Chuck Waldron - Ambushed by Anger + Contest

Enter to win an autographed copy of Served Cold!

***
Ambushed by Anger
By Chuck Waldron

My latest novel Served Cold is a story about revenge. The central character is Sean, a young man who will eventually have to come to terms with a growing feeling, a need for a settling of scores.

Revenge is a fascinating emotion to me. Revenge has been the cause for wars, tribal feuds and has the capacity to turn petty wrongs into major acts of retaliation.

The urge for revenge is an emotion we’ve all encountered. It comes in many disguises. Some might call it getting even. Others might talk about settling the score. There are stories of revenge allowed to grow full bloom, with deadly results.

A small slight might urge us to respond with a simple tit-for-tat remark. What’s the harm in that? Some take revenge with a witty retort many find amusing. Where’s the harm in that?

At the other end of the ‘getting even’ scale are feuds that started with someone feeling wronged and their need for payback turns into a full-blown call for for vengeance. Many novels and films have stories beginning with a character being wronged and the subsequent quest for revenge. There are stories of revenge in the classics. In modern literature, Puzo’s The Godfather ends with Michael Corleone orchestrating revenge in brilliant counterpoint to an infant’s baptism.

I took the title to my novel from the Sicilian saying that revenge is a dish best served cold. The story that stirs young Sean’s revenge is indeed cold with roots that go back over twenty years.

He hears a story of two families. For years an uneasy balance of power between two powerful patriarchs erupts into events for which nothing less than hot-blooded vengeance will do. He hears the story of what happens when revenge is dished out in full. He learns about the rage and fury that feud robbed him of a family history.

Confucius said before one embarks on a journey of revenge to first dig two graves. Will Sean demand vengeance or can he heed the advice of Confucius and turn away? U.S. born, Canadian novelist Chuck Waldron is currently working on his fourth novel, a thriller about an investigative blogger who uncovers more than he ever imagines…and has no idea what to do with his discovery.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

His first novel, Tears in the Dust, is a mystery set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War in 1937. When Alestair Ferguson volunteers to fight in the International Brigade he doesn’t realize the true price he will have to pay. Chuck’s second novel, Remington and the Mysterious Fedora, is a quirky fantasy, a story about what happens when a young man sits at the keyboard of a manual typewriter and puts on an old fedora. When the fedora and its mysterious power begins to whisper a story to him, the young man has a strange adventure indeed. His third novel, Served Cold, spans decades and stretches from the countryside of rural Ontario to a quiet artists’ studio in Tucson, Arizona. With lots of murder and mayhem in between, the story is what happens when a long-standing feud erupts into hot-blooded vengeance.

Chuck wrote over thirty short stories before setting out to write novels that are affordable and entertaining. He has attended writing workshops in Iowa, Florida, Georgia and Ontario, Canada.

“I grew up,” Chuck said, “listening to my grandfather, an Ozark Mountain story teller, spinning tales of the caves on his farm, describing them as hiding places once used by the Jesse & Frank James’ gang. It didn’t matter if the stories were true or not. Those legends set fire to my imagination, creating images that emerged slowly over the years, finally igniting as my short stories and novels.”

Now, thirty-plus short stories and three novels later, ideas keep coming, with more novels under development. Do they share anything in common? Each has its own unique voice and tale to tell, yet, at their heart, his stories tell about the human condition – the good, the bad and the ugly.

Chuck adds, “stored images that echo in my writing include train whistles in the night, Norman Rockwell childhood scenes, U.S. Army memories, blue collar jobs, university, a professonal career, and finally retirement. Many of my images are drawn from this pool of memories: places visited, sights seen, and people met. The rest I filled in with my imagination: dreams of places yet to be visited, sights yet to be seen, and people yet to be met.”

His literary roots were planted in the American Midwest and thrived when transplanted – over thirty-nine years ago – to the rich, cultural soil of Ontario. He and his wife, Suzanne, spend their summers in Kitchener, Ontario and are warmed by a winter sun in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

You can visit Chuck at http://www.writebyme.ca and at www.chuckwaldron.com. Visit him at Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/writebyme and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/wordstir.

ENTER THE CONTEST

Just comment on the post below and leave the first bit of your email address. You do need to be a NOR Newsletter / Fan Club subscriber to enter. USA Postage Only on shipped items. Ends - 12/30/2011