New Book Underway

A new book, likely titled SCORPION: GRAY ZONE, is officially and finally underway.

I'm not going to say much about it just yet, but the articles below give some hint as to where it's going, though not in he obvious way that will probably first come to mind. Hint: Think "Operation Gladio" and all the problems that arose from that.

Modern Guerillas and the Defense of the Baltic States

If Russia Invades, US Special Operations Forces Have an Unconventional Plan to Liberate the Baltics

US and NATO Special Ops Just Fought a Fake Guerilla War in West Virginia

Setbacks

I've run into some setbacks with Book #4, and am basically re-writing a significant section of the middle act, dealing with a mercenary mission to locate Houthi anti-ship missile launchers in southern Yemen. As originally written, it felt too forced, too long, and was ruining the pacing of the rest of the story. This will likely take up most of my writing for the rest of the month, and I should  be back on track in August. The good news is that I'm very confident with the new version. 

For Book #5, it might be prudent to write the Forsyth way. He does his research, writes an extensive 30,000-words outline, then goes back and adds depth to turn it into a 90,000-word novel. 

Buried in Black by JT Patten

JT Patten was gracious enough to let me read an advance copy of his upcoming novel, BURIED IN BLACK, which will be published in November. I enjoyed it immensely, as you can tell from my review below. Patten has a very distinctive style of writing, and I highly recommend his books, especially if you are looking for something a bit different in the genre. November is still a long way's off, so you should read his earlier self-published books SHADOW MASTERS and PRIMED CHARGE, if you haven't already.

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JT Patten’s new novel is a unique and well written addition to the military/spy thriller genre. Drake Woolf, his new protagonist isn’t the typical Mitch Rapp clone, and Patten’s portrayal of the world of espionage and covert operations isn’t glamorous or black and white, instead existing within a morally grey area populated with complex characters who possess dubious intentions, motivations, and loyalties. Each character has their own distinctive voice and personality, and Patten's dialogue is sharp, authentic, and flows well. Although the plot has plenty of action and twists, this is also very much a character-focused story.

Drake Woolf is a soldier from the Intelligence Support Activity, specializing in implementing high tech SIGINT techniques to gather intelligence. He’s also troubled and heavily influenced by a childhood incident in which he witnessed the murder of his parents, who were CIA operatives in Tunisia. An early sequence in the book highlights Woolf’s skills with both SIGINT and direct action as he tracks a terrorist target in Lebanon. Here he’s also introduced to Sean Havens, the protagonist from the author’s past self-published novels. From there, the plot shifts to a terrorist bombing outside the Pentagon, and we are introduced to the Mohawks, a group of JSOC-trained Iraqi special ops soldiers who, with the support of an Iranian general, are personally motivated to launch a campaign of terrorism and assassination against the Americans they believe betrayed them and their families. The hunt begins for the Mohawks, and the plot soon becomes increasingly more complex and personal for Drake.

“Buried in Black” will appeal to anyone who prefers the darker, grittier, and more authentic side of the genre where authors like Dalton Fury, Jack Murphy, Joshua Hood or Sean McFate reside, and the ending suggests Drake's story will continue.  

 

Stuff about Book 4

Facebook is harassing me that I haven't posted any updates in over a month and that my followers are eager to hear from me, which is rather a dubious claim. I don't particularly have any updates to post, but I'm over 80,000 words into Book 4 and well into the third and final act. Roughly half those words involve bullets, explosions, and colorful descriptions of violence. It also has mercenaries, spies, ISIS, chemical weapons, missions in Yemen, Eritrea, and Syria, a large cast of morally questionable characters, and a cameo by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Still no cover, but the title is Rogue Element.

Facebook Page

My author Facebook page has been up and running for a while now. You can find it here. I haven't updated it, though, because I've been using this blog to say whatever I feel like saying, and this blog automatically is cross-posted to my Amazon and Good Reads pages, but I'll now post all future blog updates on FB, too. It'll probably be a more convenient way of receiving updates for most people, and better for contacting me, if you wish to do so. 

