Bob Mayer's Blog, page 54

Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Writers?

I heard that this weekend at the Writers of the Flathead Conference in Kalispell, Montana.

I remember David Morrell saying the same thing at Thrillerfest several years ago. It’s a mantra. It used to worry me when I heard it, but then I realized my day job is writing, so, well. Duh.

After three decades of writing, I’ve learned one or two things. I’ve also done things wrong, maybe one or two. There was recently an article that caused a ripple in the writing community titled: How to Lose a Third of a Million Dollars Without Really Trying.

It’s by an author who talks about all the wrong decisions she made after getting her traditional book deals.

First, the title is disingenuous and misleading. She didn’t “lose” the money. She spent it. She acts like she put it in a pile and burned it. She lived off of it. The issue was how she lived off it. She quit her day job. Moved to New York City, etc. etc.

Second, she complains that her agent and editor and NOBODY told her anything about how the system works. Of course, googling this was out of the question. Or joining a writers group? I always recommend the local RWA chapter because there is considerable experience there. Hell, I wrote an entire book that preceded her career about being an author because, guess what, no one told me anything when I was first published. So I wrote an SOP for writers to explain what I wish I’d known.

She also refers several times to her awards. We used to joke in Maui that they give awards to literary writers and checks to genre writers.

Hey, I empathize with her. I’ve made some mistakes in my writing career. I’ve made a few. I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face, but I’ve come through. Okay, okay, hold on.

Chuck Wendig gave a good response to this article with some solid suggestions so I won’t repeat them, Also his latest book, Wanderers, is excellent in the vein of The Stand.

What I will say is everyone’s situation is unique. I just came back from the Writers of the Flathead Conference (excellent and well worth the time and effort and most of all, great people) and one thing I harp upon is each writer must gather as much information as possible about both the craft of writing and the business and then make their own unique decisions.

We had a workshop on what makes a bestseller where we went over certain bestsellers and I didn’t really get into the that. I gave some generic advice (title is really important!) because each of those bestsellers followed a unique path and yes, damn it, let’s admit it, they were LUCKY!

Oddly, I find luck tends to settle on those who work really, really, really, hard. But there is still an intangible.

Here’s one key piece of advice. Over three decades of writing, I’ve watched many authors come and go. The moment any author thought they “had it made” their career was over. I am constantly reinventing myself. People ask what my favorite book is and I answer: the one I’m writing. I am always learning about the craft to improve my art. My most recent book is always my best or else what am I doing?

The other thing? Never quit. Because:

But it’s been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race
And I ain’t gonna lose

Lawyers, Guns and Money just came out on Monday and is the second book in my Will Kane series, 90 days after New York Minute. My two best books. because. Sales are stronger and that’s the goal. Walk on the Wild Side will be out in early December.

If you believe in what you are doing. Don’t Quit.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Writers

I heard that this weekend at the Writers of the Flathead Conference in Kalispell, Montana.

I remember David Morrell saying the same thing at Thrillerfest several years ago. It’s a mantra. It used to worry me when I heard it, but then I realized my day job is writing, so, well. Duh.

After three decades of writing, I’ve learned one or two things. I’ve also done things wrong, maybe one or two. There was recently an article that caused a ripple in the writing community titled: How to Lose a Third of a Million Dollars Without Really Trying.

It’s by an author who talks about all the wrong decisions she made after getting her traditional book deals.

First, the title is disingenuous and misleading. She didn’t “lose” the money. She spent it. She acts like she put it in a pile and burned it. She lived off of it. The issue was how she lived off it. She quit her day job. Moved to New York City, etc. etc.

Second, she complains that her agent and editor and NOBODY told her anything about how the system works. Of course, googling this was out of the question. Or joining a writers group? I always recommend the local RWA chapter because there is considerable experience there. Hell, I wrote an entire book that preceded her career about being an author because, guess what, no one told me anything when I was first published. So I wrote an SOP for writers to explain what I wish I’d known.

She also refers several times to her awards. We used to joke in Maui that they give awards to literary writers and checks to genre writers.

Hey, I empathize with her. I’ve made some mistakes in my writing career. I’ve made a few. I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face, but I’ve come through. Okay, okay, hold on.

