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TWR Monday | Steve Stratton: From Special Forces to Self Published Thriller Author · The Whitfield Report

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Now broadcasting from the Next Gen. conservative studio in
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sunny South Florida, bringing you the latest in politics,
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current events and pop culture. This is the Whitfield Report
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with Sam Whitfield. All righty everyone, and welcome
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to Monday's edition of The Whitfield Report.
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I'm your host, Sam Whitfield, and joining us is our first
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guest of the year. Officially came highly
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recommended to me by a couple friends in the thrill of the
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community, Mr. Steve Stratton, who I would dare say might be
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the most badass guest that I've had on the show just based off
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of his resume. Steve, from what I've seen, he
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was a he started as a Green Beret and then went into the
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Secret Service and did a few other things and now he's
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becoming a Thrill author. So pretty extensive resume.
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So Steve, welcome to the show and glad to have you here.
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You don't, you don't look 70 at all.
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You look you look more like I would say 50 or so.
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So but yeah, so I I don't really even know where to start.
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How did you, I mean, let's just start from the beginning.
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How did you, you know, what made you decide to enlist first of
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all? And thank you for your services
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as well. And you know, just what's your
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background? So,
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uh, huh. Yeah.
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Oh, wow. So you you go back to the Nixon
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White House then? My sponsor, as we were driving
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into DC, my, my funny story is that he said, do you know what
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that is? And I said, is that the
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Watergate? And he said, yeah, don't go
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there. Yeah, it it was a very, you
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know, attempt to good word. It was a very crazy time in DC.
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Sure. You know the.
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Board took over and was trying to promote stability and get the
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country moving forward again. And so I went with like you know
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right away I'm going with on the advanced trips out to Vail, Co
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learning how to see because I've got to follow the president
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around with the radio on my back is like back up to the backup
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kind of idea you know. And I'm just hoping I don't run
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over him because I I literally learned how to ski one day and
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then start following the president, You know, it was
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pretty great. Yeah, How how does that work?
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Like, I've always been curious too, like in the Secret Service,
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like does the president. Like, I, I know that you guys
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have to follow the president around pretty closely, but like,
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how much privacy does he actually get, if if any?
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Because I can imagine that the the folks on Clinton's details
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saw some pretty interesting things to say it always.
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Well, well, in and around the White House, they're not in the
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living quarters. You know, you're not in the
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living quarters unless you have to be, right.
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And and you're not inside the Oval Office as talks are going
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on, right. You've got uniform divisions,
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your service officers, right address, more like DC police and
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they're stationed around the White House.
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And then the agents of course are right outside the protective
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detail leader and and the team in case the president decides he
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wants to move make a movement go somewhere.
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But if he's you know walking back and forth in the White
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House he's got some freedom. When he was president Ford was
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seeing he was doing blue runs thank goodness and and the
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Secret Service team was out away from him such that the
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photographers to take pictures and it looked like the president
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was on the mountain. He wasn't crowded.
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You know. Yeah.
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By the team, of course, when he steps out of the limo to shake
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hands and they're in tight, right?
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I'm looking for the threat. So my job was as a technical
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security specialist after I did the communications before and
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after I switched over to the Secret Service, and my job was
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to go out in advance again and make sure there weren't any
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bombs in the elevators. Make sure the rooms were sweet.
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He was staying overnight and just essentially doing technical
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protection of the space so that the agents and the protective
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detail come in and feel that his face was secure, right?
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Right. Bomb, dog bomb team, things like
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that. How long?
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I've always wondered like how long does does it take for the
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advanced team to you know, like I guess I don't know if the if
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this is the word, but I guess sweep an area.
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Do you just have to show up like an hour or so?
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You know, yeah, it depends on its size.
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You know, when the Pope came, when the Polish Pope came to DC,
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he's doing a big long motorcade, right?
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And back in those days, we'd have those concrete barriers.
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So we actually were taking all day long to fill barrels with
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water, inspect them, tape them up with tamper tape, you know,
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to create a barricade for the motorcade route.
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So those kind of things to making sure that the man covers
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are welded down, different things like that.
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Those can take days and usually in advance in a presidential
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advance or a big advance like like the Pope coming to the US,
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things like that. They're spending a couple weeks
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getting things done, two to three weeks in advance doing
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that. Yeah, that's that's all pretty
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fascinating. Yeah.
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My, my grandmother, she was a a school secretary back in the 80s
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and Reagan actually visited to her the school where she was
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like an administrative assistant.
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And she said, you know, the Secret Service advance detail
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was one of the most impressive things that she had seen.
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How they were scouring, you know, every inch and you know
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that was shortly after the assassination attempt on Reagan
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too. So they were being very thorough
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in regards to that whole deal. Yeah, it's interesting.
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So when board would go to Vail, the lead agent, that was key
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with him, Larry Bondorf, he was. He actually became like the
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security chief for the Olympic Committee, the Winter Olympic
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Committee in the US and things like that.
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But it's such a good steer. He can see backwards 10 times
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better than I can see forward. He was actually the one in
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Sacramento that grabbed the pistol from Sweetie from and and
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made sure the pistol didn't go off that 45 she got.
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So he was a real quality guy, very dedicated.
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Wow. So you were in, so you went the
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Secret Service during the the Ford administration and and then
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did you stay in or what was your, you know, career path
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after? Yeah.
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So a couple years in the Secret Service and a campaign year
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where I was traveling about 300 plus days a year, excuse me, the
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I decided to take a break and go skydiving down in Florida and I
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liked it so much. I sent in my resignation and
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went looking for a job after a couple months looking for a job
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down in Florida and found one with Department of Energy doing
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security down there in Florida. So I spent a couple years there.
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It was very informative, got to, you know, between the 4 1/2
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years, an army communicator and a technical security specialist,
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6 1/2 years, you know, I had at least a couple hundred days a
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year every year that I was on the road going somewhere doing
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something and a lot of overseas travel and it was time to take a
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break. And so that's that's when I got
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out of the the the government system went to work as a
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contractor. And while I was doing that, I
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decided to join the National Guard and I went via the Florida
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National Guard. I went through the Special
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Forces selection process with the Guard.
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So in in the National Guard there is the 19th and the 20th
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Special Forces that are Utah, Colorado, California, sort of.
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The Western states is the 19th and the 20th is It's on the East
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Coast essentially. So I was able to get my select
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and get my Green Beret, get my lawn cabs, they call it via the
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National Guard. Wow.
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So and and what was what was that like being a a Green Beret?
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Oh, tons of fun. Of course you've got in the
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state of Maryland, where I was the time our Adjutant General
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for the Army side of the National Guard is was former
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Special Forces. So we had a we had a budget like
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nobody else in the Maryland National Guard.
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He let us use his airplane, his helicopter, his Blackhawk.
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I had a free fall team and yeah, we had a a lot of great training
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and a lot of fun building the team and getting ready for what
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game, the GY layers. Yeah, so and correct me if I'm
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if I'm wrong, but the the Green Berets, they do more like, I
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mean I know that the Seals are mainly like a, you know, a water
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based you know, special forces team, but the Green Berets if
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I'm not mistaken they do more like urban like terrain type
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missions. Well the the number one focus of
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special forces is to train partner nation.
