C.G. Faulkner's Blog, page 3
April 12, 2017
Recommended Spy Thriller Books
Some of my favorite espionage books; movies have been made of most of these…
‘The Man With the Golden Gun’ by Ian Fleming; the final James Bond book written by his creator.
‘Patriot Games’ by Tom Clancy; the best of his Jack Ryan series.
‘The Eagle Has Landed’ by Jack Higgins; a great WW2 caper.
‘The IPCRESS File’ by Len Deighton; the first of what would later be called the ‘Harry Palmer’ books.
‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ by John LeCarre; my favorite of the George Smiley books.
‘Colonel Sun’ by Robert Markham (Kingsley Amis); the first 007 continuation book after Fleming’s death.
‘The Bourne Identity’ by Robert Ludlum, the beginning of the popular series.
‘The Mack Bolan (Executioner) Series’ by Don Pendleton, etc.; formulaic, but enjoyable, series.
‘The Remo Williams (Destroyer) Series’ by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, same as above.
‘Death of a Citizen’ by Donald Hamilton, the first Matt Helm book. Though I’m sure there are others, Hamilton is the only author (aside from myself) I know of that wrote in both the Spy and Western (‘The Big Country’) genres…
Happy Reading,
C.G. Faulkner
April 11, 2017
Spy Pages
These are some of my favorite pages to visit regarding the spy genre…Check them out!
International Spy Museum
The Cold War Museum
http://www.coldwar.org/index.asp
Central Intelligence Agency-Official Site
https://www.cia.gov/index.html
Spybrary- for fans of Spy books/movies both fact and fiction
https://www.facebook.com/spybrary/
Kiss Kiss Kill Kill Archive
https://www.kisskisskillkillarchive.com/
MI6-The Home of James Bond 007
Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)-Official Site
April 10, 2017
Lyrics to ‘Solitary Man’
“Solitary Man”, as sung by Neil Diamond in 1966. If I were fortunate enough to ever have a movie made of this book, this would have to be the titles theme. It works as a great title, and as a codename for Agent Fortner. It describes his situation, and many others, at different times in life, very well. And in case anyone is wondering, titles to songs, movies, books etc. are not copyrighted, as most are too common a phrase for only one person to have the right to use. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ34.pdf
“Solitary Man”
Written by Neil Diamond
Melinda was mine
‘Til the time that I found her
Holding Jim, loving him
Then Sue came along, loved me strong
That’s what I thought
Me and Sue, but that died too
Don’t know that I will
But until I can find me
The girl who’ll stay
And won’t play games behind me
I’ll be what I am
A solitary man, solitary man
I’ve had it to here
Bein’ where love’s a small word
Part-time thing, paper ring
I know it’s been done
Havin’ one girl who’ll love me
Right or wrong, weak or strong
Don’t know that I will
But until I can find me
The girl who’ll stay
And won’t play games behind me
I’ll be what I am
A solitary man, solitary man
(instrumental)
Don’t know that I will
But until I can find me
The girl who’ll stay
And won’t play games behind me
I’ll be what I am
A solitary man
Solitary man
Author’s Note ‘Solitary Man’
Author’s Note
I wrote this, the sequel to ‘The Edge of Reality’, as a story that delves more into the Vietnam War background of Jeff Fortner, and as a way to help his character recover from the tragic losses of his first adventure (though he, once again, loses friends in this adventure, also).
The Weather Underground, or Weathermen, was a real leftist/communist domestic terrorist group of the 1960s -1980s that carried out bombings of Police Departments, the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol and other ‘establishment’ locations. Some even had KGB connections and training, and one of their actual slogans, from the ‘Days of Rage’ event in 1969, was ‘Bring the War Home’. In more recent years they were in the news again because of the associations connecting some former members with a particular (now former) U.S. President….some vindication for Joe McCarthy, I’d say.
While the Weathermen never carried out anything as audacious as the plot their (fictional) members attempt in this story, I thought that some of them would have if they could have. They were certainly ‘useful idiots’ for the Soviet’s Cold War agenda against the West, regardless; and in this story, for the evil General Saiophong’s plans.
Today, you hear a lot about drones, in both their military, and civilian, applications. Drones, such as the altered Ryan Firebees in this story, have actually been around, in their modern military usage, since the 1950s. The idea of a ‘dirty bomb’, while in the 21st Century, is a terrorism concern, has also been around since the 1950’s, with the ‘Castle Bravo’ hydrogen bomb test incident of 1954.
