3 Takes

Ark Press Authors

Jul 14, 2026

1. Lone Star Retvrn!

2. OSS Stilettos for the Win

3. Nobody’s Coming to Rescue Us

1. Andrew M. Dare

Lone Star Retvrn!

“Okay,” Latch said. “Noted.”

“So here’s my offer, plain and simple,” Jim Ed said. “I help you find the treasure. I’ve got knowledge, resources, know-how, and some friends with boots on the ground. I’ve got the experience, see. In exchange, I want a cut. Not for myself. I’m not tryin’ to buy a moped or build a waterslide in my backyard. I want to use it to reestablish Texas as a sovereign republic.”

Latch blinked. “You’re serious.”

“As a heart attack during a brisket-eating contest.”

“That’s not a real expression.”

“It is in my house.”

“Why?”

“Why is it an expression in my house?”

“No, why do you want to reestablish Texas as an independent republic?”

“Because the federal government is a bloated tick and the Lone Star deserves to shine on her own again. I don’t expect y’all to believe in the cause, seeing as how you’re Yankees.”

“We’re not Yankees,” Latch said. Why did everyone keep calling them Yankees?

Jim Ed continued as if Latch had said nothing. “But you don’t have to believe in the cause. Just accept my help and fork over a fair share when the time comes. I’ll even sign something.”

Excerpt from American Treasure Hunters #3: The Pirate and the Alamo. Get The Pirate and the Alamo by Andrew M. Dare.

2. Sam R. OYKEN

OSS Stilettos for the Win

Instead of a bunch of follower-type swampy swamp creatures standing around waiting for someone else to lead them, you had amazing, stand-out, first-rate folks armed with OSS stilettos, people like celebrated poet Archibald MacLeish, and future Nobel Prize-winner Ralph Bunche, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steven Vincent Benét, and future culinary genius Julia Child, and noted playwright Thornton Wilder of Madison, Wisconsin, and future Iranian kingmaker Kermit Roosevelt, and future kick-ass pollster Elmo Roper, and future CIA Director Allen Dulles, and rarefied Harvard historian William Langer, and future Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, and talented Hollywood director John Ford, and talented Hollywood star Sterling Hayden, and pretty good writer Robert Sherwood, and not so bad Red Sox catcher Moe Berg. Pretty clever of Donovan, no? These folks weren’t schlubs. They were leaders. And they did extraordinary things to help America win WWII. It’s funny how much a small group of amazing people can accomplish when they’re allowed to go and do their jobs.

Excerpt from The Pickle Factory. Get The Pickle Factory by Sam R. Oyken.

3. Kurt Schlichter

Nobody’s Coming to Rescue Us

“I have an idea, but not a specific destination. I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I don’t think there’s some enclave of civilization somewhere in the United States. We’ve heard those radio broadcasts on the portables, but those seem to just be groups of survivors like ours. It’s not like everything is fine in Manhattan and all we have to do is walk there. I think everything’s gone, and probably not just in America. Remember what Mickey told us he heard? It’s probably all over the globe. The whole system for food and money and, well, living, is tied together. If America goes, everybody goes. Well, it’s gone, and so there’s no refuge to reach, and no one coming to rescue us. We have to deal with that reality. We need a new home. We can’t be nomads forever. That’s just surviving. I want to do more than just exist. We’ve got to build something permanent, but to build something, we have to be somewhere.”