By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
He's been widely published by the industry's biggies and his personal memoir is being released by Simon & Schuster next year, but when conservative pundit Douglas MacKinnon offered his newest tale of a politically-incorrect private investigator, the publishers ran. Even his past editors turned a cold shoulder to Vengeance Is Mine.
"While disappointed, I was not surprised to find out that the mainstream publishing editors I spoke with found the traditional beliefs of my main character troublesome and objectionable," MacKinnon tells us.
Or maybe it was something else in his book that will be published instead by Amazon.com. In it, the former Pentagon aide writes of a real-life tip he received from a player in the fatal and disastrous Desert One mission ordered by former President Jimmy Carter to retrieve our hostages held in Iran 30 years ago April 21. Paying tribute to the eight killed that night, MacKinnon wonders if the operation failed because Carter may have rushed it trying to finally get positive press in his Democratic primary battle with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
"In my novel, the main character was involved in that operation and speaks to that rumor," he tells us.
But more than likely, says MacKinnon, the book was blackballed because character Ian Wallace is a conservative. He describes his hero this way: "Pro-life, pro-guns, pro-sovereign borders, pro-lower taxes, pro-smaller government, anti-Muslim fanatic, anti-illegal alien, and not afraid to take fun shots at the current president and his Socialist policies." In the book, character Wallace is a former CIA worker who left after being jailed in a KGB prison. But he jumps back into the fray 20 years later when his tormenter joins the Russian mafia and arrives in Boston where Wallace lives.
"I've actually had it in a drawer for over 20 years," MacKinnon says of his book. Now he's trying a new publishing avenue through Amazon to get it out. "I'm happy to go around the regular publishers and put the success of this novel in the hands of the American people. Most of whom strongly embrace the traditional values of my character," he says.
And that's probably not a bad gamble considering Amazon delivers millions of books through its Kindle.
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Ramubay of CA 2:13AM June 13, 2010
Ramubay of CA 2:12AM June 13, 2010
Leon Maxwell of GA 7:43PM April 23, 2010