Uber Spy Prepping

The other day, someone asked me why I didn't continue writing about SEALs because she'd enjoyed my Crossfire series and she wanted more. I suppose it was natural for her to expect that I'd continue to tell the stories of the other SEALs, like many other authors who write the entire team's love stories before moving on.

I didn't have an answer. It isn't that I'm not interested in writing more SEAL stories but for some reason, it never occurred to me to offer Avon Books those stories as my next proposal. Kudos to those authors who could write 3, and then another set of three, and then maybe a continuing set of three of the entire team of SEALs/bodyguards/elite spec. ops. unit without a break. I don't know whether I can do that. I need a "break" each time.

For example, Into Danger and Facing Fear are about information analysis. There's not much action going on in most of the books because the Intel is static. But after two years writing those stories, I was interested in information dispersion and retrieval in the active state, and I wanted KABOOMs and gunfire, so I went into commando mode.

The last three books were written in two years, so I guess two years is the "break" point for me. That doesn't mean I won't go back to information analysis or SEAL commando action again; I just wanted to try something new. New challenges and all that.

At the back of my mind is always COMCEN and the COS commandos, of course. That universe is my baby and I've lived in it for almost ten years, each year adding layers and discovering new things. I'm slow at this because I don't write things down; I don't have pages and pages of notes like many other authors. I live in fear that once I write any down, I won't be interested in it any more.

It's happened before. I wrote an entire chapter-by-chapter synopsis of Jed's story once in a seven-hour span and I have never been able to write it into a novel. Why? I already know the story! So Jed's story is no longer his and I gave his heroine away to Rick Harden, by the way. He has never forgiven me that. Ever. And that's why he shows up in my books, to remind me of my sin. He is an unforgiving manipulator, if you don't know that by now.

So, now I'm committed to a three book story arc of Hell as Super Soldier Spy. I get to play in my COS world for real now. It's exciting AND scary because I've realized, after finishing Book One, that I've combined Concept One (info analysis) with Concept Two (info retrieval, team work) and added in Concept Three (covert government science/tech programs and its use in hi-tech spying). Science has never been my strongest subject in school either, so it's a challenge for me to sit and read hi-tech articles and make them comprehensible to myself. I have an idea what I want my heroine to be able to do, but how do I present it in a way that's not woo-woo?

For example, the use of virtual reality. Like every layperson, what I mostly knew cover its usage in new interactive computer games, 3-D house designing, or the vague references through movies about head-sex and alternate realities. Then I stumbled into an article from the University of Illinois at Chicago about their research in VR and a special room called the CAVE. It was as if a switch lit up in my head. I can make it happen without the woo-woo! Or, at least, I can explain enough with Scully-like scientific factoids to get by *grin*.

If all this is confusing you, bear with me. I'm preparing you for my excerpt, which I'm mulling over. I have a long one but I want to cut it down to a manageable size. Anyway, back to the VR concept. It will be clearer to you when I reveal to you Hell's ability but I can't till my editor gives a thumbs up to my manuscript and send me a revision letter. Then I can ask about its publication date, and with a date, I can tell you more details....

Yes, I'm rambling this morning. I'm getting back into writing mode. Got to start on the second proposal of Hell Book Two, you know, that one that has a lot to do with Armando, no, Grant, no, Jed...no, Shahrukh, no, Flyboy...no, no, no, Alex, no, Heath.... ;-) Ah, so many commandos, only one leader....

Here's a quiz to find out what kind of leader you are. I was really, really surprised that I'm Jack-Kenndy-like in my leadership qualities, LOL. But I guess it's appropriate--JFK had a lot of gray in him, what with his dealings with the Mafia. What are you? I'm interested in how many different leaders this quiz has for answers.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

They could have at least chosen a better photo of him!!!

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