I really need to stay on top of the imperative social media side of writing and publishing. 

Future Story?

I noticed this story today, originally reported by a Bosnian news site, about Serbian Honour, a Russian-backed Serbian nationalist paramilitary group based in Bosnia. Its members have reportedly been trained in Serbia, have combat experience fighting alongside the  pro-Russian separatist  rebels in Ukraine, and are opposed to NATO's presence in the Balkans.  The Russian embassy and the semi-autonomous Serbian government in Bosnia have denied that this group exists.  

As a result of the  1995 Dayton Accords, Bosnia has one of the most complicated political systems in the world. To make a long story short, the country is divided into semi-autonomous entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is comprised of Bosniaks and Croats who are in favor of NATO membership, and the Republika Sprska, which governs the Serbs who are opposed to NATO membership. Oh, and to confuse matters further, Bosnia's presidency is shared by three people, a Bosniak, a Croat, and a Serb.
 
It's easy to envision a scenario resembling the situation in Ukraine, where Bosnia becomes fragmented, with a pro-Russian Slavic territory under Serbian or Russian protection.  

As I described in my book SCORPION II, Russia also backed the 2016 coup attempt by Serbian paramilitaries in Montenegro. Recently, Russia has become increasingly active in the Balkans, hoping to curb Western influence in the region.  

I definitely see a future story here. I've been wanting to do one set in the Balkans, a region/subject that tends to be ignored by most writers (Tom Wood's A Time To Die, and Frederick Forsyth's Avenger being the only exceptions that come immediately to mind, plus a couple old Mack Bolan novels like Blood Circle). So perhaps Avery will be visiting Bosnia soon, if I decide to keep him around. 

UPDATE: Less than a day after I wrote this post, a Serbian politician, who was mediating talks to normalize relations between Serbia and its break-away province Kosovo, was assassinated.

Major Book Recomendation!

WITHOUT MERCY by Colonel David Hunt and RJ Pineiro. 

Read it now. 

Amazon is presently selling this 500 page hardcover at 58% off the retail price, which means it's cheaper than the ebook right now. That's 500 pages of a highly entertaining, realistic plot packed with a huge cast of believable characters, as well as plenty of authentic details and violent, gritty action. The books opens with a nuclear attack on Bagram air base in Afghanistan and takes off from there. You will not be disappointed.

After finishing the book, I had to check to see if the authors have any more books in the works, and am pleased to see they have a sequel (actually, more like a prequel) coming out later this year.

Suggested Upcoming Non-Fiction

I've made a few posts recently about other novels I recommend, but the books I'm most looking forward to this year are non-fiction.

In February, Steve Coll's Directorate S: The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan will be published. It's apparently a "sequel" of sorts of Coll's Ghost Wars, an extensive volume on CIA operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan from the Soviet Union's Afghan invasion up  to 9/11. Read together, these two hefty volumes will probably contain everything you'd ever want or need to know about  US foreign policy and intelligence operations concerning Afghanistan and Pakistan over the past thirty years. If you have an interest in the subject matter, then Coll's books are required reading.

Also in February, Full Battle Rattle will be published, the memoirs of a Muslim Green Beret who was involved with the attempted rescue of the embassy hostages in Iran, spying on Hezbollah in Lebanon, and fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. It's co-written with Ralph Pezzullo, who has written a number of other CIA/special forces memoirs, notably Jawbreaker with Gary Berntsen, as well as the very addictive SEAL Team Six series of novels with Don Mann.

And later in the year, The Spy Who Was Left Behind: Russia, The New Cold War, and the True Story of the Assassination of a CIA Agent will be published. I'm unfamiliar with the author, Michael Pullara, but the book will be about the assassination of CIA station chief Freddie Woodruff in the former Soviet republic of Georgia in 1993. The incident and the conclusions of the subsequent investigation became the subject of controversy and are believed by many (including a Georgian interior minister in 2013) to raise more questions than satisfactory answers concerning Woodruff's murder. I mentioned this little known bit of Cold War lore in my book SCORPION II, which is largely set in Georgia.