Speaker 1: 0:14

that's, we're doing a podcast tonight yes, yes all right, let's do this let's do this all right.

Speaker 2: 0:21

All right, thank you so much for being here. Jack, of course, and, on on behalf of everyone here, just want to thank you for your service. To start off with thank you very much, everyone. Well, man, last time you were here it was the middle of the writer's strike and since then you've put out a book. You got a non-fiction book targeted beirut coming out in september. You got the terminalist prequel, dark, and I assume you guys got season two that's in the works. It's been super busy, man, so congratulations first of all on all of that wonderful things. You know I wanted to jump into Red Sky Morning first off, and you know you bring Alice back in this book talking about quantum computing, artificial intelligence, autonomous control, and I just wanted to know what are your feelings about the government and other governments taking controls with quantum computing and where do you feel like that's headed right now? And does that?

Speaker 1: 1:10

scare you. Yeah, I mean it's a. It's a very interesting time, obviously. So if you have an enemy that is developing quantum computers and artificial intelligence and also building next generation platforms that allow for autonomous control and you're not, then they're getting an advantage just by the speed with which they can make decisions. And let's say that country is China, let's say they launch missiles at the United States from submarines off the coast, then those things can be, they can be raining down in the United States before our generals are even out of bed. So that in turn means that we have to do that sort of thing and we have to develop these technologies and these platforms that are at least have the capability for autonomous control.

Speaker 1: 1:54

So in this I create, I created this character, alice, two books ago for in the blood, and that was before chat gpt became like a uh, part of the lexicon and part of our. I guess it's on our phones now, apparently, as a couple of days ago, without even being able to like easily opt out of it, and so it wasn't really something that we were all thinking about. We knew it existed from films and and science fiction and that sort of a thing, but it wasn't like a part of our everyday life yet. And then that book came out, and then the timing was good, so that was fantastic. And then I didn't want to for the next book, for only the dead.

Speaker 1: 2:26

I didn't want to rely on Alice, that character, to like save the day, so I just I sidelined her for the last books. I didn't want it to be like for those of us who grew up in the eighties with Michael Knight and the kit car you know like I need you and then all of a sudden diving into the Trans Am and off they go. So I didn't want to rely on that as a clutch. So, uh, so sidelined her for the last book. But once you introduce a character like that to a universe, you can't just forget about her. So, uh, she's back in this one and she's also patterned her decision-making off of a human, and that person is James Reese. And so as you get closer to the end, that'll come into play a bit.

Speaker 2: 3:05

Yes, you know you're talking about characters. In your last book you developed a character based loosely off of Ethel Kennedy and I was curious is there anybody in this book that you had a basis of the character that you wrote off of, that you've met in life or that inspired you? Next question All right, no, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 1: 3:20

I'm just kidding. If you read the book you should, by chapter two and three, you should have a very good idea of who that character is based off of in real life. Inspired by? How about that? In case there's any attorneys in here Inspired by probably is the way to put it, and I change things. I mean, all these characters are created just like anything else in life. We make decisions and do things based off our past experience and whatever foundation that we've built up to that point in life. So same things with characters. They're not a cut and paste from anybody in real life, but there are certainly. Oh my goodness, I get a lot of inspiration from a lot of politicians and senior military leaders. They give me a lot to work with. I guess that's the best way to put it.

Speaker 2: 4:01

I can imagine. Well, in previous books you've traveled and you've got some inspiration for some of the places that you've taken. James Reese, and I was just curious, did you go to China at all for this? Because I get the feeling there's the more places you visit and you write about, there's more places you probably won't be going to in the future.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Yes, this is true, and I wanted really to get to China for this book, to Macau in particular, and I didn't know before I started doing the research that they make more there on gambling than we do in Vegas here, and I had a touchpoint, a connection with somebody in Vegas that owns also a casino there, and I thought I'd zip over in a plane that's similar to the one that I described in the book. I keep forgetting that this book just came out yesterday, so if you haven't got to that part, I got to remember that about spoilers although it's not really too big of a spoiler, but so I thought I was going to zip over there. And then all these sorts of things are coming up with scripts and just life in general and all sorts of things that I need to to to get done, and so it was kind of up against the clock. And then I saw an article about an Australian novelist who went to, I think, macau or somewhere in China and got picked up and thrown in jail for something that they had written, and I was like, ah, maybe I don't need to go to Macau, maybe I'm, maybe I'm good, I'm definitely not going now, but I was fortunate that I went to to China back before I joined the military, traveling around. So I have been to uh to beijing, uh, shanghai, and I went to taiwan as well back then. So it's a long time ago, but it's still. You know, it's still in the memory banks there and I still have photos and still remember what it felt like to be walking around and still remember what tiananmen square was like and remember the big pictures of mao and and all those things. So if you, if you read the book and get to those parts that describe those areas, um, that's because it, uh, it was. I mean, it's still semi-fresh in my mind after all these years, cause it's I was only there once and uh, and it made an impact. So I try to do that as much as I can.

