Shipjack and Other Stories

by Robert James Warner


Formats

Softcover
£11.25
Softcover
£11.25

Book Details

Language : English
Publication Date : 04/10/2001

Format : Softcover
Dimensions : 5x8
Page Count : 272
ISBN : 9780759621558

About the Book

Shipjack is a collection of mini-novels that are too short to be regular novels and too long to be short stories. The story, Shipjack, is borderline so it was included in this collection to round it out.

1. MARINA MURDER is a murder story set in the Long Beach California Marina where Mr. Warner used to work on the fireboat. There is a history about Marina Murder so it was left in with the hope that it would be interesting to the public. The main character drops a wrench over the side of his boat, dives down to get it, and discovers he has dived into a den of drug-thugs who see him and go after him to make sure he doesn't go to the police. He almost didn't make it!

2. T.P.I.T.N.M. is the story of a brainy kid and inventor who is the owner and publisher of National Inventor Magazine. He helps an old man at an inventor show, which changes his life forever.

3. THE GOD MAKER is the story of the destruction of civilization by inflation, with the help of destructive chaos, turmoil, disease, and starvation. All of these things destroy the super powers when the electricity goes off and the oil stops, destroying the rest of civilization. This is also the story of the man who saves some of civilization and gets it started again!

4. MARRIAGE SIMULATOR is another popular Krong The Watcher story. A young man and a young woman go to see Krong to ask if the Watchers have some kind of machine that teaches people the skills of marriage, and if not, can the Watchers build such a simulator, which would, in principle, be much like the simulators used by pilots for training on a new aircraft before they fly it. It's a great idea, so Krong and the Watchers agree to make the simulator for them. Unbeknownst to the young man and young woman, the Marriage Simulator has a deadly trap that is just waiting to snare them in its toils.

5. SHIPJACK is the story of the shipjacking of the biggest oil tanker in the world, hauling one million tons of oil, by some Middle East thugs who sail it into New York Harbor and demand one billion dollars in gold and the President of the United States of America as a hostage or they will blow it up and destroy the harbor!!! Danny Onion, a civilian who helped build the huge tanker, is called in to help, and he meets Captain Suzie Que of the United States Army. Together they seek a way to stop the shipjackers from achieving their evil goals, but just what can they do?!


About the Author

Robert James Warner was born and raised in Long Beach, California, where he attended school. He was drafted into the Navy on March 9, 1944, during World War II as soon as he finished his last semester in high school. He was discharged from the Navy on June 16, 1946.

Mr. Warner went back to school, Long Beach City College, on the GI Bill, taking mechanical engineering, then switching to journalism. After about a year and a half at City College, he quit.

Mr. Warner had always been interested in writing, but he had huge handicaps to overcome: he couldn't spell (he still can't), and grammar was then and is now a mystery to him. Mr. Warner first began to write when he was about 20.

During the next few years, he wrote some songs, poetry, and short stories, but his output was quite low.

From 1947, after Mr. Warner left City College, to 1950, he had a number of different inconsequential jobs, the longest at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach where he worked in the blueprint department for eight months. He then quit and loafed awhile.

In 1950, he enlisted in the Active Naval Reserve as a Week End Warrior so he could learn seamanship and get paid doing it. He has had a life-long love affair with boats (building his own) and fishing.

About three months later, the Korean War started and Mr. Warner was called back to active duty in the Navy Aircorp for a year, getting discharged in August 1951, serving on three aircraft carriers, operating off Korea in the China Sea, and bombing and strafing the communists!

After Korea, Mr. Warner went back to City College for awhile, then he got a job on a freighter as a deckhand and made two trips to the Hawaiian Islands (about 30 days round trip), hauling bulk sugar for C&H Sugar in Crocket California on the Sacramento River.

Leaving the ship in Crocket, he went to Santa Rosa, California, where he washed dishes in some restaurants and got a poem published in the local newspaper–a big day in his life.

Next, he went to Yosemite and washed some more dishes, and then he went home.

Mr. Warner has cleaned chicken dung from under the pens; owned and operated his own auto wrecking yard; owned his own 2nd Store; was half owner of a yacht landing; speculated in real estate; and worked at some other odd jobs, going to work for the Long Beach Fire Department in 1953 for the next 26 years and retiring in October 1979.

Mr. Warner married in 1961, had a son in 1963, and then divorced in 1973.

In 1974, Mr. Warner and his son, Jeff, drove to Alaska during the summer. On his return, Mr. Warner wrote his first novel.

Since 1974, Mr. Warner has written thirty-one novels, about 125 short stories, two Civil War books, and two poetry collections.