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So we're really we have on a special courses what's called
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the operational detachment A we have an officer, a senior
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Lieutenant or a captain, a Warrant Officer, a master
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Sergeant and then we have one Sergeant that is on Intel and
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then we have to weapon sergeants to communications sergeants to
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demolition Sergeant And we certainly can go off and do
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missions raids, rescue hostages you know counterterrorism.
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But what I did pre GY because I retired in 2000 was go on
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training missions like go down to Columbia and go to their
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Rangers tool and do training or mobile units and things like
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that. We're that we're entering the
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counter drug bite in Columbia so.
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Yeah, well, I was, I was reading a bit on your website and I
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suppose this would be a good way to kind of transition.
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At what point did you decide that you wanted to become a a
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writer? Because I I noticed that just
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based off of blurbs I've read your books, The Shadow Tear
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series tend to focus a lot on the drug war.
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So I'm curious, did your experiences mold your decision
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to write about that fictionly? Or I guess, what was your path
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towards becoming a writer then? Yeah, so the inciting event for
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the first book place in 1993. My parents were on vacation down
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at the top of Baja and they were called go heading back to
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Southern California when drug runners crashed into the truck
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and killed my mother and. Oh.
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Yeah, they threw, of course, the federal rallies just threw my
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dad in jail. I think one of the drug runners
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lived, threw him in jail and then figured they'd sort it out
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later. But my mom died in a in a
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Mexican hospital. And so from 93 to 2000, I had
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done all kinds of things. I've done storyboards like you
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see, and in Hollywood, you know, when they're prepping the movie,
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PowerPoints, all kinds of things.
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But. Right, yeah, my writing in my
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contracting career had been puzzles to the government,
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technical documents, things like that.
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I've never written anything, you know, that would be considered
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literary or a thriller, that kind of thing.
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And finally, 2019 my wife said why don't you just write the
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story? Because I wanted to use the
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writing of the story to help me with recovering from the event.
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Sure. Yeah.
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So I started writing and it just hit the hest of my wife.
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Like, come on, just just get it. Get the story out.
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And then as we talked, I live outside in a suburb of Denver.
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Here I found Jerry Jenkins who had done 23 times best seller
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author who had written the Left behind series, Christian series.
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And I found Ian and did a mentorship with him.
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He's he's down in like the Colorado Springs there an hour
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away right. So that that started me on my
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journey is it's just like anything, when I decide I'm
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interested in something, whether parachutes, motorcycles, guns,
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whatever it might be fishing, I go all in.
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I'm yeah, you know, a little bit, a little bit nuts like
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that. I'm reading everything, looking
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at everything, deciding what I want to do and stuff.
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Yeah. That's how I started and you
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know, one of the first things I heard was Jeff, Wilson said of
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Andrews. And Wilson said you need to, not
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only do you need to hone your crap, you need to get in the
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community, become part of the community And being in the
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military and other, you know, like like a Secret Service, you
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have a tribe, right? You have your people and you
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know, create a community. And so that's one of the things
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I went looking for was community.
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And you know, that's how I came across, of course, Jeff.
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I connected with Jeff and Brian and then got to meet all these
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other great people, even like through virtual Thriller Press
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and things like that during COVID.
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And so once I got into it, we became, I'll honestly say, it
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became a bit of an obsession to to just further myself, become
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better, learn more, you know, soak it up.
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Yeah, no, it's funny that you mentioned Andrews and Wilson
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because I just like about a month ago started listening to
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the audiobook version of of the of the tier one series that they
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did, which I guess you know they they've since they've finished
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that series and gone on since then.
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But I, you know, I, I, I tagged them on Twitter or I guess it's
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called X now, whatever they're calling it.
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And you know, Engine, I finished the first book and liked it.
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And I think, you know, one of them followed me back and I'm
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like, wow, you know, so they're really great guys.
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And yeah, I mean, I think I I met Eric probably like six or
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seven years ago. Eric Bishop through one of the
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thriller communities in Facebook for Jack Carr.
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That's how we first met. And I've been kind of writing a
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few short story manuscripts of my own, and he and a few other
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people pushed me to actually flesh out and write it.
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And so that's what I did. I published the first book back
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in July. So pretty interesting how
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Facebook and kind of the Internet has allowed us all to
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connect. Oh, absolutely, yeah, Jack.
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Jack responded to my questions a couple of times.
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Yeah, he said that. Jack and Brian and just real
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people, you know, they just have to be really good authors.
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But. Yeah.
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You know all about helping folks, and that's what I like
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about this community. There's no, nobody's worried,
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you know, that I'm going to sneak out and pick, you know,
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some percentage of their business.
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No. So many people read so many
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books, right? And that's a great thing about
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that about writing is yeah, I live out these stories in my
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head, great character scene and share them and like get feedback
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on. Yeah, it's it's it's definitely
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been it's it's kind of new Ave. for me because I've been doing
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podcasting for at this point several years.
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I'm turning 29 on Wednesday, but I started podcasting when I was
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like 14. And I've always been into
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politics. But I have to admit, since the
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2020 election, I kind of got burned out on just doing
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politics all the time because it is a shit show, especially with
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the current administration at the helm.
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So, you know, I, I like I said I'd I'd been writing for a bit
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and I was like, well, why don't I focus a little more on that?
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I've kind of. I wouldn't say I've mastered
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podcasting because because you never truly master something,
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but I wanted something new. So I decided to kind of dive
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back into writing, which I hadn't done in a while.
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And yeah, it's been a pretty interesting journey for the last
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year and a half. So yeah, that's awesome.
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Yeah, you'd be. I was lucky enough to get a
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traditional deal with a publisher.
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Very small Press of course. But yeah, as we mentioned, same
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one as Eric and a couple other folks and got in advance all
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kinds of good stuff like that and a funny shadow tear.
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My first book, I gave him the manuscript and and the publisher
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was very honest and said, hey, it's going to be quite a while
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before I can get it published. I said no problem, I'll keep
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writing. And just not too long ago I went
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back and looked at one of those manuscripts and went through it
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again. I guess the the delta between
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2019 and now, you know of just what I've learned and and what I
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should be doing when I'm writing it.
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Pretty amazing. And so now that my publisher's
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gone out of business, as we've talked before we went live to
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be, I am looking at Dellum. I'm looking at how to #1 take my
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first two books, which I have the rights for.
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Certainly. Go through the first one, do an
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edit, cleaned it up and then put it back out and it's like
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aerated as like the ebook. Yeah.
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That kind of thing. So I'm I'm a couple months
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behind Eric but getting my ISTN all the different things.
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Yeah, that's always fun. Yeah.
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And on on the day we're recording this, Eric just
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released the OR I guess re released the The Body Man, his
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first book. Which is funny because when he
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came on the show two years ago for the first time, he had just
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signed with his old publisher and we were, we had been talking
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about how you know, he, he really loved his new publisher
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and how they were great. And then last time I talked to
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him was when he was you know self-publishing ransom daughter,
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which I have right here on my desk and he said that they had
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gone out of business and he was self-publishing.
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So pretty interesting. Yeah, I'm.
