What You Need To Know About Food for Survival
While water is more important than food, it is also more readily available than food. What do you need to know? Do you know what expiration dates mean? How much food you should have and what kind? What happens to you when you begin to starve? How long can you last? The answers in this […]
Area 51: Interstellar Publication Day!
The latest in the Area 51 series is out today: AREA 51: INTERSTELLAR, and it’s a bit different than the earlier books. Someone who hasn’t read any of the other books can pick this one up and get right into the story. By the end, it loops back to the end of the other books, […]
Happy 197th Birthday, Hiram Ulysses Grant
Happy birthday to my fellow West Point alum, Sam. The story of his name change is just one of many rather interesting facts about Grant’s early years before the Civil War. For more:
The Green Beret Affair in 1969, helped lead to the release of the Pentagon Papers
During the Vietnam War, Special Forces often worked with the CIA on covert intelligence gathering missions. One of those units was Project GAMMA. On 6 August 1969, the commander of 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and 7 other Green Berets were arrested and charged with the murder of a Vietnamese double agent. The free slideshow […]
The American Revolution could have ended on 11 Sept 1776. On Staten Island.
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Admiral Howe held a meeting on that day on the top of Staten Island to discuss halting the conflict even as George Washington’s troops were retreating after their defeat on Long Island. This little known footnote to history might have been more than that if either side had really had […]
The Green Beret series is back; and with free books
With over two million copies sold, the Green Beret series was my first and closest to me. I wrote six initially featuring Dave Riley, starting with Eyes of the Hammer (free on all ebook platforms) through Z: Final Countdown. Then I was into my Area 51 series. I went back to the Green Berets with […]
The State of Publishing and Quitting Writing
I’ve seen a number of posts lately with writers dismayed at the state of the industry and their careers. Which actually, I’ve been hearing ever since I got into this business. Not much new except for the details. It’s always been hard. I’ve been writing for a living for 30 years. Across the board: trad, […]
The Most Important Event in US History? 14 April 1865
We all agree this was a tragic event, but also there seems to be a feeling that since the Civil War was essentially “won” at the time, that it wasn’t earth-shattering. I submit that Lincoln’s assassination is one of, if not the most, important event in our country’s history since the writing of the Constitution. […]
The Pinkertons are Planning for Disaster
Yes, the Pinkertons. When I saw the image with the pink paintballs in the NY Times article, I thought it was some kind of joke; I didn’t think of the Pinkerton Agency. I didn’t even know it still existed. So I didn’t read the article until last night. Essentially, the Pinkertons are getting into assisting […]
Anatomy of a Scene
This is the opening scene of New York Minute— the event that starts everything in motion heading toward a bloody showdown a week later, when the Blackout occurs on 13 July. Thursday Night, 7 July 1977WEST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN On the far side of a lot cluttered with rotting garbage, dumped furniture and torched cars, the […]
History of the High Line
Why was it first built? What happened to it? How did it become a major tourist attraction in New York City?
Son of Sam and the Rise of Tabloid Journalism
Basking the glow of Watergate, the Pentagon Papers and other coups, the press corps was riding hide. Then the perfect storm hit New York City in 1977. Rupert Murdoch bought the venerable NY Post, originally founded by Alexander Hamilton. Son of Sam was in the midst of his spree. The rest changed journalism forever. Here […]
What was the #1 song, album and artist of 1977?
Interesting to research this. I remember most of these songs. 1977 was an interesting year in that several different sounds were converging in different directions: rock, disco, punk was on the rise, etc.