The Jim Buchanan Novels Archive

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Friday, November 18, 2016

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

BEFORE THE FLOOD

Climate change is the single greatest threat to a sustainable future.

Before the Flood - Featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Fisher Stevens, Before the Flood presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes occurring around the world due to climate change.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

DAPL Crackdown

DAPL Crackdown Continues With Rubber Bullets and Mace As Water Protectors Form New Front Line

BOOK SIGNING

Book Signing at Lord & Taylor at Westfarms Mall, West Hartford, CT - today, October 29th 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.


Indie Author Day, October 8, 2016 - Nationwide Inaugural Of Indie Authors

Felix Giordano is the author of several novels in the mystery, suspense, and detective genre. He calls his books the Jim Buchanan Series and they are named after his uncle Carl "Buck" Buchanan, who had a career as a Maine State Police officer. The first book in the series is titled, Montana Harvest.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Indigenous Peoples Still Fighting to Protect ‘Living Forests’ and Way of Life


Patricia Gualinga, Director of International Relations for the Kichwa Community of Sarayaku in Ecuador - Maria Clara Valencia

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Coming This Fall: The Killing Zone, a Jim Buchanan Novel - The day revenge, mayhem, & murder overwhelms Montana



















Sneak peak: 
Chapter 1



∙1∙

F
ather Peter Bongiorno, drove his black Ford sedan south along Montana State Highway 56 toward Taylor. It was Friday, June 13, 1997 one day after a Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena meeting with Cardinal Sanchez. An overnight stop in Libby to give moral support to an old friend coping with substance abuse gave the priest great joy. Admiring the peaks of the Cabinet Mountains and engrossed in reciting the rosary, he nearly failed to notice the naked and bloodied teenager staggering alongside the two-lane, coniferous-lined road.
Father Bongiorno’s head swiveled as he drove past the young woman. Slamming on the brakes he came to a stop on the narrow shoulder. Grabbing his olive army blanket from the backseat, he jumped out. As he advanced, she fell and disappeared into the high grass that populated the space between the road and the trees.
He waded into the grass and stumbled upon her. “Lynn, is that you… my dear child, what happened?” The priest spotted the imprints on her bloody ankles and wrists screaming of metal restraints. Her knees and feet were covered in cuts and abrasions and her filthy body was drenched in blood, sweat, and grease. He covered the trembling young girl with the blanket and led her to his car.
After Father Bongiorno buckled her in the passenger seat, she said, “RAPED!” Then she sputtered through swollen and bloodied lips, “BIKERS!”
Father Bongiorno recognized the sound of revving engines from the direction of Keeler Mountain. Not the screams of dirt bikes but the throaty howl of big bore Harleys. The girl screamed, unbuckled the seatbelt and dropped to the floor.
The priest slammed shut the passenger door. “I’ll bring you to the hospital.”
He ran to the driver’s side, jumped in the car, pulled onto the road and drove off. Father Bongiorno watched his speedometer inch its way past 80 mph as he speed-dialed the familiar number on his cellphone.
“Martha, is Sheriff Buchanan there? Then call him and explain that I found Lynn Corbett naked and injured on Route 56. I’m bringing her to Taylor University Medical Center. Better call her parents. She says she was raped... a patrol car to accompany us… thank you.”
Father Bongiorno squinted in the rearview mirror and spotted five motorcycles rushing toward them. A teenage dirt track driver before he left for the seminary, Father Bongiorno stomped on the gas pedal. Reflective roadside posts and mile markers flashed by in a blur. Glancing down at his passenger he noticed her left eye sealed shut and swollen a deep shade of purple. Visible bruises and welts populated her face, neck, and shoulders.
“Do you know who did this to you?”
He watched Lynn look up at him. She moved her lips as if to speak but only a few trickles of blood dribbled from one side of her mouth and tears flowed from her eyes.
Realizing that she was in shock aggravated by the bikers’ pursuit, Father Bongiorno drove his car at breakneck speeds and threw on his emergency flashers. He passed three cars, one of which blasted their horn at him. The relentless bikers raced past the clutter. One approaching car in the other lane swerved to his left as the priest veered around the vehicle. He skirted the shoulder of the road kicking up dust and debris and flushing an Eastern Kingbird from a roadside tree. The bikers continued their pursuit.
A shot rang out, then another as they passed the eastern shore of Bull Lake. A bullet tore through the back window and ricocheted out the side window just above Lynn, still huddled on the floor of the car. A second bullet shattered the rear window and exited through the windshield. A third bullet grazed Father Borngiorno in the right shoulder and embedded itself in the dashboard. The priest held onto the steering wheel with his left hand as his right arm, weakened by the gunshot wound, slid to the bench seat and settled on his rosary beads. He feebly grasped them and spied Lynn clutching the blanket close to her face and shrieking aloud as they zoomed toward the city of Taylor.
He then heard the wail of a siren and sighted the flashing blue and red lights of an approaching Cedar County Sheriff’s Office patrol car. He again stared in the rearview mirror and saw the motorcycles break off the chase and pull a 180 in what seemed an instant. Father Bongiorno slowed his sedan and allowed the patrol car to make a U-turn and then slip in alongside him. Undersheriff Rocky Salentino waved for him to follow and the two-car detail rushed to the hospital nearly 25 miles away.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

