Bob Mayer's Blog, page 53

The Demon Core!

The Demon Core was one of the original nuclear cores at Los Alamos

In The Rift I use that real core in a story about breaking through into a parallel world. Which, oddly, they’re now working on just up the road from where I live at Oak Ridge.

So maybe we will need the Nightstalkers!

The Demon Core was one of the original nuclear cores at Los Alamos from Bob Mayer

First Two Book in Green Beret Series Free Today

Eyes of the Hammer and Dragon Sim-13 are free today and tomorrow, 10/6 and 10/7.

These are my first two books published, written a while ago, but the action and the political forces are as relevant as ever. Dragon Sim-13 is backdropped against the Tianenman Square riots but now we have the Hong Kong riots.

I’m writing prequels to the series now, featuring Dave Riley’s older cousin, Will Kane. The third book, Walk on the Wild Side will be out in December and the first two are already out.

Nothing but good times ahead!

Bonding over the Bicameral Mind- and a free book

When my wife and I met one of the first things that attracted us to each other was that our bookshelves held many of the same titles.

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind was one of those. Not an easy tome and it requires several readings to grok.

The mind has been a topic in almost every book I’ve written. I’ve even used mine in writing most of them. I think its truly the last frontier: how does it really work? What is consciousness? How much of our potential are we using. I examined the latter in a lot of books including Psychic Warrior.

But my most intriguing and strangest book has to be The Fifth Floor, which is free today and tomorrow (11/4 and 11/5). Not just the topic but the various voices its written it, the book questions what is reality? At least for the protagonist of the story.

The Fifth Floor: A psychological thriller in the vein of Westworld from Bob Mayer

62 Kindle Unlimited Titles on one page

I went through and tagged all of my titles that are part of Kindle Unlimited. On my fiction page alone, there are 62 titles. Which means you can sample my works if you are enrolled in that program.

The red bar at the top indicate enrollment.

I think this is a great program for voracious readers.

Nothing but good times ahead!

By the way, Scout is one year old today. So does that make her no longer a puppy? Cool Gus thinks so.

New York City might have ended up called New Paris or San Antonio

Most have heard of New Amsterdam, the iteration of New York City before it became called just that.

However, what I didn’t know, even having grown up there, was that if not for some twists of fate, ended up being New Paris. Or even San Antonio when an early explorer christened the river the Rio de San Antonio, that later became the Hudson.

So here it is:

The Evolution of New York City up to the Revolution from Bob Mayer

What Special Ops Unit Takes Care of Things That Go Bump In The Night?

At times in Special Operations where we’d run into guys from other units and when we were alone we’d ask them if they were doing this high speed thing or that which we’d heard rumors of. And they would say they’d heard WE were doing it. Yeah. Scary.

I used to wonder who was in the black helicopters until one day I looked out the door (there was no door– I should say where the door was supposed to be) the Little Bird I was in and realized ’twas I. Even more scary. But don’t you try to infiltrate Area 51? I already covered that.

Anyway, I was thinking about that and an idea was born out of my dark and devious mind: what if there are things really out of the ordinary that exist? Who handles that? The pitch line was The Unit meets Warehouse 13.

So I invented the Nightstalkers. Don’t jump on me about who the official Nightstalkers are– remember I was in that black helicopter. Actually, I remember when TF-160 was formed and worked with the founders. Also, I watched every episode of Kolchak the Nightstalker. So there.

Anywho. A video of who the Nightstalkers are. Because the books are only .99 this month!

What Does a Hero do when there’s a naked woman waiting in his bed?

If you remember the scene in Don’t Look Down where JT Wilder comes into his hotel room and Althea is in his bed naked, which BTW, is the scene that convinced St Martins to go for the collaboration, this scene from Lawyers, Guns and Money sort of mirrors it.

Truvey, the woman in the scene, is turning out to be quite an intriguing character as I wrap up the third book in the series, Walk on the Wild Side, even racking up her own body count. And not that way.

This isn’t something they taught in Ranger School or the Special Forces Qualification Course. By the way, ‘breaking sheets’ is the term we used at West Point for the only night we actually got between the sheets of our beds, since the laundry went out the next day and we had to remake the bed anyway. Otherwise, we slept on top of an already made bed, using just our comforter. Time was precious.

Here is the excerpt:

MEATPACKING DISTRICT, MANHATTAN

Kane
drew his forty-five when he saw the matchstick on top of the black iron gate. A
note was taped to his door. He recognized his landlord’s scrawl by the glow of
the street light, but didn’t holster the gun since he was having a bad
twenty-four hours and didn’t see any reason for it to get better.

SHE INSISTED.

Kane
entered, expecting to see Toni in the small sitting room, but it was empty.
Kane went to the doorway to the bedroom. It was dark, but someone was in the
bed. He flipped the overhead fluorescent, gun at the ready.

