine and managing editor of TIME.com, Black Hearts is a remarkable book that is on more than one military commander’s reading list for all officers who may lead soldiers into combat.

I was privileged to read this book, and I hope whoever wins enjoys it.

I wish to thank Tantor Audio for making a giveaway copy available. I will be doing more of these giveaways for my other titles in the future, so watch for them here, on my Facebook and Twitter and of course on GoodReads!

Head on over to GoodReads and sign up to win your own copy of this great audiobook!

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Black Hearts

by Jim Frederick

Giveaway ends June 12, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

At the risk of running afoul of my own sage advice, I wanted to share with you some great news I got today!

My latest audiobook, Kali’s Tale by David Niall Wilson is now available on Audible.  Go check it out! If you like urban fantasy, then the DeChance Chronicles are right up your alley. This is the fourth book in the series, but they’re all a lot of fun.

And I also found that one of my other recent projects, Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent Into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death is getting good reviews and feedback.  This is a book about a terrible war crime committed in Iraq in 2006, and what created the conditions that allowed it to occur. It’s a harrowing book and I was deeply honored to read it.

Review One

Review Two

Full disclosure: I know the second reviewer via an online community, but I did not ask him for a review.

What a great way to start the week! I’ll try to keep the number of chest-thumping posts to a minimum, but I had to share this.

I’m very pleased to announce that I’m currently recording Spinning Webs and Telling Lies, a collection of dark Western-themed short stories by David Niall Wilson and Brian A. Hopkins – both Bram Stoker Award Winners! I’m recording multiple short stories, each with its own theme and sound.

Some have what I refer to as a “cowboy poet” sound, where the narrator could be a cowboy telling ghost stories around a fire with the horses mere shadows a few feet away, while some have a more neutral delivery- and there’s even some first-person stories about a particular man carrying a dark secret and a terrible power.

In short, it’s a lot of fun and a real challenge. I’m really enjoying it and it should be completed fairly soon!

I’m extremely pleased to announce that I’ve been chosen to be the narrator for David Sakmyster’s horror thriller Crescent Lake! It’s a horror novel set in a small town in Washington State, where informant Nick Murphy is hiding out from the mob and his past. What he finds there is both disturbing and terrifying.

David Sakmyster’s work is highly regarded and I’m honored to be chosen to narrate this novel. It promises to be a good time and I know you’ll all enjoy it immensely once it’s released.

I’m very excited to be embarking on another audiobook for Crossroad Press. Be sure to check out the other audiobook I did recently for Crossroad, Heart of a Dragon by David Niall Wilson.

Hey there- I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had begun work on a new audiobook project for Crossroad Press called Heart of a Dragon.

I’m proud and pleased to announce that it’s now published and available! Get your copy today.

The story is an urban fantasy centered around David DeChance, a sorcerous jack of all trades who fears that the local biker gangs have more going on than turf wars when he learns that a voodoo priestess named Anya Cabrera may be using one of the gangs to create an inhuman army. While their first target is the Dragons, another local biker gang, Cabrera has deeper and darker ambitions. Old Martinez, a sometime rival of DeChance, may hold the key to the salvation of the Dragons and the city in a young artist. A boy who dreams of dragons, and then paints them- except his paintings are more than pigment and canvas…