Chuck Wendig gave a good response to this article with some solid suggestions so I won’t repeat them, Also his latest book, Wanderers, is excellent in the vein of The Stand.

What I will say is everyone’s situation is unique. I just came back from the Writers of the Flathead Conference (excellent and well worth the time and effort and most of all, great people) and one thing I harp upon is each writer must gather as much information as possible about both the craft of writing and the business and then make their own unique decisions.

We had a workshop on what makes a bestseller where we went over certain bestsellers and I didn’t really get into the that. I gave some generic advice (title is really important!) because each of those bestsellers followed a unique path and yes, damn it, let’s admit it, they were LUCKY!

Oddly, I find luck tends to settle on those who work really, really, really, hard. But there is still an intangible.

Here’s one key piece of advice. Over three decades of writing, I’ve watched many authors come and go. The moment any author thought they “had it made” their career was over. I am constantly reinventing myself. People ask what my favorite book is and I answer: the one I’m writing. I am always learning about the craft to improve my art. My most recent book is always my best or else what am I doing?

The other thing? Never quit. Because:

But it’s been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race
And I ain’t gonna lose

Lawyers, Guns and Money just came out on Monday and is the second book in my Will Kane series, 90 days after New York Minute. My two best books. because. Sales are stronger and that’s the goal. Walk on the Wild Side will be out in early December.

If you believe in what you are doing. Don’t Quit.

Lawyers, Guns and Money publishes; New York Minute (free today only)

To celebrate the publication of Lawyers, Guns and Money today, I’ve put New York Minute for free today, 16 Sept. Also free is Burners.

The pre-order for the third book in the series, coming out in December, is also live. Walk on the Wild Side.

Also, today is the last day for the Off the Grid
Superstack. I’ve purchased it because knowledge is one of the most
important aspects of preparation and survival. Not only that, but a lot of the
knowledge can be used in day to day living.

Lawyers, Guns and Money is available in print, ebook and audio.

Who protects the sheep from the
wolves? Another wolf.



Will Kane suffers from PTSD via combat and personal trauma and isn’t playing with
a full deck. But the cards he can play are usually aces; and sometimes jokers.



New York City. 1977. Ex-Green Beret William Kane has crossed the line he vowed
never to: killing. But for every action there is a reaction and there are
forces after him for revenge, chief among them the IRA. The CIA hasn’t
forgotten about him either after his involvement in covert ops in Vietnam.



There is an elite team of IRA soldiers in New York City and they’ve gotten
their hands on some powerful weaponry. What is their target? When will they
strike?



As the long hot summer of 1977 drags on and the Bronx burns, Kane does some
burning of his own, unraveling secrets from his past and helping those who need
his particular brand of justice while tracking the terrorists. His problem:
where is his new line? Who can he really trust?

Trojan Warrior– An Attempt To Make a “Super” Soldier

When I was in 10th Special Forces, we tried a program that was called Trojan Warrior. 2 A-Teams were chosen to participate in this, while my team took all the tests, but didn’t get the training, as the measuring mark.

Those teams were taught meditation, proper diet, biofeedback and more. They had sports experts come in to help train them, although the reality was we were in such great shape that the experts had a hard time keeping up with us. Martial arts were also included. It was an attempt to make an elite soldier even better. Conscious control of heartbeat and body temperature was one of the things worked on.

Years later, when thinking about Trojan Warrior, I took the concept another step and wrote two books, titled Psychic Warrior and Psychic Warrior: Project Aura. The basic idea was being able to project a solider into the virtual plane and then, reassemble them as an avatar at a remote point. I based his not only on what we were doing but also the Russians, who have always been much more interested in psychic abilities.

Here’s a brief overview:

The Real Men Who Stare at Goats: Psychic Warrior from Bob Mayer

Off The Grid Superstack

This is a stack of close to $700 worth of information, courses, and other material bundled together for less than $50. Yes, I purchased one because there’s a lot of good information in it.

It’s available for only one week starting today, 9/10. There is definitely material in here that you will find useful.

Ever wonder how to can goods? How to build your own off the grid power system? Gardening? Make your own soap? Tan hides? Tie knots? Even knit socks? Seriously. A lot of knowledge that can be so useful in many ways.