Speaker 1: 5:54

I try to use places that I've already been if I can't go somewhere, and my idea at the beginning, when I started, is that I'd always go to one. So for the first one I'd been to Iraq and Afghanistan, so I was good there. For the second one, I hadn't been to Mozambique. I knew that was going to play a pivotal role in that story, so I went there, spent a couple of weeks on the ground and got to weave that flavor into True Believer Savage Sun. I went to Russia, to Kamchatka, peninsula, russia, so I wanted to see what it was like out there. I'd been to Moscow before once again traveling around the world before I went in the military.

Speaker 3: 6:42

So I'd been to Moscow before, but I hadn't been to the eastern side of Russia.

Speaker 1: 6:44

So I got to go over there. I don't think I'll go back, though. After that was I think I just made it in under the wire as far as you know some things I say in these, in these books, so went there for that one and then for the next one COVID hit, so everything was kind of shut down for the devil's hand. Luckily that one was more domestic, not totally, but mostly domestic-based. So I chose places that I'd already been for that one and then the next one in the blood. I wanted to get to Israel and I didn't get to go because it was just really harsh.

Speaker 1: 7:10

Covid was still going on and unless you were an Israeli citizen even if you were an Israeli citizen it was hard to get in and out of Israel. During COVID they locked it down pretty hard. So I didn't get to go over there. But I sent that one to a family over there that had three generations read the book. So I had somebody in their thirties, somebody in their sixties and somebody in their nineties read it and they all said that they couldn't believe that I hadn't been over there. So that was all done just with uh, with research, just online and books and articles and that sort of thing. So, um, so I haven't gotten to really go anywhere to do research and for this one same same thing, but it's probably good, because I might still be in China.

Speaker 2: 7:43

Well, I'm glad you didn't go for that. Um, you know you mentioned a plane in this book, and I actually. On the cover too, you feature the Lake Buccaneer. That's right. And this was a plane that you read about in 1985 on, I think it was, centrifuge, that's right. And the same day you picked up Rambo, part 2. That's right. And you said that day you wanted to feature this plane in a book and that one day you also wanted to own one. So I was curious. You put James Reese behind the controls of the plane. Have you taken some pilot lessons and are you any closer to owning a Lake Buccaneer?

Speaker 1: 8:19

No, and my wife's not here, so maybe I can answer this truthfully. No, I'm just kidding. So I the idea. I read that book in the summer of 1985, right and one day absolutely loved it and told myself that one day I'd include that plane in a novel that I'd write. So this was the one, the natural one, to include that plane in. So put it on the cover. The paperback edition of that book also had it on the cover back in 85. So I really wanted to get it on the cover of this book. So it's on the spine of this book and then it's on the cover of the audio, the CDs or the audio graphic. So I wanted to fly in one before the book came out or before I wrote that section.

Speaker 1: 8:59

But once again, trying to do research and travel didn't really work out. But I talked to somebody who has, whose father loved this plane and had, has had, multiple planes. I think they either bought the company or they have some affiliation with the. With the company. They don't make the plane anymore, they make parts for it still. So I talked to him, sent the chapters to him.

Speaker 1: 9:15

I did my research first, though, get uh, cause you can get on YouTube and kind of really get walked through like pre-checks and all sorts of things. You can do a lot of um, a lot of research on YouTube for something like that and I really felt like I could get in that plane and take that thing off with just the research that I did. But I know I really can't, um, and I shouldn't. How about that? I shouldn't or I can maybe take off, I couldn't land. Maybe.

Speaker 1: 9:37

I feel pretty confident that I could get airborne or skip along the water for a little bit. But, uh, I wanted to make sure that someone who loved that plane cause it's a really, um, dedicated community to that platform, and so I wanted someone who loved that plane, has one, has flown one before to at least know that I put in the effort to get it right. So, uh, it says that's why it's described in such detail there. But I talked to a guy who, um, I found him on on Instagram and started following and just checking out the plane and and send him the chapters and he checked it out and sent him back to me with a couple of corrections on there. So it should be fairly accurate.

Speaker 2: 10:08

Nice, nice, um, I I wanted to ask you about your recent travels, of which there are many. I mean, you've been in Budapest, but the one I wanted to focus on real quick and we'll jump into the Budapest time because that's obviously with Dark Wolf but you were in Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and you had some of your kids there with you and I just wanted to ask you about that experience. What was that like for you? I know that you had been there before and that's the best defense foundation that took all of these amazing. It was like 48 different uh veterans between you know, a hundred or close to uh to that age, and I just wanted to, you know, hear about your experience with that and if you can share that with everyone here.

