Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
Enough! Well, first of all the article is incorrect in that the bad guy is not a fired engineer. One poster said that instead of the same old pablum we ought to tell the story of living conditions for the average railraod workers...well, it does, and that's one of the reasons I've been getting support from the train service employees unions (both UTU, BLE whom I spoke to rousing applause at their conventions, and both unions have given cover quotes for the book). The reason I wrote the book is that there have been about 5 railroad novels in the last 30 years, all written by non-railroaders, all of them awful in my opinion (For my money the last good railroad flick was Emporor of the North). This book is different. As to why I was fired. Just about everyone on the railroad I worked at knew I was writing this book. I had vetted it through very senior people over several drafts, any one of them in a position to raise the red flag if there was a problem. I was so assured there wasn't a problem, I was advised it wouldn't be improper to take it to the CEO for a cover quote. I did just that. It was subsequently passed around to a handful of very senior executives who decided after 5 years, when the book was weeks from going to the printers, (and no time for appeasing changes) that they had a problem with it. So I'm told, basically, that they love my work, but if I publi***he book I can't continue to work at the railroad. The choice I had was to buy the rights back from my publisher and kill the book or I would lose my job. And what did they object to? Some pretty innocuous stuff. They didn't like cubicles being described as "dehumanizing pods" and junior railroad staff called "corporate butt boys." I kept telling them it was fiction, they kept telling me it was about them. They said "we don't screw our customers, work our train service employees to the point of fatigue, and aren't quick to blame the train crews whenever something goes wrong." I said" if you aren't like that, why do you think the book is about you?" Never really got an answer to that unless you count being fired. For plot purposes, I had to make the railroad in the book ( which is obviously not any existing railroad as it runs coast to coast) bad enough that someone would want revenge. Thing is, if I'd killed the book and bought off my publisher, what would have stopped the railroad from firing me 2 months later for no particular reason? Then I'd have no job, no book, and be out a considerable amount of money for buying off the publisher. What choice did I really have? It had already been whispered back to me that my friends were being told to distance themselves from me, and their was some general avoidance of other officers. I found out later, according to my union contacts, that my railroad had actually sought the advice of other railroads as to what they should do with me. Aside from the above, what I was being asked to do just didn't seem right. For the record, I was making good money (I was a Director in labor relations), and I knew at the time it was a horrible financial decision to defy management. But, like I said, it just didn't seem right. Once in a while you have to stand on principle, though doing it to often will bankrupt you. I've had many railroaders and quite a few journalists who've read the book essentially vouch that, as a thriller, it as as good as any on the market, railroad or no. The product is good enough, but somewhere along the line a first time author has to catch some kind of a break for it to take off. I knew at the time that no one is going to buy a book because it cost some railroader his job (well, a few of the union guys maybe), and that it had to sell on quality. The quality is there is you stop prejudging based on the pablum of the past. Incidently, I've been trying to get a hold of the editor of Trains to send him a galley copy of the book, but I haven't been able to reach you. If you happen to see this and are interested, my email is Kem.Parton@railtale.com K. L. Parton
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag