[Guest Post]: Born in Salt by Ted Weber

Today on my blog, I’m hosting my favourite genre–alternative history. Please welcome Ted Weber and his new release “Born in Salt”!

Guest post:

Ted Weber: What better place to discuss my latest novel, Born in Salt, than a blog named “Salt and Novels”? 🙂

Born in Salt is a character-oriented alternate history novel, set fifty years after a coup replaced President Franklin D. Roosevelt with a fascist dictatorship.

In real life, there was a political conspiracy in 1933 in the United States to overthrow the
government of President Roosevelt and install a dictator. According to retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans’
organization with Butler as its leader and use it in a coup d’état to overthrow Roosevelt.
Fortunately for us, instead of going along, Butler turned them in. In 1934, Butler testified under oath before Congress on these revelations.

In the novel, the coup plotters chose a different leader, Walter Waters, and the coup was
successful. Here’s an excerpt from the documentary, AN AMERICAN GIANT: The Charles
Lindbergh Story, as the novel’s protagonist, Ben Adamson, is forced to watch.

The movie showed footage of Lindbergh’s inauguration parade, thousands of Khaki Shirts
saluting as his open-top limousine passed. They showed a close-up of Walter Waters, leader of the Bonus Army and then the Khaki Shirt Movement, saluting FDR’s replacement. Waters was just a sergeant at the time, but with the American Legion’s help, had led over a hundred thousand angry vets to seize the capital in return for overdue World War I bonuses and well-paid National Guard appointments.

Next to Waters, J. Edgar Hoover, who provided crucial inside information, and would be
Director of Internal Security for four decades. Then William Dudley Pelley, generously funded by Nazi Germany, whose paramilitary Silver Legion assaulted communists, Jews, and union leaders, killing who knows how many.

Then Charles Coughlin, the radio priest with an audience in the millions. And Gerald Smith,
leader of the Christian Nationalist Crusade. In return for policy influence, their speeches rallied national support.

Then, Senator Huey Long, a key supporter before his assassination.

Finally, a group of bankers and industrialists, standing together in their black wool coats and
top hats. It was their coup, and they still called the shots.

Fifty years after the coup, Ben Adamson, a 19-year-old farm boy in southern Illinois, wants only to spend his time fishing and hunting. But when his dead brother demands justice for his suspicious fate, Ben and Rachel, his brother’s fiancée, are drawn into an underground
revolutionary movement.

After staging a rally against the war, Ben and Rachel are arrested by the Internal Security
Service, who have perfected the science of breaking people. Ben is given a choice: betray the rebels, including his best friend from childhood, or Rachel will be lobotomized.

Although traumatized and addicted to a powerful drug, Ben refuses to doom anyone he cares about. Can he find a third option? Can he free Rachel and strike back at the dictatorship, while dodging the suspicions of both police and rebels?

Find out more: https://www.tcweber.com/books

About the Book

Genre: Alternate history

Date Published: 1st May 2021

Publisher: Freedom Thorn Press

Fifty years after a coup replaced President Franklin D. Roosevelt with a fascist dictatorship, America is a land of hopelessness. Ben Adamson, a 19-year-old farm boy in southern Illinois, wants only to spend his time fishing and hunting. But when his dead brother demands justice for his suspicious fate in a colonial war, Ben and Rachel, his brother’s fiancée, are drawn into an underground revolutionary movement.

After staging a rally against the war, Ben and Rachel are arrested by the Internal Security Service, who have perfected the science of breaking people. Ben is given a choice: betray the rebels, including his best friend from childhood, or Rachel will be lobotomized.

Although traumatized and addicted to a powerful drug, Ben refuses to doom anyone he cares about. Can he find a third option? Can he free Rachel and strike back at the dictatorship, while dodging the suspicions of police and rebels alike?

About the Author

ed Weber has pursued writing since childhood, and learned filmmaking and screenwriting in college, along with a little bit of physics. His first published novel was a near-future cyberpunk thriller titled Sleep State Interrupt (See Sharp Press). It was a finalist for the 2017 Compton Crook award for best first science fiction, fantasy, or horror novel. The first sequel, The Wrath of Leviathan, was published in 2018, and the final book, Zero-Day Rising, came out in 2020. He has other books on the way as well. He is a member of Poets & Writers and the Maryland Writers Association, and helps run writing workshops and critique groups. By day, Mr. Weber works as a climate adaptation analyst, and has had a number of scientific papers and book chapters published. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland with his wife Karen. He enjoys traveling and has visited all seven continents. For book samples, short stories, and more, visit https://www.tcweber.com/.

Contact Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheFreedomThorn

Twitter: https://twitter.com/savethereefs

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15548787.T_C_Weber

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/t_warbler/

Purchase Links

Amazon Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Born-Salt-T-C-Weber/dp/1736901710/

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/born-in-salt-t-c-weber/1139114776

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/born-in-salt

Also available through Apple Books

Smash Words: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1075878