Speaker 1: 10:46

Yeah, so I, uh, I've known Donnie Edwards, who started the best defense foundation for I don't know, probably a little over a decade now or so, and he's a former NFL player and his grandfather was at Pearl Harbor, so his grandfather passed along all these amazing lessons to him. He had so much respect for his grandfather and then when he was in the NFL, he just started taking guys back to battlefields on which they fought to, just on his own dime, just just doing it on his own Pearl Harbor, Normandy in particular, Also the Netherlands, I think, at some point. But then when he got out he started the Best Defense Foundation to continue that mission and it's like a full-time thing. It's amazing how much work that everybody puts into that. But I did the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor a couple years ago with my daughter. She was 15 at the time and they hadn't had any younger people come and help out these veterans before. But just seeing her work with these veterans and how they just lit up talking to someone from her generation, uh, about the things that they experienced in world war two, uh was added so much value to the trip for them and to my daughter, but, uh, but for them in particular, they just love talking to her. So they uh allowed her to come back for the 78th anniversary of a D day and we did that and really helping these guys getting out of their wheelchairs, getting them to the events, making sure they're taking their medicines, making sure they're eating, all those things. So you're really it's. It's a lot of of work and it's, but it's so fulfilling. So we did that and then went back again here for the 80th and they're all yeah, they're all creeping up on a hundred, at a hundred or over a hundred years old.

Speaker 1: 12:09

And it's not just one day back there, it's not just June 6th, it's at least two weeks of events. So we were there for two weeks. But it starts in Atlanta first. Everybody gathers there and Delta flies everyone out, lands in Normandy and they land a big aircraft out there. And it's not a normal flight. They usually just go to Paris and then you have to drive up or take a train up from there. But they went out, surveyed the runway and they brought one of their big jets in with these guys, all in first class, and they had a great couple of weeks out there and it's just a very powerful experience, but from an American's perspective in Northern France in June.

Speaker 1: 12:44

There's such a feeling of patriotism for the United States there and there's American flags everywhere 101st airborne flags everywhere, 82nd airborne flags everywhere so it's really cool to be there during that time and see this outpouring of gratitude and support that's now multi-generational, because it's not just from the older people.

Speaker 1: 13:01

They have passed it down and it's not something they just talk about once a week or once a year in school or something like that. I think they talk about it every single day because the youngest kid up to the oldest person, they all have that same look on their face and they're all just so proud and want to just talk to these guys, want to get their autographs. We make these baseball cards that have their stats on them and what they looked like in World War II, what they look like now, what they did during the war, and they're panning these things out as we're pushing them through the streets and these parades. Everyone's dressed up in World War II era clothing, with World War II era Jeeps and Harley's and Indian motorcycles, and it's just an amazing thing to experience and I think I saw more American flags in Normandy than I've ever seen in America on the 4th of July anywhere that I've been in my life. So it's a very interesting thing to experience, but that's because they were occupied. Sure.

Speaker 1: 13:47

And then they were liberated and these kids that liberated them and they essentially were some of them lied about their age 15 years old and I think we have a misconception about what they look like because we see Tom Hanks and saving private Ryan and maybe Tom Hanks was like 45, maybe when he filmed that or something, and then John Wayne, the longest day, who is, who is up there as well, but then you think about these guys that are storming the beaches of Normandy or jumping out with 101st airborne or landing gliders with 82nd and were like 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 years old.

Speaker 2: 14:15

They were young, they were very young well, you know I wanted to bring it back to your time when you were in budapest, hungary, you guys been filming uh terminalist dark wolf. Why don't you kind of catch us all up? When might we be seeing that uh air? I know you had the director's cut of the first episode that you guys got to go check out recently. I heard you talking about that.

Speaker 1: 14:34

So yeah, but you can just maybe kind of, you know, catch us up with what the plans are with that right now yeah, so I'm not sure we don't have a date that it's coming out, but I would expect that we finish it up in the next month or so. It goes into post production, so I would expect it sometime in 2025. Um, but there's no date or anything yet. But, uh, yeah, filming in budapest amazing city over there. Once again went over there before I joined the military so it had been a while been a moon or two since I had been back.

Speaker 1: 14:59

But it's so interesting. There are Ferraris, lamborghinis, bentleys, porsches are a dime a dozen, mercedes a dime a dozen. It's incredible how much wealth is. I don't know if it's from there or if it's coming in there, but there's certainly a lot of Russian money, ukrainian money, chinese money there and, by Ukrainian money, probably some of ours. That's just kind of getting some really nice cars over there. So it might make an appearance in a future novel. There's just too much going on in Budapest right now not to include in a book. It's such a fascinating place, so it might make it into a future novel. But, yeah, filming there now, everybody's crushing it.

Speaker 1: 15:40

I feel there's a lot more trust from senior level executives at Amazon this time around, because they saw the data last time, and so that means you built up a little political capital, build up some trust, so there's not as many questions coming down this time as there were last time. There build up some trust so there's not as many questions coming down this time as there were last time. There were a lot of questions last time, so there's almost zero this time. It's been fantastic so much more freedom in these scripts.

Speaker 1: 16:02

But it's interesting filming overseas and I was always very forgiving about things that I saw, whether it's like military or something that I may know about law enforcement or weapons handling, whatever.

Speaker 1: 16:12

It might be very forgiving when I'd watch something and I always try to just enjoy it for what it was. And now I have even more appreciation, more forgiveness for things that I see that are a little bit off, because it's so hard to to film anything. Uh, anything good, certainly, cause there's so many opportunities for it to go off the road but uh, or off the rails, but it's uh just getting getting weapons that you need in a country like that you have to have like six months ahead of time. You're filling out ATF forms and import forms and all this stuff. So if you want to make a change to something because you have a better idea. But oh, that would have been a good idea six months ago, so we got to get this thing into the country, and so there's just things like that that you don't really account for if you're in the audience and don't know some of the intricacies. So always been forgiving, but now I'm even more forgiving when I see a show.

Speaker 2: 17:01

Well, in that show too you kind of talked about the first time through filming Terminalist and kind of leading up to that too, you were kind of new to that role in that film adaptation and now you're a part of casting, you're a part of writing. What is kind of your role in your day-to-day when you're on set there?

Speaker 1: 17:15

Yeah, when I'm on set there I catch so much so I wish I was. If I didn't have anything else to do, I'd be on set every single day. So as an executive producer, you really add value where you can, and so for me it's really throughout, it's all of it. But being there on set you can get to you, you get to have like a strategic level view of what's going on, if you're not uh there every single day. So that's kind of I think that's what I add when I show up is that I can look at it and uh and add value through what I'm, what I'm seeing, cause I'm not intimately involved with it on a day-to-day basis now that they're in Budapest and I'm on book tour and doing all these other other things, but uh, but yeah, you're just in there with the, the EP team.

Speaker 1: 17:53

So it's me, David DiGilio, uh, max Adams, former army Ranger, jared Shaw, the guy who gave the book to Chris Pratt, and uh and Taylor Kitsch, like that's the, the kind of the group that uh is there every single day and then Chris is in and out to film, film, his scenes, so he's uh, he, uh, it gives his input when he's there and that sort of sort of a thing. But, uh, and the director, um uh, frederick toy, and who did um uh, shogun if anybody's seen Shogun, he did episode three or four. Anyway, amazing guy. So we have a good, uh, we have a great crew. Very, I feel extremely fortunate that we have such a good, good group of guys.

Speaker 2: 18:28

And what's the rollout looking like for the terminal list as far as season two and beyond? Are you looking to do each season based on a book or is there going to be kind of a culmination? Or is there going to be some writing and some expansion of, maybe outside of the book and outside the realm of of that kind of you know, as far as the chapters of things?

Speaker 1: 18:45

Yeah, we'll see, but right now it's uh, it's this prequel origin story and, uh, you know, we'll see if it goes, uh, goes for more than one season. You never, you never know. But then we roll right into True Believer, so we roll right into writing that and then filming that, probably sometime in early 2025. We'll see, but yeah get to work on that one, and then, who knows, we'll see where it goes from there. Probably all depends on what Chris wants to do.

Speaker 2: 19:07

That's fair.

Speaker 1: 19:08

Yeah, he's a busy man.

Speaker 2: 19:10

Well, well, um, you know you also have targeted beirut, which is me your first non-fiction. It's going to be coming out in a few months. Uh, you linked up with james scott there, who's had a lot of historical books under his belt. I was just kind of curious how did you guys come to meet and decide that you wanted to do this first book in a series of which you know? You said maybe every other year you want to put something out. How did you guys kind of come together with that?

Speaker 1: 19:30

yeah. So I wanted to do. Uh, just looking at the space in general, you look at what Tom Clancy did in the 80s. He has his books coming out. You never knew when it was coming out. Maybe it was every year, maybe it was every year and a half, maybe even two years, maybe in two and a half years. And then in the early 90s he starts doing nonfiction. He starts doing some other things as well, with video games and other co-written thrillers.