Truvey
was in Kane’s bed, the sheet strategically layered along the upper curvature of
her bosom. She lay on her side, head propped up with one hand held aloft by her
elbow, a pose that was too perfect to be random. She looked pretty good despite
the awful lighting.

“How
come you didn’t ask if anyone wanted to kill me last night?” Truvey asked.

“Are
you alone?” Kane asked.

“Am
I not enough?” Truvey pouted. “Are you going to shoot me?”

Kane
holstered the pistol. “You broke the sheets.”

“I
what?”

“What
are you doing here?” Kane asked.

Truvey
raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?” She sat up, the sheet falling to her waist,
revealing her prominent assets.

“Seriously,”
Kane said.

“I
didn’t ‘break’ your sheets,” Truvey said. “I got between them. The idea is—“

Kane
interrupted her. “By the way, there’s a bomb under the bed.”

Truvey
blinked hard several times as if that helped process the words. “You’re
joking.”

“I’ve
been accused by a number of people of not having much of a sense of humor and
at this moment, I would trust their opinion.”

Truvey
scooted out from between the sheets, revealing a pair of thong panties and a plethora
of skin. Kane tossed her the sundress draped over the books on top of the dresser.

As
she pulled it on, he told her: “Let me dispel with the possibility so we don’t
waste time. I’m not interested in having sex with you. I’m more concerned with
who attacked us last night and why.”

As
the dress settled over her body, with some hard tugging, Truvey backed away
from the bed. “The bomb?”

“It’s
under the bed,” Kane said. “But it’s not armed. Technically it’s just the
explosives. For it to go off it needs–”

“Why
do you have a bomb?”

“It
was on the boat last night.”

Truvey’s
voice climbed a few octaves. “What?”

Kane
indicated the sitting room. “Come on. I’ll explain.”

Truvey
sat on the couch while Kane took the chair that allowed him to see the foyer
and the couch.

“My
apologies for my social faux pas last night,” Kane said. “Do you know anyone
who’d want to kill you?”

Truvey
shook her head. “No.”

“You
sound pretty certain.”

Truvey
spread her hands in innocence. “I’m a B-level actress trying to make my break.
Who’d want to kill me?”

“That’s
what I was asking,” Kane pointed out. “Why are you here?”

“I
liked the way you handled things,” Truvey said. “I wanted to express my
gratitude. I think it could have gotten bad if you hadn’t stepped up.”

“A
thank you card would have worked.”

Truvey
frowned. “You’re a weird man.”

“I’ve
been told that.”

“You’ve
a Vietnam Vet.” She said it in a way that could it could taken as a question or
statement. Kane chose to go the latter route and didn’t respond. “A Green
Beret. I deal with actors all the time. They pretend. You’re the real deal.”

“You
also deal with people like Crawford,” Kane said.

“The
hardest part of show business is getting the money,” Truvey said. “I’m
surprised any movie is ever made given how difficult it is. Producers like to
mix me in with their pitch to the money people.”

“Right.”

“The
producer is a dear friend,” Truvey said. “I believe in his vision.”

“You’re
talking about Selkis, right?”

“Yes.”

“How
long have you known him?”

Truvey
frowned and Kane thought he heard little clangs as numbers moved. “About three
months.”

“And
he’s a dear friend?”

“Oh!
Not like that.”

Kane
had his own little mental clangs as he processed what she meant by ‘that’ which
wasn’t what he had meant.

Truvey
explained further. “He’s, well, you know. Let’s say he prefers different
delights.”

“Right.
When did he ask you to meet Crawford?”

“Selkie,
that’s what I call him, phoned me yesterday morning and we had lunch. He
explained that a big money man he’d worked with before was coming to town and
he had a project he thought would interest him and that there was a role in it
that I would be perfect in and that I’d definitely be cast if it got greenlit
so of course I said yes.”

Kane
unpacked the run-on sentence and pronouns. “Why didn’t Selkis come along?”

Truvey
appeared shocked. “That would have been weird, wouldn’t it?”

“I
guess so,” Kane said, having used his quota of ‘right’ in this conversation.
“Did an Indian named Yazzie talk to you this morning.”

“Oh,
yes. Have you met him? So tall. His skin is so perfect. He could so be my
leading man!”

Kane
indicated the bedroom. “I thought I was going to be?”

She
pouted. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

“You
are indeed. Did he give you money? Or did Crawford pay you in the limo?”

“I’m
not a hooker.”

“To
not say anything about what happened,” Kane clarified.

“Yeah.
Crawford did. Did he give you some?”

“Yeah.”

Truvey
nodded. “Two thousand. Not bad for doing nothing.”

“Except
for the getting shot at and almost blown up.”

