IN THE WORKS
Faith is the Hunter:
An Airline Pilot's Flight through the Literary Skies of Ernest Gann
Do you like Ernest Gann? Sure you do. What pilot doesn't, except for the unfortunate few who haven't been introduced to his extraordinary prose. We marvel at his skill in putting into words his and our love of flight. No other author has ever come close to being his peer. But even his vast literary talent can't explain the reason for his being. Captain Gann has a problem understanding why the mysterious forces of "luck" have spared him from fate's talons.
I’ve always struggled with the words luck and fate. They’re untamed, intemperate words that smack of chaos and hopelessness. Yet, as a professional pilot and a Christian, I’m assailed by them again and again. They lurk in the recesses of my consciousness, grinning, nodding, winking at every turn of peril or graciousness that has come my way. “Told ya,” they say. “We’re in charge here. Next time it might go the other way for you.”
In Faith is the Hunter I take a huge gamble with Gann's devotees, hoping they will see that his "whims of fate" is not the engine of our destinies. There's something infinitely better.
To be published by Wordcrafts Press May 2025.
Coming April 2025
Night of the Bear
A military thriller co-authored with Richard Hess
Daryl McCormick hates phonies. Especially when honest people get sucked into their trap. She suspects the President himself is being duped by the Reverend Bobby Chatman, but her boss at the Bureau forbids her to investigate it; the rat she smells is unapproachable and protected. Before she can learn more about Chatman’s extraordinary sway with the President the Bureau re-assigns her to a stale committee to study domestic terrorism.
With McCormick iced, the reverend and his two associates, all Russian agents, finish their planning and present it to Viktor Darginsky, the top SVR agent (formerly KGB) in America, who takes it to the Russian president. Nickoli Kozlov desperately needs a way out of the troubles he has brought on himself and his people. Darginsky convinces Kozlov the plan will be his salvation.
Chatman and his two assistants are licensed pilots who are qualified to fly the ministry’s Citation business jets. After years of flying America’s civil air route structure they have discovered a glaring weakness. Since the introduction of ballistic missiles U.S. defense doctrine has assumed Russian bombers would never be used in a first-strike role. But Chatman’s plan, dubbed Lucifer/Inblue, using just two Tu-95 “Bear” bombers and one Su-57, a state-of-the-art stealth jet fighter, would bring the powerful United States to its knees. And it would be done on the night of the State of the Union address—in essence, a decapitation strike. With the loss of senior leadership would come confusion, chaos, and capitulation—without retaliation. Chatman’s plan is to hoodwink the American public with a perfect diversion. “How do you know,” he had asked his skeptical cohorts when introducing his plan, “who to swing back at when you don’t know who sucker punched you?”
Agent McCormick is anything but skeptical. She’s convinced Chatman is the source of all the clues flowing in indicating something unthinkable is about to happen. Her friend, fighter pilot Captain Mark Matthews is one of the few who take her seriously—as well he should. From the cockpit of his unarmed F-15, he will face the Bear in a chance encounter that defines the chink in the armor of the greatest military power on the face of the earth.
Night of the Bear is under a publishing contract and will be released by Koehler Books April 1, 2025.