Book Review - Pegasus Down

After finishing this incredibly fast paced, action packed, thrill ride (literally) I came away with one question: Can you actually fly a Boeing 727 jet two hundred feet above the ground at over one hundred and fifty miles an hour in a thunderstorm, blind, with the only directions given by somebody in an AWACs plane a couple hundred miles away? Donlay certainly made me believe that you could. Philip Donlay’s books are to flying like Zane Grey’s stories are to big game fishing. To do it right you have to know how it’s done. An important and critical point of a Donlay thriller is that the technology does not get in the way of the story. Not easy to do with Gulfstream jets, helicopters, and commercial jets as characters seemingly in their own right. While, at times, a little (ok, a lot) of over the top action, Pegasus Down is one more reason why we read Philip Donlay’s Donovan Nash stories. This is a jet fueled international escapade with rough, tough bad guys that seldom allow the niceties of civilization get in the way of their evil ambitions.

The Lone Wolf Cover

First off, let me say right up front (full disclosure and denial) that this post does not intend to make fun of, advertise, point fingers at, or imply that I endorse (or have read for that matter) the following books. What I am hoping to point out that within genres of writing (horror, romance, historical fiction, etc.) there are ubiquitous cover designs that have become old and stale. Every publisher does it. I say publisher because we all know that in the traditional publishing world we authors have as much chance as deciding the cover design as my books have winning the Pulitzer or some other important literary prize.

One cover design that seems to be on almost one out of five thriller/mystery covers is what I call the Lone Wolf: single figure, usually in silhouette, standing (or running, or fleeing, or holding a gun), in the center of the cover. Variations include tunnels (James Bond 007ish), hallways, wooded lanes, and the beckoning light at the end of the tunnel. There are literally thousands of covers out there. Every great writer in the genre has a cover or two with the single character standing alone against an ominous background: Harlan Coben, John Grisham, Vince Flynn, even Michael Connelly have done it.

While mostly men, lone wolf women are coming into their own. Maybe it’s the hips, the shape, the “in your face” attitude they can project that is stronger than the male. There are also couples (walking hand in hand and also fleeing and running). Sunsets and nuclear explosions are good for background halos here.

What drives these covers is the dominating theme of the Lone Wolf in the thriller genre theses days: the Jack Reachers, Sam Spades, Hieronymus Boschs, Mitch Rapps and dozens of others. One man or woman against the system and the bad guys, out to save the world or, at least, his own ass and those of his friends. Justice/vengeance is the big thing.

 

These will never go away—not that they should. But remember that your book may get lost in the all the noise, the intent and execution is paramount. Also note the title fonts, most of these covers pull off the title well—and that is the most important part of the cover.

Here are some I’ve pulled from the web, and most of these are recently published. Love them or hate them, they are here to stay.

More Later . . . . . . .

A Couple of Book Reviews

Her Final Breath by Robert Dugoni

One wonders if the second book in a series will be as good as the first. In Robert Dugoni’s Her Final Breath, he more than pulls it off. In fact, he nails it. Detective Tracy Crosswhite investigates the murders of exotic dancers in Seattle’s North District and can not find a clue as to who or why someone is brutally killing these girls. She is drawn in, with her partner Kinsington Rowe, to the seamy side of Seattle that tourists try to avoid – at least those tourists from Ohio and like places. Dugoni parades a cast of characters through the book that seem to be normal on one hand and absolutely bat sh#t crazy on the other. Her Final Breath also weaves past internal police ineptitude with current police politics. Crosswhite’s boss, Johnny Nolasco, would rather see the wrong guy convicted than find the right killer he missed years earlier.

Dugoni has created a dynamic, strong, and yet vulnerable character in Tracy Crosswhite worthy of many more stories. There are few strong women in thrillers these days, and Crosswhite is one of the few. His next book In The Clearing, is due out in May, 2016. I look forward to it.

I'm into serious research for my next World War Two thriller as a follow up to a manuscript under editing at the moment (more on this in a later blog). The new book will look at the post war changes that developed in an around the Mediterranean Sea - including the partition and eventual founding of the nation of Israel. This drew me again to a serious book I hadn't read for maybe fifty years, Exodus by Leon Uris.

