Jack Jove's novels and short stories

quakjck@erols.com
Fri, 22 Mar 1996 11:53:32 -0800

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There is a new page on the internet "Fiction on the Internet by Jove"
(ibb.com/fiction.hml) where 4 novels and 12 short stories are available
in electronic format via E-Mail for $10. The works are only available on
the net and not available in any bookstores. This is a media reversal in
which readers rather than publishers will ultimately decide what is
worth reading.

Return E-Mail if you would like a free subscription to survey the
writing. Attached is some information about the author.

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Jack Jove's Short-Short Biography

Jack Jove was born in El Paso, Texas, just at the end of World War II. When he was growing up, his family lived in the southwest, Midwest, south, and on the Atlantic coast of the country, as well as in Europe, and even for a time on an island in the South Pacific.

Jack loves tropical seas and tropical sea creatures, as well as Virginian forests, white tailed deer, expansive deserts, jack rabbits and kangaroo rats. He's an avid bicyclist, and skin and scuba diver.

He and his stunning and intelligent Virginian wife have been married for 25 years, and they have two grown children. His family has always been the center of his universe, and his belief in the family is evident in some of his novels and stories.


Interview with Jack Jove

Q. How did you first get interested in writing?

A. I've always been interested in writing; it goes hand-in-hand with being an avid reader. I think anyone who enjoys living vicariously through the writing of others, at some point, gets the urge to tell his or her own stories.

Q. When did you first start writing?

A. I tried to write my first story when I was living outside Paris during my college years. I discovered that I didn't have enough life experience at the time. As a young writer I could weave words in an interesting manner, but I didn't have enough life experience to tell an interesting original story. I, like too many young writers, wound up effectively repackaging what I had previously read. At the time I recognized my failing and gave up.

Q. You obviously started writing again; when?

A. Only after I had some first-hand experience with life. . . after I worked at a job that was almost impossible because of political corruption and pressure; after I had been married nine years; and after I had seen both of my children born. At the time, I was also trying desperately to succeed in the physically-demanding world of bicycle racing.

Q. Did you succeed in bicycle racing?

A. If you define success as winning races, no I didn't succeed. However, if you define success as learning the importance of teamwork and tactics, learning to appreciate the magnitude of the pain involved, and learning to love the sport, yes I succeeded, big time.

Q. Why didn't you publish your novels, books, and stories in regular book form?

A. I love to write, but I hate to sell, especially to people who think they have some kind of crystal ball into the mind of the average reader. There are too many agents and publishers who think the next book they publish must be another blockbuster like "The Hunt for Red October" or "Gone with the Wind." They all think they know what the public wants--that they can read the first and last ten pages of any manuscript and tell if its what the public really wants.

The problem is all of these experts deal from a historical perspective and the public's interest is forward-looking and dynamic. The Wizard of OZ was almost never published because the publisher knew the reading public wasn't ready for an American fairy tale; the first Doctor Seuss story almost didn't make it to market because he knew children wouldn't like such nonsensical prose; and Tom Clancy had a hell of a time convincing anyone to publish the Hunt for Red October. From a historical perspective, the publishing industry has been pretty poor at judging public taste.

After sending out a few manuscripts, I realized that I loved creating characters and situations too much to waste my time trying to convince agents and publishers to let the public read my work. Since then, I continued writing for the sheer joy of writing, without any real desire to publish.

Q. Why did you decide to put your writing on the INTERNET?

A. I've been writing for fifteen years without any thought of having an audience, but now, with the advent of the INTERNET, I can offer my writing to the public directly on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. The public can accept or reject it as they see fit, without the intervention of some intermediary, acting as an effective public censor. To me, electronic publishing is publishing in its most pure form.

Q. Are your novels and stories copyrighted?

A. Oh, yes. Just like in the hard copy world.

Q. Can anyone copy or distribute your work after they receive it?

A. Not legally. If they are subscribers, they may download the material, and even print it on their own printers for their own use if they wish, but they can't provide copies to others in any form, electronic or hard copy.

Q. Are your writings are worth the $10 subscription fee?

A. Definitely. My writings include four novels in the Judgement Ring series, six fictional short stories set in the Vietnam War, and seven other short stories on various themes. Where can anyone buy so much for $10? Not only that, but electronic novels and stories are convenient. Any business person with a laptop computer can take along recreational reading material without having to carry extra weight. And how many times has someone absentmindedly left their paperback in the seat back pocket on an airplane?

Q. What kind of fiction do you prefer to write; novels, books, or short stories?

A. Novels, books, short stories, short stories, books, novels, books, short stories, novels, books, novels, short stories, books, novels, short stories, and in that order.
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Notice of Copyright

All of the novels and stories currently available only through a subscription to Fiction on the INTERNET by Jove are protected by U.S. Copyright law and International Law. None of the material may be copied by or provided to other than authorized subscribers to the service for their own use and convenience. The material available on this service represents thousands of hours work by Jack Jove over a fifteen year period and he trusts that his faith in the basic good of human nature will not be proven undeserved.

Prologue - The origin of the Ring

Ultimately, a chain of human events will either sink or float in a sea of God's law, and the fate of mankind will rest on the final composition of the chain, as recorded by the impartial red eye of the Judgement Ring.

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The Judgement Ring Novels

Book One - Mary

In the late nineteenth century, in Old Baltimore, A young girl looses her mother at the age of six, then is orphaned totally when her father is killed in an accident at sea. At seventeen, she escapes a pained life in Baltimore and travels by wagon train west to Idaho, to join her mail-order husband.

It's on the Oregon Trail and in her new life in Idaho that, as an Indian captive and later the victim of repeated attacks by her new husband's ex-lover, her non-violent nature is pushed to the limits and her actions are recorded by the Judgement Ring.

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Book Two - Staying Away

A white bicycle racer, in his late-twenties and fresh from a devastating family tragedy, and a black common laborer, in his mid-thirties and long on the tragedy of growing up black in the deep south, become unlikely comrades. They become the kind of friends who leave the greatest impressions in the Judgement Ring.

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Book Three - No tears for an Empty Grave

A thrilling and sometimes nerve-racking tale of political power on Capitol Hill, tragic and violent murder, the healing nature of the scenic pacific northwest, vengeance, and mercy--all recorded by the Judgement Ring.

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Book Four - The Shoes of a Friend

A science-fact premised novel about the solution of a murder mystery by a NIH scientist using his latest discovery in experiments of unlocking cellular-level memory in the brains of lab rats.
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Vietnam Short Stories
(about the people not the carnage)

A Letter Home

Cookie LeVeque's Mess

Oil and Water

The Sergeants

Orders are Orders?

Colonel Tulip

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Collection #2
Miscellaneous Short Stories

Faster Computer Chip

Christmas Backwards

Don't Worry Dad

The First and Last Supper

Noisy Neighbors

The Cocktail Party

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