When our next weekly domain sales report comes out tomorrow evening (Wednesday, Feb. 1) our Top 20 Chart will include the first 7-figure sale to come to light in the New Year. We've learned from broker Mark Thomas, who founded South Florida-based VIP Brokerage in 2015 (after a 3-year stint with Domain Holdings), that he completed a $1,820,000 sale of 01.com.

The deal closed in late 2016 but couldn't be released until now due to a 90-day non disclosure agreement (if a sale is made within the previous 12 months we chart it when it is revealed. Older sales, if large enough to qualify, go on the Top 100 Chart for the year in which the sale was made. Those annual charts are available in our Domain Sales Archive). The 01.com seller and buyer both wish to remain private and the domain is currently under WhoIs privacy at GoDaddy.

I spoke with Mark at NamesCon in Las Vegas last week and he said this is his fifth sale of a rare two-digit .com domain of which only 100 possible combinations exist. He added that he has had some other sales that also reached seven figures but, like most transactions at this level, they were subject to NDA's.  If we could see all of those sales across the industry people would have a much greater appreciation of how much money is changing hands in the domain aftermarket (especially with respect to short .com domains).

Mark Thomas
Founder, VIP Brokerage

Thomas credits his success since opening his own shop to the time he spends finding and reaching the appropriate end-users so he can maximize his Client’s ROI.  He said VIP Brokerage specializes in stealth acquisitions, global branding, sales and marketing of premium domain names, digital assets, and business to business joint ventures. 

I'm back from a very productive week at the 2017 NamesCon conference in Las Vegas. While there I heard about a remarkable number of new company and product launches, personnel changes and other industry 

developments. I came home with a list of nearly 20 press releases and story ideas that I couldn't get to while the show was underway and I was focused almost around the clock on covering the conference itself for you. Now that I'm back, I'm looking to sharing those stories with you over the next three or four weeks. 

The 2017 NamesCon conference continued at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas Monday (January 23) with a jam packed schedule that kept attendees hopping until the wee hours of Tuesday morning. If you missed our previous reports from the show you will find them here: 
First Photos & Highlights from the 2017 NamesCon Conference That Opened Sunday in Las Vegas
Opening Day & Night Photos & Highlights from the 2017 NamesCon Conference in Las Vegas

The Monday schedule began with a pair of 9am business sessions. The one seen above, titled How Can I Monetize My Geo-Targeted Domain Names featured two of the most experienced people in the geodomain field, Patrick Carleton (City Advertising Partnerships), standing, and Fred Mercaldo (City Brand Media), seated at top right.

At the same time in an adjacent room, (left to right below) Zak Muscovitch (DNAttorney.com), Eugene Rome (Rome & Associates) and Andrew Rosener (MediaOptions.com) provided advice on Leasing Domain Names.

Above & Below: In Monday's main event Uniregistry Founder and legendary domain investor Frank Schilling took the stage in front of a capacity crowd to talk about The Evolution of Domaining. Frank also demonstrated some new features in Uniregistry's innovative mobile phone app (I have been using it for some time now and it is a terrific domain registration and management tool).

Above: Monday morning continued with five different sessions that ran concurrently starting at 11am. In the one above NameJet General Manager Jonathan Tenenbaum and SnapNames VP of Operations Michael White (at right) gave advice on How to Dominate the Drop: Best Practices for Successfully Acquiring Deleting Domains.

Below: At the same time Uniregistry Senior Director of Sales Sevan Derderian was on the Uniregistry Breakout Stage showing attendees how to Manage a High Volume of Domains with Ease. 

Above: Also at 11am, Michael Sumner (NameBio.com) answered a question just about every domain owner asks at one time or another, What's My Domain Worth? - a session that gave tips on how to determine valuations of various kinds of domains.

At the same time Michael Gilmour (ParkLogic.com) conducted a session on Domain Monetization for Registries and Registrars while a panel discussion was held in another room on Best Practices for Selling Domains Through Hosting.

Above: At Noon Monday a lot of tears were shed as the industry remembered and honored the late beloved domain investor Lonnie Borck who passed away unexpectedly in October. To honor Lonnie the Internet Commerce Association created the Lonnie Borck Memorial Award to be presented "in recognition of extraordinary efforts in championing the rights of domain name owners." The first winner was attorney David Weslow for his selfless pro bono work on behalf of Heidi Powell. David was ill and unable to attend NamesCon so ICA Executive Director Daniel Law (center) accepted the award on his behalf and was honored to have it handed to him by Lonnie's wife Ronit and his brother-in-law Jonathan. Along with Ronit, Lonnie's friends Nat Cohen and Elliot Silver spoke about the kind of person Lonnie was and why he was so highly regarded by everyone who had the pleasure of meeting him.

