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When guardian sniper Mira Longbow arrives in Amsterdam to take out the head of a global child-smuggling ring, she quickly stumbles across a diabolically creative, high-tech jihad that will bring the West to its knees.
Problem is, she also crosses paths with Jackson Day, an unwanted visitor, and would-be lover from her turbulent past in Iraq. Day is a deadly effective loner assigned to the Army's Asymmetric Warfare Command whose motto (and his) is "Never Fight Fair."
So, when Day shows up to enlist her gift for languages to decipher a tangle of voices recorded of a high-level terror meeting at a remote Iranian safe house, she wants nothing to do with him or his distractions from her mission.
But, after the heat of their first encounter, they put aside their simmering differences when it's clear that Khan Nasiri -- the same wealthy shipping tycoon behind the child bride smuggling operation -- is a terror mastermind who has discovered that every modern fly-by-wire passenger aircraft is a disaster waiting to fall out of the sky.
And Nasiri intends to demonstrate to the world just how easily fly-by-wire can become die-by-wire. Cyber-jihad everywhere, anywhere. Death on demand.
The countdown begins.
And they are the only two people on the planet who can stop it in time.
Die By Wire -- inspired by the real-life story of women snipers who protect innocents in war-torn regions -- brings together a heart-thumping, clock-racing thriller that also tells the shocking true story of the global exploitation of young girls whose plight has been excused by worldwide law enforcement as an acceptable cultural practice.
Joe Montana could sit down and tell me, show me everything he knows. And I’d never be a Montana-league quarterback. I’m a lot better writer than I am a quarterback, and I’ve studied everything about John leCarre’, read everything, analyzed, examined and studied myself to death. And, while my writing may have benefited from that, [...]
The news that astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is supporting the boycott against Israel shows that he — like a lot of other academics and political elites — is very intelligent but lacking in common sense and a solid grasp of reality. The leaders of both Palestine entities support terrorism, suppress freedom of speech and religion, deny [...]
I hate to say that I taught a bunch of Iranian thugs how to reconstitute the shredded documents they found after looting the American Embassy in Tehran. Nope, it wasn’t a bunch of little carpet weavers as one story goes, or child labor as Argo played it. Nope. Turns out to be my fault. The [...]
My computer is my writing tool. So, when Microsoft finally scored an own-goal with Windows 8, I solved my problem late last year by buying a MacBook. This after nothing but DOS, then Windows machines since 1984. I take the MacBook everywhere, so I needed a second power brick to travel. The charger at the [...]
The Federal Aviation Administration is wrong and either misinformed or involved in a cover-up when it says hackers can’t take over a modern aircraft: Authorities dismiss alleged airplane hijack hack. If you click on that link, please read the comments. They are far more intelligent, thoughtful and illuminating than the FAA’s. Truth is that neither [...]
Hijacking airplanes with an Android phone is SO three years ago! Why? Because this thriller, Die By Wire details an even more effective way to do this. I wrote it more than three years ago. I was published in December 2011. The following two links will offer more insight into the hack that goes far [...]
“SIKHS built four doors to the Golden Temple at Amritsar, in north India, to welcome believers from all four corners of their earth. But in the five centuries since, few religions have followed that tolerant example. Hindus and Muslims fight fiercely over religious ruins in ancient Ayodhya. Christians have long wrangled among themselves, and with [...]
I was wandering around my office the other day looking for a copy of one of my older thrillers. And ran across a section that contains some of the foreign editions. I think I’ve been translated into 23 languages and don’t know how many countries that spans. I stopped. And realized that in the press [...]
I originally wrote this piece for Dvorak Uncensored, the blog for my good friend, John Dvorak. Not the useful four-legged species that give us sweaters and butterflied leg of lamb with mint jelly. Nope, we’re talking the far less helpful, two-legged kind, you know: Democrats and Republicans. A USA Today Poll out today identified the [...]
When all the bets are down on a particular book and a bestseller is what’s gotta happen, publishers — and now authors — have ways of buying their way onto the bestseller lists. I’m not talking just about the megabucks for megabooks promotions that anointed authors can count on. SLEAZE ROCKET LAUNCH IN 3 … [...]
Well, good economic news for me. I got a check in the mail this week for royalties from the Greek edition of my book, Daughter of God (one of my thrillers ripped off by The Da Vinci Code). It’s always good to get an unexpected check. But that happened because super agent Natasha Kern was [...]
No Crying. Instead, we should be praying for resurrection through vision, critical thinking and the outmoded notion of customer service. First independent book stores blamed chains like Barnes & Noble for stealing their customers. Then Crown Books went under. And Borders made a big splat. They blamed Amazon. B&N is the last brick-and-mortar titan standing [...]
From the Jan 24, 2013 issue of USA Today: “WASHINGTON — Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may be suffering from the 20-year-old set of symptoms known as Gulf War Illness, according to a new report released Wednesday by the federal Institute of Medicine. ” ‘Preliminary data suggest that (chronic multisymptom illness) is [...]
In all my thrillers, I try to make things as authentic and real by personally doing what my characters do — within the realm of ethics, legality and personal ability. While the act of using a weapon or engaging in particular activities can be demanding, the process makes it easier in the long run to [...]
TODAY’S NEWS, ITEM ONE: For second time in month, man pushed to death in New York subway TODAY’S NEWS, ITEM TWO: Suspect in homeless woman’s burning is mentally ill, police say Sick people do sick things. They can do them with a car, a can of gasoline, knives, poison and guns. The coming emotional debate [...]
The New York Times asserts that fiction has lost its faith. “[I]f any patch of our culture can be said to be post-Christian, it is literature. Half a century after Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Reynolds Price and John Updike presented themselves as novelists with what O’Connor called “Christian convictions,” their would-be successors are thin on [...]