Definitely worth it.

It also includes an eBook copy of my Green Beret Survival Guide, which has links to free apps, supplies, cool web sites and more.

Nothing but good times ahead. But if not, get this stack!

Get it HERE!

Nine Eleven (Time Patrol) is FREE

Nine Eleven (Time Patrol) is free until the 12th. Each of my Time Patrol books consists of six mission on the same day in different years. While the most significant 9-11 year is 2001, there is a mission that year, but it has nothing to do with events in the United States as I felt it wasn’t a subject I felt qualified to tackle. Instead the 9-11-2001 mission is based on a real event (as they all are) where on that day, in an intriguing coincidence, a Russian cargo plane set an altitude/weight world record.

Here’s Cool Gus’ time travel take on it:

The Staten Island Peace Conference in 1776 is a little known event, but could have ended the Revolution, and not favorably as the British had just knocked Washington off of Long Island and New York.

There is also the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, another little known event.

The Chilean Coup is a shameful episode in our history, but bears scrutiny.

The Battle of the Teutoberg Forest has always interested me since is stopped the Roman Empire east of the Rhine.

All in all, this book covers a lot of history and its the Time Patrols job to keep our timeline intact!

Enjoy this free read.

Additionally, Lawyers Guns and Money is live in paperback. Also in ebook on Nook, Kobo and Apple Books, but only from today, 9/9 through 9/11. So if you read on those platforms, this is your only chance to grab it there, before it will be pulled and go exclusive in ebook on Amazon starting on Monday 9/16. The audiobook is processing and should be live on Monday the 16th. Advance reader feedback is even more positive than New York Minute, so I’m psyched for this new Will Kane novel even as I finish the next, Walk on the Wild Side.

Nothing but times ahead! As you can tell, Cool Gus is enthralled!

Storm Surge and the Power of Water

We used to live on Hilton Head Island, along the Intracoastal Water Way. Our house was on one of the highest points of the entire island. 12 feet above sea level.

Seriously.

When you look at a flood map, the ENTIRE island is a flood zone. Yet, many of the people who live there don’t quite understand what that means. They also don’t understand storm surge. A friend who had a beautiful house on the Atlantic side, facing that wonderful beach. We were talking about it one day and she really thought an eight foot storm surge meant that the water would come eight feet closer to her house along the beach horizontally than normal.

We had a 240 foot long walkway with a floating dock at the end. Depending on the tides, there were times when the metal gangplank to that dock was almost horizontal at a high-high tide and almost vertical at a low-low. That was another aspect many who don’t know tides and currents aren’t aware of. Not all tides are the same. Some are more extreme.

I learned about the power of water and tide and current when commanding a Maritime Operations A-Team in Special Forces. When we training up to go to Denmark to attend Combat Swim School, we camped out on an island off the coast of Maine. One day, to teach us the power of tide and current, my team sergeant, who was scuba qualified, had us swim toward the mouth of a river. Going against both. We wore dry suit and swam on our back, finning hard.. Yet we were pushed out to sea despite efforts.

The bottom line? Storm surge is vertical height. The water being pushed by Hurricane Dorian, even if it is out at sea, will be massive. When combined with an incoming tide, this can be deadly.

Evacuate if so ordered. It’s not as much about the wind. It’s about the water.

Here is more information on storm surge and flooding and the power of water:

How to Prepare for and Deal with FLOODING from Bob Mayer

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide

Hurricane Dorian is Unprecedented and It’s More than just Wind

It increased from a Cat 4 to a Cat 5 in just 9 hours. It is moving very, very slowly. It’s the most powerful ever recorded to hit the islands.

Even if it doesn’t make landfall in the Continental United States, storm surge is going to cause massive damage.

State troopers are escorting gas tanker trucks in parts of the SE because stations are running out as panicked people are stockpiling gas as best they can. The same with other essentials.

We are going to face more and more unprecedented weather disasters in the future. It’s just a reality. The cumulative effect of higher temperatures, including higher water temperatures which is fueling Dorian, and higher sea levels are going to cause problems.

ARE YOU PREPARED? Seriously. At the very least get a couple of cases of water.

