Charles Sheehan-Miles

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Niagara Falls Reporter: Republic review
2007-07-02 22:50:00
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Hanchette (named by Gannett as one of the top ten journalists of the last decade) has just written a truly wonderful review of Republic.Here's some excerpts.  You can check out the full review at the link above. Hanchette writes:With the Fourth of July just in front of us, this might be a good time to take a look at a startling new book coming out the middle of next month. There's a ton of buzz on the Internet about it, and even in this era of functional illiteracy it has a chance of attracting national attention. It might even focus needed discussion on a stark, unthinkable subject many of us, conservative or liberal, are jittery about but usually avoid exploring in discussion or print:At times -- at least for those of us who read and think instead of watching the boob tube and gorging on vapid celebrity trivia -- our beloved United States of America seems to be in danger of coming apart at the seams....Sheehan-Miles, in his mid-3...
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Amazon forums
2007-06-29 22:59:00
I started to post a comment in reply to a post over at Steve Weber's blog, about promoting books on Amazon 's customer forums page. But the comment got longer, and decided to go ahead and post it as an entry.Steve raises the question of authors promoting their books on Amazon's customer forums, and makes the point that the forums are seeing greatly increased use now that the are posted across multiple books based on keyword, rather than a forum for each title. What I've noticed looking through the politics, war and scifi forums (the ones which fit my books the most) is that there's some strong discussions going in, but there's also a small number of writers jumping in saying "pick me! pick me!"Goes like this:Q. Can you recommend a good book on x?A1. I recommend blah blah....A2. I though blah blah was ....A3. I wrote a book called ...You get the picture. What is interesting is that the voting links, where people say whether not a post "adde...
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Immigration bill dead, but national IDs still on the way
2007-06-29 14:29:00
The immigration bill died yesterday in the Senate, at least partially because of amendments which had been attached which would have gutted the "Real ID" act, the law which is bringing a national ID card our way. Why is this an issue? Pretty soon, you'll have to have that national ID in order to get a job, open a bank account, travel, or pretty much anything else. The best part -- the data will all be kept in a national database. Still don't see a problem? The Department of Homeland Security wants to include RFID chips in the new ID, which means that, with very little effort, the government will be able to track your movements from day to day. I can't wait.
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Republic Podcast: Episode 7
2007-06-29 13:13:00
Episode 7 is now online. Congressman Clark and Valerie Murphy seek help from the President, and Dale Whitt announces his campaign for secession from the United States. Listen to this episode: Get great free widgets at Widgetbox! Subscribe with iTunes
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More officers suspended after botched no-knock raid
2007-06-29 12:53:00
Three more officers were suspended this week as a result of the investigation into the killing of 92 year old Kathryn Johnson in Atlanta. In November, plainclothes policemen smashed in the door of Johnson's house after lying to obtain a search warrant, then killed her in a hail of bullets.More details here and here. From TheAgitator.com:Johnston's murder should also be a wake-up call for those who instinctively believe initial police accounts of what happened during one of these raids. I suspect that if Kathryn Johnston had been a 22-year old innocent man instead of an 88 (or 92, depending on who's reporting)-year old innocent woman, we may still not know exactly what happened in that house.
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Republic: Chapter Eleven
2007-06-28 16:34:00
Republic Charles Sheehan-MilesChapter Eleven    Order from Amazon.com    Back to Table of Contents | Listen to the Podcast CHAPTER ELEVENJUNE 20Valerie opened the door a few inches and knocked. Clark was on the phone.“Hold on please,” he said to his caller, then covered the handset with his left hand.“Al, I’ve got good news. Your appointment with the President is at three.”“Great. Can you pull together a quick briefing packet?”“It’s already done.”“Thanks.” He smiled, went back to the phone.Valerie hurried back to her desk. She had prepared an information packet targeted at the media, but had hoped they would be called on to meet with the President. The information in the packet was targeted to put as much pressure on Saturn as possible. First, a brief on the workers of the Highview plant and quotes from past Saturn press releases that highlighted the engineering and technical advances made ...
