A Little Scorpion II Background

I'm over halfway through Scorpion II, and have just left off with Avery accompanying a Georgian special ops team to recon a terrorist camp in the mountains of South Ossetia. Here, Avery gets his first glimpse of his very dangerous, new adversary, Khuseyn Dimayev. 

This article offers some insight into the character's origin.

Summer Updates

I haven't updated the blog in a while, but here's the latest. For the time being publication of Cobra will be halted, for various reasons. I hope to get back to it in the future, but I really wanted to move onto something more topical and exciting, and more appealing to my slowly growing number of readers. So I moved onto the next completed outline I have ready to go and started writing last month. It's going great so far and moving along well, and the summer is shaping up to be very productive.

This book will explore the current geopolitical situation between the US and Russia. Avery and a few other familiar characters will be back. It's tentatively called Scorpion II. 

Elements of "Scorpion" in the News

The news media have been running a story throughout the week about the black market sale of nuclear materials in Eastern Europe to terrorist groups, including ISIS.  It sounds a lot like the plot of Scorpion, but instead of Belarus, Moldova is at the center of the illicit trafficking. 

Book 3

In the middle of the night, a deputy director of the CIA takes flight to escape arrest on federal criminal charges. He takes sanctuary in Ecuador, where he is met by Russian intelligence.

In North Korea, a freighter transporting a crude nuclear device sets sail across the Pacific Ocean for Cuba.

In the Amazon Rainforest, a narco-terrorist prepares for one final mission that will throw the global economy and the political order of the Western Hemisphere into chaos.

Hampered by Washington politics, bureaucratic oversight, and an indecisive president, the director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service turns to an elite covert operator code named Cobra.

A Hint of What Book 3 Will be About

This informative article from last month offers a hint of what ground my upcoming book Cobra will cover.

On August 9, Peruvian forces captured two top-ranking commanders of the Shining Path Maoist guerrilla, following a series of offensives between the army and the insurgents. The events suggest that the insurgency is not extinct as previously thought, and remains a strong security threat for Peru.

Continue reading here. 

 I'll post Cobra's cover and plot summary here soon.

Tajikistan in the News

Tajikistan, the primary setting of Scorpion, has been in the news over the weekend after a battle broke out in the capital between government troops and gunmen aligned with the recently removed defense minister, who the government accused of allegiance to ISIS. Earlier this year, the head of Tajikistan's special forces defected to ISIS.

Tajikistan borders Afghanistan, lacks modern infrastructure and economic development, has unprotected borders, and is governed by a corrupt dictatorship that represses Islamic expression. Both the US and Russia are concerned that the former Soviet Republic could foster a future Islamic insurgency that can spill over into neighboring Central Asian countries. In the 1990s, Tajikistan faced a civil war between neo-communists and Muslim rebels. 

SITREP

Book Three is well underway. I'm about 20,000 words into it. Stand by for title and plot details. It will hopefully be available early 2016, but I'm not going to rush myself.

Also, the previous books will likely get cover upgrades very soon. This will most likely coincide with another free promotion week on Amazon. I'm also still looking into making the books available on other e-readers in the near future. In the meantime, you can still download Kindle for free on your PC, so that shouldn't stop you from reading the books.