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In I'm in between I'm playing around with all the
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self-publishing stuff, been talking to a few people that
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were showed some level of interest about taking over the
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Shadow Tear series. I've since my second book came
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out in August, Shadow Sanction. I've completed an origin story
23:50
novella for my protagonist Lance Therewith, and that's with an
23:55
editor. I've completed 1/3 book in the
23:59
series and then I have a fourth book that is also done that I'll
24:05
put through one more edit. So there's a possibility, if I
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was to self publish, there's a possibility of a novella
24:13
Foreshadow to your books coming out this year, so.
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Yeah, wow. Yeah, I think that'll keep me
24:20
busy. Yeah, I I so all my books are
24:25
actually Nobel's. I've only published the first
24:29
one here, Shadows of Deception and there you go.
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And then I'm writing the second one.
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Now I I have like, outlines for at least like five or six more
24:44
books. I I wrote the outlines when I
24:46
was in college. But as a writing major, I
24:51
ironically, in college, I never really had time to write for
24:54
myself. I was writing all these academic
24:58
papers. So, you know, I graduated 2
25:02
years ago and finally got back to, you know, writing for myself
25:06
and published my first novella back in July.
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And I'm working on, you know, my signal right now, which I'm
25:13
hoping will be out in February. But you know, it's it's been an
25:18
interesting process. I think the one thing I never
25:21
expected was I originally thought that the novella would
25:27
sell better on Amazon Kindle. But as it turns out, most my
25:35
orders have been for paperback versions, and I find that pretty
25:43
interesting. How?
25:45
You know, even novellas now are getting kind of a a comeback in
25:49
terms of, like, actual physical media.
25:54
I was really surprised with that stat that I read the other day
25:57
that said exactly the same thing that that paperbacks were
26:00
starting to out sell after that big huge trust of ebooks, Kindle
26:05
then and now paperbacks. Paperbacks, you're making a
26:08
comeback. And and you know, I don't know,
26:12
I'm not sure if it's, you know, the ability to re put it down,
26:16
carry it with you and not have a device.
26:20
You know, I like paperbacks, you know, because when I go out into
26:24
the woods, you know, a truck breaks down.
26:25
I start a fire with a paperback but.
26:27
Yeah, well, you know, I like the Kindle personally.
26:34
Like I've I've wanted the paper wise and it's nice to you know
26:39
be able to just, you know read and have that and adjust the
26:44
font size. So I mean as far as that goes, I
26:47
I definitely understand the appeal.
26:49
But I I am glad to see that like physical print media is kind of
26:52
becoming is kind of making a comeback because for a while
26:57
there it seemed like you know Kindles were just going to take
27:01
over the it's not so much the Kindles themselves that bug me.
27:06
It's it's when you have reader apps on their on your phone.
27:09
I can't really stand those because your phone is just a big
27:13
distraction now and it's it's kind of hard to read on those
27:18
from what I've my wife, my wife will.
27:22
Occasionally have the paperback part back, but she, she reads
27:26
e-books, but actually she's a she's an audio.
27:31
Yeah, very heavily to audio And actually my second book, Shadow
27:37
Sanction, David Temple from the Thriller Zone.
27:40
I've got him. He's starting work on the audio
27:44
version of that and so I. Like, very nice.
27:49
Yeah, yeah, I like audio too, and that is growing space, so.
27:55
Yeah, it's. I mean, like I said, I've been
27:58
in the the podcast sphere for a long time and it's, it's
28:01
interesting because it's only been within the last like 2
28:05
years. Audiobooks have kind of, I guess
28:10
not really merged, but they, you know, they've grown in
28:12
popularity in tandem with that space too.
28:15
So, you know, and as far as me, all I did was I went on to
28:21
Audible's audiobook platform and, you know, hired a guy, but
28:27
it was still pretty good experience.
28:30
So cool, cool. Well, as far as the barrel ends,
28:36
the thrills go, like you said, that's mainly focused on the,
28:41
you know, drug war aspects. So yeah, that came.
28:46
That came directly from my military experience down in
28:49
South America that in that incident where.
28:52
My. Mom was killed.
28:53
And and so you know, part of that part of writing a revenge
28:59
book is, you know, me deciding it's smarter to write about
29:04
invading Mexico than actually doing it, especially at my age.
29:10
But I do think I can feel like you can go with me, but it
29:15
wouldn't end as well as it does for land.
29:17
So that was the start. And then, you know it's it's
29:23
maybe it's not the the, you know, the the most interesting
29:27
topic right now. But there's certainly a lot to
29:29
write about because the second book we go from chasing El Chapo
29:34
and and the Sinaloa cartel to they're still involved.
29:37
But now it's 2003. The first book's in 98 which was
29:42
fun trying to remember, you know, all the year we had and
29:45
didn't. But in the second book is 2003
29:50
and now we've got the president telling my protagonist Lance
29:53
fair, would you need to stop the Taliban and their opium trade.
29:58
Right. They're making 400 million a
30:00
year, which is a rip from the headlines, an old headline, 20
30:04
year old headline, 21 years now. But that was, that was the case.
30:09
And the military was in in Afghanistan saying that, you
30:13
know, we're not here for drugs. We're here for counterterrorism,
30:16
right. And we're after, not after the
30:19
Taliban for the drugs, but just for being the Taliban and you
30:23
know, ISIS and AQ and other people like that.
30:26
So it became, it became really easy to incorporate Afghanistan.
30:33
And then somewhere out of the blue, Marseille came up, right.
30:38
Marseille was the center of attraction with the French
30:42
Connection. And of course it's a great movie
30:44
about that. Oh right.
30:46
Another that was another real life event mafia called Union
30:50
Corsa, right. They tried to get an army
30:55
Sergeant to bring a couple 100 kilos back to the state, you
30:58
know, when he's easy as they tried to break into New York and
31:01
connect with the Mafia New York like that.
31:04
So I was able to tie that together with the idea of a
31:11
government contractor who was doing flights of material and
31:17
people, you know, contractor flights of material and people
31:19
carrying other things. So if if I kind of made, if I
31:25
may shift topics a little bit, not too much, but do you think
31:30
the drug war is still important or I guess like like why why
31:39
isn't the drug war talked about as much And now I guess is is
31:43
another question because it seems like I saw one of your
31:49
posts on on Instagram about China with the fentanyl thing,
31:52
which is something that, you know, I've covered on this show
31:54
as well a little bit. But it it doesn't seem like, you
31:59
know, the media is too instant and really covering the drug
32:03
warrant anymore. No, occasionally they'll show
32:08
you. Know.
32:09
Something brought into port some big pile of drugs that Co star
32:12
in the Navy collected out of the Caribbean.
32:16
You know, things like that. But it just it it, it becomes so
32:19
mainstream. It was almost like how, you
32:22
know, during the GY, the coverage just sort of panned
32:27
out. Right.
32:28
OK, we we've been dated, we've done this and then it's sort of
32:31
like the everyday work goes on and it's not really that
32:35
interesting or that sensational, right.
32:37
Yeah. But then then fentanyl shows up
32:40
and it's toys, right. And you know, previous, previous
32:45
administration pushed the Chinese just, you know, to stop
32:49
it and slow it down, that kind of thing.
32:52
And and it did for a minute. It did for a minute, right?