Below: The Lonnie Borck Memorial Award was presented just before the session below on The Most Shocking UDRP Decisions of 2016 was held. (Left to right) Moderator Bill Sweetman (NameNinja) welcomed Nat Cohen, Zak Musocvitch (DNAttorney.com) and Jason Schaeffer (ESQwire.com) to the stage to detail some miscarriages of justice that left audience members shaking their heads.

Above: Also at noon Monday, a panel discussion titled Always Be Closing: Case Studies of Recent Domain Sale Negotiations brought five experts on the subject to the stage. Left to right are moderator Derek Newman, Theo Develegas (Acroplex LLC), Richard Lau (NamesCon Co-Founder), Andrew Rosener (MediaOptions), Dave Evanson (Sedo) and Dr. Gregg McNair (Premium Traffic Limited).

Below: In another popular noon session on the Uniregistry Breakout Stage the company's VP of Sales (and record breaking broker), Jeff Gabriel, explained Sales Using the 90/10 Rule.

Above: The next round of sessions (five in all) began at 1pm Monday. The one above dissected Aftermarket Sales by the Numbers. The panelists were (left to right): Alan Shiflett (GoDaddy), Dan Adamson (Uniregistry), Andy Simpson (Verisign), Dima Bietzke (Sedo) and Tessa Holcomb (Igloo.com). 

Below: Also at 1pm a major new player in the domain escrow space (and established powerhouse in the payments field), Payoneer Escrow, sent three of their top representatives to talk about Accepting Payments the Safe Way. They included (left to right) Senior Advisor Brandon Abbey (former President of Escrow.com), Jonathan Kremer and Scott Reynolds (Vice President of B2B Services).

Above: Another interesting 1pm session covered 10 Ways to Creatively Use Domain Names in Your Marketing and Branding Campaigns. It featured (left to right) moderator Jeff Sass (.CLUB), Statton Hammock (Rightside Group), Neha Naik (Radix), Jackson Elsegood (Escrow.com) and Richard Merdinger (GoDaddy).

In additional 1pm sessions, those who dropped by the Uniregistry Breakout Stage were given a Behind the Scenes look at the popular registrar/registry operator and Why Content Marketing Matters for Your Growing Business was discussed by Sean Tyson and Sam Wempe from Quietly in another room.

Above: At 2pm the topic turned to Investing in New TLDs - Making Money in the Short and Long Term in a panel discussion featuring (left to right) Charles Gucciardo (The Gucciardo Law Firm), Jebediah Burnett (Rightside), Andrew Rosener (MediaOptions) and Rob Monster (Epik.com and DigitalTown).

Also at 2pm Uniregistry's Darren Cornwell and Marco Pompei told those who dropped by the Uniregistry Breakout Stage how to Sell on the Go with the company's slick mobile app. 

Below: At 3pm, just before Namescon's SnapNames/RightOfTheDot Live Domain Auction got underway, Escrow.com presented a new series of Masters of Domains Awards they introduced to recognize the top selling domain brokers on the Escrow.com platform. Awards were given to each of the top 10 finalists, with the #1 award going to George Hong of Guta.com (Andrew Rosener of MediaOptions was #2 in the highly competitive field). George received his award from Escrow.com General Manager Jackson Elsegood.

Above: Next it was time for the highly anticipated SnapNames/RightOfTheDot Live Domain Auction conducted by World Champion Auctioneer and Author Wayne Wheat (below). With a standing room only crowd on hand nearly $1.3 million in sales were booked. The top sale was Single.com at $290,00. NameBio has a nice rundown of all of the sales results.

Above: With the business day over attendees were ready to move on to their evening activities. One of the biggest was a dinner for ICA members in the Foundation Room at the House of Blues. The ICA has doubled its membership over the past year with company's like new Gold Level Member ParkingCrew throwing their support behind the organization that protects domain owner rights. Left to right, just before leaving for the dinner, are David Thorpe (ParkingCrew), ICA Executive Director Daniel Law,  Mario Witte (ParkingCrew), Axel Kaltz (ParkingCrew), ICA Operations Manager Kamila Sekiewicz and Jim Grace (ParkingCrew).