Speaker 1: 19:51

So I always, you know, growing up I was well aware of that and always considered that an option. So I wanted to do some nonfiction series that looked at different terrorist events and really tried to keep those lessons alive from those events for future generations so that they don't have to learn the same lessons in blood. And 1983, barracks bombing the Marines lost more people in a single day than they'd lost since Iwo Jima in World War II. And for me it was a very seminal event because I'm a kid, I'm around nine, 10 years old and I know I want to join the military later in life. And I'm seeing these Time Magazine cover come across my parents or our dining room table Newsweek. I'm seeing the news on television at five o'clock and six o'clock at night newspapers, and so you're seeing this devastation over there. And so you're aware that there was this terrorist attack and it was really. There were some things that led up to it. So there was an embassy bombing in April. And then you have the administration talking about the Marines over there being peacekeepers all the way up through October and past, but they were in combat, those guys. Now that I've done all this research, they were 100% in combat. So it's very interesting to see administration talking points coming out in the spring, summer, fall of 1983. And when those guys were in actual combat.

Speaker 1: 21:09

So always something that I always wanted to do. And so I pitched it to Simon and Schuster and they said, yes, let's do it. And uh, and then I thought, well, who do I want to work with this on? And there was only one person, james Scott. So, uh, so I reached out to him and asked him and he was fired up to do it. So, uh, that's yeah, that's how it went.

Speaker 1: 21:26

He has five books out for on world war two and uh, and one not on world war two. Um, but amazing guy, and he knows how to do all that. Uh, like annotate everything legally for those that have not having experienced in the non-fiction space, you really have to know what you're doing when you're annotating different different quotes and sources and all that stuff, cause if you mess something up in one of these books, uh that I write here, uh you can just say, oh, it's fiction, you know it's okay, but there's none of that for the non-fiction space. You really have to have that right, have that down and he's he's so good at it and such a great guy. So that comes out September 24th.

Speaker 2: 21:59

Nice Um, you also in in this recent book you talked about a typewriter, that is, and you actually own one of Hemingway's typewriters. I was curious how did you come to get that?

Speaker 1: 22:11

Yeah, it's a bit of classified, because the person asked me to never, never to say who they, but uh, it was uh gifted to me in uh early 2020, so right before covid.

Speaker 1: 22:21

Uh, there was a guy, a e hotchder I think I'm pronouncing his name semi right, um, but he he also co-founded uh newman's own with paul newman. So he's this guy, kind of a mover and a shaker, a manager ish type person in that crowd back in the day, and so he got got Hemingway a typewriter to write a movable feast on and he passed away, I think in late 2021. And then all his memorabilia, all the things he's collected over the years, went up for auction, including this typewriter, and a reader saw it and wanted to get it for me. So it's now, it's in our house and I got it and I typed one Hemingway sentence on there and then let it for me. So it's now, uh, it's in our house and I got it and I typed one Hemingway sentence on there and then let it. Let it just sit. Of course, the kids have walked by and gone, like it's like oh God, but you know, that's just how it goes. Nice, I think Hemingway would approve.

Speaker 2: 23:09

Of course, of course. Well, I wanted to open it up to the audience to have some question answering before we get to the photography. I have a microphone set up over here. I have it turned off right now, so if anybody wants to come step up to it, just flip that towards you, the switch on top, and don't be bashful, come on.

Speaker 1: 23:25

Oh wow, you're going to walk all the way up there, that's intimidating Jeez If it's too hard to walk up.

Speaker 5: 23:29

So you came pretty hot out the gate once you retired from the Navy with your first book. My question is how did you? Well, I'm assuming you were writing while you were still in.

Speaker 1: 23:52

Well, last year, year and a half, when I wasn't, didn't really have any responsibilities other than getting out of said bureaucracy.

Speaker 5: 23:58

Okay, how did you divide up Navy time, family time, writing time to be able to do what you did right after you retired, to where it's just boom, boom, boom, everything hit.

Speaker 1: 24:11

Well, it was actually easier when I was still in the military, because there was nothing else other than family. That wasn't uh. And that last year, for those who have been in the military and tried to get out of it, it, uh, it takes a little time to to go and do all your medical, do all your dental, get read out of. All these different secret programs turn in gear, uh, and then they have these like, uh, I don't know, transition assistance program or something like that, something like that and uh, so, which was totally useless. Um, and so you but you have to like make, you can't just like go to these things. You also have to stand in line first to to make your appointment. Maybe not now, maybe there's an app now or something, probably not, but it's a stand in line. So you have a lot of time on your hands and you go in a different pile. So once I dropped my paper at least my experience was drop your papers you kind of go in this different pile and you have to do all these things to get out, and I think the command is actually responsible to make sure that you do all that stuff. So they just kind of want to make sure you do it. So that was time. So I just took advantage of it and started writing. So I started writing.

