Author Invites Reader Proposals For Ending Novel

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Readers have a chance to help writer James Musgrave complete his Civil War thriller, Iron Maiden, about the battle of the U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia and the aftermath of the Monitor's sinking.

Iron Maiden's plot begins with Swedish inventor John Ericsson's scheme to sell more monitor class ships to the Union by making sure the U.S.S. Monitor does not defeat the enemy. Characters include an executive officer, a British spy for the Confederacy who agrees to kill the inventor and torpedo the Monitor, and a former slave.

The Monitor crew survives the accidental sinking off Cape Hatteras and, wanting to escape the insanity of the Civil War, they flee to Easter Island where, instead of paradise, they find a version of Lord of the Flies.

The final manuscript is scheduled for completion in December. The winner will receive a free copy of the book before publication and will be mentioned in the Acknowledgements. Contestants can find more information and a free download of the novel-in-progress at: http://members.cox.net/jimmusgrav e/name.htm

Musgrave's recent non-fiction title is The Digital Scribe: A Writer's Guide to Electronic Media. He has received a number of writing awards, most recently the Ebook of the Year Award, 2001-2002 from Bookbooters.com for his thriller, Russian Wolves. In addition, he was a finalist in the New Century Writer Awards for an excerpt from Iron Maiden.

He published three novels at Bookbooters.com, two of which were nominated for the $160,000 Frankfurt E-book Awards in 2000 and 2001. Musgrave has appeared on national radio and television promoting his work and the publication of e-books in general.