Below: ICA Executive Director Daniel Law (standing at right) thanking attendees at the ICA's  Monday night dinner as well as the dinner sponsor, Innovation RPM.

Above: & Below:  Elsewhere Monday night the .ORG Registry treated their guests to a night at the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas with great food provided by Cousins Maine Lobster (one of the most successful companies to come out of an investment won on ABC-TV's hit show Shark Tank). 

Below: After being taken to the venue in a 33-foot stretch limo .ORG guests were given all the quarters they needed to play an astounding variety of pinball machines throughout the evening. Were it not for the well stocked open bar the scores rung up probably would have been a lot higher than they were! 

Above: After spotting a baseball themed pinball machine that I had actually played as a teenager, I was eager to see if I could shake off the rust and beat my wife Diana (overly confident that I would). Instead, she trounced me taking two games out of three! Looks like it is back to the minor leagues for me!

Below: I am calling a foul on this one! My friend Ray Dillman Neu (Co-Founder of THE Domain Conference) had an unfair advantage at the Police Trainer game. Ray recently became a Broward County Florida Sheriff's Deputy! At least I had the good sense not to challenge him on this one, saving myself further embarrassment after my experience on the pinball baseball field.

Above: In addition to the vintage pinball games and amazing lobster rolls, guests could have their portraits sketched by a very talented artist. Diana's is just being finished up here.

Below: After the ICA and .ORG dinners and various other functions around town, most moved on to Uniregistry's huge late night party open to all NamesCon attendees at the famous Hakkasan Night Club inside the MGM Grand (right across the street from the Tropicana Hotel). This shot there features lovely ladies Angela St. Julien (Brand.bar) and NamesCon Event Producer Terri Potratz. 

As I write this day 3 of NamesCon 2017 is winding down with the big Water Night Fundraiding Party still ahead. It won't be ending until around 2am Wednesday (local time in Las Vegas - 5am Wednesday in the eastern U.S.).  In my next post from NamesCon (planned for tomorrow night) I'll have all of the Tuesday (January 24) photos & highlights (day and night) for you.

When the 2017 NamesCon conference opened Sunday (Jan. 22) at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas I posted some photos and highlights from the opening sessions of the 4th annual event to give you a flavor of what was to come. The entire opening day and night is now in the books so I can give you a full run down on what happened Sunday afternoon and evening at the big show. 

Above: As I mentioned in my first report from Las Vegas Network Lane was the center of activity on opening day Sunday. From noon to 6pm visitors could come and go as they pleased to visit dozens of sponsor tables and get answers from company representatives to any questions they had about the services offered. The first table we saw when we entered featured popular aftermarket sales platform DomainAgents.com. Left to right are company co-founders Phil McKegney and Ryan McKegney with broker Elsa Stivalet (who speaks 6 languages)!

In between visits to Network Lane attendees could check out business sessions held in adjacent rooms throughout the day. We had photos of the first sessions presented by Morgan Linton and Michael Cyger at noon Sunday in our last report. At 1pm the next two sessions were held. One was a Social Media Boot Camp presented by NamesCon staffers Stephanie Mercer Voyer and Jordan Yerman. 

Below: Also at 1pm Sunday industry veterans Adam Strong (Evergreen.com) and Victor Pitts (NameYourStartup.com) presented The Name Game: Unique Naming Strategies and Hacks. Adam is at left and Victor at right.

At 2pm (in sessions not pictured) the topics were Increasing the Value of New Domains in the Secondary Market presented by Rightside.co's Statton Hammack and, in another room, Eugene Rome (Rome & Associates) offered keys to Understanding Intellectual Property and Domains.

Above: Escrow.com General Manager Jackson Elsegood was featured in one of the two 3pm sessions called Your Portfolio in 2017. Jackson shared a lot of interesting data on sales trends gleaned from transactions completed through Escrow.com. We will have a separate report for you on that after we are back from the show.

Below: Also at 3pm Steven Kaziyev from NewYorkMedia.com answered the question How Can I Monetize My Geo-Targeted Domain Names? f

Above: A closer view of Steven Kaziyev speaking on Sunday's opening day at NamesCon 2017.

