Office of the Director of National Intelligence

This graphic was recently posted on the International Spy Museum site as a commemoration of the 2005 inception of the position of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It made me wonder how long the idea had been in the works before they decided to implement it.  What a great contribution to our national security. 

Where you do some serious reading... and thinking.

Writing cabins in the woods... seeking out the Muse with his burnt stogie and little bag of dust.

My writing cabin in the woods... newbie author by the word-processor stood... watched the cool story idea floating by, then knocking at my door. "Breathe life into me," he said....

I like Stephen King's version of the Muse... his inspiration for some of his best ideas. He describes him as a big, rough-cut, lumberjack-looking guy with a stogie popping out of one side of his mouth... and bag a magic dust.

I just pulled his quote off of Goodreads (no guarantee it's perfectly accurate):

“There is a muse, but he’s not going to come fluttering down into your writing room and scatter creative fairy-dust all over your typewriter or computer. He lives in the ground. He’s a basement kind of guy. You have to descend to his level, and once you get down there you have to furnish an apartment for him to live in. You have to do all the grunt labor, in other words, while the muse sits and smokes cigars and admires his bowling trophies and pretends to ignore you. Do you think it’s fair? I think it’s fair. He may not be much to look at, that muse-guy, and he may not be much of a conversationalist, but he’s got inspiration. It’s right that you should do all the work and burn all the mid-night oil, because the guy with the cigar and the little wings has got a bag of magic. There’s stuff in there that can change your life. Believe me, I know.”

Not that I'm a fan of King's novels... the horror genre isn't my thing.  But I respect his insight into writing a great deal.  The man has done some SERIOUS listening to the Muse.

New Review of Trident's Flame (2012), Kindle edition

A big THANK YOU to another reviewer, Bridget L. Ferguson - she bought Trident's Flame: A Jake Sloan Adventure (Kindle Edition) for her daughter recently (reviewed on 1Apr13).

She gave it 5 out of 5 stars.

Comments:

"Daughter loved it and wants to read more from this author. That is saying a lot since she is not fond of reading. She chose this book and finished it within the week. Never has she not put a book down. This book was purchased as a kindle read."

THAT is encouraging to hear.  It is the exact reason I wrote Trident's Flame (along with a desire to see readers encouraged in the Lord along the way). 

I remember not reading very much as a kid... even when my buddies were "eating up" sci-fi left and right, books and books, week after week.  For me, it was a book by Kin Platt, The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear, that hooked me.  It was one of the first real stories that caught my attention (it was probably the title that did it... something I could relate to, I imagine).  Platt did a great job of it.  And ever since then I've been more of a reader.  I'm happy Miss Ferguson enjoyed Trident's Flame so much.

 

Well, thank you Mrs. Ferguson, and Miss Ferugson!  I may just get back to volume 2 (Sanctum Threat) and vol 3 (Choke Point) in the near future.  (I've been rather tied up with the efforts to get Trident's Flame into hard copy on CreateSpace... and a little discouraged along the way.  This is just the sort of feedback I needed.  Thank you both.)

Link for the review: http://www.amazon.com/Tridents-Flame-Sloan-Adventure-ebook/product-reviews/B008DM2RCG/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

 

 Here is the Amazon link for Kin Platt's book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Could-Make-Himself-Disappear/dp/044090837X

I had no idea that Mr. Platt passed away as recently as 2003 (or so is says in the short bio I found).

Intel Gathering of Your Internet Use

Check out this article on how the public is being tracked.

Tuesday, 19 March 2013 12:17

The Internet is a surveillance state - March 19

http://www.olivetreeviews.org/news/headlines/item/3015-the-internet-is-a-surveillance-state-march-19

Recently finished The Perfect Assassin (Ward, 2008)

I bought the Kindle version of The Perfect Assassin by Ward Larsen.  It's in my favorite genre.  Turned out to be excellent.  Really like it.  Larsen does an excellent job of pulling the reader in, making the characters likeable and interesting, and he moves the plot forward in leaps, changing the pace with the story, and finally pushing it right through to the end.  Among the best action-espionage novels I've read, and I'd have to say he does a better job of it than Patrick Robinson.  Certainly on par with Brad Taylor. 

