There is a wonderful 1985 film by Lasse Hollström called My Life as a Dog, about a little boy whose life is turned upside down by one tragedy after another. He survives by constantly comparing his circumstances to others, including the dog sent into space by the Russians, and the refrain he keeps repeating throughout the movie is, “It’s important to compare.” In the spirit of “It’s important to compare,” I recommend We Die Alone, by David Howarth (Lyons Press).
We tend to think of World War Two as taking place on the battlefields of Europe and the islands of the Pacific, but in reality it was far more global than that, justifying its name. One of the lesser known areas where the Nazis worked their tender mercies was Norway, where they launched a Blitzkrieg in the spring of 1940, with an eye to controlling strategic northern Atlantic ports.
In March of 1943, a team of twelve Norwegian commandos set sail from northern England and landed in Nazi-occupied arctic Norway. Their mission was to organize, aid, and supply the Norwegian resistance, but due to a freak coincidence they were betrayed. All but one of them were killed immediately. We Die Alone is the true story of the lone survivor’s epic struggle to survive and escape in the face of insurmountable odds. Wounded, frostbitten, blinded, and crippled, Jan Baalsrud simply refused to die and, aided by courageous villagers who risked their lives to help him, finally managed to survive and to escape.
I don’t want to give the unbelievable details away, but after reading We Die Alone, when my hands start to go numb with cold while cleaning horse manure in the snow, or when I feel like whining about this ache or that pain, I think of Jan Baalsrud and remind myself, “It’s important to compare.”
Il y a quelques années, j’ai lu le livre d’Elizabeth Glaser « en l’absence des anges ». Ce livre est une vraie leçon de courage…..
Voir une maman se battre comme elle l’a fait pour essayer de sauver ses enfants, c’est quelque chose d’extraordinaire. Elle a essayé de « déplacer des montagnes » en vain. Même après sa mort, elle réussi encore à faire passer un superbe message, celui de ne jamais abandonner !!!!!
La vie ne nous épargne pas, tant sur un plan affectif que physique (et oui, l’être humain vieillit
)
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Parfois, quand je sens que le courage m’abandonne un peu, je regarde autour de moi et je me dis qu’il y a bien pire et que même si maintenant je vis seule, j’ai beaucoup de chance d’être entourée par ma famille et de vrais amis……
Lorsque vous dites « qu’il est important de comparer », c’est très juste, mais il ne faut pas oublier une chose, c’est que lorsque la douleur est trop forte, on a aussi le droit de se plaindre un peu…… ça soulage et c’est aussi une autre façon se s’exprimer.
Anita
“Comparing” is responsible for my good mental health. I leanred to compare my situation to that of others in college…I did not have all the accoutrements that some of my dormmates had…but I also did not have to leave school due to lack of money like some others. When I find money tight during this trying economic time, I think of all those around me who are in worse financial shape and I am grateful. ‘We Die Alone’ sounds like an intriguing story, I’ll add it to my sizable list of ‘to reads.’
JJ
“I complained about having no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet” Persian Proverb Your right it helps to keep a perspective on things. Here in Michigan today we have a high of 32, the low will be 22 and we have had 37.4 inches of snow. Also, there are a lot of people who are worse off than I am. As for your hands being cold a nice pair of lined gloves would work well. In Michigan we shovel snow we usually wear a pair of winter gloves.
JP that was profound! I too compare those days I don’t wish to go to work or the dentist and compare it to others. When you think about shovelling horse manure isn’t as bad as some things others have faced!
Tena French Halifax, NS Canada
I love when an author recommends another author’s book, so after reading your blog post I purchased “We Die Alone” for my husband, an avid reader of WW2 literature.
One comment about your own books, I have read three of them now and enjoyed them. I discovered your blog a few months ago and thought your posts intelligently written, often with that use of irony that I admire so much, enough to warrant pulling out my credit card and purchasing a few of your books. A suggestion, should you be open to it, would be to sell yourself more aggressively. Your books deserve a wider audience than kindle, and perhaps I’m totally wrong and this is working out just fine for you, but had we not had a snowstorm which kept me indoors, I might never have discovered your richly written blog, nor your books. And finally one last comment, I would have paid a lot more than Amazon’s price of $3.00 for your books.