Below: At 4pm attention turned to Tips for Selling Your Domains Through Auction provided by NameJet General Manager Jonathan Tenenbaum (standing at left below) and RightFoTheDomain.com President/Director Monte Cahn. 

Above: Domain owners always want to know What's My Domain Worth? DomainAgents.com Co-Founder & CEO Phil McKegney provided advice on how to determine domain valuations in this popular session.

Below: The last two opening day business sessions got under way at 5pm. In this one (left to right) Bill Sweetman (NameNinja), Negar Hajikhani (Sedo) and John Deneen (Domain Name Marketplace) offered advice on Responding to Offers for your domains in a session moderated by Kevin Fink (IHaveThisIdea.com).

Above: Also at 5pm Omar Baig (Domain Nexus) discussed opportunities in three and four letter .coms in a session titled Emergence of a New Asset Class.

Below: After the final business sessions we ran into one of the world's most renowned domain investor/developers, Kevin Ham, seen here with Prakhar Bindal (NameKart) who came over from India for NamesCon. Kevin said he has never been busier as he continues to run multiple enterprises including businesses outside the domain space. It is always a treat catch up with original industry pioneers like Kevin and Scott Day (who is also at the show).

Above: To start a new NamesCon tradition, attendees were invited to meet in the conference center foyer at the Tropicana Hotel at 6pm for a Group Photo.

Below: At 7pm the official NamesCon Opening Night Party got underway in a ballroom at the Tropicana. Some of the first to arrive included (left to right) Truc Tran (from Norway, but also with a U.S. home in Naples, Florida), Diana Jackson (DNJournal.com), Phil Corwin (Internet Commerce Association) and Angie Graves (WEB Group Inc.)

Above: A wide view of the Opening Night Party at NamesCon 2017 at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas Sunday night. In the middle of the action (standing at the bar) are Stephanie and Kevin Kopas (from PIR, the .ORG Registry).

Below: It was great to catch up with so many long time friends at NamesCon's Opening night Party. I've been at this for 15 years now and Page Howe (at left below, from .LA Marketing and iLove.LA) was already on the domain scene when I showed up in 2002. To paraphrase Elton John, We're Still Standing - even if we do have to lean on each other once in awhile. OK, so maybe I have to do a little more leaning than Page! Photo snapped by the legendary domain investor Larry Fischer .

Above: Domain ladies in the house! (Left to right): Diana Jackson, Renee Dodge (Mod Domains), Heather Helmhout (Mod Domains), Kelly Campbell (CIRA) and Serina El Salibi (CIRA).

Below: Domainers wall to wall at Sunday night's NamesCon Opening Night Party.

Above: One of my favorite things about the domain industry is that it attracts and is open to all kinds of people from all over the world. Age is immaterial too. We are even seeing more and more children of domain investor parents following a father or mother into the field. Here attorney Enrico Schaefer (Traverse Legal) is seen with one such pairing, Dennis Combs (center, from NetWork Realty) and his son Alex Combs. 

As I write this day two at NamesCon (Monday, January 24) is still underway with Uniregistry's big party at the Hakkasan Night Club going on across the street from the Tropicana. I will have all of the Monday (day and night) highlights for you in my next post from Las Vegas - planned for some time late Tuesday but the non-stop show schedule makes that subject to change. There is a lot to keep up with but that is what makes it one of the most interesting and enjoyable weeks of the year.

The 2017 NamesCon Conference is underway in Las Vegas! The 4th annual event at the Tropicana Hotel officially got underway at 11am U.S. Pacific Time today (2pm Eastern, Sunday, January 22). As I write this it is still early in the day here but I wanted to give you a peak at the opening activities as soon as possible. Events will continue until 11pm tonight (2am Monday in the east!) so I won't have a complete recap of the opening day activities for you until sometime Monday (as the week progresses - the show ends Wednesday afternoon, January 25) - I will have a daily post from Las Vegas recapping the previous day and night's photos and highlights).

Above: As NamesCom 2017 attendees made their way to the Convention Center at the Tropicana Hotel they passed under this gateway to the big show in Las Vegas.

Below: To speed attendees on their way two separate stations were set up for the first time this year - one for badge pick up for who registered online (seen in this shot) and another for onsite registration and swag bag pick up.

Above: The Convention Center entrance just a few steps further down the hall.

Below: The onsite registration desk in the convention center where attendees could also pick up their swag bag filled with goodies from sponsors and the show program.