Here is the Amazon summary of the book:
One perfect shot will change the course of history. Christine Palmer, a young American doctor sailing solo across the Atlantic, makes an incredible discovery - a man narrowly clinging to his life in the frigid waters. But there is much more to this desperate survivor than meets the eye.David Slaton is a Kidon - a highly-trained, highly-precise, and highly-dangerous assassin. The Kidon is both the hunter and the hunted, and he and Christine are in grave danger. Will they win in this race against time?With the precision of a sharpshooter, author Ward Larsen weaves an intricate tale of espionage and intrigue.

And Larsen's bio from Amazon:
Bestselling author Ward Larsen is a two-time winner of the Florida Book Award. His first thriller, The Perfect Assassin, is currently being adapted into a major motion picture by Amber Entertainment. His work has been nominated for both the Edgar and Macavity Awards. A former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, Larsen flew over twenty missions in Operation Desert Storm. He has also served as a federal law enforcement officer, airline captain, and is a trained aircraft accident investigator.

These are two newer novels of his, both about flight.  Don't think I'll read them as I'm not into aviation, but I'll check them out for sure.  I'll post their ads.

Reading for pleasure, to learn, to improve one's craft

Reading... goes with writing.  

I really like reading, and wish I did more of it.  It seems to come down to the number of available hours in a day.  Sadly, my reading often gets pushed out of the way by other things.  

(I like this recent photo I found... it communicates the theme of loving the written word, the power of words, the experience of reading.)

Over the past couple years I've been reading through three different books on writing.  These authors have become my writing instructors.  Stephen King, Larry Beinhart, and the pair, Irwin & Eyerly.

The books include: Stephen King's On Writing (2010), Larry Beinhart's How to Write a Mystery (1996), and Hadley Irwin & Jeanette Eyerly's 25-year-old Writing Young Adult Novels (1988).  Each of them recommend lots of reading.  Clive Cussler is another whom I pay attention to whenever I hear snippets of his method; he reads quite a bit as well.  

Breaks from writing...

Enough of this means one needs to take a break.

So that's what I've been doing recently.  

Some Espionage Museums

A lipstick pistol, on display at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.







Museums
Some museums where visitors can learn more about the art of espionage:
International Spy Museum, Washington, D.C.
Checkpoint Charlie museum, Berlin, Germany
National Cryptologic Museum, Fort Meade, Md.
Cold War Museum (traveling exhibit)
U-234, Russian spy sub, Hamburg, Germany
Lubyanka KGB Headquarters, Moscow

Recent Exhibit at the International Spy Museum

Here is an interesting espionage topic featured at the International Spy Museum. 

It's an exhibit that deals with the issues and tensions in fear that we face by terrorism and the freedoms we risk losing, either giving in to terrorism or over-stepping our governmental programs. 

Title:  Spies Traitors and Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America

July 15, 2012–January 6, 2013

How should the United States balance civil liberties and individual rights during times of conflict, crisis and fear? Spies, Traitors and Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America, a creation of the International Spy Museum, explores this vital question through video, film, interactive displays and artifacts, offering an unprecedented perspective into the stories of espionage, treason, and deception that Americans have contended with since the founding days of the republic—a subject once again at the nation’s forefront since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

This provocative exhibition explores and raises questions about key events of America’s past—dramatic moments of action, often frightening, and destabilizing—when Americans have felt threatened within their own borders. Visitors will discover the governmental and public reaction, and sometimes over-reaction, that these events have prompted—the development of counterintelligence, the passing of restrictive legislation, and other internal security measures—in order to identify the enemy and keep the nation safe. At interactive stations following the themes of the exhibition—revolution, sabotage, hate, radicalism, world war, subversion, protest, extremism, and terrorism—visitors are able to record their opinions on issues of national security and civil liberties and compare their reactions to those of past Gallup polling results. Spies, Traitors, and Saboteurs both sheds light on these crucial questions and prompts visitors to challenge and discover their own beliefs and assumptions.

Photo credit: Fragment of one of the planes used to attack the World Trade Center in 2001, courtesy of the International Spy Museum.

 The Golder Family Foundation is the lead sponsor for all Special Exhibitions at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. Additional support is provided by Rotarians for Peace.