Bestselling Travel Ebook, Asian Trail Mix: True Tales From Borneo To Japan By Eric Madeen, Will Be Available At No Charge January 9 Through January 11, 2026

Asian Trail Mix features 12 essays which have been called "gorgeously rendered," relating on and off trail spontaneity and chance encounters with fascinating characters in an assortment of exotic Asian locales.

For many, the urge to travel is instinctual, woven into the very fabric of our being. Thrills of exploring exotic cultures and thus vibrant, diverse lifestyles, and engaging with little-known traditions, ignites a passion for discovery that is both exhilarating and transformative. Traveling introduces a sense of adventure and chance into our lives, breaking the monotony of everyday routine.

And if you are in a small group or flying solo as Madeen does, independence breeds growth, especially for a writer with a voice that's more than a language function but the sum totality of experiences and means of expression. Madeen takes you there. Yet, despite this deep-seated desire, traveling today is a logistical labyrinth, filled with complexities and challenges that can overshadow the joy of exploration.

Enter this backpacked travelogue. Understand, or rather deep-down sense with the turning of each essay's page your vibing with the wanderlust, a vicarious fulfillment of being there -- entirely void of delays, cancellations and atrocious costs for a miserable airline seat likened to time in a dentist’s chair.

Asian Trail Mix is an exuberant celebration of travel that transcends simple travel writing. With its soulful prose and intimate storytelling, it beckons readers not only to observe but to connect and reflect as in rereading charged passages and lively quotes. For anyone with wanderlust in their heart, this collection is a delectable treat that will linger long after the last precious page is turned, and those earmarked gone back to.

The ebook version of Asian Trail Mix will be available to the public at no charge January 9 through January 11 on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Eric-Madeen/author/B08VGRNJVW?.

This bestselling ebook scales down the sprawl of Asia by focusing on the unique and revelatory in gemmy prose. Including fresh looks at Japan, Madeen’s ambitious travels include Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

Readers will see up close and personal the razzmatazz of novice monks at play in northern Laos, the bonding with hustling pedicab drivers in Ho Chi Minh City, the rainforests blazed on gutsy treks across Borneo and Thailand's Elephant Island and novel things Japanese. Served up nice and spicy, Asian Trail Mix is slathered across 12 rocking-it essays plus a tall tale at its glorious ending, making for a baker's dozen of sumptuousness.

In a review for 'Asian Trail Mix', one reader said, "The writing is lush and emotive. It contains images and turns of phrase that will stay with you." Another said, "'Professor Madeen has a knack for taking one into depths of not only things Japanese but also several -- ever burgeoning in popularity — Southeast Asian countries while introducing fascinating customs and unique, fleshed out characters. Five stars!"

Another stated, "The author focuses on subjects of local interest at each of the intervening destinations and equally captivating is how he bravely gets there. An American based in Japan, he has a writer’s eye for detail and is quite adept at capturing local sights, sounds, smells, and the feel of rain falling in sheets and vibrant characters in all their rounded forms. Throughout he proves to convey, up close and personal, impressions as an experienced traveler with a literary background and sensibility."

Eric Madeen writes cross-genre but terms himself as unclassifiable. He is the author of several books:

'Water Drumming In The Soul' - a fiery tale set in steamy equatorial Africa, Peace Corps volunteer David Fields is on mission: to build a medical dispensary in a village where spells are cast on enemies and fear of a witch doctor reign. David seldom has his bearings – cultural or geographical – and must fight a cocktail of tropical maladies as well as social taboos as he throws himself into work. Until... he meets Assam. Captivated by her water drumming, her playing the stream as a drum, David is drawn to her early on and becomes the hunter captured by the game. And what a rollicking game of love it is - with a tension or excitement between them that never dissipates, … until the haunting end. Notable is that this novel is shelved in the Permanent Collection of Books by Peace Corps Writers in The Library of Congress … and readers’ souls.

‘Tokyo-ing!’ - This is an apt Madeen neologism for this trio of tales chiming with anyone even slightly interested in Asia’s or rather many would say the world's most dynamic megalopolis and its glazing of layers – be they cultural or taking-wing exuberant. Madeen does deep dives in three fascinating directions and voices, including the persona in first-person female. Then doesn’t let readers come up for air because they don’t want to -- until the delicious end.

