Jimbo’s SF/F Reviews: Greetings! We always aim to please here at Jimbo’s and I got to thinking. How could I share the most books at the best prices just in time for Cyber Monday? Enter Hans G. Schantz and his Based Book Sale. Mr. Schantz, while an author himself, has taken time to put together a sale where everything is on sale for ninety-nine cents or less. No, really. He took his own time to put this together to help out his fellow authors. I think that’s awesome. He was also cool enough to say he would swing by and tell us all a little bit about what he’s got going on. So, in the interest of the (never) hard hitting journalism we practice here at Jimbo’s SF/F Reviews, let’s throw him a softball to get him started. Hi, Hans! How ya doin’?
Hans G Schantz: Doing well! Now that the Based Book Sale is running, I had the opportunity to have a relaxing Thanksgiving with the family.
JSFFR: Good! So I know you’re here to talk about the Based Book Sale, and we’ll get there, but for now, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself.
HGS: I’m a scientist. My doctoral research was in theoretical physics studying how bound or reactive electromagnetic energy decouples from an antenna and radiates away. I put that theoretical expertise to work designing some of the first commercial ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas, developing the theory to describe near-field wireless links. I’m an inventor with about forty U.S. patents to my credit including UWB antennas, near-field indoor location systems, and a host of other inventions. Finally, I’m an author. My first book was The Art and Science of Ultrawideband Antennas in 2005 which went to a second edition in 2015. I’ve also written a series of science-fiction alternate-history technothrillers, The Hidden Truth, A Rambling Wreck, and The Brave and the Bold. My latest book is The Wise of Heart, a courtroom drama of biological science versus transgenderism that brings the Scopes Monkey Trial into the twenty-first century. My current project is Fields & Energy: How Electromagnetism and Quantum Mechanics Work and Where Physics Went Wrong.
JSFFR: Good to know. Now, Hans, we are not Communists. We believe that you should be compensated for your time. In order to do that, I’m going to need to get some people to buy your books. It is Christmas time after all. So, tell me about about your latest book, The Wise of Heart: A Modern-Day Re-Imagining of the Scopes Monkey Trial. If you throw in a buy link you’ll save me from having to do it myself. Not that I’m lazy or anything.
HGS: No problem! One evening in the early summer of 2022, I settled in to watch Inherit the Wind on YouTube - not the 1960 film starring Spencer Tracy, but rather the 1988 television movie version starring Jason Robards and Kirk Douglas. I got a few minutes into watching it, and I had a sudden epiphany. This would make a great story set in the present day, featuring a high school biology teacher caught up in the transgender craze arrested for teaching the facts of biological science in defiance of a state law requiring unquestioning gender affirmation. I turned off the movie, and instead, I hunted down the transcript for the Scopes Monkey Trial.
And so, The Wise of Heart was born.
I commissioned Elin Chancey to illustrate my novel. As we got close to release, I decided to launch a crowdfund campaign to pay for the art. Kickstarter approved my campaign. I was fully funded and days from closing when they changed their minds, cancelled my campaign, and returned all the pledges. I described what happened here: https://wiseofheart.substack.com/p/cancelled-by-kickstarter The evil they intended turned to good. I replatformed on Funding Into Comics, and the resulting publicity on Fox News, The Blaze, Bounding Into Comics, and Upstream Reviews more than doubled the pledges Kickstarter took from me, including funding an audiobook production. I described how “cancelled by Kickstarter” became the new “banned in Boston,” here: https://wiseofheart.substack.com/p/cancelled-by-kickstarter-is-the-new
The real-life story behind the book was an adventure almost as exciting as the story itself. The real heros are the backers who refused to let my cancellation stand and who followed me over to Fund My Comic and the additional backers who supported me when they heard what was going on. I’m very grateful for the wonderful support Elin and I received to get this project funded.
JSFFR: Sounds like fun. Actually, I follow your Substack, so I’ve seen parts of it already. Speaking of which, why don’t you go ahead and drop links to your Substack, your author page and anywhere else the fans can find and interact with you and/or purchase your work. Enquiring minds want to know.
