Gun owners rejoice--it's here!

Heh heh. Please forgive the self-effusiveness, but I just got word that Above Reproach is now live and available for sale and download on Amazon.com.

I'd teased it a bit a few weeks ago, calling it the "novel for gun-owners written by a gun-owner."

In doing so, I got some interesting feedback, all of it positive but one remark in particular stuck out. My apologies for not remembering exactly who said it, so I'll paraphrase.

"It's not just a gun-owner, but a GUN-LOVER. . ."

So true.

I love guns and the gun world. Yes, we have a very tiny minority of assholes in our midst, but they are just that--a tiny minority.

On the side of this blog, I have linked to A Girl And Her Gun one of THE most succinct self-expressions about what it means to become a gun-owner and join this non-exclusive group of now just over 100,000,000 Americans, and who knows how many more life-loving, freedom-seeking individuals in other nations like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Central and South America, Europe and elsewhere.

Gun-owners. We are a special breed. We are of all colors, races, religious creeds, economic backgrounds. . . we're white collar and blue collar and sometimes no collar at all. We are a rare group that strives to be inclusive rather than exclusive. We WANT more people to legally own guns and join our inclusive group because we stand for a lot of things like individualism, independence, freedom, patriotism and self-sufficiency.

Unlike so many other groups, if someone doesn't like firearms, we're okay with that too--just as long as you don't try to take ours away from us. I have nothing against vegans. . . right up until they tell me what I should be eating. Then they have a fight on their hands.

That is a challenge we face daily here in America, but thank God we have a Constitution and Bill of Rights. Our friends in other countries are not nearly as fortunate.

In the forward remarks of the book, I salute my "many friends" from these countries and hope that the words and scenarios in the pages therein give you inspiration and reason to continue fighting for your RIGHT to self-defense and self-determination.

A lot of things went into Above Reproach and its writing, but above all, a lot of love of country, of my fellow citizens and for the freedoms we have directed the course of the book. And at the base of all of that, is the Second Amendment which protects and gives strength and teeth to the other amendments.

Many other fine writers have acknowledged gun-owners, but I've only seen a handful of other writers who openly embraced the Second Amendment and the armed citizen as he and she is embraced in Above Reproach. Matthew Bracken does it in his books, William W. Johnstone did it in his, especially the Ashes series and a few one-offs.

What I attempted to do in Above Reproach was to present everyday Americans--people just like you and me--who unwillingly found themselves in a situation in which the police could not help them. It was either take your own defense into your own hands, or suffer the horrible and all likelihood fatal consequences. The scenarios are all too real and all too easy to happen, and without armed citizens, all too likely to succeed.

Between the advance copies sent out (and my thanks to Old NFO for graciously volunteering to be an advance reader--his feedback was invaluable and much of it incorporated into the first round of revisions), proof copies and discussions on a handful of gun-related discussion forums, word is beginning to get out. I've been approached with several radio interview requests, a couple of mid-sized newspaper interview requests and more opportunities. Some gun stores are requesting posters of the cover, and I've received over a hundred requests for signed 5x7s of the cover.

And this is all before the book was even available for purchase and download! To say I'm both humbled and overwhelmed would be a Texas-sized understatment, if such an oxymoron is even possible. But this is simply another indication of how tight the gun-owner community is. We take care of our own--as A Girl And Her Gun point out in her post--and we take care of those who take care of us and who do not demean us.

We're finishing up the cover and copy for the print edition and it should be available by mid-May. By that time, Above Reproach will be available at the iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony e-Reader, Baker & Taylor, Kobo, Copia and a host of other retailers and e-tailers.

The second novel is in progress, entitled Altar of the False Gods and in which the Second Amendment plays the role of protector against Big Business and Big Government and Wall Street as small and independent businesses develop a strategy and tactics to not only ensure their survival, but to continue growing and profiting by taking market share away from the heretofore untouchable colossal giants of business.

To all who have helped, all who have read and all who have supported me on this journey, you have my unending gratitude. The title of my blog is "An Ordinary American," and is epitomizes what we can do, as ordinary Americans, in this great nation by banding and standing together and being the best we can be.

Thank you.