‘Tennis Clubbed, Snubbed and Rubbity-Dub Dubbed’ - In historically rich Yokohama, where Captain Perry and his Black Ships cracked open Japan, the wicked shiver of the tennis snub in the postmodern present pits David Adams against K: a puffed-up xenophobic tyrant who rules over the courts of a club that has as its anthem, ironically, the promotion of international friendship. Witty and transformative on and off court with the latter having Madeen, as 30+ year permanent resident, peering deeply and hilariously into the depths of Japanese university, where he was fortunate to spend the lion's share of his tenured career while literarily transcribing it in a back-and-forth volleying in his third novel Tennis Clubbed.

Eric Madeen is available for media interviews and can be reached at ericsan@gol.com. All of his books are available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Eric-Madeen/author/B08VGRNJVW?. More vital information is available at his website at https://ericmadeen.com.

About Eric Madeen:

Eric Madeen is an associate professor of modern literature at Tokyo City University and an adjunct professor at Keio University. He's an award-winning author of six books, and his writing has been published widely -- in Time, Asia Week, The East, Daily Yomiuri, Tokyo Journal, Kyoto Journal, Metropolis, Mississippi Review, ANA's inflight magazine Wingspan, Peace Corps Worldwide, Japanophile, Yomimono, The Pretentious Idea, Tombstone Epitaph, several anthologies, academic journals, therein his seminal essay "Under Western and Eastern Eyes" jointly published by the Ministry of Education of the Western Federation, Russia, and the Joseph Conrad Foundation, USA, and so on.

Madeen has been featured in several radio interviews (12 in the USA and 2 in Japan) and various print media. He once made his living copywriting for then-world's largest ad agency Dentsu for clients as diverse as Mazda, Subaru, Canon, Konica, Nikko Hotels International and Sony.

He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Francophone Gabon, Africa, where he built a primary school complex in an equatorial village surrounded by rainforest, a mind-blowing experience which inspired his first book.

Contact:

Eric Madeen
https://ericmadeen.com
ericsan@gol.com 

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Author Gary Paul Corcoran Releases Epic Tale Of The 60's - 'The Trip Into Milky Way'

The new fiction novel, 'The Trip Into Milky Way', billed as 'the other side of 'Vietnam', forges together resistance to that war, psychedelics, drug running, a stint in a Mexican prison and the search for spiritual enlightenment into one riveting tale about the 1960's in America

Critically acclaimed author Gary Paul Corcoran has released 'The Trip Into Milky Way'. Corcoran calls this riveting new fiction book 'the other side of Vietnam', or what happens to a young man when he refuses to die for his country. The book is based on Corcoran's personal experiences and will allow baby boomers to rekindle memories of one of the most exciting times in American history. Just as importantly, it will give those who missed the Sixties a penetrating, raw and fact-based look at a time that is gone, but will never be forgotten.

In the storyline, Clay Matthews walks out of an induction center in LA and in that instant becomes a man without a country, ostracized from family and friends. Clay's one hope is to find a place in the sun, an odyssey that leads him from a sojourn in the South Pacific to the Mexican Riviera to smuggling drugs across the Mexican border, this life of a desperado ultimately leading to Clay’s incarceration in a Mexican prison. Within this crucible, Clay finally faces what his efforts to avoid the war have done to him. His ideals have been forsaken along the way. His entire focus has become one of unfettered selfishness. Yet Clay’s only thought is to escape and regain his freedom, which he does, only to find himself now haunted by a friend he has left behind. Clay's quest to rescue this friend leads both to a series of spiritual awakenings and a riveting conclusion, in which a host of colorful sixties' characters play their part, among them, Stan, the 'Nam chopper pilot, Faith, the expatriate slumming down in San Blas, Eric, the Bhagavad Gita toting space cadet and Sarah, the former revolutionary who is always game for one more battle against the empire.

"Back in the day,", Corcoran stated, "the question was always, ‘Wow, you were in a Mexican prison! What was that like?’ So I sat down one day to convey the experience, felt claustrophobic as an author, as if I had a Mexican version of the Midnight Express on my hands and opted for a novel. Now people frequently ask, ‘Is it fiction? You know, the part inside the prison?’ to which I reply, Sure, to a degree, but it’s also a brutally honest rendering of what went on behind those Mexican prison bars, right down to the dead bodies."