Thank you for the kind words. Selling anything is a skill unto itself, and selling oneself or one’s own work is perhaps the hardest skill of all, or at least it is for me. (You have sparked a memory from my salad days as an aspiring actor trying to stay alive in New York; one of these days I will write it up and post it.) But beyond the difficulty is the problem of how. Back in the days of traditional publishing, book signings, readings, tours, televison and/or radio appearances, and public speaking engagements were all utilized, but those things were very expensive and are no longer applicable in the world of e-publishing. I have done copious amounts of research and had numerous brainstorming sessions with my agents and with friends who are writers, and the best I could come up is the use of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Those had to be ruled out. My agent pointed out that Twitter is only useful if you keep it up constantly, and as I am a card-carrying, dyed-in-the-wool Luddite who deosn’t even own a cell phone, he suggested I abandon that scheme. Facebook comes with its own time demands, but most importantly, it comes with various security issues that make it an unwise choice for me. Two bullets in me is more than enough for one lifetime. And the bottom line is that all of these methods, traditional and electronic, don’t carry the weight of the finest marketing device in the world – word of mouth, something no one knows how to generate. Think of the millions upon millions of videos posted on U-tube; only a handful go viral every year, and no one knows precisely why. Having said all this, as you write a good sentence yourself, if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. Someone once said that the best motivations for a writer were an empty stomach and a bill collector beating on the door, but the charm of both those motivations is beginning to wear a little thin.
JP
JP you are most welcome. I wanted to share as I had the ah moment at work the other night. A customer called in with a severe speech impediment. He managed to get across what he wanted from wireless tech. He was polite and thanked me a thousand or so times. After the call I compared him to some of my customers who swear and complain. This customer with the speech impediment made me cry as it was an example to humanity. We are blessed to have speech and sometimes we use it the wrong way. I’ll never forget that phone call . And will compare it to others who misuse their gifts.
Tena French Halifax, NS Canada
I think this is a book which goes to the heart and makes thoughtful.Thank you that you have written about it.
Oh, muck out the stables,this is hard work.I think many can not imagine it.Especially in winter,so I can understand you well.Also, I sometimes complain about it and wonder why I am doing it.It would be an easy thing to change it but in my life would be missing something.But I think it is good for the soul and one’s own well-being if you sometimes can whine about,about horse manure, bad weather, aching bones, lack of money or other things.Certainly, these problems are small compared to the suffering of other people in this world or people who had bad experience.Presumably, these problems are ridiculously small compared with the others.But the own problem, well-being or feeling is also important, it is not wrong.But perhaps we should be a little more grateful for what we have.
I think in this day and age it is difficult for any writer to sell his books.Sometimes it seems as if the book reader a dying breed.When I think of my own family, friends or acquaintances.Nobody reads a book maybe the newspaper every now and then.The children have no desire to read,they often can only make calls and write SMS with their cellphone,play computer games and chill.That is very unfortunate.People no longer take the time to relax and read a book.All move just hectic.And then everyone is surprised about the increasing number of diseases.I am grateful for each author who writes a book and published,even if times are difficult for authors.When I read a book I enter a different world, a different life.For a moment I can “turn off” my life.
Do not give up,JP,even if it is sometimes difficult.Believe in what you do.
Manuela
As the one who suggested you market your books more widely than just through your blog, I hope you didn’t get the false impression that I actually had any sound advice to offer. I don’t. I only know what little I know. That is, from a reader’s perspective, there are only so many ways of discovering books worthy of my time to read. Primarily, in my case, that means going to a bookstore to sift through what’s newly published. (Time consuming, but pure fun) Sometimes I believe and trust reviews I read in newspapers or in magazines and journals. Then again, I’ve been taken many times relying on these seemingly knowledgeable experts and purchasing a “recommended” book which ended up being a huge disappointment. Concededly, yes I do think word of mouth is a wonderful marketing tool, a tried and true compass that often leads me to the types of literature I prefer, but I wonder if that’s because my friends and I, whether it’s my conventional friends or anonymous blog buddies, are like-minded in the first place, and would therefore more likely prefer the same style of writing and similar genres. One probably wouldn’t follow an author’s blog who didn’t enjoy that author’s style of writing, or wouldn’t purchase a book recommended by someone whose opinion wasn’t respected. And yet, when a book reaches best seller status, or has dozens of Amazon reviews with four and five stars, I sit up and take notice like everyone else. In this day and age, are book reviews on-line, such as on Amazon, the new-age “word of mouth”? Perhaps.
By the way, in my job as a school librarian, I see how word of mouth book recommendations work in the purist sense. Every day students ask for “something good to read”, and I have to be up on my game, recommending something I believe in, that won’t turn them off reading forever, putting the blame at the end of their illiterate lives on some misguided, out of touch librarian from their youth. You think you have marketing problems! I also witness the power of peer recommendations, which will sway even the most discriminate young reader every time. Are we adults much different?