There are links below for further reading. Jeff Fortner will return to endure the Soviet Gulag, face Terrorist Hijackers, and team up with his estranged father, in ‘White Room’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Reconnaissance_Battalion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Weatherman_actions
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/weather-underground-bombings
http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hochiminh.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Firebird#First_generation_.281967.E2.80.931969.29
March 12, 2017
The Jeff Fortner Trilogy Book Trailers
March 10, 2017
Lyrics to ‘The Edge of Reality’
“The Edge of Reality”, as sung by Elvis Presley in 1968. If I were fortunate enough to ever have a movie made of my upcoming book, this would have to be the titles theme. While the phrase has multiple meanings in my book, I was obviously inspired to use it as a title by this, my favorite Elvis song. And in case anyone is wondering, titles to songs, movies, books etc. are not copyrighted, as most are too common a phrase for only one person to have the right to use. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ34.pdf
“Edge Of Reality”
Written by Florence Kaye, Bernie Baum, Bill Giant
I walk along a thin line darling
Dark shadows follow me
Here’s where life’s dream lies disillusioned
The edge of reality
Oh I can hear strange voices echo
Laughing with mockery
The border line of doom I’m facing
The edge of reality
On the edge of reality she sits there tormenting me
The girl with the nameless face
On the edge of reality where she overpowers me
With fears that I can’t explain
She drove me to the point of madness
The brink of misery
If she’s not real then I’m condemned to
The edge of reality
On the edge of reality she sits there tormenting me
The girl with the nameless face
On the edge of reality where she overpowers me
With fears that I can’t explain
She drove me to the point of madness
The brink of misery
If she’s not real then I’m condemned to
The edge of reality
Reality, reality, reality, reality,
Reality, reality, reality, reality
Author’s Note ‘The Edge of Reality’
Author’s Note
I wrote this book after completing my first Western, ‘Unreconstructed’. Along with Westerns, the Espionage genre has always been one of my favorites. I grew up watching spy movies, especially the James Bond, 007 series, based on Ian Fleming’s creation. I originally thought of this story when I realized that (to my knowledge) there hadn’t been a spy story about attempted sabotage of America’s moonshot. I then thought of a protagonist for the story, thinking of someone with the heroics of James Bond, but perhaps more relatable, and different from most spy story heroes. He is a divorced, U.S.M.C. Vietnam vet that isn’t a womanizer or heavy drinker, and that prefers to spend his downtime in an isolated cabin in the woods of Georgia, listening to Elvis Presley’s music, reading, and eating barbeque sandwiches with domestic beer. This is about as far as you can get from the jet setting, shaken-martini sipping 007. I then thought of how I could link my Spy hero and my Western one. Make him the great great grandson of Tom Fortner; and Jeff Fortner was born. The three generations in between Tom and Jeff will each have their own trilogy, as I work toward completion of the series. Think of Tom in the reconstruction era 1860s and Jeff in the tumultuous 1960s as the ‘book-ends’ of the saga.
While this story, and any minor technical mistake one might find in it, is completely my own, there are certainly conspiracy theories out there that the Apollo 1 tragedy was a possible sabotage, and that there may have been a KGB plot against Apollo 8. With the Soviets losing the race to the moon, it’s certainly plausible that some in the KGB may have had ideas of delaying or destroying the Apollo 11, one of America’s greatest glories. Fortunately, this never happened, and our moon program was a success. There are links below for further reading. Jeff Fortner will return to Vietnam to confront an old enemy in ‘Solitary Man’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Riviera
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_%26_Wesson_Model_19
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_and_the_Soviet_Union
http://www.clavius.org/bibhill.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/library/report/2007/deep-politics-4.htm
https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/history-of-the-cia
[image error]
https://www.amazon.com/Edge-Reality-Thriller-Fortner-Family-ebook/dp/B06XHGZGXV/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
February 19, 2017
The Adventures of the Home For Supper Kids Book Trailer
My daughter, a talented young filmmaker, has created a great trailer to help promote my latest book. It can be viewed on the YouTube link below. Please take a look!
February 6, 2017
Author’s Introduction ‘The Adventures of the Home for Supper Kids’
Author’s Introduction
I wrote the three stories in this book to read to my children. At the time, I didn’t think they were quite old enough to read my more adult (PG-13) Western and Spy Trilogies, but I wanted to introduce them to the world of the Fortner Family.
So I decided to tell some stories from the childhood of Ethan Fortner (Cowboy Tom’s great grandson, and the future father of Spy Jeff). Ethan is eleven years old in the summer of 1930, and the Great Depression has just begun. He and his siblings and friends have adventures that I believe are in the vein of ‘Our Gang’, (‘The Little Rascals’), ‘The Waltons’, ‘The Hardy Boys’ or ‘Encyclopedia Brown’. All of these were childhood favorites of mine, and great influences, along with Norman Rockwell illustrations of Americana.
Ethan (in future books) will one day grow up to face tragedy, fight in World War Two, and become one of the first Agents of the C.I.A.; but at this point in his life, he is just an adventurous boy, having the most interesting summer of his life.
While this was originally done for my kids, ranging in age from 5 to 12 over the years I wrote these, they aren’t ‘little kid’ books. I use pretty much the same vocabulary I’d use in a book for ‘grown-ups’. I believe the stories will be equally appropriate, and entertaining, to anyone from about age 7 to 107….anyone that ever had a great summer, and a bit of an adventurous spirit. Anyone that is a kid, or misses the time when they were a kid.
January 31, 2017
My Favorite Historical Novelists
I’d like to share with you the great websites of some of my fellow Historical Novelists.
First up is Jeff Shaara, author of ‘Gods and Generals’. I have communicated with Jeff, and he is very encouraging to new authors.
http://jeffshaara.com/index.php
Next is John Jakes, the author of the ‘North and South’ trilogy and the ‘Kent Family Chronicles’.
http://www.johnjakes.com/index.html
This one is for the great historical adventures by Bernard Cornwell, such as ‘The Last Kingdom’ and ‘Sharpe’. He recently did me the favor of featuring my book on his Reading Club page! I can only hope to have just a fraction of the success of these excellent authors…
http://www.bernardcornwell.net/