Above: Attendees flew to Las Vegas from all over the world for this week's event. In this photo, DN Journal's Diana Jackson (2nd from left) visits with four friends who came from the UK and Europe. Left to right are Domaining Europe Founder Dietmar Stefitz, Diana, Jose Vicente Gomar and, from Scotland, Trisha and Tommy Butler.

Below: NamesCon 2017 officially began at 11am Las Vegas time with welcoming remarks from conference Co-Founder Jothan Frakes.

Above: A closer view of NamesCon Co-Founder Jothan Frakes as he kicked off the 2017 show Sunday morning at 11.

Below: The first business sessions started at 12 Noon Sunday with much of the activity centered on Network Lane.  This is one of two lanes that were lined with sponsor tables where attendees could learn more about industry companies from representatives who were on hand to answer their questions. Network Lane was set to remain open throughout the day, not closing until 6pm (9pm Eastern time).

Above: The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) had a table on Network Lane where we caught up with (left to right): ICA Board Member Nat Cohen, Guta.com Founder George Hong (a corporate sponsor of the ICA), ICA Board Member Zak Muscovitch and Cindy (Guta.com). The ICA, the non-profit trade association that protects domain investor rights, will be holding a Monday night dinner in the Foundation Room at the House of Blues. Regular tickets have sold out but anyone joining the ICA at the bronze or higher level can get a free ticket to the dinner by contacting Operations Manager Kamila Sekiewicz ([email protected]).

Below: At the same time Network Lane was one new business sessions began each hour throughout the day in two adjacent meeting rooms. I dropped into both of the noon sessions for this early bird report. In the one below Morgan Linton (BoldMetrics.com) delivered a presentation on Entrepreneurial Strategy: Tips for Launching Your Startup.

Above: Also at Noon Sunday, Michael Cyger from DomainSherpa.com presented Domain Investing 101: A How-To Guide for Newcomers.

Now it is time for me to get back down to the conference floor. Many more business sessions are scheduled today followed by the official Opening Night Party that starts at 7pm tonight (10pm Eastern). I'll have the complete Opening Day wrap up for you sometime tomorrow. Things will be very busy here with multiple sessions to cover every hour so I can't pinpoint a publication time any closer than that. Though the weather in Las Vegas was rainy and gray for opening day it was all sunshine inside at the Trop!

Tucows Inc. (NASDAQ:TCX, TSX:TC), a popular provider of network access, domain names and other Internet services, announced this morning  that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire wholesale domain name registrar eNom from Rightside Group, Ltd. (NASDAQ: NAME). The transaction is expected to close later today.

Tucows will pay $83.5 million and the transaction is expected to be immediately 

accretive to earnings. The acquisition will be funded through an amendment increasing Tucows’ existing credit facility to a total of $140 million.

The acquisition of eNom will add 14.5 million domains under management and 28,000 active resellers to the Tucows portfolio. That will give Tucows a total network of over 40,000 resellers globally and 29 million domains under management, making it the second largest domain registrar in the world.

Donuts Inc., the world's largest operator of new gTLD registries with nearly 200 domain extensions in their portfolio (.media, .photography and .life are just a few examples), announced some key changes in their management suite today. Co-Founder and CEO Paul Stahura (who was profiled in our July 2015 Cover Story) decided to turn his CEO duties over to Bruce Jaffe, who has been serving as a Consultant and member of the Board of Directors.

The move allows Stahura to move into a different full-time role as Executive Chairman that will allow him to focus on long-term strategy and innovation, including mergers and acquisitions, new business models and partnerships with companies who are finding new utility for the DNS.

Jaffe, who serves on several public and private boards, has been an active technology investor, consultant and advisor. He previously held a variety of executive positions at Microsoft, most recently leading its corporate development group where he directed some of the company's largest transactions and strategic initiatives.

Jaffe said, "I'm very excited to join Donuts. Our founding executives, and in fact the entire Donuts team, represent the best and brightest in the industry. We've had tremendous success since our founding, helping shape an industry where new domain names grew by more than 200% in 2016, now totaling more than 27 million."

The new roles for Stahura and Jaffe weren't the only changes the company announced today. They also revealed that John "JP" Pollard, a global cloud-services veteran and serial entrepreneur, has stepped into the newly created role of Chief Revenue Officer. Pollard is responsible for managing the sales, business development, marketing and public relations teams and will report directly to Jaffe.

