…from my latest walkabout, bearing gifts, insights, and tales to tell.
Gifts:
I sometimes forget to mention that I write novels. Thrillers, most recently in a genre someone smarter than me labeled as “gunfighter noir” and someone else refers to as “gun-porn.” Either or suits me just fine. They’re fun to write and according to my many readers, fun to read. I have a series going now about the adventures of a former special operator and his fringe-dwelling friends in the place where crime and special operations intersect. The first two books are titled JOHNNY WYLDE and TOO’S WYLDE. I left TOO’S WYLDE on a cliff-hanging note, which infuriated some and tantalized others. And I’m *way* overdue on the next book. So I’m putting it up a chapter at a time, roughly at one week intervals. The chapters are available *only* on Smashwords, nowhere else, and for those of you actually loyal enough to keep checking back here after my three month hiatus, here’s a gift:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/306911
And when you get there, enter this code when you check out: DW35Q
You can then download the chapter for free — until midnight tomorrow. For my blog viewers only!
Insights:
I’ll be resurrecting my rambling discussion on the mental aspects of high performance training in coming posts; I’ve had some amazing discussions with various people at the cutting edge over the last few months and will have some cool revelations herein. Stay tuned for that.
Yesterday I was tasked, as I often am, by various mainstream media outlets to do my “talking head” bit about terrorism, specifically in regard to the Boston incident. One thing I shared with the audience(s) were my thoughts on how to utilize situational awareness skills in a context where bombing incidents take place and how one might specifically prepare for being involved or close to such an incident. I’ll do a more detailed post on that soon.
I have a ton of very cool gear reviews to post up, ranging from shoes to knives to knife sharpeners and shooting doo-dads to survival/prep gear.
I also have a series of insights to be posted on the rise of corruption and the decay of customer service in the public sector as well as in the private; these will no doubt piss some people off (deservedly) and enlighten others. We’ll see.
Tales:
THREE’S WYLDE progresses; my beta readers love it. Check it out and let me know what you think. Why the serial approach? I first discussed the idea about a year ago with some other writers, most of whom poo-poohed it. I’ve watched with interest best-selling sci-fi author John Scalzi kick it in the ass with his serial book, and the Wall Street Journal recently did an article on the resurgence of the serial publication. I think it’s perfectly suited for digital consumption, as most of my readers read on smartphones, tablets or Kindle/Nook/etc. It gives them a bite sized piece that can be read and digested in a shorter period of time between other activities and keeps them interested in what I’m doing. Or so it seems.
I’m also negotiating with a major publisher about a new genre: military science fiction. I grew up on science fiction and fantasy, and I’m honestly getting tired of the “thriller” genre…the current crop of thriller novels all look the same to me, which is why I took my own work more in the “gunfighter noir” direction — which is more fun to write and more interesting. The cognitive neuroscience research I’ve been involved in has opened up all sorts of dramatic opportunities to explore. So I’m going to go down that path and see how it works out. I’ll be posting some here and, as always, giving some away to my loyal beta readers to see how they take it. I’m working on a fusion of sci-fi with the hard action/noir elements of my thriller novels, and I think it may just be the most fun yet.
I have some pieces that will appear on John Robb’s excellent www.resilientcommunities.com blog (now edited by Shlok Vadiya!); some of those in a different variation may appear here.
I’m returning in some part to my old journo roots; I spent much of the 90s and early 2000’s as one of the few freelance journalists to genuinely make a living at it. I have some pieces upcoming in major media outlets and I will link to them here.
Thanks for hanging around; I’ll be posting more regularly. At least for now!
cheers, m