Uris has always been one of my favorite writers who dealt not only with war and the impacts these conflicts have on his characters, but the real history behind the conflict and why things happened the way they happened. He does not sugar coat history or his characters.

Exodus by Leon Uris (1924-2003)

Published in 1958, Uris develops, in Exodus, the story of the people that formed Jewish Palestine and eventually the start of the state of Israel. There is far more in the book the the 1960 movie starring Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint could ever portray. Uris gives us the rich, and more often than not, brutal history of those that fled the Russian programs, survived the Nazis death camps, and had lived for three thousand years in the narrow strip of ancient lands that three major religions claims as theirs.

Exodus, written within ten years of the end of WWII and the partition United Nations portion of the lands of Palestine that became Israel, captures the realities of the region. A reality that in most ways has not changed in the last seventy years. We are fond of revisionist histories that make us feel good and paint scenes that are rosy - Uris paints no such picture.

This is the story of a people striving to create something new out of chaos and misfortune so hideous we can not imagine what they went through to reach Israel. It is also a story of a world that, even after the war's end, was still in the thrall of the oil companies, corrupt governments, bigotry, inept leaders, and opportunists.

His characters are richly developed, the story easy to follow, and the scene descriptions more than competent and imaginable. It stands as one of the best books of the twentieth century.

It is also a story of hope, salvation, and success. I highly recommend the book as well as Leon Uris's other books (go here). 

More Later . . . . . .

The 10 Best and Worst Inventions of the 21st Century - So Far

Obviously this is my list, while most of these are on a lot of people's lists there are many others not included. We each have our favorites.


1. The Keurig Coffee maker (K-Cup) – while technically from the latter part of the 1990s, this appliance caught on in the after being wholly acquired by Keurig Green Mountain Coffee and revolutionized the coffee industry as much as Starbucks changed coffee drinking. Starting in 2008, innumerable brands of coffee, soup, tea, became available at the local supermarket for the machine. I love the thing, and don’t start with all the baloney about the throw away cups. I ask you, how many wine and liquor bottles did you toss this week? And what about that countertop roll of paper towels that you replace each week? And at 5:00 a.m. who wants to make a full pot of coffee? 

2.  Apple iPad (2010) and the ensuing wave of personal tablets. If one item changed how we deal with everything from entertainment to logistics it was the invention of the iPad and its imitators. In your hand you can contain a library, access to patients records, maintain shipping records, managed inventories, display restaurant menus, and even waste innumerable hours playing WarCraft. I actually invented the original reader tablet (go here), I was just fifteen years too early.

3. The (now) ubiquitous Smartphone. While the successor to a number of late 20^th century PDAs and Blackberries, the iPhone (2007) set off the mad scramble to change how we entertain, interact, and access the world around us. While a lot like the tablet, the Smartphone’s advantage was its cellular connection, size/portability, and ever-expanding world of Applications (Apps). It has also lead to police citations for distracted driving, users injured after walking into poles, ponds, and crosswalks, and more selfies than the world should ever need or want. In fact the selfie might be considered a 21^st century sub-invention of the Smartphone.

4. Facebook (2004). This social media application took the world like Genghis Khan did in the 13^th century. No description is necessary – if you don’t know what this is you probably are in the 13^th century. I often believe that Facebook is like being forced to spend the rest of your life at your Aunt Milly’s with her cats being required to go through the photo albums of her bus trip to Bulgaria in 1973 with Trump driving and Hillary doing the tour guide thing.

5. Print On Demand – POD

Like most technologies, POD is a derivative of the high-speed reproduction systems developed during the last forty years (Xerox, Minolta, etc.). POD differs in that with one machine produces a professional book of fiction or non-fiction a in less than five minutes (often much less). The Espresso Book Machine (Xerox) was first installed in 2007. This is both a physical invention and a data system using interrelated tools for data storage (book files), sales access (book page at Amazon, etc.), and input (authors/publishers). It has dramatically changed and expanded the number of books (paper) available.

6. Amazon Kindle (2007) and the eBook. I ask you, does an ebook really exist? Without a reading device such as the Amazon Kindle and subsequent tablets, or iPad, or smartphone, or even you computer, the ability to read an ebook is impossible. Yet, this electronic collection of whatever it is has revolutionized – and I mean revolutionized – the world of writing and publishing. I would offer that more than 90% of those with a tablet device or a computer have downloaded at least one ebook—admit it. Jeff Bezos and Amazon not only changed how we buy books but how we read them as well.