32:55
Yeah. And then it came right back up
32:57
and just recently here in Colorado, actually last year in
33:02
Colorado, there was a case where like this whole extended family
33:06
was into the selling of the fentanyl and things like that.
33:10
And they would all pile into the minivan, go down to port of
33:13
Penasco, same place my parents were drop their minivan off, go
33:18
to the beach for a couple days, the van would show back up,
33:21
they'd drive back to Colorado, the van would disappear for a
33:25
day or two, come back, and they get a big wad of cash.
33:30
And so, So the cartels were filling the the minivan with
33:33
fentanyl like in the dash and other places like that and.
33:37
So oh wow. Yeah, so that that becomes a
33:40
little bit more sensational. But you know, even even 100,000
33:44
people a year killed by fentanyl I think just doesn't rise to the
33:51
level of the news media other than it's, you know, somebody
33:55
makes some move and does something in Congress because
34:00
you know, 100,000 across 360 million people in the US it's
34:04
not a it's not a significant. I hate to put it that way but
34:09
it's not a significant number. And that could draw the
34:12
attention. You know, and Biden that that as
34:16
you said that blog I did was about biting meeting with G and
34:21
he says yeah. Yeah.
34:22
You know. Yeah.
34:23
Sorry about the fact that I weaponized Sentinel against you.
34:26
But. Yeah.
34:27
Sure. Yeah.
34:27
Shut it off. Right.
34:29
Yeah. And you know it it it's labeled
34:34
A pandemic. Right.
34:35
Like a couple years ago in West Virginia.
34:37
And then we don't hear anything more about it.
34:39
Right. Because the Oxy, you know the
34:43
the lawsuits against the big makers of oxycodone and stuff
34:47
like that were going on. So fentanyl disappears.
34:50
Oxys Oxys. The News for a minute.
34:52
And then it disappeared and. So yeah.
34:56
You know, that's another blog I've done.
34:58
It's about the we've we've always just attacked the supply
35:02
side. We tried right in the even in
35:05
the 80s with DARE, in high schools and junior highs and
35:09
things like that. You know clean and whatever
35:12
those things were, we tried working on the demand side, but
35:17
you know I I think there was some, if you look back in the
35:22
records you can see that they had some positive back, but once
35:28
again they didn't have long term lasting positive of that.
35:31
Yeah. Well and I think some of the, I
35:34
think some of the language I think some of the languaging.
35:38
I mean certainly when I was in school, I mean at that point I
35:42
hate to say it, but there was, there was kind of a kind of a
35:45
joke and it it actually in in a weird type of way actually I
35:52
think kind of tempted kids and especially teenagers to kind of
35:57
do the opposite, you know and and.
36:01
Don't touch that whiskey in the liquor cabinet.
36:03
Right. But yeah, but you know, but then
36:06
they would also say stuff like well, if you're, you know, if
36:09
you smoke pot, you know, they would base and they would
36:12
basically describe as LSD and you know, clearly that, you
36:17
know, the two aren't the same. With that being said, I don't
36:22
know because it's been probably 10 plus years since I've lived
36:26
in Denver. So weed wasn't legalized when I
36:29
was. When I moved to Florida, they
36:34
had passed it but hadn't gone into effect.
36:36
And as far as I can tell, you know, weed legalization hasn't
36:43
really done any favors for Colorado.
36:46
It it's kind of made things worse just from what I've seen.
36:50
But you know, you live. You live there now and I don't.
36:54
So you know. No, I'd have to, I'd have to
36:57
agree with you. It, you know, it's a it's
37:00
another revenue stream. Funny story.
37:03
When they legalized pot right after that, I sat on an airplane
37:09
next to the Denver City controller and and I I asked
37:14
him, how are these, how are these shops, you know, paying
37:17
their taxes? And he said they're paying it in
37:19
cash and my people are getting high counting it all the stuff
37:25
on the on the money. And he was actually going to
37:27
create a contact there, actually launder the money.
37:30
But the the city, all the cities and stuff have gone to credit
37:33
cards and you know, electronic payments and yeah, now here come
37:36
all these pot shops with all this gummed up cash to the city.
37:42
So, but I think I don't know that the ratio between the shops
37:48
and the need for extra policing, you know, because not so much
37:54
people are a menace per SE. They, you know, like they're not
37:57
getting apped up and becoming a menace or a menace because
38:01
they're they're on the street, they go to other drugs.
38:03
They they drive their car stoned and and you know there's more
38:07
accidents, things like that. So it and The funny thing is, is
38:12
that the cartels are still involved because they're now
38:16
because of the price point pressure, they're now selling
38:19
their weed that they've grown illegally cheaper and right.
38:24
And so people are still drawn to cartel drugs even when there's
38:29
legalization, at least with marijuana.
38:33
So. It's interesting because here in
38:36
the state there was a lot of buildings and a lot of setups.
38:39
Like I know one down in Salida, it looked like a military
38:43
campus. It had, you know, concertina
38:45
wire, razor wire at the top of the fence and look, you know,
38:50
lights and everything and it and what it was, was you could tell
38:53
it was a grow house because that big Transformers outside for the
38:56
lights, right? Yeah.
38:58
And a lot of those are closed, merged, you know, I know people
39:04
that, like, they didn't put the life portion, portion, life
39:09
savings into pot or something like that.
39:11
They put some money in and all those stocks, you know, bubbled
39:15
up for a minute and then collapsed, You know, Yeah,
39:19
because it just didn't prove to be that big of a market.
39:23
Well, the the other thing I've, I've read, and correct me if I'm
39:26
wrong, I read a few years ago that all that, you know, one of
39:32
the things that the weed legalization was premised on,
39:37
from what I remember was, oh, it's going to be a revenue
39:41
source so that we can fund public education and then, yeah,
39:47
that. Smoke weed so we can tell if not
39:49
smoke. Weed that went you know the the
39:52
public schools got funded for a minute but then the weed money
39:56
went back right into the went right back into the industry.
40:00
You know, so and I was like I I told you that was going to
40:04
happen. You you thought I was paranoid
40:06
but. But it's it's like, you know
40:10
like it's like the states who I remember when Florida went
40:13
through the we're going to start doing the Lotto you know lottery
40:16
and things like. That, yeah, yeah.
40:18
The schools are going to get so much money and stuff like that,
40:21
and the schools are still looking around in Florida to
40:24
this day going, where'd it all go?
40:25
You. Know.
40:25
Yeah. And it just gets sucked up
40:28
somehow into state budget and used for other things.
40:32
So yeah, you know Broadway down in Broadway in in Denver still
40:37
has a particular odor to it. You know when you're driving up
40:40
Broadway and. Stuff, yeah, yeah.
40:42
But other than that, you know, there's just shops here and
40:46
there and and you know they there's one not too far from me
40:51
and there's even one from where my daughter-in-law and grandson
40:57
live. There's just one at the corner
40:59
and you know they've got all kinds of, you know, they're
41:02
trying to be funny names and stuff like that.
41:04
The real problem is the traffic right around them my.
41:09
Daughter-in-law. And step and my grandson can't
41:11
walk to the grocery store anymore because they've almost
41:13
then run over a couple of times. Five people zooming into the pot
41:17
shop and then, yeah, pulling out.
