BLURB:
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.
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
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
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George T. Chronis will be awarding $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn host. The more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for the coverage of my novel.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the excerpt, thank you!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you liked it, Nikolina. Have a wonderful New Years.
DeleteNice blurb
ReplyDelete