Speaker 1: 25:09

December of 2014 was when I wrote the first words to the terminal list, and also when I chose Chris Pratt and Antoine Fuqua uh, even though I didn't know them and I had no connections to Hollywood or publishing, but, uh, but I didn't really worry about any of that other stuff. There was nothing really to worry about. There was no one to try to reach out to or think about reaching out to, and publishing or anything like that, cause I didn't know anyone. Um, so it was all really about the book. And then there was, so I wasn't taking guys down range anymore, so that wasn't weighing heavily on me.

Speaker 1: 25:36

I didn't feel like I needed to spend every waking second studying the enemy, studying insurgencies, counterinsurgencies, terrorism, be training all the time, even on my own time. So I just felt like I could, I could start doing something different, and so that was writing and family, because there was nothing else back then. And and then, yeah, I got it and got it to Simon and Schuster and, luckily, they loved it and off we went to the races. So it's uh, I don't know how else. Yeah, I got very fortunate, very fortunate. Yeah, absolutely yeah, yeah, all right Awesome.

Speaker 6: 26:12

Huge fan obviously. Just finished the book, the. It's the best one yet. Thank, you.

Speaker 3: 26:16

It's totally amazing, thank you.

Speaker 6: 26:17

And so you have an amazing ability to we read it in one day. Did you get it early, and so I got it yesterday. Got it yesterday. Dang.

Speaker 1: 26:24

That's awesome. Nice yeah, give it up. Nice Coffee.

Speaker 6: 26:32

Yeah, nice All the cool kids have them.

Speaker 1: 26:34

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6: 26:35

And but you so. You have an amazing ability to tell the future. So, like the thing I hope, I'm not telling the future in this one.

Speaker 1: 26:43

I really hope so well, that's kind of my.

Speaker 6: 26:45

so, like the Ukraine thing, the Israel thing, Like you, I mean, I remember whenever, like the Ukraine thing happened, I was like I just read about that, like in a book, you know, and so how are you able to do that? Uh, yeah, what's your, what's your secrets? My?

Speaker 1: 26:58

friend trade secrets, no, no, well, that well, a couple of them aren't really that difficult to predict, like the uh, the ukrainian invasion, or russian invasion of ukraine, um, just if you read peter zion, he predicted that in 2014, down to the, the year, um, and because he's looking at uh, population decline, and what he looked at for that in particular was uh, was, when is the last time that russia can field an army? Uh, at the current, at its current size? When does that start to decline because of population, because of the demographics? And so he, he, uh, he predicted that to the to the year and uh, so I incorporated that one in there. Um, and some other things.

Speaker 1: 27:36

Kovid just happened, happened to be randomly writing a book about what the enemy has learned from watching us on the field of battle for the last 20 years, and I was using a bioweapon as part of that, and then COVID hit, which was kind of wild, and because I'm also writing, really, about what the enemies learned about us. Well, we move into a summer of civil unrest and then a very contentious election cycle, and so, once again, the enemy is looking at all of that, and by enemy I mean China, russia, north Korea, iran, super powered individuals, terrorist organizations. So they're all learning something and taking notes and figuring out what they can do, what can they exploit and how they can divide us further. One of those old quotes I forget who said it, but you know, don't interrupt your enemy when they're making a mistake, type of a thing. So that was my takeaway from writing. That book was like geez man, all they need to really do is step back and kind of watch us. We're doing a pretty good job of destroying ourselves from the inside right now, unfortunately, so, but I like to remain hopeful. I try to remain hopeful. Yeah, yeah, so, but I like to remain hopeful. I try to remain hopeful. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:38

So then came In the Blood, you know no, so I don't know about it. It's just I look at past experience, all the things that I studied throughout my life warfare, and then all the reading that I've done all my life, not on the warfare side or the nonfiction side, but the fiction side, and reading the masters like Tom Clancy and Nelson DeMille and AJ, but the fiction side, and reading the masters like Tom Clancy and Nelson DeMille and AJ Quinnell and JC Pollock and Mark Olden, david Morrell, louis L'Amour all these guys really my professors in the art of storytelling, and then combining those things together as I got out of the military allowed me to create James Reese in this universe. So that's a very long way of me saying that. Once again, the dynamics currently at play in the world right now give give me a lot to uh, a lot to work with, and having that background allows me to make some projections here and there, mostly by putting myself in the enemy's shoes. Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1: 29:27

And that flux Raider, that thing I saw first time I saw that was like five years ago and I was like who's going to use this thing? I didn't quite get it and uh. And then I, oh, I started talking to some people that actually use them, uh about and uh, and so then that's why I made it into the book. So it's a pretty cool little little deal, yeah, Next question.

