Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from March, 2018

Gadgets

I admit there is some fun in all those secret agent gadgets but, as a writer, I found it much more of a challenge to describe and imagine a hero who does not have a multi-million dollar R&D budget backing them up. Instead, all my story's hero has is their intelligence and I think that makes their challenge to overcome their opponents much more interesting. Go "Old School" and check an Epic Adventure that is refreshing free from gadgets Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #Gadgets #Action #Adventure

Cars

I had lots of fun selecting cars and trucks for the many chases and adventures in the story. I even test drove some of them, so I could describe the feel of each vehicle as it was involved in its specific scene. An interesting theme was that as the story evolves the characters select less and less expensive vehicles, probably because each one gets destroyed in spectacular fashion! Jump inside to explore the numerous supercars used in Bridge of Souls Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls # BridgeOfSouls #Cars #Action #Adventure

Nite Watches Competition to win a free paperback copy of Bridge of Souls

As a watch enthusiast I included many top quality watches in my story. The Vatican Investigator and Archaeologist, Thomas O'Neill, wears a Nite MX10 throughout the story and it is one of the only items that survives the apocalyptic finale. So, it is a great pleasure to have a collaboration with British watch brand Nite , who have supplied their watches, as issued equipment, to the British Special Air Service and numerous explorers and adventurers. Thanks Nite! Here are the details of the Nite Competition Delighted that Nite Watches will be offering a chance to win 1 of 5 paperback copies of Bridge of Souls worth 17.95 USD each.  http://bit.ly/USBridgeOfSouls Keep a watch on @NiteWatches for the details and maybe treat yourself to the same watch worn by Dr Thomas O'Neill in the epic adventure, the legendary Nite MX10 ! #BridgeOfSouls #NiteWatches #Adventure 

The London Gun Fight

I located the London based action of Bridge of Souls around Bloomsbury . An area where I lived for a year in the mid 1980s while I was working for computer consultancy, Logica . Follow an epic gun fight in the London based action  Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls # BridgeOfSouls #London 

Remote Influence

Can the human mind inflict harm at a distance? Certainly large numbers of people throughout history have thought so, including the CIA and KGB. Remote influence is one of the primary abilities claimed by esoteric practitioners of both Right Hand (good) and Left Hand (evil) paths. Whatever the reality of such phenomena, it is an essential part of any esoteric plot within a story, like Bridge of Souls , that contains supernatural undertones. Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #Esoteric #Magic #LeftHandPath #RightHandPath #RemoteInfluence

The Shadowy World of Outsourced Deniable Operations

In the not so distant past, Nations had armed forces and intelligence services.   These bodies were authorised agents of the elected Government.  They acted within the oversight of Government and were, to some extent, accountable for their actions and how they spent taxpayers money.  Today, things are not so clear.   As the desire to act and spend outside of the oversight of Government increased, intelligence services and the armed forces began to outsource their deniable actions to private corporations.  These private corporations act unofficially to perform acts which the State funded agents of Government can not sanction.   The danger with such outsourcing is that these corporations have their own interests and once they are given authority to act on behalf of Nations they can abuse their positions of trust. In Bridge of Souls I created a fictional global corporation, called "Maelstrom",  that provides the major Western Nations with outsourced military and inte

Spooks... (Spies)

A large part of my career has been spent in connection with law enforcement and the intelligence community, exploring ways to improve intelligence analysis for various National Criminal Intelligence Services. I used these many years of experience to bring a level of realism and detail to the police and "spooks" who appear in Bridge of Souls , without revealing any critical operational procedures. Conduct your own covert investigation into the story..   Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #Spy #Intelligence #Spooks

The Evil Boss

I always loved the villains in the early Fleming Bond books, the over hyped menace and their amazing secret lairs (how did they get planning permission?). But, and it is a big but, their plans for world domination are poorly thought out and honestly none of them seem to have a clear idea of how they will achieve world domination, let alone what they will do once they have it. So, in Bridge of Souls , I thought, how about a baddie who is one of the smartest human beings to have ever lived.. Someone who knows *exactly* what they are doing, and enjoys every moment. Who could stop such a person? How could they? Can they? Find out if the Evil Boss can be stopped  Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #EvilBoss

What is Evil?

What is Evil? What sounds like a simple question is, in fact, a very complex philosophical and theological issue. In Bridge of Souls I did not want to have a nation identified as my primary antagonist, I think we already have too many sources of division in the world. So, I opted for a very different kind of opposition for my hero. I have always enjoyed a good supernatural or horror tale and, as a consequence, I looked at the source materials used by literature and theology to define Evil. I also added some of my rather irreverent sense of humour and imagination to provide a much more complex scenario related to Evil, The Devil and all his works. Join the adventure to prevent the ultimate rise of Evil Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #Evil #Supernature

By the sword...

I wanted a few "big fight" scenes in Bridge of Souls but I wanted to make them different from those we see in most action adventures. After 35 years of experience practicing and studying various martial arts I believe the best action is where two radically different styles clash. It allows the reader to understand and experience divergent approaches to dealing with combat. In Bridge of Souls I made a conscious effort to include a series of different action sequences that included a wide range of different weapons and different close quarter combat scenarios. In the classic sword combat set piece I thought about the question that I used to get asked all the time by students when I was teaching Japanese Sword techniques.. Who would win a match between two equally skilled fencing masters, one skilled in European 16th century techniques, the other in Japanese 16th century weapons and techniques. Katana verses Rapier . Classic Katana By CT Snow from

Istanbul

I have always had a special love for Istanbul, ever since I visited there as a young kid and wandered through the old market. So it is not a surprise that "The City" features as a central location for Bridge of Souls ... Roman cisterns and secret underground temples complete with black magicians.. Join the adventure to discover the secrets of Istanbul  Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #Istanbul