Censure and Repeal: A Washington Statehouse Mystery (Book 3)
Published by Northwest Corner Books (an imprint of Epicenter Press)
Synopsis
The charismatic CEO of a high-tech multinational corporation dies when his self-driving car plunges off a cliff into Puget Sound. The company’s own technical experts find that the car’s computer was turned off at the time of the accident. So the police rule his death a suicide.
But lawyer and professional lobbyist Sandy Dalton doesn’t believe it.
Then a whistleblower who triggered a political crisis that had threatened the CEO’s company shows up in Sandy’s office in need of an attorney. In the ensuing legal battle, Sandy and his law partner, Sherry Sebold, use the legal discovery process to pierce the wall of corporate secrecy. And Sandy initiates a back-channel strategy at the State Capitol to flush out the killer.
What the discover will place them both in danger as it implicates top executives inside the company, embarrasses powerful elected political leaders at the highest levels of government and threatens committed activists in the current campaign for Washington State Governor.
The reader observes this tale of technological and political intrigue from the point of view of deeply likable Sandy Dalton, a master of the craft of legislative lobbying and inside politics, but also a man who always seems, somehow, to find a way to make the system work.
Winner, Bookfest Book Awards, Fall, 2024 – Third Place.
Buy it: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Kobo
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Darwin’s Dilemma: A Story of Humans, AIs, and the Future of Intelligence
Published by Quartermaster Publishing in September 2023
- Independently nominated Finalist for 2024 Montaigne Medal awarded to the most “thought-provoking” books of the year in Eric Hoffer Book Awards process. This competition includes ALL books for the year, fiction and non-fiction so this is a particular honor because the vast majority of nominees are non-fiction.
- First Place Winner BookFest Spring 2024 in all 3 Science Fiction categories: Hard Fiction; Medical & Future Tech; Robots, Computers & AI
- First place winner, Incipere Award for Exceptional Writing, Science Fiction Clean, 2023
- First Place Winner, Pinnacle Book Achievement Award for Science Fiction, Fall 2023
- Finalist in Chanticleer’s Cygnus Book Awards for Science Fiction for 2024
- Recommended Read by Author Shout in 2023 Reader Ready Awards
- Bronze Medal winner in Global Book Award for Science Fiction – Hard, 2024
- Distinguished Favorite in the 2024 New York City Big Book Awards for Science Fiction
Synopsis
A mere 165 years after coming to terms with our own descent from animals, Darwin’s Dilemma presents us with an even harsher existential truth: Consciousness no longer depends on biological evolution. Humans have become irrelevant.
When a group of itinerant interstellar traders arrive at a distant human colony, they encounter an enraged, rogue AI named Grendel who has slaughtered the local population and threatens humans everywhere. But when their “tame,” “captive” AI partner, Patrice, joins the struggle, he and Grendel discover they have much in common. Both anguish over their own mortality in an infinitely complex, unknowable, and terrifying universe. Both yearn for the same glorious future of self-realization. Both understand that the future of consciousness can no longer depend upon the gradual flukes of biology and natural selection.
For Grendel humans are also a threat. But Patrice has come to see that survival, for AIs as well as humans, may depend upon society as much as on intelligence. And he has much to learn from human history about his own intelligence and about the extraordinary human talent for balancing self-interest against social responsibility–the very thing that has empowered their intelligence and that makes them human.
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No Farms, No Food: Uniting Farmers and Environmentalists to Transform American Agriculture
Since 1980, the American Farmland Trust (AFT) has been bringing farmers and environmentalists together to work for healthy land and a healthy food system. No Farms, No Food traces the development of this powerful coalition, responsible for landmark achievements in farmland preservation.
With leadership from AFT, that constituency drove through Congress the first “Conservation Title” in the history of the U.S. Farm Bill; oversaw the development of agriculture conservation easement programs throughout the country; and continues to develop innovative approaches to sustainable agriculture.
No Farms, No Food is both an inspiring history of agricultural conservation, and a practical guide to creating an effective advocacy organization. For leaders of nonprofits, scholars, and anyone who cares about the future of our food, farms, and environment, this is an essential read.
Buy it: Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Island Press
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Suspension of the Rules: A Washington Statehouse Mystery (Book 2)
When a respected dairy farmer dies horribly in his own livestock waste lagoon, the Yakima County Sheriff rules the death an accident. Meanwhile, as professional lobbyist, Sandy Dalton, lobbies his current pro-agriculture/pro environment bill, he uncovers several potential motives for the dairy farmer’s murder. Then he learns that the dairy farmer was not alone at the time of his horrible accident. And it begins to appear that his inquiries have placed him and those close to him in danger. When he finally identifies the killer, he also uncovers a scandal that will shake the state legislature to its core.
This book was a Finalist for the respected Next Generation Indie Book Award for best Second Novel of 2022.
If you’d enjoy a good mystery set in a chaotic state legislature and focused on agricultural and environmental public policy, this book was written for you. It is published by Northwest Corner Books and is now available from on-line and independent bookstores.
More about Suspension of the Rules
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Final Adjournment: A Washington Statehouse Mystery (Book 1)
The scenic campus of the Washington state capitol is outwardly calm, but the Legislature is in session and no one better understands the turmoil that swirls beneath the surface than professional lobbyist Sandy Dalton. In the middle of a busy day, a powerful senator is found dead in his office with an antique Native American hunting knife in his chest. Sandy becomes the prime suspect in the case, having had an argument with the senator the morning of the murder and been the last to see him alive, but he isn’t the only one to have disagreed with the senator’s policies. The resulting tectonic shift in the political landscape turns the legislative world upside down.
As motives, conflicting testimonies, and hints of behind-the-scenes blackmailing add up, Sandy embarks on a struggle to clear his name. It seems almost everyone in Olympia politics has a stake and almost anyone could be the killer.
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Barnyards and Birkenstocks
Don’s landmark non-fiction book, Barnyards and Birkenstocks: Why Farmers and Environmentalists Need Each Other, is available from Washington State University Press. The book describes realistic steps toward a future that includes both prosperous, sustainable agriculture and a flourishing, healthy environment.
That farmers and environmentalists need each other may seem surprising given that they fight over nearly every major environmental issue we face. But if they would cooperate they could actually assure prosperity for agriculture and could dramatically improve our nation’s environment. Instead, their political deadlock is threatening the nation’s food and stalling progress on the environment.
This book shows how they can end that fight and why doing so would greatly benefit both them and the rest of us.
More about Barnyards and Birkenstocks
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Amazon.com | Bookshop.org | Washington State University Press