When I read reviews of my books, one of the things that I am most proud of are the comments from people who know a place, a method, a system, a weapon and who mention that I have captured the correct look, feel and emotions associated with them. The best way I know how to [...]
Look out! The sun has started to revolve around the Earth again. “A gaggle of energetic and amusing, mostly anonymous, neuroscience bloggers — including Neurocritic, Neuroskeptic, Neurobonkers and Mind Hacks — now regularly point out the lapses and folly contained in mainstream neuroscientific discourse. This group, for example, slammed a recent Newsweek article in which [...]
When I read this recent essay by Stephen King yesterday — IMAGERY AND THE THIRD EYE — I realized one of the reasons I hate the thriller I am trying to finish. I’m sick of it. The main reason I hate the process is that I originally wrote most of the book more than 25 [...]
I have left more bodies strewn along the streets and alleys of Amsterdam and in her canals than any other city in the world. I love Amsterdam. Most of my books have been translated into Dutch. And though the Dutch market — like the overall population of The Netherlands — is relatively small, I’m [...]
All we are is memories and time. Think about that for a moment while I explain a different approach I am taking with some of my writing. I’ve tried for decades to deal with deep issues … serious things … in the context of my main fiction genre, thrillers. I put the thoughts — and [...]
Radical Egyptian Clerics Seek to Legalise Child Brides Pedophile sex traffickers are the sorts of perverts that heroine Mira Longbow goes after in Die By Wire
Click to enlarge. And click that one for full size. A Veteran’s Day salute to my uncle, LTC Buddy Barner, USAF. I dedicated my book Perfect Killer to him and wrote him in as a character before he died. More images here.
David Stone is, for my reading taste, one of the best writers on the planet in any genre. His ability to use the best possible words to evoke a mood, describe a character or set a scene just resonates with me … and makes me envious as hell. Below are a few of my favorite [...]
Vonnegut for President! Platform: Cat’s Cradle. Slogan (from Chapter 4): “All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.” Clearly a man of his word! He has my vote!
And the meme goes on! Actual weight 45 pounds (four 10-lb plates plus bar. Since I don’t have those cool House of Reps gym barbells, I must assemble my own from what’s around my garage gym. And … I’m just funnin’ here. This is not an endorsement or a put-down. I’m a registered Democrat who [...]
This blog post on io9 is an awesome one: 8 Great Questions We’ll Never Solve. We’ll never answer them, but there is an existential imperative to keep asking them and to wrestle our own private angels (or demons) for an answer. If you’re an atheist, wrestle because you can prove the answer. Otherwise, wrestle because [...]
Tesla Lives Here Edison Lives There Fluorescents, mercury vapor lamps, neon, modern. Alternating current More heat than light. Energy waster. So yesterday. Read The Tesla Bequest, now a Kindle ebook at at Amazon.
Lots of people just turn away when confronted with the reality of the icky-ness of what an obstetric fistula is. Totally gross. GET OVER IT! And help the 30,000 – 50,000 women who suffer from this EVERY YEAR. Read my last post, (Watch PBS, Help Fight Today’s Primitive Horror Against Women) then … DO IT [...]
The horror of child brides extends far beyond stolen childhoods and includes horrendous injuries and death. As I’ve written recently on the web and in my book Die By Wire, it’s a primitive practice abandoned in the developed world, but perpetuated and justified today by cultural Islamists who insist that Islam’s founder deflowered a young [...]
Out of my own personal spiritual interest — and in then process of research for faith-driven thrillers like Die By Wire, Perfect Killer and Daughter of God — I have read the Qu’ran from beginning to end at least three times. If the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) were alive today, his protest would [...]
Molly Ringwald wrote a very interesting piece recently for the New York Times: Act Like a Writer. “The appeal of diving into a character has always been the back story: everything that my character has been through up to the point when the audience first encounters her. I have eagerly invented intricate histories that I [...]
We have no more giants in politics. Greatness has fled the national stage. We are a country of excuses and naysayers who ask “why?” instead of “why not?” “Who dares, wins” is not just an SAS motto, it’s a philosophy increasingly lost among the 50% of Americans who get government benefits and pay no taxes. [...]
A few blocks south of Bay Street. Near a ritzy private bank. My heroine was responsible for three of the mortalities. All very bad guys. She’s very good. Right now, her name is Petra Armstrong, but I am not fond of the name. (Abject apologies if that’s your name … no offense. Really!) If you [...]
I’m setting up a system for anyone who likes my books to be my equal partner … sell a book through Smashwords, make 50% of what I make. Smashwords system is a little complicated right now, so son William is doing some programming that will make it very, very easy for you. I’d like to [...]
Branding expert David Vinjamuri has written an astonishingly intelligent piece in Forbes that nails just about all the most salient issues dividing indie and traditional publishing. No matter what side of this issue you’re on, you’ll be better informed after reading his piece: Publishing Is Broken, We’re Drowning In Indie Books – And That’s A [...]
In the process of writing the last post (Fifty Shades Of Book Sex?),I was Googling around for some Sidney Sheldon background and came across Writing a Sex Scene by writer Jessica Barksdale Inclán who actually taught this at UCLA Extension. Humorous, informative and on target. Read this if you’re thinking of writing one. The entire post [...]
Okay, after a score of books and a bunch of bestsellers with traditional publishers, I threw in my lot late last year with Amazon. Did my first indie book. Things initially looked very good. Then went to Hell. I did their exclusive “Select Program” and sold a ton of Kindle copies of Die By Wire. [...]
Facebook tells me “John Friendly sent you a message in Klout.” Well, John Friendly is a pseudonym for a FB friend. So I click on the link and enter a user Hell that only malware and porn sites could manufacture. So, I sent this to my buddy: Hey man I think you sent me a [...]
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