Sudetenland
by George
T. Chronis
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sudetenland©
is the premiere novel by author George T. Chronis. The book delivers
suspenseful and sweeping historical fiction set against Central European
intrigue during the late 1930s leading up to 1938′s Munich Conference. The
characters are the smart and sometimes wise-cracking men and women of this era
– the foreign correspondents, intelligence officers, diplomats and career
military – who are on the front lines of that decade’s most dangerous political
crisis. With three million ethnic Germans in Bohemia at stake, Adolph Hitler’s
unshakeable will demands that the Sudetenland be ripped from Czechoslovakia and
joined with Germany. The novel takes readers behind the scenes into the
deliberations and high drama taking place within the major capitals of Europe
as the continent hurtles toward the crucible of a shooting war.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
Ros strutted into Lasky's office, coming to a dead end in
front of the wood desk that was as long as Rhode Island. She tapped the sole of
her shoe on the floor impatiently while Lasky bellowed at someone else in the
newsroom. At least the afternoon view over Manhattan was pleasing. Blowing in like
a foul wind, Lasky slammed the door and walked right past her.
"Boss, I'm sorry to run a little fast with your image
back there," Ros offered up in appeasement.
Still rounding his desk, Lasky shook her off with a wave of
his hand. "Forget it. That's not why you're here. I have a job for
you."
Wondering whether she should be concerned or happy, Ros
decided to play along. "What kind of job?"
Sitting down, Lasky rifled through some paperwork until he
found the document he was looking for.
"Yeah, go find this guy Lester downstairs, he'll get
you all set up. Lodging, fares, advances, the whole low-down," Lasky
finished, handing her the form.
"Who's Lester? What are you talking about? Where am I
going?" she blurted out before taking a wild glance at the paperwork.
Lasky thought if he could keep Ros distracted, maybe he
could get the problem child on the boat before she could cry about needing a
raise. He reached out and grabbed the form back. Throwing it on the desktop,
Lasky signed the paper with his fountain pen.
Done, he thrust the page back at Ros. "Paris. I'm
sending you to Paris."
Ros looked down at the form, then at Lasky, then back at the
form. "I'm going to Paris? When did someone around here start liking
me?"
"Stop dreaming, no one around here likes you,"
Lasky taunted her while he walked back around to the front of his desk.
"That screwy Miranda just stabbed me in the back. She found herself some
guy over there, got married, and now she's running off to some French island in
the Caribbean. I need someone to pick up the pieces in Paris. That's you."
"Just slow down. Miranda got hitched?" all of the
angles weren't coming together in Ros' head.
"Yeah, nice announcement: Hi Harry, I got married,
and I quit," Lasky mimicked a feminine voice. These damn ditzy broads
were always letting him down. But Ros showed promise.
Pointing his finger repeatedly at her nose, he continued his
rant. "Miranda left me high and dry, so I'm sending you to pick up the
pieces. You, I don't have to worry about. With that mouth, no one is going to
be marrying you."
"Harry!" Ros yelled indignantly. "You're not
painting a very enticing picture for me here. What if I don't want to go to
Paris?"
Lasky stared at her incredulously. "Who doesn't want to
go to Paris? Any one of those stooges out there would kill to go to Paris but
none of them have what you've got."
With her natural skepticism starting to boil over, Ros
leaned in closer and started jabbing Lasky in the shoulder with two fingers,
slowly backing him up against the desk.
"I know what you're up to Harry," her tone low and
threatening. "Miranda was on a fashion beat. That means to you the only
thing I got that those mugs out there don't have, is boobs. It's another
glorified gossip beat, you rat!"
"It's Paris! C'mon, every woman wants to go to
Paris," Lasky shouted in his defense.
"That's not the point," Ros continued poking him.
"I'm tired of going to county fairs. I'm tired of the only labor unrest
stories coming my way having to be in washing machine factories. I'm tired of
reporting on this ditzy socialite, and that boring dolt of a millionaire. I
want a real beat like a real reporter, Harry. I can do the job just as good, or
better, as those guys out there and I cost less."
"Stop trying to get on my good side," Lasky
retorted, readying his counter attack. He hadn't expected this much of a fight. But he needed her and he couldn't run the
risk of her bolting.
"Listen, give me a chance here. You're the only person
I've got who can jump in and take over for Miranda. But you're also a hell of a
lot better than she is... err, was. You won't have to work as hard to cover her
beat. In case you haven't noticed, between the Nazis and Mussolini, there's one
crisis after another going on over in Europe. I'm sure there's going to be some important stories Walter and our
boys won't be able to get to. What you do with your free time is up to
you."
Somewhere in there were a couple of compliments, but she
wasn't going to let him twist free that easily. Paris did sound kind of nice,
and he was throwing her a bone in the way of real work, but Ros was sure the
beat would take up more time than Lasky was promising, and she wanted something
else from him... for pride, and because she could. So Ros just silently stared Lasky down,
daring him to add one more carrot to get her to sign on.
"Okay, and I'll throw in a raise," Lasky conceded
after a long standoff.
"Done!" Ros threw her arm out to shake hands with
Lasky to seal the deal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After years as
a journalist and magazine editor, George T. Chronis decided to return to his
lifelong passion, storytelling. A lover of both 1930s cinema and world history,
Chronis is now devoted to bringing life to the mid-20th Century fictional
narratives that have been in his thoughts for years. Sudetenland© is his first
novel. Taking place during turbulent times in Central Europe during the 1930s,
the book took eight years to research and write. The author is already hard at
work on his second novel.
Chronis is
married with two daughters, and lives with his wife in a Southern California
mountain community.
Links:
Buy Links:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for the coverage of my book.
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome! Good luck with your wonderful book tour!!
DeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt - thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed it, Victoria. That scene is a lot of fun.
DeleteI have enjoyed learning about the book. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, Patrick. Please visit my book site linked above if you would like to know more.
Delete
ReplyDeleteI really did enjoy the excerpt. It does look to be interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for checking out Sudetenland, Glenda. That scene was inspired by some screwball comedy movies from the 1930s.
DeleteNice cover
ReplyDeleteThis sounds great! I'll have to check it out. :) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful, VC. Ros is a great character. I fell in love with her straight away and ended up changing the plot around significantly to give her more to do.
DeleteIt sounds adventurous and full of spunk!
ReplyDeleteThank you! That era is so much fun. The book is full of foreign correspondents getting into all kinds of trouble.
DeleteI could not find him on Pinterest (found a blank page with a similar name and liked it, and I think one that was his wife's, and liked it.) I did follow him on Tumblr, too.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome, Kimberly... thanks. When I published my wife was very excited and went a little wild on Pinterest and Facebook. Getting another like will make her very happy. I did fool around with a Pinterest page a while ago but wasn't happy with it and deleted it.
Deletei enjoyed reading the excerpt
ReplyDeleteSo glad you liked it, Angela. Thanks!
DeleteI love the blurb. So interesting.
ReplyDeleteThat's great, Ash. Thanks for saying so.
DeleteGreat excerpt, thank you.
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt best. This book sounds like such an interesting and intriguing read. I will totally have to add this book to my "to-read" list.
ReplyDelete