How To Prepare for and Survive a Hurriance from Bob Mayer

Tsar Bomba– the biggest man-made explosion ever.

I tend to go for superlatives when researching. When my wife and I are watching some documentary, I’ll inevitably say: I wrote about that!

In my Area 51 series I essentially rewrote the entire history of mankind and added in how vampires came about, because everyone has to write a vampire book. The Great Wall of China, Easter Island, The Great Sphinx, yada yada I’ll have to write about bisque eventually.

I also like to find strange coincidences of history. In this case, when researching the 11th of September throughout history I found some interesting things such as the Staten Island Peace Conference, which I’d never heard of. But I also learned that 9-11-2001, while we all remember what happened in the United States, there was a small footnote in Russia: the largest plane ever built, the AN-225 set a world record for lifting a large weight to a high altitude.

That got me thinking. What big thing could this plane carry? Somehow I found out about Tsar Bomba, which was detonated on 30 October 1960 and is still, and hopefully always be, the largest man-made explosion ever.

So. As a fiction writer these are the factual threads we take and weave into stories. One of the mission in Nine-Eleven (Time Patrol) combines the AN-225 and a second Tsar Bomba and . . .

Anyway, it’s kinda interesting, don’t you think?

Tsar bomba – the largest man-made explosion ever from Bob Mayer

When President Kennedy was reined in by . . .

By The Jefferson Allegiance and his mistress. A document brokered by Jefferson and Hamilton against the future threat of a president run amok. That’s the core idea of the book. Most of it is a thriller set present day to track down the Allegiance, but there are flashbacks to when just the threat of it stopped presidents. Here is the fifth:

22 March 1962

President John F. Kennedy, as was the custom for his lunches with J.
Edgar Hoover, had the Oval Office emptied of everyone, even his brother
Robert.  To Kennedy, today was looking to
be a particularly odious session, as Hoover was carrying a particularly thick
file. 

Kennedy had been advised by
Eisenhower to continue a tradition begun by FDR:  inviting the head of the FBI to lunch at the
White House every month.  It was under
the principle of keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.  Since taking office, Kennedy had stretched
the interval out to every two months, and he was hoping he could eventually go
without seeing the grotesque man at all. 
Bobby wasn’t happy about the luncheons either, because technically
Hoover worked for the Attorney General, although the man never acted like he
answered to Bobby.  Or even the
President, Kennedy reflected as he sat on the couch across from Hoover, a low,
ornate, coffee table between them; Jackie’s choice. 

Hoover dropped the thick
file onto the coffee table with great relish. 
Kennedy didn’t rise to the bait. 
Instead he waited as his secretary refilled his coffee cup, offered some
to Hoover, and then departed.  Kennedy
took a sip of coffee and waited some more, refusing to descend into Hoover’s
gutter.

“Interesting wiretaps,”
Hoover finally said.  “Should I set the
stage for them?”

Kennedy shrugged, knowing
the old man would say what he wanted, regardless. His back was aching and he
shifted, trying to adjust the brace strapped around his body.  He glanced at his watch, thinking ahead to
his schedule for the afternoon.

His thoughts came to an
abrupt halt at Hoover’s next two words: 
“Judith Campbell.”

Kennedy tried to stay
relaxed.  “Who?”

Hoover gave that sickening
smile of his.  “Las Vegas.  Nineteen sixty.  The filming of Oceans
Eleven. 
Your ‘buddy’ Frank Sinatra.  He
introduced you to her.  Don’t you
remember?”

“I can’t recall.  I don’t even remember being in Vegas.”

The smile grew wider.  “I can assure you that you were,” Hoover
said.  He opened the folder and on top
was the picture of a woman.  He slid it
across to Kennedy, who didn’t pick it up. 

“She’s quite beautiful,”
Hoover said.  “Interesting timing.  You were seeking the democratic nomination at
the time.  Apparently you were seeking
more than that, as you became involved with Miss Campbell.”

“I’m afraid your
information is—“

“Incorrect?” Hoover
completed for him.  “Do you know how many
times I’ve heard that?  I never share
information unless I am certain it is correct.”  He grabbed the
next picture in the folder and tossed it on top of Campbell’s.  Kennedy’s stomach tightened.

