The Helicopter Pilot

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The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Darcy » Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:38 pm

I finally did it! You guys can probably recall me whining about rejection letters, well to all those publishers with poor taste.....

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Available on Amazon!

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=Darcy+Hoover&search-alias=books&field-author=Darcy+Hoover&sort=relevancerank

An experienced helicopter pilot, Edward ventures into the rugged world of offshore oil exploration in a remote corner of East Africa.
Craving adventure yet overwrought by his new surroundings, Edward battles with jelly fish, local bars, base politics, native girls, jealousy, racism and flights gone awry. With the help of a rambunctious and amicable bush pilot, Edward reluctantly nudges himself well beyond his boundaries. This is Edward’s struggle with his environment as much as his own nature, and the man he desires to be.

Buy a dozen copies and hand them out to your friends, praise the heavens on social media, spend your money so I can keep satisfy my cravings for dive watches and single-malts from the Isle of Islay....

Actually.....Amazon publishing was ridiculously easy, you could copy the back of a cereal box and get it published......

But still. Buy it.
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Darcy » Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:23 pm

Still tooting my own horn here trying to generate some interest, but opening weekend sales were respectable. Now waiting on people to actually read it and get pissed off for wasting their hard earned cash....Still made enough in royalties for a Johnny Walker Red, small bottle. Got a good way to go before I have enough for some Ardbeg Corryvreckan.

I know I won't impress you lot, but hyping up my bio from my author site....

Darcy Hoover lives in Nova Scotia, Canada.

He has been flying helicopters in the remote corners of the world for the past 32 years. Originally a Canadian bush pilot, he’s flown in over 30 countries, been through riots on three continents, was robbed at the end of two AK47s walking home from a bar in Benin, detained in Kenya on trumped up charges of flying in mercenaries to overthrow the Government (completely unfounded), charged by elephants and black bears and moose, been covered in seal shit, slept on various floors around the world and at -40 celsius in snowbanks, has flown Princes and Presidents, and has got into far more precarious situations than he should have, with some regularity. Darcy is presently flying in Trinidad & Tobago.

Darcy had a popular running blog of his adventures, but one post was misconstrued by some official in Kazakhstan, so in self-preservation, Darcy pulled the blog entirely and started writing fiction.

“The Helicopter Pilot” is his first novel, striving for an Orwellian “Burmese Days” kind of tale. Edward gets way over his head on his first tour to a remote corner of East Africa. He hopes you enjoy it.
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby ROB » Tue Feb 06, 2018 5:31 pm

Bought.
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Darcy » Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:18 pm

Thank you Sir! I hope you enjoy it.
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Darcy » Thu Feb 22, 2018 8:05 pm

I haven't been any place exciting since back and forth to Trinidad every month (and a little dive trip to Tobago).....missing Africa though...

But my novel has moved over 100 copies so far (I thought it was a lot higher but just received the actual numbers from Amazon), so royalties have me up above a small bottle of Johhny Walker Red but not quite into Corryvreckan territory, maybe Ardbeg Ten Year....

Finally got my own copies to give to the select few who helped me, and to my friend's family;

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Let me know if you enjoy it Rob...or if I should stick to my day job....
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby RYP » Sat Feb 24, 2018 8:12 pm

Pimp that shit! Try to get on some radio interviews
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Darcy » Sun Feb 25, 2018 7:02 pm

Will do, thank you for the advice. The writing is the fun part, marketing is definitely not my forte. I want to see it in bookstores, just for the ego boost.
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Chimborazo » Sat Jun 16, 2018 6:51 pm

I wish I saw this yesterday before I started another book, but I just bought it (Kindle) anyway. I look forward to reading it!
"The terrain is just too wiley coyote for me to risk it. Slam into arch, rope breaks, in the distance as I plummet 'meep meep'" -Caliban
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby 2 Charlie » Mon Jun 18, 2018 2:47 am

If you are in Nova Scotia, pump a copy to the big Nova Scotia rag and to CTV with a one paragraph story of small town boy flies away and coms home alive. “How not to be a pilot”. And with a surname ahoover, pray tell what your call sign is...?
"You can do it fast...you can do it cheap...you can do it right.....But you only get to pick two."
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Ozymandias » Wed Jul 11, 2018 3:49 pm

Do a Reddit AMA. It's an amazing way of publicizing your book: https://blog.markgrowth.com/how-authors-use-reddit-to-promote-their-books-1a64b0880578
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The Helicopter Pilot

Postby russlits » Mon Dec 03, 2018 10:24 am

There is no Helicopter Pilot shortage in Australia.

There is a willingness not to pay for training and upskilling for existing pilots.

Far easier to import pilots .
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Darcy » Wed Jan 09, 2019 12:38 pm

2800 views here and only 300 sales (I figure 280 of those were family and friends) so pimping my novel a little bit more.....

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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Chimborazo » Thu May 16, 2019 4:09 pm

I really enjoyed it, even though there were many times I wanted to slap Edward. It's something I'd probably reread.

Have you thought about doing an AMA on Reddit?

Edit: Oops, just saw Ozymandias' post asking the same thing. I really think you should try it.
"The terrain is just too wiley coyote for me to risk it. Slam into arch, rope breaks, in the distance as I plummet 'meep meep'" -Caliban
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Darcy » Wed May 22, 2019 8:48 pm

Thanks Man! Really appreciated. I will look into it but hate the marketing aspect of the whole thing. Busy on book two, jumps around from Turkey, Romania, Azerbaijan, Gabon, Kenya, Cote- D'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Morocco, Suriname, Trinidad, Canada, etc over a long time line. I know this pilot who was into so much illegal shit all over the place, so it's fiction loosely based on him, and shit I've gotten into. Mistakes are made, people die. Much more involved but having fun writing it. Most if it actually happened but changed up enough to avoid lawsuits....
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Re: The Helicopter Pilot

Postby Chimborazo » Thu Jun 06, 2019 6:58 am

Darcy wrote:Thanks Man! Really appreciated. I will look into it but hate the marketing aspect of the whole thing. Busy on book two, jumps around from Turkey, Romania, Azerbaijan, Gabon, Kenya, Cote- D'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Morocco, Suriname, Trinidad, Canada, etc over a long time line. I know this pilot who was into so much illegal shit all over the place, so it's fiction loosely based on him, and shit I've gotten into. Mistakes are made, people die. Much more involved but having fun writing it. Most if it actually happened but changed up enough to avoid lawsuits....


That sounds great; please let us know when it's ready!
"The terrain is just too wiley coyote for me to risk it. Slam into arch, rope breaks, in the distance as I plummet 'meep meep'" -Caliban
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