41:19
Just being generally crazy, you know?
41:21
Yeah. And anyway, so it's I have a
41:26
friend who was a ACIO for a company that grew pot and doing
41:34
the IT work. He wasn't involved in the
41:36
production side and stuff like that, but he said it was.
41:41
He said it was pretty messy being inside the industry, just
41:45
not, you know, not well regulated.
41:48
And then of course people cut in corners, right?
41:51
Trying to, trying to make drop, things like that.
41:54
Yeah, No, wait. You know, nothing is ever when
41:59
politicians make a promise, you know, nothing is as it seems,
42:05
you know, ever. Really.
42:07
Right. Right.
42:09
So you know, and say what you will about, say what you will
42:14
about Trump, I know that you know not everybody likes, but
42:17
he, he was definitely right about the cartels you know,
42:21
being a threat still you know here in America so.
42:29
Yeah. And the cartels make, right?
42:31
They make a lot of money off of moving illegals across the
42:34
border who carry product for them, right?
42:37
Yeah. And yeah, so it, you know, it's
42:43
the first book I write about human trafficking a little bit
42:47
and probably do cart out, but it's become a big thing.
42:50
And now now we've got other worries with the folks that they
42:54
send across that you know, with all kinds of folks from
43:00
different parts of the world do may or may not be right, very
43:04
pro America. No, that that's one thing that,
43:09
you know, Andrews and Wilson, as we mentioned, that that's one
43:13
thing that they've written a bit, a bit about, you know, how
43:17
ISIS and all these other, you know, cartel groups are all
43:22
these are the terrorist groups, excuse me, are now using, you
43:25
know, the cartels to smuggle, you know, terror cells into the
43:31
US And you know, it may be fiction in their books, but it
43:36
it's happening, you know, in reality and that's a problem
43:41
that, you know, no one seems to really want to publicly address,
43:46
so. Right.
43:47
When you look at the CBCBP report of who they apprehended,
43:54
you know you've got people from Iran, from China, from Korea, of
44:00
one. Sort and things like.
44:01
That and so you know they they could be you know legit looking
44:08
for you know someplace safe and and a better life and that kind
44:13
of thing. But when we let them go free and
44:16
it takes years for them to be adjudicated, that's not a that's
44:20
not a good, not a good plan. Yeah, given your background in
44:27
the military, this may be a a little bit.
44:30
I don't know if this in in your wheelhouse and if it's not let
44:33
me know, but I am curious as to what your opinion is on the
44:39
whole Israeli Palestine conflict.
44:44
Do you think the US should get involved or, you know, what's
44:48
your general take on that whole situation?
44:52
Well I was certainly our involvement right now is
45:00
tactical in nature but at an advisory role I would, I would
45:06
believe that there are tier one teams standing by to assist you
45:11
know if they find some you know American hostages things like
45:16
that. The the unfortunate thing is
45:23
from my perspective Israelis looked at the calculus of doing
45:30
you know limited strikes and or sending in military to go after
45:37
Hamas and much like our military and and a lot of other places in
45:45
the in the three world we value soldiers more than we do
45:49
ordinance right. Right.
45:52
So their calculus came to the point where we're going to,
45:55
we're going to have to, you know, take out these facilities
45:59
and things. And and so regardless of whether
46:05
that number that comes from the Palestinian Authority is right
46:08
or not, there's certainly been civilian casualty.
46:12
I think they've done, certainly they've tried to, you know, use
46:18
leaflets and other things to get people to move out of an area,
46:21
right. Yeah.
46:22
Yeah. And we hear the stories about
46:24
Hamas keeping them close, using them as Shields, things like
46:29
that. So they're put in a tough spot,
46:32
but but Israel's not afraid. They've been, they've been the
46:37
pariah before and they're not afraid to defend themselves.
46:42
Yeah, you know, if Hamas had sent, even if Hamas had sent
46:50
1000 rockets, you know, across the border and Iron Dome and
46:53
things like that, it wouldn't have been considered nearly the
46:57
kind of atrocities that their attack was right in October.
47:02
So I think coming up soon, Israel will switch more to AI.
47:12
Hate to call it limited because it's not like they're going to
47:14
stop operation, but I do believe that they will change operations
47:19
and there won't be so much potential bombing that that in
47:24
effect looks like carpet bombing, right?
47:27
Right. America's done the same thing in
47:30
Vietnam. Arclight missions, you know,
47:33
would take out a mile, square miles of terrain, D52 dropping,
47:39
tons of ordnance. In that case though, we were
47:43
taking, we were we were bombing in agrarian country, right, You
47:49
know back into the Stone Age and they were only two steps away
47:51
from it. And now you got Gaza.
47:53
You got people with the Internet you know very, very dense
47:57
environment things like that. So I understand why they're
48:02
doing it. You know you wish you could send
48:05
in your your your A teams your tier one teams and they can be
48:09
surgical and do what they need to do.
48:12
But I don't think that calculus was really there.
48:15
I and and the calculus stride is also adjusted.
48:20
Adapt and whatever you might want to call it by the politics
48:24
of the situation and. Right.
48:26
Yeah. Yeah, there's that too.
48:28
Yeah. I I actually, I talked to a
48:32
friend of mine who actually lives in Israel probably about
48:36
like it was back in October. And you know, she said that one
48:42
of the things that, you know, that the IDF has really had a
48:48
trouble with too is, you know, they they try not to kill
48:53
civilians and and gods, because certainly there are a number of
48:58
innocents over there. But the problem is, is Hamas,
49:04
you know, is so well blended in, it's like trying to find a
49:07
needle in a haystack over there. And so you know, yeah, they,
49:13
they try to minimize civilian casualties, you know, as much as
49:17
possible. But it's it's hard when you know
49:22
when they blend in so well. Yeah.
49:24
I mean and really good indication of that blending in
49:30
whether it was accepted like in the hospitals accepted or not,
49:35
was the fact that there were weapons and materials inside of,
49:40
you know, baby equipment, right, premium equipment.
49:45
There were, there was stuff that was hidden in the arm of the
49:50
X-ray, you know, device and things just all kinds of not
49:55
just a stash in the corner, not a stash in the basement, but
49:58
just everywhere throughout the facility, you know, they were
50:02
finding stuff like that. And and so very, very
50:05
thoughtful, very, very insidious on Camasa's part to make it so
50:12
look, if you want to run this hospital, if you want to live
50:15
here, if you want to live yourself, we're going to do
50:18
this. And you're just not, you're
50:19
going to just not pay attention to it.
50:22
Yeah. Be a doctor.
50:24
Things like that. And so it's it's tough.
50:28
You know, it's, I mean we had the same thing And once again,
50:33
World War 2, Vietnam, you know who's the enemy right in in the
50:38
GY, you know who is the enemy of the sheep herder or does he have
50:43
an AK and not, you know, not my friend And so it's unfortunately
50:51
when you go urban. Did you actually serve in
50:54
Vietnam or did you join up a little bit after?
50:57
Yeah, by the time I got through training and and you know they
51:02
switched my Mos to, you know, from being a radio operator in
51:07
the Ranger Regiment, I got switched over to being this
51:09
radio repair person who actually also operated and set up the
51:13
radio. There was no, there was no going
51:18
to Vietnam and it was it was closing down at that point so.