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It sounds like Big Brother; do the society and the times dictate something?
2007-06-28 15:52:00
The District Attorney and Mayor of Pittsburgh have proposed installing a huge network of cameras, license plate recognition devices and a centralized network throughout downtown Pittsburgh, in order to make it "an even safer and more hospitable place." "It sounds like Big Brother , but do the society and the times dictate something like that?" asked Don Patterson, executive director of the Homewood Renaissance Business Association, which hopes to revive a blighted three-block area by attracting artists and service firms. He said his target clients would probably welcome the cameras if they were accompanied by increased policing.  Check it out.
More About: Society , Sounds , Times

Why there may still be hope in Iraq
2007-06-26 18:21:00
For me, the war in Iraq has never been about domestic politics.  It's been about the incredible damage we did in 1991 by encouraging the Kurds and Shia to rebel against Saddam Hussein, then abandoning them to be massacred by their own government.  For me the question about the war always centers around: how do we get to a viable end-state in Iraq where the people have a chance at a decent life.  Dave Kilcullen over at Small Wars Journal has written an excellent piece which gives some hope to that possibility.Kilcullen's blog entry is a simple explanation of what the intent of the surge operation is all about.  This is important, because a lot of folks are running around saying "the surge has failed!"  According to Kilcullen, and most of the other military folks I've been reading, the surge is only now starting. Everything up to now has only been preparation.“I know some people in the media are already starting to sort of write off...
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Nice editorial from soldier in Iraq
2007-06-26 17:59:00
Just read an excellent editorial written by a soldier serving in Iraq , addressing the constant handwringing in DC about how differing opinions might hurt our soldiers' feelings.  For the record -- I share his view, and during the Gulf War protests didn't bother me at all -- even though I supported the war while I was there.  In fact, protests reminded me that whatever their view, there were folks back home who realized that there was, in fact, a war going on.A couple of snippets: We volunteer from the American population at large, so we mirror it. We are Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, pro-life, pro-choice, single, married, gay, straight, black, white, Hispanic. Some hold strong political opinions and argue vehemently with one another, and some are apathetic towards all things political. We are the melting pot that is America....When politicians claim that opponents’ opinions slap us in the face, they’re telling us troops that we&r...
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Appeals court upholds privacy of stored emails
2007-06-26 17:24:00
An appeals court has ruled against the government in a case where stored emails were seized without a warrant.  This is a good step -- up until this point, the government has maintained that even though emails in transit couldn't be touched because of wiretapping laws, there was nothing to stop them from reading emails stored at a service provider.  This ruling kills that -- at least until the government appeals.Of course, if your service provider is AT&T, they may just voluntarily hand them over.  
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Is this what we swore to defend?
2007-06-26 00:49:00
I’ll never forget the day I took the oath of enlistment.  It was April of 1990, and I was preparing to leave for Fort Knox, Kentucky for basic training.  Little did I know that in a little less than a year, I’d be keeping that oath for real, on a battlefield in Iraq. I enlisted because I’m a believer in democracy.  An idealist, if you will.  I grew up knowing that my father had served in Vietnam, and that his father had spent more than three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.  And, though there was no war on the horizon on the date I enlisted, I knew that the possibility was there that I would one day be called to arms to defend those principles I believed in. That’s one of the reasons I find it so difficult to accept where I believe our country is headed today. As a longtime activist and novelist very concerned about the future of our country, I keep asking myself, how did we get where we are? Here are just a few of the thing...

Videotape a traffic stop? Get charged with a felony
2007-06-25 19:24:00
An eighteen year old from Carlisle, Pennsylvania made the mistake of turning on his video camera when his friend was pulled over for a routine traffic stop.  The driver got a ticket.  The guy with the camera had his camera and film seized and was arrested for felony wiretapping.I don't know about you, but it seems reasonable to me that police can expect to be recorded when dealing with the public.  Period.  Seizing a camera from an eighteen year old, throwing them in jail overnight, requiring their parents to put their house up as collaterral for bond -- oh, no. I don't think so.  
