The Dawn Patrol

I have long known that I do my best work in the early morning. Since I was a kid, I have always been the first one up in the house. When I was a flight instructor I always opted for the early morning hops and when I take a long car trip I leave in the middle of the night so as to see the dawn develop along my route to my destination.

As I start writing this next story, for which the title is evolving, I began the narrative in the hours before dawn on a flying field in France in 1918. My drives in to work help, because in this season of short days, the sun is just coming up as I make my way out of the hills toward my campus office.

This is a time of day when the air is crisp and the colors of the clouds turn with the shafts of sunlight coming through the layers and patterns left from the night. The best part is that there is no one about and for me, in trying to imagine a scene or recollect a place I have been, so that it becomes real in the story I can play with the words and hopefully "paint" the scene.

I have also sensed a change in the process of writing for me. In Shadow Soldiers I kept the pace of writing by trying to get words down on paper as much as an assembly line worker tries to get the pieces of his/her work done. There would be time to finesse things later, I thought. But now it is all about content, feeling and the realities of people's interactions. A big difference for me as a writer and I hope a better story for the reader.

Great News! Shadow Soldiers is now available for the iPad/ibook

As a new author, one of the most surprising lessons to learn is how hard it is to get anyone to pay attention to your book. A few friends might try to read it, or buy a copy out of sympathy (I'm not sure if my girlfriend will read it.). Still, if you believe in what you write and most importantly, write from your guts, then how can it be wrong? So, I am plunging into the next story, a bit of a prequel to Shadow Soldiers and I am having a good time with it.

I am thrilled that Shadow Soldiers is now available in paperback from Amazon.com.

In Print

Shadow Soldiers will now be available in print from Amazon as well as in Kindle or eReader format on Lulu.com.

Thanks for reading!

A New Book

After going through the hub-bub of trying to get published I have been mulling over several new story lines. I like the period before the Second World War much because there was so many threads twisting together and separating as people tried to adjust to a new world. Unlike the aftermath of that war when the US and the USSR faced off against one another, the hopes of the newly-independent nations of Europe gave rise to new ideas and new ambitions. But for Americans, the move toward isolation and feigned ignorance of world politics became an unhealthy habit.

So, there are threads that I am working out, drawing on my background in aviation, history, politics and banking. I hope to have a new title and draft well underway in the next few weeks.

Published for Kindle

Shadow Soldiers is now available on Amazon.com for Kindle readers.

Look for Shadow Soldiers on Kindle

Shadow Soldiers will be available on Kindle from Amazon in the next few days.

Thanks for your help

With the publication of Shadow Soldiers I would like to thank my editor, Judith Waterman for all her help in making the book a reality. I also want to thank Milijana Dukovic, for her work on the cover and artwork.

Shadow Soldiers is available

My new novel Shadow Soldiers is now available on Lulu.com as an eBook. I started the manuscript in August 2010 shortly after arriving in New Jersey. The novel is set in the time just before the outbreak of war in 1939, a time that I find fascinating because of the impact those years had on so many millions of people, yet those same people seemed so incapable of seeing the danger looming before them.

Ready for Publishing

My new book, Shadow Soldiers, will be out shortly on Lulu.com

Finishing the book

There is a great sense of relief and accomplishment as I have just finished my second novel, "Shadow Soldiers". It is an espionage story set in 1939 and involves getting refugees out of Hitler's Europe. I will be publishing this for e-books via Lulu.com