62. B*tch-Slapping Stalin (a Yang-Yoshiko short story)

I am blown away. As I record this, I have just finished my lastbookshows of the year, in Smiths Falls and Brockville. While there may be some online sales that still come through, I can for the most part finalize my bookkeeping and look at the numbers. For many years now-in fact I think this has always been the case-The Zimmer Insurgency and the Hounds of Harujin have been my number 1 and 2 bestsellers. Well,Tiger Blues, my newest release, my first foray into steampunk, which is a bit of a niche subgenre, only came out in September. And it surged ahead of Hounds to become my number 2 seller, just barely behind Zimmer (incidentally, I will give a personal shoutout on the podcast if any three listeners want to push it over that finish line, because three more copies will be all it takes to tip the scales). And so today, we are releasing the audio for a Kawashima Yoshiko short story, Bitch-Slapping Stalin. This short story was included in the Kickstarter version of Tiger Blues, but has not been available to the public at large until now. This follows Yoshiko on a 1935 spying mission for Japan, set in Moscow, and based upon the incident wherein Mongolian Prime Minister Peljidiin Genden slapped Joseph Stalin. An historical note follows the main text.Read the story: www.jasonmshannon.com Jason Shannon is an indie Canadian author of science fiction and more. His seventh novel, Tiger Blues, is available now: “A plucky crew of mercenaries must keep a doomsday weapon from the Maoists in alt-history 1948 Tibet.”Audiobook for The Moon Panther coming soonFollow my social media @harujinshounds