HGS: I’m serializing The Wise of Heart at my Substack: https://wiseofheart.substack.com/
And I’m also serializing it on Arktoons: https://www.arkhaven.com/comics/drama/the-wise-of-heart
Or you can buy the book in ebook, paperback, or hardcover, here: https://amzn.to/3QZfBPM
My Amazon page gives you access to all my books: https://amzn.to/3GfwH7l
JSFFR: Thanks! I appreciate it. Now, I know that The Wise of Heart: A Modern-Day Re-Imagining of the Scopes Monkey Trial isn’t your first published work. Tell us a bit about your earlier work.
HGS: Sure. When I was updated The Art & Science of Ultrawideband Antennas to a second edition, I made a remarkable breakthrough in understanding how electromagnetism works. Conventional wisdom is that electromagnetism is due to one entity: a photon that is a union of opposites encompassing both wave and particle behavior. Instead, I realized that electromagnetic energy flow consists of two distinct phenomena: fields or waves guiding the flow of energy. And since the fields and the energy take different paths through electromagnetic systems, they cannot be the same thing.
I am amazed that the idea I uncovered wasn’t picked up on by Hertz or Heaviside or one of the other nineteenth century electromagnetic pioneers. What if they had? What if the result had been suppressed by an evil conspiracy? After all, Hertz, Fitzgerald, and even Maxwell himself died young. Could it have been murder? And what if that conspiracy were the secret masterminds who pull the strings behind all the other groups and coalitions people think are trying to run the world? That was the premise behind my Hidden Truth novels: https://amzn.to/40Szz3v.
I wrote the first novel in 2015, and I set my stories in an alternate history timeline, because I was afraid such far-fetched and outrageous concepts as hopelessly corrupt government agents doing the bidding of their evil technocratic and oligarchical overlords in a massive plot to establish totalitarian social control over global society might defy readers’ suspension of disbelief.
While a number of readers have expressed their delight at realizing the physics actually works out as described in my novels, far more enjoy just reading them: “…[A] masterpiece of alternative-history techno-thriller science fiction.” “Like a Heinlein juvenile, but frankly, better.” You can check out The Hidden Truth and its sequels and judge for yourself.
JSFFR: Let’s get down to the purpose of this interview: Tell us a little bit about The Based Book Sale. First things first, why is it important, and what made you decide to start it?
HGS: The Conservative Libertarian Fiction Alliance held a monthly “Booknado” with a similar concept. Authors would all pick the same week of the month to offer books for sale and then all mutually promote the sale and each other. I thought that was a great concept, so when they discontinued it, I picked up the ball and ran with it.
JSFFR: Terrific. Just to confirm, let everyone know what the pricing for your sale looks like and why you picked those numbers.
HGS: $0.99 is the lowest price Amazon lets you set a sale price. Some people like setting books to free for a sale, but I prefer pricing at $0.99 so the reader has a bit of skin in the game and incentive to read the book to make their investment worthwhile. Many authors will set the first book in a series to $0.99 in hopes that a reader will like the first one and buy the rest at full price, or perhaps read through the series on Kindle Unlimited.
JSFFR: Cool. Now, give us a list of a few authors that are on the list. Also, since you’ve had these types of sales in the past, how would an author get put on the list in the future? I am well aware that there is one going on now that ends on November 28, 2023, but do you have your next one planned yet?