Truvey
frowned. “There is that.” She frowned further. “How much did Crawford pay you?”

“Two
thousand. What did Yazzie want to know?”

Truvey
gave him what Yazzie had told them in the meeting. When she was done, she
pouted slightly. “He’s really handsome but there’s something missing in him.”

“He’s
crossed the river,” Kane said.

“What?”

“Seen
the elephant.”

“Huh?”

Kane
moved on from the combat references. “Can I ask you something else?”

Truvey
became wary. “What?”

“Did
you bring the cocaine or did Crawford?”

“You
won’t rat on me will you?”

“Scout’s
honor.”

“Selkie
supplied it. I don’t use myself. I tried it a few times but I’ve seen what can
happen. I want to have a career, you know? Not be here today, gone tomorrow.”

“Good
plan,” Kane said.

Truvey
changed the subject. “What’s with all the pictures?” She indicated the framed
prints leaning against the wall, everywhere there wasn’t cinderblocks holding
makeshift bookshelves.

“I
like maps. They’re mostly of New York City and show the evolution and history
of the city.”

“See?
That’s part of what the movie is about. New York City. I think. At least Selkie
said it was. He never really gave me the script. He said it was about the dark
underbelly of the Big Apple. Did you see Taxi
Driver? DeNiro? Wasn’t that some acting? Selkie said it was like that,
thematically.”

“I
haven’t seen the movie. But I think I’ve experienced that part of the city.”

“Anyways,
it opens with a scene like that one in Godfather. Or was it Two?
Kid on the boat seeing the Statue?”

“Haven’t
seen either of them either.” He pointed at a book. “There’s The Godfather.”

“What?”

“The
book the movie was based on,” Kane said.

“There
was a book?” Truvey leaned forward, her sun dress looser at the top. She
suddenly spoke as if they were being listened in on. “You know there weren’t
any storyboards, don’t you?”

“I
kind of guessed.”

Truvey
sighed, having exhausted small talk. “You obviously like to read,” she said.
“What else do you like?” She walked over, settling on the arm of the chair.

Kane
forced himself to remain in the seat. “Run. Go to the gym and workout and spar.
Work the heavy and light bag.”

“You
look like you’re in good shape.”

“I
try.”

“I
gotta do two hours every morning,” Truvey complained. “And I can’t eat much of nothing.
People think it’s easy to look like this.”

Kane
didn’t know what to say to that.

“I
appreciate a man who takes care of himself,” Truvey said.

“Right.”

Truvey
became inspired. “I’ve never done it with a bomb under the bed.”

“I
doubt that’s an exclusive club many have aspirations to,” Kane said.

Truvey
frowned. “What-da-ya mean by that?”

“I
mean not many people have done it with a bomb under the bed. That they knew
about.”

“Oh.”
She reached for him and he flinched. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I
got shot in the head,” Kane said. “Kind of messed me up. Plus, I’ve had a bad
day.”

“We
can work on that. And really, the head’s over-rated.”

“That’s
an interesting take,” Kane said.

Truvey got off the chair and went to the light switch for the sitting room. Turned it off. Her body was silhouetted inside the sundress in the doorway to the bedroom, which strangely was more enticing than almost completely naked in the bed. “You know where I’ll be. Above the bomb.” She turned the bedroom light off.

End of excerpt: LAWYERS, GUN AND MONEY

If you want to read what came before, it’s on Wattpad.

The March of Folly– How Apropos for Now

I just finished The March of Folly by Pulitzer Prize winning author Barbara Tuchman and highly recommend it.

It details how humans are not only foolish, but rush into stupidity, eyes wide, ignoring all evidence to the contrary. She spans history with her examples and one can get bogged down in her obvious extensive research, but many parts jump out at you. At the very least, I recommend reading the section on Vietnam as it resonates with us today. There was hardly a person in the Pentagon, or in the various administrations, who believed we had any chance of victory. Yet we persisted, first helping the French and paying their way. Most Americans don’t realize the French lost as many soldiers there are we did.

Dien Bien Phu is a classic of what not to do militarily, but it is WHY they were even there that stuns you.

I do remember in the Special Forces Qualification Course learning that early American advisors in Vietnam after WWII, recommended we side with Ho Chi Minh. That he had the will of the people with him. So, of course, we ignored that and propped up the French.

Then, when the French failed, we somehow thought we could do what they couldn’t. After all. They were French. Right.

We’re in our longest war and I’ve searched in vain for what will let us know when we’ve “won”. Why did we stay? “Nation-building” worked with the Marshall Plan, but that was when those countries were utterly devastated and surrendered. A country with an insurrection?

We humans are foolish and have learned few lessons from history. This is a book to help us at least get started.

Cool Gus recommends it because dogs have certainly learned. After all, I feed him, go out and pick up his dropping and he sleeps in a nice bed. If only we had as much common sense as dogs.