Speaker 3: 29:46

So I kind of just wanted to change topics a little bit, um, and ask more of a question about you and like, I've listened to your podcast and like a bunch of different things and I feel like you take a lot of inspiration for a lot of your characters from people you know. We kind of talked about that earlier. Is there anything like james reese? And, um, oh my god, I just forgot his name great yes our uh, you know huge hunters in the backcountry, montana.

Speaker 3: 30:10

Yeah, is there any truth to that? As far as you go like, do you love to hunt and fish, and what's your favorite type of uh hunting?

Speaker 1: 30:18

yeah, so yes, on on all um, but I wanted to differentiate the two because I knew they were going to be in the military about the same time. They're both going to be seals, um, how can I differentiate these characters enough from one another, where you really do have a difference, um. And so I made ray for just a tiny tad bit older, not by much, just a year older, but a background with a family coming from Rhodesia. So I really wanted to do that because I hadn't seen that done before. And growing up, who else here considers the 80s their formative years? Nice, awesome, I like it.

Speaker 1: 30:52

Who perused a Soldier of Fortune magazine back in the day? Yeah, nice, nice, same hands, awesome, um. So growing up, going through that magazine, you're reading about this place called rhodesia and like what's going on over there? You're seeing these guys in like udt shorts and uh, you know, combat boots with fnfal, with this crazy camouflage pattern on there. You're not really sure exactly what's going on if you're reading that in fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, um, but you see that like, wow, these pretty cool Um.

Speaker 1: 31:18

And so I knew I wanted to incorporate that into a novel, cause it's not something that that we as as Americans, really, we don't really read about it in popular culture. I think blood diamond was the first time we really had a movie that, uh, something from popular culture that that focused on on that area of character, with a character with a background in that area. So I wanted to do that, but wanted to make Rafe have a connection, and so I do that through the gear, obviously his family, a little bit of an accent, um and uh, and some of his mindset that comes from what happened to his family over there and what happened to to the country over there. But, uh, also through the gear. So with uh, the Courtney boots and um, and with uh, with essentially leather holsters instead of Kydex and uh, a 1911. That has a history to it that's been passed down through the generations. So I try to use all those things to to differentiate these characters and give them interesting backstories as well.

Speaker 1: 32:13

So, and then the hunting piece is something that bonds those guys together because really, from the beginning of time that's something that's primal and it's visceral and it's something that all of our ancestors had to be good out, otherwise we wouldn't be here today. So I try to key into that and in each book, um, there's some element of fire somewhere and uh, and I do that because the first stories were essentially told around those fires and uh, and they had lessons in them, and whether they were just stories about what actually happened or there were stories that were, um, that we had these real elements but were fictionalized so you could remember them, so you could pass down these lessons of warfare and of the hunt. So I thought that was a that was an important thing to uh, to tap into creating these characters and uh, yes, so I I haven't been hunting for a little bit of. I decided to go over to hawaii, but it's not really the same kind of hunting.

Speaker 1: 33:03

Uh, it's you're hunting out of the four seasons on lanai, which is a little a little different, but, uh, but in mozambique certainly, I mean, and I love the different hunting traditions around the world as well, because each, even every country in europe, has a slightly different one, so I want to spend some more time over there doing that. But I've been to africa many times and, uh, of course, in in the united states and the western mountains, um, elk and moose and that sort of thing. So, uh, you know elk hunting, but this is my favorite. But, uh, I feel like maybe I should temper my my answers, but I hadn't really done any predator hunting up until, uh, I did the research for savage sun in kamchatka peninsula and, uh, there was something about going out after something that can tear you up and eat you.

Speaker 1: 33:47

That, uh, that was. There was a draw there. I didn't really expect it because I hadn't done that sort of hunting, um, in my past. So, uh, there was something different about it and, uh, I don't know what it was, but there was. There was some sort of a connection there.

Speaker 3: 33:59

Yeah, well, thank you very much. Yeah, yeah, appreciate it absolutely and I'm canceled.

Speaker 2: 34:08

We'll hire you.

Speaker 4: 34:10

So you stated that you're a really big James Bond fan, and even there's some 007 Easter eggs in this one. What are some of your favorite James Bond moments or movies that inspired James Reese in this book and beyond?

