Excerpt The Goddess of Fortune by Andrew Blencowe

Title - The Goddess of Fortune
Author - Andrew Blencowe
Series - N/A
Genre/s - Historical Fiction/Historical Romance
Publisher - Hamilton Bay Publishing
Release Date - March 12, 2014
Edition/Formats - Kindle and Paperback
Blurb/Synopsis -

Short Synopsis

What if, by the passing of just two events, Japan and Germany had won World War 2? The Goddess of Fortune explores the possibilities as a steamy work of speculative fiction revealing the private foibles, quirks, and lusts of the famous (and often rich) of the period.

Long Synopsis

What if, by the passing of just two events, Japan and Germany had won World War 2? 

The Goddess of Fortune is a work of speculative fiction in which alternate history is explored, and consequences examined. 

- Beautiful Louise, while only 24 years old, uses her intelligence, wiles, and body to dominate the so-called "stronger sex." 

- Kaito Sasaki of the Bank of Tokyo, inspired by Lenin (“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency”), proves just that with his printing of U.S. 100 dollar bills. 

- The treachery of Hermann "Fatso" Goering is uncovered and his punishment is swift. 

- The duplicity of Roosevelt and his so-called Brains Trust is exposed and the doubts of the urbane gentleman, Henry Morgenthau, are made clear. 

As a work of historical fiction, Goddess reveals the private foibles, quirks, and lusts of the famous (and often rich) of the period. How could the end goals of the Axis come to fruition given these events? Goddess explores just how, and in doing so brings to light in imaginative prose the lives of historical figures we have only known from our history books. Prepare to reimagine history. 

Prologue

On the 84th Street of Manhattan on this glorious Monday morning in September the sun into my study is streaming. On days like this I think how it was just a few years ago when Germany and America almost went to war. Fantastic though this seems now, I want to explain to the new generation of readers how this seemingly impossible situation could have almost occurred.

This afternoon I will be taking a short trip to the Empire State Building at 34th Street to meet the German Chancellor, my close friend, Alfred Jodl. Alfred is my only true friend in politics—on either side of the Atlantic. A friend in politics seems like a contradiction, as we politicians are all just sharks circling looking for the weakest to eliminate. Tomorrow we will be travelling by train to meet President Truman to discuss, among other topics, the situation in French Indochina.

As this is Alfred’s first trip to New York (his previous two trips were just to Washington), I promised him we would visit the Chrysler Building, so he could see for himself the stainless steel terrace crown designed by Van Alen.

The steel was a special order by Walter Chrysler himself to the Krupp works—only the best German Krupp steel (the patented Enduro KA-2 austenitic stainless steel) was good enough for what many consider the ultimate icon of the Manhattan skyline. I know the details as I was the architectural consultant to Van Alen. Every time I look at the Chrysler Building, I think of Krupp.

Alfred is arriving on the new zeppelin Paulus filled with the German invention of Hydroliu —a special uninflammable mixture of hydrogen and helium—safe, but with 80% of the lifting power of hydrogen. It’s fitting that the German Chancellor is travelling on an airship named in honor of the victor of Stalingrad and Persia, whose bold audacity captured the Suez Canal from the British, and who hastened the end of the terrible war with Britain. The Empire State Building’s old zeppelin mast has been re-engineered to take the new German automatic mooring cables.

As most people know, Alfred took over from me as chancellor, after I served my term following the signing of the Armistice of ’42. But this is all water under the bridge—now you can read for yourself how our two great countries came so close to the brink of a disastrous—and completely unnecessary—war.

Albert Speer, Manhattan

Monday, 13 September 1948

Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Andrew Blencowe discovered at an early age what it was like to live on the edge of life. During his high school years he dropped out to become a motorcycle racer. Smitten by computers in his early twenties, he went on to become founder and CEO of an international software company with offices on five continents. It is his international perspective and a drive to challenge assumptions that influence his writing interests.
   As a weekend student of history, one point he noticed over and over was how a seemingly trivial action had such immense consequences. Regarding this point of minute actions, it is akin to a 1,000-ton boulder balanced precariously on a steel knife edge; at present still, but with the smallest nudge, an army of men cannot stop the monolith from rolling down the hill.
   Another reoccurring point was how people's time frames are always myopically short; Zhou Enlai, when asked in the early 1970s about the significance of the French Revolution, was reputed to have answered, "Too early to say".
   This myopia is daily becoming worse and worse as the destruction of the intellect by mobile "telephones" accelerates. Combined with iPads and other electronic reading devices, the ability of the human mind to think and ponder disturbance-free is being destroyed one interruption at a time.
   These are some of the main threads in Blencowe's novels - the arrogance and massive overconfidence in the new (blithely and wrongly considered better); the panoply of quick fixes rather than a thoughtful analysis of the unexpected consequences of these often dangerous modern expedients.

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