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DailyKos Review
2007-06-25 07:36:00
This morning TeacherKen over at Dail yKos posted one hell of a review of Republic: A Novel of America's Future. For those of you who aren't aware of it, Kos is the powerhouse of blogs, with more than 100,000 daily visitors. The exiting news? By the end of the night, the book had jumped to the top ten new releases on Amazon, with a sales rank in the low 2000s. Wow.Of course, we know that will drop -- temporary peaks like that are pretty cool, but I'm in this for the long haul, and that means growing my audience one reader at a time. Starting with you: if you haven't picked up your copy yet, now is the time. I'm only going to quote a couple of paragraphs here, you can check out the full review (and the many, many comments) here.We live in a time where we have seen people resort to domestic violence because of their grievances. We have had the assassination of abortion providers, the bombing of clinics. We have seen groups establish themselves as "militia...
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Wednesday Hero: Lance Corporal Hatak Yuka Keyu Martin
2007-06-21 14:36:00
Lance Cpl. Hatak Yuka Keyu M. Yearby21 years old from Overbrook, Oklahoma3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary ForceMay 14, 2006 Hatak Yuka Keyu Martin Yearby was remembered in funeral services as a small town boy who balanced his Choctaw tribal heritage and his military life.He did traditional American Indian dances with grace, compassion, discipline and free spirit — "the way he lived his life," the Rev. Timm Emmons said Monday."He had a desire to be in the military since he was a young boy. And he believed in what he was doing. He was a warrior, and he was a hero and he finished the course."Yearby was killed by a roadside bomb, along with fellow Lance Cpl. Jose S. MarinDominguez Jr., in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, two months after he arrived in that country.Friends and family, fellow American Indians, teachers and classmates filed past his open casket for an hour after the funeral while a U.S. Marine Corps ...
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Missing soldier's wife faces deportation
2007-06-21 14:20:00
Specialist Alex Jimenez, along with two other soldiers, was kidnapped by al-Qaeda in May. One of his fellow soldiers was later found dead, the other is still missing. In a video posted on the internet, AQ claims all three soldiers are dead. Here's the kicker: Jimenez's wife, Yaderlin, is facing deportation from the United States.This particular soldier is a U.S. citizen, served two tours in Iraq. He came home from his first tour with a Purple Heart. He may not make it home from the second, though there is still some hope. According to the media reports, his wife entered the U.S. illegally from the Dominican Republic in 2001. They couple married in 2004, and they applied for a green card after the marriage. In doing so, they did the right thing, but they also brought her to the attention of the Department of Homeland Security. Following that, the DHS, which I've pointed out before is my favorite government agency, proceeded with deportation proceedings. It seems tha...
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Sippy cup terrorism
2007-06-20 15:16:00
If you've ever been foolish enough to travel with a toddler in tow, you know what a pain it can be.  Imagine how much worse if you get stopped by the TSA, have your sippy confiscated, get kicked out of the security area, accidentally spill it, then have to clean it up while a ring of agents surround you yucking it up.Go TSA!  Isn't it great we're doing such an awesome job protecting our nation from those evil terrorists?
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Autism and families
2007-06-19 14:23:00
Sometimes the stress of having a child with autism is enough to make you roll over and die. I just read this article in the NY Times about one of the families involved with running Autism Speaks, one of the biggest charitable and research organizations out there. The conclusion: it's just too much to deal with sometimes.In our case, it's not the typical autism you think of -- unresponsive, unable to communicate.  Our son is eleven, and is remarkable articulate for a child his age. Articulate, and completely unable to decode the social rules that govern our lives, and that govern interactions especially between boys his age.  Consequently, here we are, its summer vacation, and he has virtually no one to play with in the neighborhood after a year in which his relationships with his classmates and most of the neighbors were marked with unpleasantness and anger.When I read the article it struck me that I could care less whether we're talking about genetics or env...
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My nephew is off to the Marine Corps
2007-06-15 06:33:00
Just a quick link to this post over at my brother's website. His son is heading off for boot camp in just a couple more days. 