51:21
One of one of my neighbors here he actually he served he he was
51:30
an army you know engineer electronics guy and he actually
51:35
did serve in Vietnam a little more towards the end there.
51:41
So it I mean it's it's a shame that Nixon I actually tend to
51:49
think that Nixon was actually a fairly decent president and if
51:53
it weren't for Watergate we might have actually been able to
51:58
succeed in you know defeating the communists in Vietnam.
52:06
But you know, hindsight is 2020. Yeah, I think.
52:13
I mean Special Forces, Rangers, Seals or a rescue they all
52:19
adapted to the real fight and right.
52:24
You had all these officers that had been in World War 2 Korea
52:28
and they wanted to do you know a major army against major army
52:32
kinds of battles. And you know, I believe the
52:36
saying is we never lost anyone of we never lost one of those,
52:39
you know, army on army engagement, but the guerrilla
52:44
warfare and. You know I.
52:47
Really didn't understand COIN counterinsurgency at that point
52:51
like we do now like like Petraeus and a couple of the
52:56
other generals understood it right.
52:58
And you know, as much as there was people in a A teams or in
53:05
you know SEAL teams doing hearts and minds kind of work, it was
53:09
not a not something that really happened real.
53:12
Large, yeah. And 1st, even the people in
53:17
Vietnam at some level saw the the leadership is corrupt and
53:22
you know, just sort of wanted to live their life right?
53:26
I got my right tattoos, you know.
53:28
Yeah, yeah, just. Leave me alone.
53:30
Kind of idea. Well, and I suppose to kind in
53:34
this kind of goes back to a little bit about what you're
53:37
right about. I suppose the other thing is
53:40
like with with the drug cartels, you know, we're not, the
53:45
military isn't really fighting an army, you know, when it comes
53:50
to that, but it's more of, you know special forces essentially
53:54
fighting organized crime, you know, militarily, which is
54:02
different than, you know, it's historically been as.
54:08
As you know there, excuse me, as you know the Zetas at one point
54:16
before they sort of disbanded they they were very militaristic
54:21
and and more better armed than the military between the Zetas
54:25
and Sinaloa, helicopters have gone down things like that.
54:28
So they certainly have the hardware in some cases they have
54:31
the training and leadership. And so I think that the
54:37
unfortunately the cartels have become such a big part of the
54:40
GDP of Mexico and and you know they're like you're like like
54:47
you know like like Neo like Mr. Smith talks to Neo right.
54:52
It's a virus, right. You know they they become viral
54:56
and their tentacles reach into so many different things that
55:02
what it would take to clear them out, stop them writ large is
55:08
beyond I think the pale of what the Mexican a government could
55:14
do with their military and or the the the people don't want to
55:20
go there right. Yeah.
55:22
You know, I in in in a week from when we record this, I'll be
55:28
down in port of IRA and I know it's relatively safe.
55:34
I could do some stupid things, you know, if I was so inclined.
55:37
But it's relatively safe in that environment because there's sort
55:40
of a, the truth don't mess up the.
55:43
Don't mess up that that resort area.
55:46
Right. Because if people stop coming,
55:48
it's going to hurt the cartel too.
55:49
So there's, you know, these uneasy truces all around Mexico
55:57
and I believe the government, what they do is they sort of
56:00
like whack A mole. It's like, OK, you're getting
56:02
out of line. You know, we send in the
56:04
Marines, we send in, you know, Mobile group, you know, of Army,
56:09
things like that or something like that.
56:11
And when they've done that and they haven't paid attention,
56:15
they've got sank pretty hard, right?
56:17
Like when when they went after El Chapo's son and they had to
56:21
like give him back and yeah, you know, that's, you know, and with
56:26
corrupt police force, it's just hard to get anywhere, right?
56:29
Well, and they historically killed that one DEA agent back
56:36
in the late 80s. They actually made a whole, you
56:39
know, Netflix series about that with Narcos and they got, you
56:43
know, the cartels got spanked pretty hard for that.
56:46
But then you know, haven't really haven't really been
56:52
touched that much since the I guess mid 2000s like like that
56:58
so. No, no, it, yeah, is that
57:02
actually in my first book I write that people who run the
57:05
West Coast for El Chapo, they got their position because they
57:10
actually helped put El Padrino in jail.
57:17
Yeah, yeah. I mean, the, I mean, the whole
57:21
history of, you know, the cartels in South America is, you
57:26
know, pretty fascinating. You know, everyone thought that,
57:33
you know, if they got rid of Pablo Escobar, that would be the
57:37
end of it, and it clearly wasn't.
57:42
Exactly. Excuse me.
57:44
Yeah. The in Colombia, I mean we went,
57:47
we get rid of Escobar and then the Medellin cartel blows up,
57:52
right. And then and then El Chapo
57:56
decides, well, I don't really need them, I'll go buy them and
57:59
go to the growers and create my own connections and things like
58:02
that. And so little Mr. Enterprise, El
58:08
Chapo, you know, he, he changed the landscape himself.
58:12
Not to mention the Colombians were successful in getting after
58:17
you know, certain elements, right, Like you say when they
58:19
got out of control down in Cali with the Medellin.
58:23
Is Columbia's, to your knowledge still active in I guess the
58:29
cartels or I mean you don't really hear about Columbia all
58:33
that much these days. As far as the the cartels are
58:38
concerned, I I can't imagine they went away.
58:40
They just maybe. No, they're still big producer
58:43
of cocaine, right, You know being along the Andean Ridge,
58:46
right, Peru and other places. So it's it's still there and
58:53
it's I think the the leadership has learned how to be a little
58:57
bit more low key and you know not draw attention to
59:02
themselves. They did make a connection
59:06
finally with you know the guerrillas right.
59:08
Who had been against them because the guerrillas were so
59:11
communist. You can't have drugs you know
59:13
and when you have a good communist environment running in
59:17
your country. So yeah, it's it's shifted
59:21
around, but still if not number one, certainly the top three in
59:27
cocaine production and and people just from all over
59:32
different countries make use of them directly.
59:35
Now, yeah. Well, and I imagine, like, I've
59:39
heard that even a lot of the South American cartels are now
59:42
getting into fentanyl too, since it's, you know, so cheap.
59:47
At least from what you know, I've heard, I'm not, you know,
59:51
really into all of the the drug stuff.
59:55
But. Yeah, the 1st, 1st place they
59:57
went right was meth. So easy to put to you know to
1:00:01
melt and put together. So everybody headed over to meth
1:00:04
and then now they've just continued along this synthetic,
1:00:09
you know, drug manufacturing which is much like opium, you
1:00:14
know, can start, you know, some guy with a kettle, you know, and
1:00:17
a coal-fired stove, you know, is it just start, start processing
1:00:22
stuff and especially with fentanyl you can get precursor
1:00:26
stuff still flowing into. You know, even into Mexico and
1:00:31
and and South America. Yeah.