“Perhaps unknown to you at
the time, but certainly known afterwards, was that Sinatra also introduced Miss
Campbell to this man.”  He leaned forward
and tapped the picture.  “Sam
Giancana.  A criminal.  Head of what is called ‘the Outfit’ in
Chicago.  Since there is no organized
crime in this country, the Outfit is a bunch of thieves and murderers.”  The sarcasm was dripping from Hoover’s words.

“It wouldn’t surprise you,
of course, to know that Miss Campbell is also Mister Giancana’s mistress?”

Kennedy couldn’t tell if it
was a question or not, so he remained silent.

“Of course not.”  Hoover answered his own question.  “Since Miss Campbell calls you here at the
White House using the phone in Mister Giancana’s apartment in Chicago.”  Hoover picked up a third picture and threw it
down.  “Your father.  Joseph Kennedy.  He had dealings with men like Giancana,
especially during Prohibition.  I believe
the Sinatra introduction was at his behest.”

Kennedy had not thought of
that, but he knew as soon as Hoover said it, that it was true.  Chicago. 
Of course.  His father pulling
strings.

Hoover pursed his lips as
if in thought.  “Now this part is not
validated, but comes from credible sources. 
It seems someone from your campaign gave a bag of cash to Giancana back
when you were seeking the Democratic nomination.  You did win Illinois, mainly because of a
huge push in Chicago.  Some would say a
statistically impossible push.  A lot of
votes from the grave.”

“What do you want?” Kennedy
had had enough.

Hoover picked up the next
item in the folder.  A thick sheaf of
papers.  “Come now, Mister President, are
you really trying to hire this Giancana fellow and his ‘Outfit’ to assassinate
Castro?”

“What the hell are you
talking about?”

Hoover blinked.  “You really don’t know about that?  Curious. 
Your precious CIA is keeping secrets from you, too.  But, like me, they know your secrets.”

“What do you want?”

Hoover reached over and
grabbed the sheaf of papers and the photos, making a large show of putting them
back into the folder and shutting it. 
Kennedy didn’t miss that there was a lot in that folder that Hoover had
not brought out.

“It isn’t what I want.  It’s what we want.” 
Hoover lifted the lapel on the right side of his suit jacket, revealing
a medallion.  “The Society of the
Cincinnati, Mister President.”  With his
other hand he tapped the thick folder. 
“We have you—and your brother—by the balls, to use a crude but
appropriate metaphor.  If I ask for
something, we want it.  Do you understand?”

Kennedy just stared back at
the old man.

Hoover stood, tucking the
folder under one arm.  “Right now, all we
want it is for your brother to change his mind and sign off on the paperwork on
his desk to wiretap Martin Luther King.”

“I don’t—“ Kennedy began,
but stopped as Hoover waved the folder, as if fanning himself.  “All right.”

5 August 1963

“I love you, too,” President Kennedy said, and then hung up the
phone, severing the line to his wife in Hyannis Port.

“How is Jackie?” the only
other occupant of his private dining room on the second floor of the White
House asked.

Kennedy grimaced, both from
the pain in his back and the recent conversation.  “Not good. 
The heat is bad, she feels ill and she’s scared.”

“Of course she’s
scared.  She already lost one child.  I know how she feels.” 

Kennedy watched as Mary
Meyer took a sip of her drink.  He
enjoyed her company—one of the few people he felt comfortable being alone with
and simply talking, but to be honest, he still missed their affair. 

“Graham shot himself,” he
said, referring to the Washington Post publisher who had killed himself with a
shotgun just two days previously.  And
who, back in January, had pushed his way to the podium at a conference of
newspaper editors in Phoenix—even though he wasn’t supposed to speak—and
drunkenly delivered a tirade that included references to the President’s ‘new
favorite,’ Mary Meyer.  He had been wrong
about the ‘new’ part, Kennedy mused. 
He’d known Mary since college, and she’d long been a staple of White
House life.

“I heard,” Mary said.  “I feel for his wife.  He’d just gotten out of the hospital.  They thought he was better.”