In a recent Amazon review, one reviewer stated, “...Historical fiction that is smart, political, inspiring and epic...a much anticipated journey that is well worth the trip!”

Gary Paul Corcoran is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at info@freepublicitygroup.com.  'The Trip Into Milky Way' is available exclusively on Amazon Kindle.  More information is available at Corcoran's website at http://thetripintomilkyway.com/

About Gary Paul Corcoran:

The product of an Irish/Italian family, Mr. Corcoran was transplanted as a boy from the clapboard New England of his youth to the stucco subdivisions that began to litter the disappearing ranches and orange groves south of Los Angeles in the 1960s. True to his rebellious nature and the folk music/coffee house idealism that helped shape his early worldview, Mr. Corcoran chose to resist the Vietnam War, was a man without a country for several years as the result and can count incarceration in a Mexican prison as one of his many colorful experiences from that era. Having pursued a love of reading and writing in one form or another all his life, Mr. Corcoran finally took this passion seriously at the turn of the millennium and has dedicated the remainder of his days to authorship.

Mr. Corcoran currently resides in Laguna Beach, California and travels frequently to Baja California for inspiration.

Contact:

Gary Corcoran
http://www.thetripintomilkyway.com/
info@freepublicitygroup.com

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Clyde Hoch, Author Of 'Tracks: Memoirs Of A Vietnam Veteran', Chosen As One Of '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading'

Hoch was chosen from a field of hundreds of authors who appeared on The Authors Show Radio in 2012. In his interview he discusses the release of his debut novel, 'Tracks: Memoirs Of A Vietnam Veteran'

Clyde Hoch, author of 'Tracks: Memoirs Of A Vietnam Veteran', has been chosen as one of '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading'. Winners will appear in this year’s edition of the book. Hoch was chosen as the result of his appearance on The Authors Show Radio.

“I was thrilled to death about being chosen one of the '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading' in 2012 because I am not educated; writers are educated. To me it was like proof - you are a real writer.”

The book tells the tale of a young man, from his entry into USMC boot camp in 1965 to becoming a tank commander in Vietnam during the years of the heaviest fighting of the Vietnam War. Hoch describes hitting a large land mine with a tank and of having his tank and crew abandoned on the battle field. He felt he would never return home alive. He talks of day to day life during the 1965 to 1969 time period - what it was like to come home from Vietnam and how he was more content in Vietnam than his own country. If the United States never lost a major battle in Vietnam, how is it possible the US lost the war? The answers to this and much more can be found in Hoch's debut book.

“The last thing I ever expected to do in my life," continued Hoch, "was to write a book. I was mowing my lawn a few years ago. An elderly neighbor stopped by. After he left I thought about what an interesting story he had just told me. ‘When he's gone his story is gone’. I realized everyone has a story. I thought about my military experience. I felt I would put it down on the computer in chapter form as it came to me. As I did this I sent the chapters to people I served with in Vietnam to make certain I had my stories straight. I sent chapters to my daughter Tina Simmons to proofread. She said, 'Dad you have to make this into a book.' If it were not for her it would never have made it to print.”

Clyde Hoch is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below, or by email at hochclyde@yahoo.com. 'Tracks: Memoirs Of A Vietnam Veteran’ is available at Amazon in soft cover and Kindle versions and at Barnes and Noble.  More information is available at Hoch’s website at http://www.clydehoch.com.

About Clyde Hoch:

Clyde Hoch is a Vietnam Veteran. He lectures about Vietnam and attends book signings at high schools, libraries and for veterans groups such as Vietnam Veterans of America, The Lehigh Valley Council for Veterans Affairs, The Pennsylvania Military Museum, The Schwenkfelder Museum and others.

Hoch is currently working on a new book, 'A Tribute to Tankers'. The new book will provide a description of a type of tank and will follow up with stories of men who served in that type of tank in previous conflicts, beginning with WWI and ending with Iraq.

Contact:

Clyde Hoch
www.clydehoch.com
hochclyde@yahoo.com

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