HGS: It’s easier for me to just give you the complete list. We have works that have previously appeared in one of my sales from these authors: P. Abbott, Kyle Adams, James Alderdice, P Alexander, J.M. Anjewierden, Hawkings Austin, Daniella Bova, Leigh Brackett, Graham Bradley, Timo Burnham, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Howard Butcher, Jonathan P. Brazee, Henry Brown, Rachel Fulton Brown, Bokerah Brumley, V. A. Boston, Jacob Calta, Blake Carpenter, Carlos Carrasco, Kit Sun Cheah, Paul Clayton, Travis J.I. Corcoran, Lucca Dejardins, Jon del Arroz, Declan Finn, Marina Fontaine, Milo James Fowler, A.M. Freeman, Jake Freivald, Adam Furman, Dennis Garcia, Leonard Getz, Peter Grant, Steve Griffiths, Paul Hair, David Hallquist, Eric M. Hamilton, M. Anthony Harris, Harry Harrison, Julian Hawthorne, Frederick Heimbach, Alexander Hellene, Robert E. Howard, Daniel Humphreys, C.S. Johnson, Becky R. Jones, Michael R. Kayser, Joseph Knowles, Robert Kroese, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Moe Lane, Christopher Lansdown, N.R. LaPoint, Frank B. Luke, Robert A Lupton, Loretta Malakie, T.J. Marquis, Russell May, Yakov Merkin, Connor Mccoy, Plum McCauley, Jack Mikkelson, Jonathan Moeller, Neovictorian, Brian Niemeier, Richard Nichols, Andre Norton, Christopher G. Nuttall, John M. Olsen, Chance Paladin, Julie Pascal, Richard Paolinelli, Iris Paustian, George Phillies, P.A. Piatt, Francis Porretto, Justin Robinson, J. Trevor Robinson, Matthew W. Quinn, Hans G. Schantz, Thomas Sewell, Richard Sezov, E.E. “Doc” Smith, R.H. Snow, Steve Stinson, John Taloni, Michael Tierney, Kevin Trainor, Kalkin Trivedi, Henry Vogel, Erik Waag, David J. West, H.G. Wells, Benjamin Wheeler, Ryan Williamson, Christopher Wilson, Dawn Witzke, Fenton Wood, and John C. Wright.
And the sale has new works from these authors: Tony Andarian, J.M. Anjewierden, D.S. Blake, Graham Bradley, Henry Brown, R.J. Burle, C.J. Carella, J.D. Cowan, C.M. Craig, Richard Davis, Mel Dunay, Jeff Dunteman, Declan Finn, Milo James Fowler, Julie Frost, Karl K. Gallagher, Mark Goldblatt, Josh Griffing, M. Anthony Harris, Seth Hobbs, Rob Howell, Michael F. Kane, Joseph Kellogg, Chris Kennedy, L.S. King, Robert Kroese, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Frank B. Luke, TJ Marquis, Russell May, Christopher Menkhaus, Diana Murray, Ron Nielsen, M.A. Nilles, Melanie Nilles, John M. Olsen, Chance Paladin, S.Kirk Pierzchala, George Phillies, Thomas Plutarch, Francis Porretto, James Pyles, Alexander Robb, David Rowlett, Denton Salle, Steve Stark, K Steele, Kevin Steverson, James R. Strickland, Donald Jacob Uitvlugt, S.C. Vincent, Allison Wade, Matt Waterhouse, Thomas J. Weiss, David J. West, Ryan Williamson, Marisa Wolf, John C. Wright, and Page Zaplendam.
Email has become unreliable. For instance, if I send an update to the fifty or so of my authors who use GMail, GMail assumes I’m a spammer and blocks the message.
The next sale is tentatively scheduled for: (LibertyCon) Wednesday, June 19, 2024, 12:00 AM PDT through Wednesday, June 26, 2024, 12:00 AM PDT. The best way to keep in the loop is to follow me online or at one of the author groups I’m in:
Telegram: πΈππ₯πππ£ππ«ππ£'π€ πΈππ₯πππ£π€π₯π£πππ http://t.me/aetherstream
Gab: @aetherczar https://gab.com/aetherczar
Twitter: @aetherczar https://twitter.com/AetherCzar
Wise of Heart Substack: https://wiseofheart.substack.com/
Facebook (Write of Center Authors): https://www.facebook.com/groups/writeofcenter
Facebook (CLFA Group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/CLFAgroup
The sale has grown so big, I’m going to have to evolve my processes to deal with it. But I’ll make announcements through my social media and in the Facebook groups.
JSSFR: Good to know. Tell everyone where they can find the sale. Drop a link.
HGS: Right here: https://aetherczar.com/black-friday-cyber-monday-based-book-sale-starts-soon/ The sale runs through Tuesday November 28.
JSFFR: Thanks! Last question, and I ask this of everyone I interview: What question should I have asked that I didn’t, and how would you answer it?
HGS: I’ll take the opportunity to discuss my current project. I’m serializing Fields & Energy: How Electromagnetism and Quantum Mechanics Work and Where Physics Went Wrong. At a separate Substack: https://aetherczar.substack.com/ If you’re interested in a novel take on electromagnetism and how it works, check it out.
JSFFR: Awesome. Thanks for spending some time with us! It’s been an honor having you. Let me know next time you have a sale I can help promote it again. Stop by again sometime. You're always welcome at Jimbo's.
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