“He was out of control,”
Kennedy said.  He had been intimate many
times with Mary, and even though that part of their relationship had ended with
the dual pressures of Graham’s publicity and Jackie’s pregnancy, he still felt
a tight bond.  He’d once smoked marijuana
with her, even tried LSD—not his thing—and she’d been there with him through
the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs, and many other significant events of his
Presidency.  Always someone he could
confide in and count on for solid advice. 
“What’s wrong, Mary?  Is it
Jackie?  She’s fine with your being
here.”

Mary Meyer shook her
head.  “I was approached by some
men.  They wanted me to give you a
message and they showed me something.”

“What men?”

She shook her head.  “I can’t tell you, except that they’re for
real.  Three high-ranking generals and
someone—let’s say he’s on a level with Graham.”

Kennedy frowned.  “What did they show you?”

“A document.”  Mary got up from her end of the table and sat
caddy-corner to the President and took his hand.

Kennedy was surprised at
the move and the look on her face.  “What
is it?  What’s wrong?”

“Have you ever heard of the
Jefferson Allegiance?”

Kennedy gripped her hand
tighter.  “A rumor of it.  No one has ever confirmed its existence
though.”

“It exists.  They showed it to me.”

Kennedy could feel his back
tighten, the old injury from PT-109 coming back to haunt him as it always did
when he was under stress.  “Why did they
show it to you?”

“They wanted me to give you
a message.  And they knew you trusted
me.”

“Go on,” Kennedy prompted.

Mary’s tongue snaked over
her lips, a sign of how nervous she was. 
“They said that they respected what you did during the Missile
Crisis.  That it was important that one
man be in charge and handle things.  That
it was one of those unique moments with high stakes where the responsibility
and decision-making had to rest on the President’s shoulders.”

“But?” Kennedy prompted.

“The Bay of Pigs.  The Wall being built in Berlin.  Your recent speech there worried people.  They felt you were continuing to challenge
Khrushchev.  That it had become
personal.  And the involvement in Vietnam
greatly concerns the military men.”

Kennedy scoffed.  “There are only eleven thousand men in
Vietnam—all advisers.  And the Pentagon
has promised they can be withdrawn by the end of the year after they crush the
Vietcong rebels.  Vietnam is not an
issue.”

“That is not the way the
Philosophers see it.”

“The ‘Philosophers’?  So it’s true that they guard the
Allegiance.”  He stared at her.  “Is it as powerful as rumored?”

Mary nodded.  “If they invoke it, they would remove you
from office.  And that’s just the
beginning.”

The silence in the dining
room lasted a long time before Kennedy spoke again.  “What do they want?”

“For you to use the
National Security Council for advice more often.  To back off Vietnam.  Back off of pressing Khrushchev.”

“Do they want an answer?”

“They told me they would
get their answer from your actions.”

“I don’t like being
threatened,” Kennedy snapped.  “I get it
from both sides.  The damn Cincinnatians
and Hoover.  Now the Philosophers.  I’m sick of it.”

“There’s something else,”
Mary said.

“What?” Kennedy knew he was
being short, but the pain in his back and this information along with Jackie
being miserable in Hyannis Port was ruining what he had hoped would be a
pleasant evening.

“Did you know the CIA is
trying to use the mob to kill Castro?”

Kennedy leaned back in his
chair, trying to ease the pain in his back, pulling his hand out of hers.  “Hoover said something to me about that.  I thought he was bluffing.”

“I asked Cord,” Mary said,
referring to her ex-husband, who was high in the ranks of the Agency.  “He said ‘of course not,’ which means of course
they are.”

“Goddamnit,” Kennedy
slammed a fist onto the tabletop, causing the crystal to bounce.

“The Philosophers want you
to get on top of that.  After the Bay of
Pigs, there can’t be another Cuban fiasco. 
They say it’s very complicated and dangerous and that the Cincinnatians
are involved.”

“Who the hell runs this
country?” Kennedy demanded.

Mary got up and walked
behind his chair.  She leaned over and
wrapped her arms around his chest.  “I’m
worried, Jack.  Very worried for you.  Cord didn’t just lie to me.  There’s something going on.  Something very dangerous.  Promise me you’ll be careful?”

Kennedy was hardly
comforted by her touch or her words, but he nodded anyway.  “I promise.”