Setting The Stage: Cry Havoc

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This is Jack R, and you are listening to Son of a Blitch.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

You got your ninth book about to come out, Cry Havoc, October seventh. And there's a little bit of an origin story here with Tom Reese, James Reese's father, as far as Cry Havoc, and I want you to kind of lay that out. Give us a little synopsis. Where are you bringing us there in 1968? And uh let's roll with that.

Writing Through 1968’s Eyes

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Yeah, yeah. So the uh book was supposed to come out in June, uh, and that's coming out in October now, because I didn't really anticipate how much extra work it was going to take, how much extra time it was gonna take to write every sentence through the lens of 1968. So uh I didn't want to have this benefit of 50 plus years of hindsight and incorporate that in a different character's perspective on events in 1968. I really wanted to have their life experience up to that point, no matter what they what they were, whether you're a uh a GRU uh agent from uh from the Soviet Union or you're a uh French doctor working in Saigon or you're somebody in Mac V Sog or you're a businessman in Saigon, whatever character you are, uh I wanted your life experience up to that point in 1968 to be the only perspective you'd be able to give on an event um or take to a certain problem set. So that ended up taking a lot longer than I expected. But the uh the first uh review came out this morning on the Real Books Buy, so people can check that out, and uh it's a good one. So you never know so you get it out there. I mean, you pour your heart and soul into these things, and uh you never really know until it till it gets out there. But uh his review is is amazing, says it's the best book of the year, and um just couldn't be uh yeah, couldn't be yeah, more humbled by the review and and thankful for it as well.

Building A Saigon Spy World

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Um but yeah, 1968, Vietnam, Tom Reese, Mac V Sog. It's really really an espionage story that's set in Saigon 1968. So it's uh I haven't really seen that done in a while. So there's the some some inspiration for it comes from The Quiet American by Graham Green, and um uh uh uh there's a couple other ones out there, Tears of uh the uh Tears of Autumn by Charles McCary. Um uh so those kind of ones, but they're they're older. They're from the the ones from the 50s and from the the 70s, right there. Um so it really hasn't been done in a while. And uh I wanted to to really set an espionage story in the past and not just in between in Washington or or Moscow, but in Saigon. So in really the hot zone of the Cold War. And uh and yeah, I couldn't be more thrilled with how it how it came out, and uh, but it really turned into more historical fiction because it's uh it took so much, and you're not just making it up, it's not contemporary, so you have to go back and look at the names of streets and oh now they've changed. Oh, what were they when the French took over? What were they when now in the if I'm looking up something? Oh no, this is from post-75. So like that's not right. So I have to there it took a lot of a lot of time, but uh, but yeah, I'm fired up to get that out there. And from the very beginning, I was I made sure that I put in uh or I hinted at compelling characters that people would want to to read about later. So uh mainly the Reese family and the Hastings family, uh Rafe Hastings' dad and grandfather, and and um James Reese's dad and grandfather as well. So I wanted to have options to explore these different family lineages out there. And so this is the first uh the first book uh in something like that. And the from how much time it took, I don't know. It might be the only one. I'm

Families, Lineage, And Legacy

SPEAKER_01 3:06

not sure yet. That took a lot out of me this this last year. But uh yeah, out there October 7th, and uh yeah, I'm fired up.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

You know, when we were talking about Cry Havoc a second ago, I wanted to make mention too, one thing that you do that is you're supporting local bookstores, independent bookstores by having a signed and shot through edition. Can you tell people a little bit about that and where they can go on your website to go ahead and order those? I got my my copy reserved. I can't wait. I love having anytime that they've come out, I love supporting

Shot-Through Editions For Indies

SPEAKER_00 3:32

you know local bookstores. I think it's super important. And yeah, if you just want to go ahead and uh you know plug that if you wouldn't mind.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah, it started during during COVID when everyone was locked down and these smaller independent bookstores were locked down to foot traffic, essentially. So I was trying to think what I could do to uh help support them during COVID. So I started with these uh book plates, which for those listening or watching, they're um essentially large stickers that you sign and put into a book. And I made had some artwork done on those, so you could only get them from these independent bookstores if you wanted them. So kind of make a collector's thing, give people an incentive to go to these independent bookstores, even though it might take a couple extra minutes rather than hitting the easy button on Amazon. You know, that's obviously very quick, but you can't get one of these things there and uh Amazon. So uh did that, everything sold out right away, did that again for the next book, The Devil's Hand. And then the one after that um was uh uh was in the blood. And that's really a sniper-centric novel of violent revel resolutions. That's what uh was the theme that guided that uh that writing process. And uh, and so I did it, decided I'd do something different for that one because it was a sniper-centric book and uh and wanted to shoot through a title page. And Simon A. Schuster had never done something like that before. So they sent out a bunch of paper that's the same thickness as a as a uh as a paper that goes gets bound into the book. And then I did some experimentation with different calibers and how many of those I could put together to shoot through, and then sent them back to Simon A. Schuster and they did a test run and to see if it would muck up the printing process or not. And so figured out what uh what calibers work, how many pages I can stack together. So I stacked 50 together, put them between two pieces of cardboard, wrap it really tight, and then in this case I shot through it with a car 15, uh, a clone from Colt. So it's the same type of a rifle that the guys used primarily in Mac V Sog in uh in Vietnam, going into Laos, Cambodia, uh, and other places as well. So uh shot through those title pages and signed them and sent them back to Simon and Schuster. And now uh the independent bookstores that are linked on my website are the only places that you can you can get those. So it's just a way for me to continue to to support those independent bookstores that uh are uh are really up against it when it comes to kind of the the uh it's Amazon and all the distractions that are out there that are keeping people from from

Gratitude And Grassroots Growth

SPEAKER_01 5:38

reading today.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Is there anything that you'd like to say to your friends, your family, your fans, all those that have supported you over these years? I just want to see if you had a message you'd like to leave with them.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

I'm just so thankful. Um, first off, I feel extremely fortunate and uh try to be thoughtful about all I do. So it's not uh, you know, it's not just the books today. It's uh it's the podcast and it's a blog on the website and it's uh social media post and now it's TV shows and now it's the nonfiction and there'll be other things in the in the future, hopefully. Um, but I try to be thoughtful with all of it and um and for whatever reason that there's uh you know there's an audience there and a readership there, and I just feel extremely grateful to anybody who took a risk on me early on as a new author, especially with all these other distractions out there, uh, and then told a friend, um, because really that's what did this uh right from the get-go. There wasn't uh you know, I wasn't on Joe Rogan right out of the gate. Chris Pratt didn't mention meant uh optioning the show right out of the gate. I wasn't on Tucker's show out of the gate. You know, that took a few years um to for anybody to say anything or or to have me on any of those shows. So it was really grassroots from the beginning. It was uh, you know, posts that I'd put up, or uh somebody picking up the book and telling a friend whether it was at work or a family member at the dinner table, or uh, you know, somebody putting it on their social media and saying to their 10 followers that they just read this book and really liked it and recommended it, and maybe one of those people then read it and then told their 20 followers. Uh, and then maybe two of those people uh got it and then told their followers and uh or friends or family. So I just feel so so fortunate and and uh that's why I try to I try to uh as much as I possibly can get back to people and hit that like button and and thank people on the social channels um because I really do uh feel grateful that uh that they took a risk on me and they've continued this journey with me, man. It just uh just means the world. So I try to I try to let everybody know that every chance I get.