1:00:37
So I guess going forward as far as your books go, you said
1:00:43
you're in the middle of you know, rewriting and you know and
1:00:50
hoping to self publish. So what is that I guess looking
1:00:54
like right now? Are you going to be releasing
1:00:58
books? I I thought there are some books
1:01:00
for sale and print on your website, but I guess where are
1:01:04
you at with that? Right now, yeah, so, so with
1:01:08
course Poseidon going out of business, what I'm what I'm
1:01:11
working on is much like I said, following Eric's footsteps.
1:01:15
I'm editing Shadow Tier, playing around with Vellum, and we'll
1:01:20
put it back out as an ebook under Pratt Media is my
1:01:25
publishing company. And get the first two books out
1:01:30
there. Shadow sanction.
1:01:33
I need to make some changes, but the book doesn't really need
1:01:35
another edit. It's in good shape.
1:01:39
You know, my first book was my first book.
1:01:41
I'd like, yeah, I'd like another chance at it, right.
1:01:44
So I got that and like I said, an amazing editor here in
1:01:50
Colorado, up in Nevada, you know where that's at is got the third
1:01:55
book. In the third book, Lance's
1:01:57
obsession with Ochapo takes him to Cuba, hence the the working
1:02:03
title name Caribbean Harvest. Interesting.
1:02:07
Yeah. So the.
1:02:10
Yeah, that that's a fun one because I actually switched.
1:02:13
Also I switched to first person. So the novella I've done the
1:02:17
origin story that's with a different editor, The novella,
1:02:22
the origin story about Lance Stairwolf himself.
1:02:24
And then, you know, book three are written first person.
1:02:30
And I'm a big fan of Brad Taylor and Learn to Lock.
1:02:36
I've actually got a couple of his books I've deconstructed.
1:02:39
So you know learn how to this from Don, take a book carry it
1:02:43
apart put it on the walls, circle highlighters.
1:02:47
So to tear it up like a an OCD Mel Gibson, you know looking for
1:02:51
a conspiracy right. But in my case, trying to learn
1:02:54
how to write better and I love first person because it's more
1:02:57
intimate. It it was when I first started
1:03:00
reading it, it was sort of shocking you know having been
1:03:03
reading all these third person you know kind of books and I
1:03:06
really like it now and so that's what's going on.
1:03:10
I have like say that 4th book is done.
1:03:14
It's takes Lance and a completely and a Shadow tier
1:03:18
team in a completely different direction due to a threat to the
1:03:23
United States. And then I'm working on the
1:03:27
outline for the 5th book. So I'm staying busy and looking
1:03:34
forward to publishing more of these books.
1:03:37
Lance and the team will expand, but they Lance really fights to
1:03:41
keep them out of the counterterrorism side of the
1:03:44
world so they can focus on the drug war 'cause that's his
1:03:47
obsession. Yeah.
1:03:48
And and you mentioned that you're, you know, you're writing
1:03:52
these books I guess kind of in the, you know, past now you're
1:03:58
you're starting in the, you know, in the, you know, in the
1:04:02
90s and then moving into into the 2000s, which is strange
1:04:05
because I, you know, to me that still kind of seems
1:04:08
contemporarily, but that time was that, you know, 20 years
1:04:11
ago. Isn't that how?
1:04:13
So. Yeah, it's so I right now until
1:04:18
I get closer to the present, right now every book is about
1:04:21
three years different. So I go 98.
1:04:23
Well actually it's five years, right.
1:04:25
So 98 to 2003, but then I go to like 2006, 2009 is what I'm
1:04:32
doing right now just sort of creeping up, you know, not that
1:04:37
the, not that the time or the date really, right.
1:04:45
It matters in some of the Side Story, right, Like like in the
1:04:48
2000, another really great writer, Jeff Higgins, former DEA
1:04:52
agent who led the the drug war in Afghanistan.
1:04:56
He spent a lot of time there. He wasn't on the scene yet in
1:05:00
early 2003, but Shadow Tear knows about it.
1:05:04
And so you know so I I creep the books forward and I actually
1:05:10
have a completely different series with female protagonist
1:05:13
that I'm querying that takes place in present day.
1:05:17
So I have none of those worries about what pistol was there.
1:05:20
What right. You know what communications
1:05:22
medium what were we doing you know how slow was the Internet
1:05:25
was it dial up. Yeah stuff like that.
1:05:28
No, I. I'm so I'm writing my, you know,
1:05:33
books kind in the present. But then I also have prequels
1:05:38
that I'm writing that take place, you know, all the way
1:05:42
back in the 80s. And I, you know, I was born in,
1:05:46
in 95. But, you know, it's it's been
1:05:49
pretty interesting researching, you know, what was, what was
1:05:54
the, you know, what was this like for the military back in
1:05:56
the 80s. There's a lot of stuff that's
1:05:58
still classified from 40 years ago that, you know, I can't see,
1:06:04
you know, just because I'm, I'm a civilian.
1:06:06
So, you know, it's pretty, it's pretty interesting, but.
1:06:10
Oh yeah, it it's funny. I can get I can take a friend
1:06:14
over to the NSA Cryptologic Museum and show them products
1:06:18
that I worked with. Yeah.
1:06:20
I'm so old, my stuff is like like the first Air Force One I
1:06:23
flew on is in a Boeing museum. It's like, I'm old.
1:06:26
I'm getting old. Oh, wow.
1:06:28
Yeah. If you ever need help with the
1:06:29
80s that was that was that was really 80, you know 80s to 2000
1:06:35
was my really active kind of. Stuff, yeah.
1:06:38
Did you Did you meet Reagan by chance?
1:06:43
Yeah, I I met President Reagan before I left the Secret
1:06:47
Service. I went down to Houston and put
1:06:50
in physical security systems and video and stuff in Vice
1:06:55
President Bush's house. I met him and Barbara Bushwan.
1:07:00
So yeah, it fun time, great people, the Fords, great people,
1:07:07
you know, things like that. So yeah, Rockefellers, you know,
1:07:11
it's it's fun to chat for a minute with the, you know, a
1:07:15
Rockefeller who, you know, could own South America, things like
1:07:19
that. You know, it's like, yeah, it's
1:07:21
just tripping me out. Well, there there are some
1:07:24
people in in my audience who, you know, would think that the
1:07:27
Rockefellers are the, you know, are maybe like evil people,
1:07:32
whatnot. I I don't.
1:07:34
I don't know. There are, you know, there are
1:07:36
lots of, there are lots of weird conspiracy theories that make
1:07:41
great thrillers. But, you know, I don't really.
1:07:45
I try not to dive too much into the conspiracy theory world.
1:07:49
Yeah. Well, it is interesting when you
1:07:51
look back and see how some of the generational wealth was
1:07:56
built in the early days, right between the Kennedys and the
1:07:59
Rockefellers and and you know, railroads and mining and gas and
1:08:03
oil, things like that. And there was some pretty
1:08:08
hardcore, maybe unscrupulous business things that went on
1:08:11
back then. They started building that
1:08:12
generational wealth. But yeah, you know, the people,
1:08:16
the people I met and talked with were real people.
1:08:20
You know, I'm, I met Dick Cheney when he was chief of staff for
1:08:24
Ford, right? Yeah, things like that.
1:08:27
And so they also too had a different perspective on the
1:08:30
world and what was doing on at the time.