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Chris Gerrib Review of Republic
2007-06-14 04:31:00
Chris Gerrib (author of The Mars Run) has written a wonderful review of Republic . Excellent news! I've posted some excerpts, or you can go check out the full review.Republic is Charles Sheehan-Miles’ second novel, and it’s an outstanding read. The book opens with a short prologue, and then puts us into the main action, three years later. Ken Murphy is a widowed single parent and middle manager at Saturn Microsystem’s plant in Highview, West Virginia. The plant, recently acquired by a corporate raider, is suddenly shut down, despite being profitable. The factory is by far the largest employer in town, and several hundred people are suddenly laid off with no notice, little recourse and no sympathy. Most people discover that the plant is closed when they pull up to a newly-installed fence, guarded by an armed state trooper. Chapter 1 ends with Murphy thinking that “desperate people do desperate things.”This is immediately followed by a devastating ter...
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Presentation on autism
2007-06-09 21:31:00
I haven't written much about this since some entries earlier this year on the sensory learning program. No sign that sensory learning had any positive or negative impact at all (except that it cost a ton of money). Ah, well. Anyway, this is a video of Marty Murphy talking about autism. Take a look. Let me know what you think of this one.
More About: Autism , Presentation , Resent

Prayer at Rumayla podcast reaches 1000 listeners
2007-06-09 18:42:00
A milestone of sorts.  I was checking my stats this morning, and the individual episodes of Pray er at Ruma yla have now reached or passed 1000 downloads for each episode.  Nice to know folks are listening! 
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Better late than never - Episode 4 is now online
2007-06-09 06:49:00
So, my schedule has been crazy, what with server crashes, elementary school graduations (congratulations to the boy!) and other assorted stuff, so I'm behind on recording Republic. Nevertheless, I just finished cutting episide 4 and it is now online.You can get the latest chapter here. Even better -- if you are a listener, please consider supporting free audiobooks like this by BUYING A COPY. Not convinced yet? Check out what Chris Gerrib, author of The Mars Run, had to say about it in his blog: I received a review copy of Charles Sheehan-Miles' new book Republic last night. I sat down after work and decided to read "just a few chapters."Silly me. Republic is a gripping thriller that I couldn't put down. It's not just literary popcorn either - you'll be thinking about it the next day. I owe all concerned a more detailed review, which I shall get out after Duckon, but in the meantime, go buy this book! Perhaps not a lot of detail yet, but nice to he...
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Republic - Chapter Ten
2007-06-08 23:19:00
Republic Charles Sheehan-MilesChapter Nine    Order from Amazon.com    Back to Table of Contents | Listen to the Podcast CHAPTER TENJUNE 17A week after the events at the plant, Murphy was still reeling in shock. Somehow he’d never expected the violent response, the ready deployment of paramilitary forces. He moved through his days, mailing resumes, filling out job applications, playing with his son, feeling something akin to grief. He’d spent his life in the military. He never thought he’d see its agents used against their own people.The town was as quiet as a funeral. The plant employees had been released, but the streets were still hushed, some businesses closed. Nine people had died by violence in two days, unheard of in a town only a few thousand people. Murphy and others from the town had driven a convoy to Charleston to bring back the workers who’d been arrested; they returned with horror stories of being crowded into both the coun...
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National Archives uncovers handwritten note from Lincoln
2007-06-08 04:11:00
The National Archives discovered in its stacks a handwritten note from Abraham Lincoln to General Henry Halleck four days after the battle of Gettysburg. What an incredible find, and it raises the question of what other kinds of really incredibly interesting stuff can be found in the archives. I wrote a couple of years ago about my search through the archives for information about my grandfather, who was captured on Java at the beginning of World War II along with his entire battalion. It was fascinating spending the time there digging up those documents, which included an affadavit he wrote for a war crimes trial, photos of the camp he spent most of the war in, as well as all kinds of other interesting stuff.Here's what Lincoln had to day, courtesy a post over at Knee Deep In Mud:Major Genl HalleckWe have certain information that Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant on the 4th of July. Now, if Gen. Meade can complete his work so gloriously prosecuted thus far, by the litter...
