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.  

Last Updates of 2017

I'm a third of the way through Book 4, with a little over 35,000 words written. I also have the middle third mapped out, though still no idea how exactly that final third is going to play out. Still no title, but this book will feature Avery and, as things look right now, it will likely be one of the last books to do so for a while. There will probably be one more with him at some point after this, but the plan for the next year or two is to move onto a spin-off series of shorter novellas about Radium, the PMC I introduced in SCORPION II, as well as do a couple stand alone projects.

Also, if you like the books, please take a moment to leave a review on Amazon. Reviews are pretty critical for independent author's books to attract readers.

Best Books of 2017

When it comes to the spy/military/political/action thriller genre, everyone praises the mega-selling big name/brand name authors like Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, and Ben Coes. 

And perhaps Mark Greaney and Brad Taylor, both of whom are the current Thriller Gods, as far as I'm concerned.

But there are also plenty of lesser-known authors writing quality stuff who don't always get the attention they deserve, and the following are the best books of this year, at least according to my reading tastes, in chronological order.

Gun Metal Gray. There's numerous series about a lone wolf, superhero badass operator who gets into impossible situations and kicks everyone's ass and usually answers directly to POTUS. These books can occasionally be fun, but most of the time they don't hold my interest. Greaney's Gray Man is not only the exception, but also the best action series in print. What separates the Gray Man from the Mitch Rapp/John Clark clones is the morale ambiguity of the series and the lead character, with Court Gentry often caught in ethical predicaments and questioning what he should do; he thinks before he takes action. And then there's the over top, cinematic action scenes that Greaney somehow makes believable. And the complex, multi-layered plots; Greaney's books go way beyond just chasing and torturing Arab terrorists to stop a bomb from going off. Then throw in the accurate, up-to-date details on weapons, tactics, and espionage tradecraft, and the cool titles Greaney has found a winning a formula in this series, and Gun Metal Gray does not disappoint.

Dark Asset.  The fourth book in Adrian Magson's great series about a freelance security contractor who does jobs for the Agency. Sound familiar? Well, Magson does it far better than I can, and all books in this series are worth reading, as are the books in his other series about a British MI5 operator. 

Target Omega. Although this book felt somewhat generic at times, especially in the first half, what separates Peter Kirsanow's debut novel apart from the pack is the above average writing. Kirsanow is a far more intelligent and engaging wordsmith than, say, Thor or Coes. The premise of his book is interesting, and the nature of the threat, an EMP attack, is both original and plausible. His research is also solid. No generals commanding navy ships or characters jumping out of three-story windows while firing a pistol in each hand, or Iranians and Pakistanis with Arab names (I'm looking at you, Mr. Coes). Most importantly, Kirsanow also introduces an interesting lead character and a menacing antagonist whom I'm looking forward to reading more about in next year's Second Strike.

Price of Duty. This is a direct sequel to Dale Brown's previous book, Iron Wolf, so it would be helpful, but necessary, to have read that one first. This book basically shows what an all-out campaign of cyber warfare from Russia would look like; switching off Eastern Europe's power grid, shutting down a nuclear reactor in Romania, disrupting Poland's financial systems, and taking control of a passenger jet to crash it into a target. Responding to the threat is an American private military company working for the Polish government. 

Deep Black. This is the second book in Sean McFate's new mercenary series, and I cannot praise it enough. Do yourself a favor and read it, but only after you read the first one. I also suggest that any aspiring military/spy authors check out McFate's books to see how it's done; the dialogue, the action scenes, the details, everything is perfect and flows well.

Execute Authority. Apparently, this is the last book in Dalton Fury's Delta Force series, and it's the best of the five. Unfortunately, the author died shortly after completing the book, and it doesn't look like the publishers plan to continue the series with a different author. The book ends with a hint at the direction in which he perhaps intended to take his lead character, Kolt Raynor, from there.  Naturally, the one time I'd actually want the publisher to continue a dead author's series, they don't.

The Last Man in Tehran. This book hasn't come out yet, but I have no doubt that it'll be excellent, as have all of Mark Henshaw's other books, especially The Fall of Moscow Station. Henshaw, a former CIA analyst, has become one of my favorite authors. Uniquely for the genre, his main character is a woman. Rarer still, Kyra Stryker is a competent, capable, and well-developed character who comes across as a real person and is not a beautiful, tough as nails, supermodel Black Widow rip-off cookie cutter cliche who can outshoot, outsmart, and kick the ass of any guy.  This CIA-centered series is a basically a realistic alternative to Mitch Rapp or Scott Harvath.

So, go read any of these books if you haven't already.