Andy Straka's Blog, page 5
May 21, 2013
Watch History Being Made
Every now and then a seminal event arrives without much notice by the public. What has been occurring this past week aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the Pacific Ocean may well qualify as such an occurrence.
For the first time ever an unmanned or “drone”-type fighter-size aircraft, Northop’s X-47B, is being launched and test-landed on an aircraft carrier at sea. Anyone even remotely familiar with US foreign policy over the past 50 years, our projection of power across the gl...
May 19, 2013
Drone Home
The Dragonflies series is of course fiction. But how drones are used in law enforcement and investigation is a topic that should be of concern to all.
Lawmakers eye regulating domestic surveillance drones
Published May 19, 2013
FoxNews.com
April 27, 2012: Seattle Police officer Reuben Omelanchuk is at the controls of the department’s new, small radio-controlled Draganflyer X6 drone with a camera attached, in Seattle. (AP)
Amid growing concern over the use of drones by police and government officia...
May 2, 2013
Drones: “It’s like the Internet all over again.”
When I first started writing Dragonflies: Shadow of Drones, the technology used in the book seemed almost far-fetched. I was soon to learn otherwise.
Check out this article by Chris Anderson from sUASNews:
WHEN THE FUTURE SNEAKS UP ON YOU
Last month, at a Congressional hearing, Sentator Patrick Leahyquotedan FAA prediction that there would be “as many as 30,000 small, lightweight unmanned vehicles [drones] operating in the national airspace by the end of this decade”.That was considered a lot. A...
April 30, 2013
Top ten, #1 Bestseller COLD QUARRY Temporary Price Drop $0.99
In the run-up to next month’s publication of Dragonflies: Shadow of Droneswe’re running a sale on the third Frank Pavlicek novel, the Shamus Award-winning Cold Quarry, temporarily lowering the e-book price to $0.99.
The book has spent some time in the top ten on the Barnes & Noble NOOK Bestsellers list yesterday and today, peaking at #8.
Cold Quarry also flirted with the top 100 in Amazon’s Kindle store this morning, moving to #1 in “hardboiled mysteries”, #1 in “men’s adventure fiction”, #3 on...
Top ten, #1 Bestseller COLD QUARRY Price Drop $0.99
In the run-up to next month’s publication of Dragonflies: Shadow of Droneswe’re running a sale on the third Frank Pavlicek novel, the Shamus Award-winning Cold Quarry, temporarily lowering the e-book price to $0.99.
The book has spent some time in the top ten on the Barnes & Noble NOOK Bestsellers list yesterday and today, peaking at #8.
Cold Quarry also flirted with the top 100 in Amazon’s Kindle store this morning, moving to #1 in “hardboiled mysteries”, #1 in “men’s adventure fiction”, #3 on...
April 16, 2013
Dragonflies: Shadow of Drones
I’m pleased to announce the pending publication of a new novel and the start of a new series with Dragonflies: Shadow of Drones.
The release date for the book–the first in what hope I will be a long-running collection of Dragonflies stories–has been set for May 14.
What’s the book about?
Here is a brief summary:
Title: Dragonflies “Shadow of Drones” by Andy Straka
Genre: Science Fiction, Crime, Military, Thriller
E-book publication date: May 14, 2013
ISBNs: 978-1-4756-0203-6 Mobi 978-1-4756-0204 ePu...
March 19, 2013
Unbindable: Ebooks Strengthen The Independence Of Authors
In case you missed it in the run-up to this week’s Virginia Festival Of The Book, here’s a link to my guest column “Unbindable: Ebooks Strengthen The Independence Of Authors” from the Sunday, March 17 print edition of the Charlottesville Daily Progress newspaper.
January 12, 2013
Oil and Feathers
(From The Wall Street Journal by HANNAH KARP)
Until recently, falconry—the ancient art of hunting small game with trained birds of prey—was just a hobby for Michael Gregston, who makes a living leading canoe trips down the Missouri River. But to supplement his income, he has been toting four of his rare hawks and falcons in the bitter cold to an unusual destination for a bird enthusiast: an oil refinery.
“The battle begins when the sun goes down,” said Mr. Gregston, 60 years old.
Donning a brigh...
December 24, 2012
Directions For Disassembly Of an Old Set Of Swings…. Short short story now on Kindle
Christmas collides with unspeakable tragedy in“Directions For Disassembly Of An Old Set Of Swings.”
Now available as a Kindle book.
Preview:
It will have to be in winter, one of those bright frozen days when your wife is off volunteering at the hospital and the neighbor will let you borrow his pickup so you can carry the pieces to the dump. The old swings will be hard to pry from the earth at first; they will have stood in the same corner of the yard for years. A decade or more may have passed...
Directions For Disassembly Of an Old Set Of Swings…. (A Christmas Story)
It will have to be in winter, one of those bright frozen days when your wife is off volunteering at the hospital and the neighbor will let you borrow his pickup so you can carry the pieces to the dump. The old swings will be hard to pry from the earth at first; they will have stood in the same corner of the yard for years. A decade or more may have passed since the shootings. Some will have tried to forget. You will need a pitchfork and a shovel, and most of all a willingness to stare straigh...