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Road workers attacked by angry commuters
2007-06-08 03:49:00
Those crazy Californians.  At least as crazy as the rest of the country anyway.  I took a glance at the headlines in LA Times today, and was greeted with the news that the California legislature was trying to outlaw spanking of children, voted down an assisted suicide provision, and that angry commuters were running down and shooting construction workers.Seriously.  On the first two topics.  Assisted suicide is one of those so-called debates I just don't get.  What's the bottom line.  People getting in other people's business. Worse, people using the state to get in other people's business.  If someone is dying of a terminal disease, well, that sucks.  And if they are a responsible adult, whose business is it whether or not they have Dr. Death come along and do them in, or, for that matter, if they stick a  gun in their mouth.  Okay, maybe not that, because someone would have to clean up after them, and that would suc...
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First review of Republic now in
2007-06-07 23:28:00
The first review of Republic is now in, from the Podler Book Review ! Here's some excerpts: ...a frightening portrayal of a future America ... where civil liberties are virtually nonexistent and federal power overreaches in the name of antiterrorism. The writing is vital, gripping, and convincing; the voice true and rooted in the world it creates and its populist characters. The characters are real, and the vision offered by Miles is compelling enough to make you fear that you’re doing something subversive simply by reading the book. This is an engrossing read.

Republic video: your feedback requested
2007-06-05 16:10:00
Hello! Another way a lot of authors and publishers are promoting books now is the use of video trailers. Here's a draft of one for Republic : looking for your feedback, and, if you think it's good, please forward it on to friends! The live action comes from some recent US Army productions. Sadly I don't have the budget to produce cool stuff like that. Good news is that government product is public domain. Nice.
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Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction
2007-06-04 21:43:00
Ok, so here's the deal. The biggest, most difficult idea to swallow in Republic is the idea that in the modern day, an actual secessionist movement from the United States could gain any adherents at all. I spent a lot of time in the book trying to make that concept both believable and realistic. Turns out, some folks in Vermont beat me to it.Take a look at this article in the Boston Globe, which describes the nascent secessionist movement in Vermont.But the idea has found plenty of sympathetic ears in Vermont, a left-leaning state that said yes to civil unions, no to slavery (before any other) and last year elected a socialist to the U.S. Senate.About 300 people turned out for a 2005 secession convention in the Statehouse, and plans for a second one are in the works. A poll this year by the University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies found that 13 percent of those surveyed support secession, up from 8 percent a year before."The argument for secession is that the...
More About: Truth , Fiction , Stra , Really , Range

From Freedom to Fascism
2007-06-04 05:59:00
Okay. I don't typically strongly recommend anything to anyone. But I'm going to tonight. Clear two hours from your schedule. Do it soon. Then site down, and watch Aaron Russo's From Freedom to Fascism .Topics: IRS, Property seizure, electronic voting, RFID cards, national IDs. And more. It's the world I've been writing about, coming here soon. Scary stuff. Check it out on Google video here.Some of it may be a little kooky. But there's a lot to think about there. 

Question for my 3 readers
2007-06-03 18:40:00
Hello, and a thank you to the loyal 3 readers of my website. I'm considering an experiment, and would like your opinion. I'm currently writing the first draft of two planned sequels to Republic. I'm considering blogging my drafts for your feedback.Here is the brief concepts for both novels. Titles, details, and even the basic story may change, but here's the basics:Insurgent - Three months after the end of the failed revolution in West Virginia, an insurgent campaign against the occupation troops begins. Former Congressman Al Clark, recently appointed governer by the West Virginia legislature following the suicide of Frank Slagter, must work with occupation forces to suppress the insurrection. P@tri0t - In 2025, several years after the events of Republic, America has changed radically. Bobby Wright, nephew of former West Virginia National Guard General Ken Murphy, is a college student and programmer on Freenet, a network designed to both encrypt and anonymize int...
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