So in conclusion and since you did ask, my advice for what it’s worth, is for you to beg all your blog followers to review your books on Amazon, or wherever one can submit reviews for eBooks. Maybe you’ve already asked this of your readers? There would be no uncomfortable “selling” of yourself, just a little humble request to your devoted readers via your blog (even more comfortable). In my opinion I got a hell of a good deal when I purchased three of your books through kindle for around $10.
I’ll start, I promise to post book reviews this week.
P.S. Luddite? Now that’s one I had to look up in the dictionary. Well done-I can really only respect an author who has a better vocabulary than I do.
You right about all that. I don’t twitter and only my grown children who are in their twenties twitter. Facebook comes with its own privacy issues. Just recently they were hacked into. They claim no private information was lost, but how would someone know? Also, someone has sent up a Facebook page with your name. I don’t know if you are aware of this or not or if you know these. people. I keep my Facebook private so only people I know can look at it. Only people I invite as friends can see my page. You have to be really careful about who sees your private information.
The trouble with comparing ourselves with others is that as long as we are alive there will be people who we thing are better or have more then us. There will be people who also have more problems or have less then us. I think I tend to compare myself with people who seem to be better or have more. The truth is I don’t know what is going on is their life or what kind of problems that they might have. Just as someone might not know what kind of problems I have or what is going on in my life.
I loved that Persian proverb, anonymous! And talk about coincidences(?), I just recently bought a collection of the old Lassie movies from the 1940′s(very cheaply!), and one of my favorites(among the Lassie genera) is “Son Of Lassie”(that I JUST viewed!), in which Lassie’s son(Laddie, predictably) and his master get shot down over Nazi occupied Norway, and have to survive all manner of perils together(and apart!)–and sounds amazingly like this book! I wonder if they got the idea for this old movie(Peter Lawford and June Lockhart star!) from this guy’s real experiences? Sure sounds like it……..And I read a book some time ago that is my “check” to keep me from whining too much about anything–Henri Landwirth’s “A Gift Of Life”–about the author’s horrendous true-life experiences in a Nazi concentration camp during World War 2–yet came out one of the KINDEST people you could ever hope to meet(which I had the great privelege to do once!), despite the fact that he had every excuse to be plenty bitter and hateful. He went on to found a group that gives terminally ill kids their last wishes, among other extremely benevolent things–I highly recommend his book! You’ll never whine about anything again, after reading it!….L.B.
I wondered about the ebook prices of your books too. Why are they so cheap? Who is setting up these prices? Second, Facebook is an ok platform, the trick is to not use the correct data to protect your privacy. Name yes, anything else … free to the user. That’s all. It’s great to get immediately response there, but you can also have this here, I think this page could be a tiny bit better about spreading the word about your books
Twitter is not necessary. Your book reviews are priceless, and another book on my “to read” list.
Tanja
JP,
What is the reasoning behind publishing your books only in digital format. I believe authors get the best exposure when their books are printed in traditional format. For instance, your novel “American Riff” could sell quite well in paperback. I can picture it in airport bookstores….it’s the perfect story to get lost in during a flight.
Elizabeth
JP,
What is the reasoning behind publishing your books only in digital format. I believe authors get the best exposure when their books are printed in traditional format. For instance, your novel “American Riff” could sell quite well in paperback. I can picture it in airport bookstores….it’s the perfect story to get lost in during a flight.
Elizabeth
….and another(?) coincidence? Just after signing off the computer(and reading this post), a coworker got on it(my only computer access is at my workplace), and was surfing around and saw this intersting bit on a fellow’s newly published biography(and called me over to look at it). And WHAT a SPLENDID ploy to sell his book! He apparently hid a “treasure” somewhere(supposedley worth millions of dollars), but you have to buy his book to get the clues! I mean, obviously with this fellow, selling his books must be a moot point(if he has millions of dollars to hide and/or give away), but THAT’S thinking outside the box! Undoubtedley lots of folks totally uninterested in his biography will still buy that book! Perhaps you(JP) could do likewise, but your “treasure”(to fit your budget) could be something like the treasure chest in the old “Billy Jack” theme song–anybody else out there remember THAT treasure? Ha!
Believe it or not I have found and enjoyed many new books at our local library. Plus, if I find an author I really like I go back and check out more of their books at the library. That is were I got the Lost to the West book.