Speaker 1: 34:24

Yeah, good question. So it was the 007th book. So I figured this was the time to go down to GoldenEye, jamaica, where Ian Fleming wrote all of the Bond books down there. So I went down there last summer and used it as an excuse to get down there and then got to go sit at his desk where he wrote all those books and open up the big windows there that overlook this lawn and then this cliff that drops down to his private beach and then the ocean beyond. So it's, uh, it was just such an incredible experience to be there in that place. For me it was just a magical experience.

Speaker 1: 34:55

And, um, uh, having been a fan of his from the earliest age and from a as a kid so cause it's always, it wasn't just James Bond movie or whatever, it was always Ian Fleming's James Bond, and that was really cool to see that as a kid. Well, who's this Ian Fleming guy? And I can ask my dad back then. And you know, get a little bit, but there wasn't something. You can just type it into a machine and get a lot of stuff back. There were a couple of books back then that that we had some books I got from the library about Ian Fleming. There was a one book that went through all the Bond book on movies up to that point, whenever that was in the early eighties that I was looking at that stuff, um, so yeah, it was a important part of my childhood. I think I watched those movies over and over and over again, um, and then read the books, uh, a little bit later, but uh, but it's always been so. It's so having it be a part of my life from that early age, knowing I wanted to write one day, it's just a part of my experience.

Speaker 1: 35:46

So this one was the time to incorporate some Easter eggs in there. I guess you call them, but references, I guess is something is probably more accurate and it there's something in there for the most casual viewer of, like a Bond film. And then there are things that even the most ardent Bond fan won't recognize. I think there's a couple that I only all get, because I morphed it enough, where it's just like a hint of something. So there's something in there for everybody if they're a Bond fan. So there's quite a few of them in here. So it's the 007th book, so there's that. And then it's also the 40th anniversary of the Hunt for Red October this year. So that's why it starts out with a Clancy-esque type prologue with submarines. That started turning into a whole book and it's probably one of the reasons this book we're here in June instead of May when the book was supposed to come out. Um, cause I know nothing about submarines. I know something now. I didn't know something at the beginning. So I took a lot, of a lot of research and I did take a little literary license there, uh, for those who have spent some time in subs. But um, uh, yeah, it was, uh, it was fun to write.

Speaker 1: 36:44

And some of my favorite Bond moments or films I mean there's something about all of them I don't like look at them with a critical eye. I try to enjoy them. I try to enjoy everything that I read or everything that I watch, so I don't try to be too critical of them. So I like some of the early stuff. Of course, goldfinger was probably for me as a kid was the one I watched the most, and then Thunderballball because I knew I wanted to be a SEAL from such an early age. So it has those scenes in there.

Speaker 1: 37:09

But I think now I have a greater appreciation for From Russia, with Love and Dr. No, and I always liked you Only Live Twice because, as we mentioned, I'm growing up in the 80s and it's the ninja craze time, so you Only Live Twice is I think. I have two references to you Only Live Twice in this book, so I will have two, two in. But uh, but I love that, that growing up as well. So, um, yeah, I love it all. I love it all thank you so much yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 37:35

I think I do have a little little something here. Um, oh, but oh, I forgot one thing. So no one's asking me. But, uh, if they did ask me about what to do next with the bond franchise, um, I think I think they should go back and do the books, but do do them as period pieces. So you start, you do Casino Royale, but you do it in the 50s, and for those who have read the book, they know that James Bond drove an old Bentley in that one. He didn't drive an Aston Martin, he drove this Bentley back then, from 1937, I think it was. So you do them as period pieces. So, end of World War II, you have the British Empire in decline and then you have the creation James Bond. So I think they should go back and do the books, but do them as true or truer, adaptation period pieces in order to save the franchise after what they did at the end of the last one. But I won't spoil that for anyone who hasn't seen it. So, um, all right, um, what else do we have?

Speaker 1: 38:27

And before I get to this last piece, uh, I just want to say that thank you so much for being here. I sincerely appreciate it. Uh, this is my favorite part of uh doing this is being able to say thank you. I can try to say thank you as much as I possibly can Uh online. I try to hit that little heart button and thank people that reach out and say that, uh, they watched the, watched the show and liked it, or listened to the podcast and liked it, or read the books, or shared them with their dad, and now they talked about them or whatever. I'd just like to thank them online.

Speaker 1: 38:53

But it's different, where I get to shake your hand here and look into people's eyes and thank you in person, because it means the world to me and allows me to do what I love to do, which is right. So, thank you all so much. And then also, right now, sun is going down here. It means it's coming up on another side of the world. So I always like to think about those people that are out there on front lines, even though there's not Iraq and Afghanistan or not in the same way that it used to be anyway, but there are men and women out there that are doing some jobs in some austere places and just like to remember that they're out there doing that. What allows us to be here doing this. So thank you all so much. Appreciate everything. Thank you, jack, thank you.