7. The Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDOs). I didn’t say they would all be positive - go see the movie the Big Short Wikipedia Says : In the early 2000s, CDOs were generally diversified,^[5] but by 2006–2007—when the CDO market grew to hundreds of billions of dollars—this changed. CDO collateral became dominated not by loans, but by lower level (BBB or A) tranches recycled from other asset-backed securities, whose assets were usually non-prime mortgages, and are known as Synthetic CDO. These CDOs have been called "the engine that powered the mortgage supply chain" for nonprime mortgages,^[7] and are credited with giving lenders greater incentive to make non-prime loans^[8] leading up to the 2007-9 subprime mortgage crisis. And the world was given the Great Recession and the destruction of my company.

8. YouTube (2005). And yes, you can become a movie producer of cat and puppy videos all in the comfort of your own home. You too can put your wedding movies out there for everyone to see, and yes this simple company and its camp followers has led to the destruction of the traditional porn industry – is nothing sacred? YouTube Movie production is the direct result of the blending of softwares, cameras, phones, and creative genius (for some), and is now significantly responsible for how we store old memories (digitization) and create new ones.

9. Google Earth (2001). For armchair travelers, planners, geographic voyeurs, and vacation planners, Google Earth is just plain cool. With its 3D function you can get a feel for the land
 nd the structures of cities, with its street view walk or drive the cities and countries of much of the world. Combined with its ad features for hotels, businesses, restaurants, and almost everything else that pays to play, it can make a business. (also includes Google Maps here).

10. DNA Testing.

AncestryDNA, 23and Me, Family Tree, etc. are all companies that will test your DNA to try and place your genetic ancestry based on their huge pool of DNA tests. Like the commercial though, you may think you were German and discover that you are really Scottish, or Norwegian, or Dalmatian (the region, not the dog). Not done this myself, kind of spooky out their in my gene pool.


Also Rans:

• iPod (2001)
• Bluetooth (2000ish)
• Skype (2003)
• Robotics – ongoing for the wounded and injured
• Drones – I am so tired of them
• Tesla Electric Car – While cool, I think its financial success is still debatable
• Roomba Vacuum Cleaner (2002)
• Flat Screen TVs – Smart TV
• NetFlix (late 20^th century DVD – but took off in the digital world)
• Medical devices for the heart, pancreas and other organs
• Innumerable international political organizations – most corrupt and derivative

New Years Resolutions For Writers

It is my opinion that writers, more than most, make New Years Resolution in numbers far beyond the normal guilt ridden lists of regular folks. Much of it due to the stack of incomplete manuscripts stuffed in folders spread across the computer screen, stacks of notebooks, unread novels, and a general dissatisfaction with the state of their work. So out come the goals, the lists, and the resolutions for the coming year.

Most writer’s resolutions tend to be along these lines:

1.  Finish the current Work In Progress (WIP) by April 1, and this is not a joke.
2.  Have the last WIP run through Grammerly and get it off to the editor (confirm loan at bank).
3. Follow-up with that agent you met at Bouchercon who was so interested in your work that she actually remembered you on day two of the conference. Get WIP ready.
4. Update Curriculum Vitae for the New Year. Remember to include the mention of that novel that won Best New Author from the local affiliate of the Nora Roberts Book Club – also update all book descriptions—this is important, get done by end of February.
5. Sign up for at least three  two writer’s conferences, ask partner if they like Utah.
6. Try to meet Michael Connelly, get autograph. If not him, try for Lee Child or David Baldacci.
7.  Start outlining and spit-balling the new follow-up sequel to that thriller wasting away in that stack of papers on the shelf. Goal: If there are two books in the series a publisher might be more interested.
8. Back up everything on the computers, do it now. Or at least, by the end of the month – remember what happened last time!
9. Two options: Drink less or drink better.
10. Take 2015 Resolution list pinned to corkboard and place in manila folder of Past Resolutions. Do not look at previous lists.

So, as you can see my list is little different than yours. Maybe the order, maybe the direction, but without a doubt the phrase “Stop Procrastinating” seems to cover them all.

Make 2016 the most productive and creative year of your career.

Happy New Year