1:08:32
So, yeah, yeah. So, well, you know, I really
1:08:37
appreciate you coming on and I will certainly probably be
1:08:41
reaching out, you know, to you if you have the chance to look
1:08:45
at a few of my, you know, manuscripts.
1:08:48
Eric, you know, recommended to you pretty highly and a few of
1:08:52
the other thank you. Yeah, people have that if you
1:08:54
need. Need help with tech or something
1:08:57
from the 80s to the 2000s. I can help you out after that.
1:09:01
I after that I was doing some other special things inside the
1:09:05
DoD and Intel communities. Yeah, I I we.
1:09:07
Can actually talk about at some point.
1:09:10
Oh yeah, and I'd be happy to, you know, give you, give you a
1:09:15
few, you know, it's a few if you need anything as well, so.
1:09:20
That's what I love about the writers community.
1:09:22
We're always, you know, looking to help each other, right?
1:09:26
Because we all get stronger from it, so.
1:09:28
Yeah that that's one of the things that is that are you know
1:09:32
that's a little surprising about the community the the podcasting
1:09:38
community is is mostly very supportive but there are a few
1:09:44
people who are antagonistic you know as as well so but I haven't
1:09:51
found any of that really in the in the writing community at all
1:09:54
quite the opposite so. Yeah, it's, it's amazing.
1:09:58
I mean, I've walked up and talked to Mark Greeny, Brad
1:10:00
Taylor, you know. Yeah, other huge, huge.
1:10:04
You know, Brad Thor, I'm like, do you mind, do you mind if I
1:10:07
come back in a minute? And he's like, no, come on back.
1:10:09
He signed. He signed Lions of Lucerne,
1:10:13
which was in large part look like a retelling of Ford being
1:10:18
at Vail. Right, right, right.
1:10:22
I need to get this time. Yeah the yeah, Lions of Lucerne
1:10:27
and and transfer power. The, you know the first Vince
1:10:32
Flynn and I I read those. I read those.
1:10:36
I took a gap year between, you know, high school and college
1:10:40
and that was that was 10 years ago now.
1:10:43
And that was when I kind of figured, well, if you know, if
1:10:47
these guys can, you know, write these well then shoot, I've had
1:10:50
these outlines kind of in my head.
1:10:52
So why don't I make, you know, an attempt.
1:10:55
So you know it's it's been quite a journey but.
1:11:01
Absolutely, I can say that for sure.
1:11:03
Yeah. Well, anything, I mean obviously
1:11:07
you're still kind of, it seems like work in progress, but is
1:11:11
there anything I can that you'd like to plug or promote kind of
1:11:16
here happy. Yeah, I mean, folks can stay in
1:11:18
touch, of course, by going to my website,
1:11:20
stevestrattonstevenstrattonusa.com, stevenstrattonusa.com and get on
1:11:28
the mailing list. I do book giveaways every month.
1:11:32
I buy signed copies of books, some of the authors send them to
1:11:36
me, and then I give them away. And so we have giveaways of my
1:11:41
books, other author books, things like that.
1:11:45
And I love to stay in touch with people, hear what they think
1:11:49
about my books as I get them back online and then hopefully,
1:11:55
but you know by the end of this year I can have a novella and
1:11:58
four books that I could probably do, you know, like a discount
1:12:02
set, you know, a box set kind of idea, things like that.
1:12:07
So I'm looking, I'm looking forward to all those options and
1:12:11
and and just learning more as I continue to grow as a writer.
1:12:16
Learning more about publishing and and self-publishing in
1:12:19
particular because people like you and and John Stamp and and
1:12:25
Eric and a lot of other folks are, you know, ahead of me and
1:12:28
I've got so much to learn and sort of, you know, separate the
1:12:33
weed from the chaff kind of idea to get to the right thing.
1:12:36
Yeah. Well, if it makes you feel any
1:12:37
better, I mean I'm still, you know, learning to I I I first
1:12:43
looked into, you know, self-publishing with Kindle like
1:12:46
10 years ago I I, I published a a short story and it went, you
1:12:53
know, it actually sold pretty well.
1:12:55
And then as I mentioned, I, you know, I started college like I
1:12:58
had to put fiction writing on the on the back burner.
1:13:02
But then kind of when I came back, you know, to writing this
1:13:05
time last year and finished my, you know, first novella,
1:13:09
everything with Kindle Publishing at least had kind of
1:13:13
changed and you could, you know, you could print paybacks now.
1:13:16
And I think now Eric was telling you they now even have like a
1:13:21
hardback option, you know, two which is wild.
1:13:26
So you know it's. It's as as good and as madding
1:13:35
as Ingram Spark can be. Yeah.
1:13:39
You know that. Yeah that there's all these
1:13:41
options. It's just great that you know a
1:13:43
lot of people talk about writing a book and we're a small
1:13:46
percentage, you know, that have completed a book.
1:13:48
Yeah. But that you know that does I
1:13:50
mean you you I, I now know you know through KDP and stuff you
1:13:56
can create a cover. You can do everything right
1:13:59
inside that environment and you know your first time so that
1:14:03
that's great and there's plenty of other people who will, you
1:14:08
know, you can learn from. And I'm a continuous learner.
1:14:10
I love learning. As am I.
1:14:13
Later this year we're going to go to Italy.
1:14:14
So I've got Babel now and I'm learning Italian and we're
1:14:17
laugh. My wife and I are laughing at
1:14:19
each other trying to do Italian stuff like that.
1:14:22
So it's just another medium of other place to learn and
1:14:26
continue to grow, keep my keep that plaque out of my brain so.
1:14:30
My. What I What I was intending to
1:14:32
do when I walk in the room. Yeah, my, my folks actually just
1:14:36
got back from a two-month trip in Italy and they had a they had
1:14:40
a great time. So two months.
1:14:43
Wow. And don't feel too bad about,
1:14:46
you know, not not knowing or telling because my mother bought
1:14:53
all those, like, you know, C DS to learn how to speak Italian.
1:14:58
And I I think she dug about maybe like once or twice and
1:15:02
then she was working, but then she retired and then they went
1:15:07
to Italy. So they were about to get by.
1:15:10
So it was pretty, yeah, good. But.
1:15:12
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that I think from what
1:15:16
I've heard, you'll have a great time.
1:15:18
But anyway, well, thank you for coming on, Sir.
1:15:23
St. stevestrattonusa.com. That's your website and you know
1:15:30
Steve is pretty active on Twitter too.
1:15:33
So follow him there And you know, thank you for coming on
1:15:39
Sir. And I appreciate, you know your
1:15:41
time and I'll let you go get back to writing so.
1:15:46
Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to be here.
1:15:48
Enjoyed talking with you. And for all those folks out
1:15:53
there, you know that have the dream.
1:15:55
Keep writing. Never quit.
1:15:58
Indeed. Thank you for your time but and
1:16:00
I'll see you folks on Wednesday, so take care.
1:16:06
Thanks for listening to the Whitfield report on the NGC
1:16:10
network. Please visit Sam's website at
1:16:14
www.thesamwhitfield.com and support Sam on
1:16:19
patreon@patreon.com/whitfield report.
1:16:24
Until next time, God bless God saved this great nation and God,
1:16:29
freedom legacy in that order.