Prior to joining Donuts, Pollard held various roles with Microsoft before leading the international expansion of Expedia. He later co-founded and was CEO of Jott Networks, a mobile phone voice service and application acquired by Nuance in June 2009. He was also co-founder and CEO of Elemental Foundry, acquired by Porch in 2014. Pollard has served as CEO In Residence at Madrona Venture Labs, as a board advisor for React Mobile, and hosts the @techvitamin podcast.

Executive Chairman Paul Stahura

CEO Bruce Jaffe

Chief Revenue Officer John Pollard

We just published our 13th annual State of the Industry Cover Story today with 17 domain experts commenting on what they viewed as the more important developments in our industry last year, as well as how they feel about the prospects for this business in 2017. One of the many industry leaders we invited to comment for the story was Soeren von Varchmin, the CEO at World Hosting Days - the company that now owns NamesCon (WHD in turn is owned by HEG who in turn is owned by GoDaddy!). With the 4th annual NamesCon conference opening in Las Vegas Sunday (Jan. 22, 2017), Soeren has understandably been so busy he didn't have a chance to get his comments in before the Cover Story was published but now that I have them I want to  share his timely insights with you here.

"The most significant event for World Hosting Days has been our acquisition of NamesCon, which will make NamesCon 2017 the first one under the WHD umbrella," von Varchmin 

Soeren von Varchmin
CEO, World Hosting Days
(WHD owns NamesCon)

noted. "We’ve loved what their team has been doing over the past few years, and we’re putting lots of effort into making it even bigger and better than ever. We’ll be providing lots of opportunities for attendees to learn and network, as well as the highly anticipated domain auction." 

One of the main events at next week's 4th annual NamesCon conference at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas will be the return of the NameJet/RightOfTheDot (ROTD) Live Domain Auction that will get underway at 3PM (Pacific Time) one week from today - January 23, 2017. 

Last year's auction rang up nearly $1.5 million in sales so ROTD President Monte Cahn is understandably excited about putting another hand picked group of premium domains on the auction block. "We're working with NameJet again for pre-bidding and our extended auction," Cahn said, noting "NameJet will have our live auction system integrated within the NameJet customer accounts so if you have a NameJet account, you are already pre-registered for the live auction and able to bid online while the live auction is going on."

Last month I told you about David J. Castello releasing a new novel called The Diary of an Immortal (1945-1959). Since then David's enthralling tale of how a young American soldier stumbled upon a formula that would let him live forever has been steadily building an enthusiastic audience in Amazon's Kindle Store where it is priced at just $2.99 (vs. $17.99 for the soft cover edition). 

The book has reached as high as the top ten in Amazon's Magical Realism category - a genre that GoodReads.com describes as "one in which magical elements blend to create a realistic atmosphere that accesses a deeper understanding of reality. The story explains these magical elements as normal occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of thought."  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Green Mile are examples of some classics in the genre.

I just returned from a nine-day holiday cruise that was made even more enjoyable by being able to sit by the pool and read The Diary of an Immortal with no distractions. It's a good thing nothing else needed my attention because the story was so engrossing I would had ignored it anyhow!

I don't want to spoil anything for you so I will just encapsulate the story in a couple of paragraphs and leave all of the twists and turns of the story for you to enjoy for yourself. Steven Ronson, the young soldier from Florida (where David, an accomplished musician, writer and - with his brother Michael - acclaimed domain investor, also grew up), found himself fighting the remnants of Hitler's forces in 1945 Germany when, during a raid on the Dachau concentration camp, he discovered a mysterious stash of pills that were meant to allow Hitler to live forever, but fortunately never made it to the Fuhrer. Ronson began consuming the pills and soon found they gave him extraordinary abilities including the power to heal from any injury - completely impervious to death.

It is a terrific read (and I could see an epic movie made from this book). Castello is a long time history buff and an expert on World War II history in particular. That allowed him to fill the book with real people, places and events that allows the story to transcend fantasy and make you forget from time to time that you are reading fiction! I've written non-fiction practically my entire life and I have no doubt writing good fiction is much harder. How someone can create, solely from their imagination, engaging characters, dialog and a great story with so many moving parts that have to all be tied together in the end completely amazes me.

(Posted January 9, 2017) To refer others to the post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2017/dailyposts/20170109.htm