What Can We Learn From Disasters? FREE Today

My wife and I were watching Seconds From Disaster, a TV series that focuses mainly on plane crashes and we noticed a pattern. It was always several things that caused the plane to crash, not just one. Actually, always at least seven, what I have termed, Cascade Events. Any single event by itself, even up to six Cascades, and no disaster. But it’s that one too many that pushes it over the line.

FREE Today is Stuff Doesn’t Just Happen II; my second book covering seven different disasters and examining the seven cascade events leading to them. From that we can learn The Gift of Failure and how to avoid the same.

Below are some epic quotes from each of the seven disasters:

THE CHALLENGER: ORGANIZATIONAL FAILURE
“My God, Thiokol. When
do you want me to launch? Next April?” Senior NASA official on a
conference call to the manufacturer of the solid boosters, when they
recommended on the morning of the launch that it be postponed.

THE SINKING OF THE KURSK
“It’s
dark here to write, but I’ll try by touch. It seems like there are no
chances, 10%-20%. Let’s hope that at least someone will read this. Hello
to everyone. There is no need to despair.” Captain Lieutenant Dmitri
Kolesnikov, commander 7th Compartment (turbine room) Russian submarine
Kursk.

THE SULTANA EXPLOSION
“If we arrive safe at
Cairo it would be the greatest trip ever made on the western waters, as
there were more people on board than were ever carried on one boat on
the Mississippi River!” William J, Gambrel, first clerk & part owner
of the steamship Sultana.

PEARL HARBOR
“Should
hostilities once break out between Japan and the United States, it would
not be enough that we take Guam and the Philippines, nor even Hawaii
and San Francisco. To make victory certain, we would have to march into
Washington and dictate the terms of peace in the White House. I wonder
if our politicians (who speak so lightly of a Japanese-American war)
have confidence as to the final outcome and are prepared to make the
necessary sacrifices.” Admiral Yamamoto, Commander Japanese Navy. (Note
that this quote was used extensively for propaganda purposed by the
United States by leaving out the last sentence)

Mulholland & The St. Francis Dam
During
the Los Angeles Coroner’s Inquest, William Mulholland said, “this
inquest is a very painful for me to have to attend but it is the
occasion of that is painful. The only ones I envy about this whole thing
are the ones who are dead.” In later testimony, after responding to a
question, he added, “Whether it is good or bad, don’t blame anyone else,
you just fasten it on me. If there was an error in human judgment, I
was the human, I won’t try to fasten it on anyone else.” William
Mulholland, chief engineer, Water Department Los Angeles

THE LAST CZAR
“I
am not prepared to be a tsar. I never wanted to become one. I know
nothing of the business of ruling.” Nicholas II, last Czar of Russia.

ALIVE!
“It
was repugnant. Through the eyes of our civilized society it was a
disgusting decision. My dignity was on the floor having to grab a piece
of my dead friend and eat it in order to survive. ‘But then I thought of
my mother and wanted to do my best to get back to see her. I swallowed a
piece and it was a huge step – after which nothing happened.” Dr.
Robert Canessa

Researching Books Before the Internet

Yes, there was a time when we lived in caves, ate rocks and didn’t have an internet. Well, DARPA did, but the first Internet message was sent in 1969 and the system went down after two letters, but hey, it was a start. So, yeah, I actually wrote about that first message in a book, Black Tuesday (Time Patrol) because it did happen on 29 Oct 1969.

But I digress, as I often do. It’s a mental condition. Literally. People have always said I was one step off and I am. Got the tests to prove. But again, I digress.

I bought the original 512K Mac. Loved that computer. Never crashed. Also had no hard drive. So to write a book, which I did, several of them, you have to put in the 3.5 diskette to load the word processing into the massive 512K, then take it out and load a disk for the book. Which had to be in separate documents by chapter because the program could only handle so much at a time. It was very temperamental.

Anywho. So I wrote book in this ancient times and to research it, I had to go to a thing call the Library. I spent most of my childhood in one so that was cool. I knew the Dewey Decimal system; still do. Knew how to look things up on microfiche.

Since I started out, and currently am, in thrillers. I needed maps. Lots of maps. I needed to look up time zones and distances because lacking a transporter beam, my heroes and heroines had to get themselves places, usually distant places like Antarctica (Eternity Base) and I had to measure and then check range of aircraft and speed and, well you get it.

Today, since my new Will Kane Green Beret series is set in 1977, I broke out one of my old atlases which I have lugged from house to house as we move, because that’s all they’ve got to work with as they try to figure out where exactly in Utah the bad guys are.

It brought back memories, and I believe I just wrote about them.

Hey– if you’re reading this and gotten this far, could you post a comment, even just “yep” because I’m not sure if comments are loading.

Thanks.