A whopper of an endorsement for 'The Fracking War'

WATKINS GLEN, New York - When your writing is referred to in the same paragraph as a book by John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath) and another by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom's Cabin), there is only one rational response: You blush.

So Sunday afternoon I had a thoroughly beet-red face for quite a while after I read a book-jacket blurb kindly offered by environmentalist, biologist and author Sandra Steingraber.
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Sandra Steingraber

"It was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, not economic data, that turned the page on slavery.  It was The Grapes of Wrath, not demographic reports that opened a nation's eyes to Dust Bowl dislocation.  Out of that tradition comes Michael J. Fitzgerald’s The Fracking War.  Here, within a smoldering crucible of social crisis, is a tale of power, money, fateful choices, and consciences aroused.   If you like your drill rigs served up within the context of a fast-moving plot line, you’ve got what you want right in your hands.” 

  —Sandra Steingraber, author, Living Downstream and Raising Elijah

The beet-red blush was also because Sandra Steingraber is one of my heroes. Working here in New York as a journalist, I've published reams about her courage in fighting the hydrofracking menace, helping to lead the struggle against a manifestly dangerous propane storage project in Watkins Glen, and her arrest and jailing earlier this year on trespassing charges following a protest.

So to have her praise The Fracking War so highly, well, I'm blushing again.

Book cover art by Will Sweeney

All of the pieces have fallen into place - with a little pushing - for electronic publication of The Fracking War this week. There may be some last-minute surprises from the publisher to delay the e-launch. But as they say at NASA, 'Confidence is high.'

And the print version is on track to be available in early 2014.

By the way, my sincere thanks to all the folks who supported The Fracking War through the Kickstarter.com campaign. We made our goal. And right now Adm. Sylvia Fox and I are scrambling to get the promised T-shirts done and mailed out. I'm also trying to put together an author's website.

At a fabulous end-of-the-season party last night at The Stonecat Cafe in Hector, several people asked me about a sequel to The Fracking War. The answer is yes, there will be one. But I won't say much more about it until Wednesday at the book publishing celebration at the Hector Wine Company, which not surprisingly, is in Hector, too.

And it is off-we-go as Admiral Fox starts up her RoadTrip Zumba

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - Admiral Fox talks about her latest leap-off-the-precipice idea in her new blog, RoadTrip Zumba (LINK:Take a Zumba trip here...). She is far more able to explain at that website exactly what she is up to.

Rolf Potts with friends

But I know this: Whenever we take trips (or plan trips), there will likely be a Zumba factor involved. And chances are good that I will be traveling along, roadie-style, with my video and still cameras in hand.

The idea sprang in part from a columnist/traveler/writer/blogger I have been following for several years named Rolf Potts: (LINK: The Rolf Potts website). He came to my attention via a student who thought what Potts did was, well, cool.

The student was right.

Potts travels with a camera man a lot of the time, filming Pott's adventures, sort of a 21st Century Boswell. Some of that film gets translated in often hilarious videos. And Potts also writes about where he has been in addition.

Can you see where this is all going?

The sign makes it official

The Admiral decided that she would launch RoadTrip Zumba this spring and summer, continuing it on in the fall. The only place I know we are going this fall (before we head to Mexico) is Nova Scotia. Do you think there is Zumba there?

Yup. It's already been checked out.

And the beaches of Nuevo Vallarta will see some Zumba this fall and winter, too.

The first RoadTrip Zumba session Monday was at the Hector Wine Company (LINK: HWC website), just up the road - with lots of smiling faces for the group shot.

When the weather gets better (read: Warmer), there is talk of Zumba on the Hazlitt's Beach.

Zumba group at the Hector Wine Company