Claus: Legend of the Fat Man: A Science Fiction Adventure

Tony Bertauski

Dec 2013 · DeadPixel Publications

About this ebook

This week only, save 10% to 40% on the boxed sets, Claus Boxed (Volume 1 and Volume 2)…

In the early 1800s, Nicholas Santa discovered an ancient race of elven.

Short, fat and hairy, they have lived peacefully on the North Pole since the Ice Age but Nicholas is quickly swept into the colony’s first and only fracture. The elven known as the Cold One has divided his people. His name is Jack. And Jack’s tired of hiding. Why should they live in a shrinking ice cap when humans occupy the rest of the world?

It’s just not fair.

There’s no stopping Jack from world domination until Nicholas Santa, the only human to enter the elven colony, joins helium-bladder reindeer, artificially-intelligent snowmen, and a merry band of big-footed elven to bring peace back to the North Pole.

And becomes a legend.

REVIEWS FOR THE CLAUS UNIVERSE

“Amazing rewrites that will astound you!” –Ruth Jackson,  Reviewer“Best Santa Story Ever!” – Bob,  Reviewer“Simply lovely.” –jl, Amazon Reviewer“MY HEART GREW THREE SIZES…” –  Reviewer“Couldn’t Put It Down.” –  Reviewer“Fantasy at it’s [sic] finest.” –Carol,  Reviewer“Absolutely phenomenal!” –JayFly,  Reviewer“A++” –TKJ 131,  Reviewer“Absolutely Awesome.” –Dee greusel,  Reviewer“I absolutely love this series…” –Kara McCabe,  Reviewer“Tony is an excellent story teller!” jjjlake,  Reviewer“I want MORE!” –J. Bunch,  Reviewer“Awesomely engaging!” –Janice Everett,  Reviewer

Ratings and reviews

Especially being free, i think this book ia definitely worth reading. It follows the story of a family on an arctic trip, as well as the elves, and tells its own tale of how Santa Claus came to be. With lovable characters and a great plot, it leaves you simply wanting more. (Theres 2 other books!!)

The header says it all. What a great imagining to a story we've heard many, many times. I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I love love love this story!! It was way more exciting and intriguing with all the characters you could ever imagine and how SANTA CLAUS came to be. I'm going to read it again!!💜💚💟💙💞

About the author

 During the day, I'm a horticulturist. While I've spent much of my career designing landscapes or diagnosing dying plants, I've always been a storyteller. My writing career began with magazine columns, landscape design textbooks, and a gardening column at the Post and Courier (Charleston, SC). However, I've always fancied fiction. 

My grandpa never graduated high school. He retired from a steel mill in the mid-70s. He was uneducated, but he was a voracious reader. I remember going through his bookshelves of paperback sci-fi novels, smelling musty old paper, pulling Piers Anthony and Isaac Asimov off shelf and promising to bring them back. I was fascinated by robots that could think and act like people. What happened when they died?

I'm a cynical reader. I demand the writer sweep me into his/her story and carry me to the end. I'd rather sail a boat than climb a mountain. That's the sort of stuff I want to write, not the assigned reading we got in school. I want to create stories that kept you up late.

Having a story unfold inside your head is an experience different than reading. You connect with characters in a deeper, more meaningful way. You feel them, empathize with them, cheer for them and even mourn. The challenge is to get the reader to experience the same thing, even if it's only a fraction of what the writer feels. Not so easy.

In 2008, I won the South Carolina Fiction Open with Four Letter Words, a short story inspired by my grandfather and Alzheimer's Disease. My first step as a novelist began when I developed a story to encourage my young son to read. This story became The Socket Greeny Saga. Socket tapped into my lifetime fascination with consciousness and identity, but this character does it from a young adult's struggle with his place in the world. 

After Socket, I thought I was done with fiction. But then the ideas kept coming, and I kept writing. Most of my work investigates the human condition and the meaning of life, but not in ordinary fashion. About half of my work is Young Adult (Socket Greeny, Claus, Foreverland) because it speaks to that age of indecision and the struggle with identity. But I like to venture into adult fiction (Halfskin, Drayton) so I can cuss. Either way, I like to be entertaining.

And I'm a big fan of plot twists.