On the Road to Bozeman

 


On the Road to Bozeman - video shot in September 2011

Music, This Small Town by Scott Jacobs

(CC BY-SA)

https://soundcloud.com/scott-jacobs-139219558

http://www.scottjacobsmusic.com/

Friday, August 19, 2016

Kootenai Falls




Kootenai Falls, just off U.S. Route 2 on the Kootenai River west of Libby, Montana. Video shot in September, 2011.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai and Paul Horn recorded a CD in Canyon de Chelly (see attached link).

http://www.canyonrecords.com/shop/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=CR-7019

Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly. The canyon is in the Navajo Nation and contains several sacred sites, some known to the general public and some not. A particularly interesting rocky spire is reputed to be the place where Spider Woman brought the skill of weaving to the Navajo people. Tourists are not allowed in Canyon de Chelly without a Navajo guide, both because of the sacred sites and because people sill live there who don’t want tourists peering in their windows. 




 
 
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/08/11/5-more-must-see-images-sacred-places-165384
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canyon_de_Chelly_National_Monument

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Fictional Cedar County, Montana


















                       Fictional Cedar County, Montana

                     Sheriff Jim Buchanan's jurisdiction

Taylor, Montana hosts the county offices of the sheriff's department as well as the western office of the state crime lab. U.S. Route 228 traverses the county from Taylor, a city of 65,000 in the west past the towns of Mallory, Sullivan, Big Stump, to the village of Horace in the east and beyond.


Towns in Cedar County, Montana –
  • Taylor* (county seat), pop 65,167
  • Mallory*,pop 14,256
  • Spaulding*, pop 7,852
  • Trout Hollow*, pop 4,289
  • Big Stump *, pop 2,159
  • Sullivan, pop, 1,640
  • Ledge Flats, pop 639
  • Horace, pop 334                                                                                                                                       
Places of Worship –
  • Taylor United Methodist Church
  • Taylor Seventh Day Adventist Church
  • Taylor Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
  • Taylor Community Bible Church
  • Faith Baptist Church
  • First Presbyterian Church of Taylor
  • Our Lady of Loretta Catholic Church
  • Saint Michael the Archangel Catholic Church
  • Taylor Congregational Church
  • Temple Beth Solomon
  • Mount Olive Lutheran Church
  • Church of the Revelations

Government Offices –
·         Cedar County Sheriff’s Office, Taylor, Montana – Sheriff Jim Buchanan
·         Cedar County Coroner’s Office, Taylor, Montana – Coroner Leon Madison
·         Cedar County Office of the State Crime Lab, Taylor, Montana – Office of State Chief  Medical Examiner, Hank Kelly
·         Taylor Mayor’s Office, Taylor, Montana, Mayor Hamilton Jackson
·         Taylor Police Department, Taylor, Montana, Police Chief John Peters
·         IX District Office of the Montana Highway Patrol in Taylor

Universities –
·         Taylor University, Taylor, Montana
·         Montana Institute of Technology, Taylor, Montana (aka, the other MIT)

Schools –
·         Taylor High School, Taylor, Montana
·         Saint William Christian School, Taylor, Montana
·         John Taylor Academy, Taylor, Montana

Hospitals –
·         Cedar County Hospital, Taylor, Montana
·         Taylor University Medical Center, Taylor, Montana
·         Saint Mary’s Hospital, Taylor, Montana
·         Mallory Community Hospital, Mallory, Montana
·         Missoula Memorial Hospital, Missoula, Montana

Airports –
·         Mackenzie Municipal Airport, Taylor, Montana
·         Taylor International Airport, Taylor, Montana

Newspapers –

·         Cedar County Ledger – weekly county newspaper
·         Taylor Bulletin – daily town newspaper

Entertainment –

·         Jubilee Theater

Friday, August 12, 2016

The Killing Zone's antagonists















Videl Tanas, a sociopathic murderer and the ruthless leader of the Screaming Skulls Motorcycle Club seeks revenge over those responsible for his twelve year stretch in state prison.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Base photo for the cover of The Killing Zone














We chose to die on sandstone cliffs so high, 
a sacrifice to kiss the Creator’s sky. 

© Felix F. Giordano, 
The Killing Zone (DOR 11/2016)


Photographed on 10/4/2011 at the top of the Rimrocks overlooking Billings, MT near Swords Park.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Opportunities for Native American writers

In an article that appeared in Indian Country Today on July 19, 2016, Vincent Schilling reports on Eddie Schneider, a successful literary agent and Vice President of JABberwocky Literary Agency who is one of many literary agents seeking to work with a diverse group of authors.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/07/19/want-get-published-ny-literary-agents-tips-native-authors-165200