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250 Pre-Orders for Columbia. THANK YOU!



My first novel, Columbia, is poised to pass 250 pre-orders on Publishizer today. That sends a great message to publishers who will be bidding on the book that there is an audience for spy thrillers in the tradition of Graham Greene, but with modern twists on characterization and plot that are from the new school of fiction.

250 is awesome! But the goal is 500.

I thought it would be instructive in today's update to show some other movements that had a stop at 250 along their way to even bigger things.

Image result for ferrari 250
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

 Ferrari 250 - Built from 1953-1964, these racing and road cars lent the Ferrari brand some of its earliest credibility before giving way to the 275 and 330 series cars. I hope we can top 330 pre-orders next week!

1824 US Presidential Election - There were only 235 electors for the 1820 US Presidential Election. The US passed 250 electors and settled on 261 by the next election in 1824. No candidate won a majority of the presidential electoral vote, and the 1824 election thus became the only election in US history to be decided by the provisions of the 12th Amendment. Andrew Jackson won, also becoming the first President of the United States elected while losing the popular vote. Civics quiz, today there are ___ electors? HINT: If Columbia sold this many pre-orders we would beat the goal.

Sadaharu Oh - Forget the argument about whether Barry Bonds should be recognized as the Home Run King, steroids or not, he's not even close. Sadaharu Oh of Nippon Professional Baseball's Tokyo Yomiyuri Giants hit his 250th home run in 1966. He retired in 1980 with a career total 868, more than 100 higher than Bonds's total.

Speaking of Sadaharu Oh, did you know that Major League Baseball is opening this season in Tokyo? This is not a pre-season goodwill tour, the games between the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners that are played in the Tokyo Dome will count as regular season games.

The 7th inning balloon launch at
Fukuoka Yahukoko Dome,
Fukuoka, Japan
And with that, I offer all of Columbia's pre-order buyers some free reading: in 2016, I toured NPB ballparks with my son on an amazing tour offered by the awesome people at JapanBall.com. If you are looking for something to get the juices flowing for this baseball season, or wondering what it might be like to spend some time in Japan ballpark hopping, or - least likely of all, I suspect - you are curious what my only recurring dream is about, take a look at "The Home Run Dream," a baseball travelogue from Japan.

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