kindle worlds

Russell: How did you come to be interested in the JET Series Kindle World?

Emily: Sean Fitzgerald, the acquisitions editor for Kindle World, got in touch after reading my Sydney Rye series. He felt that Sydney Rye and Jet would have a lot in common. After reading the first Jet book I agreed and decided it would be really fun to write a novella with these two powerful female characters. Turns out I was right. IT TAKES TWO was a blast to write.

Russell: Tell us how your story links to the JET Series. Characters, setting, specific event? Is there any crossover or meetings between your characters and any of the original characters?

Emily: My novella takes place about two weeks before Jet fakes her own death. Her and Sydney Rye are on opposite sides, with Jet responsible for assassinating someone Sydney Rye is charged with protecting.

Russell: The JET Series books are fast-paced action and adventure stories. What genre(s) do you explore in your story?

Emily: IT TAKES TWO is a face-paced action and adventure story. My Sydney Rye books fit into that same genre, however, they are written in first person and I followed in your footsteps, writing IT TAKES TWO in third person.

Russell: The JET series has been set all over the world… the Middle East, Asia, South American, the Caribbean, etc. Tell us about where you set your story, and why?

Emily: My story starts in Peru and ends up in Istanbul. I love to travel and usually set my books in far off, exotic locations where I’ve spent some time. My Sydney Rye books take place all over the world as well so it made sense for both these characters that they’d be in a few far flung locals.

Russell: Tell us a little about your main character(s). Why do you think readers will like him/her/it?

Emily: My main characters are Sydney Rye and her dog, Blue. People like Sydney Rye because she is tough but vulnerable. And because her sense of justice is awesome. People like Blue because he is the best dog to ever live. He is obedient, a fierce protector, brilliant, an amazing cuddler and adorable. What’s not to love?

Russell: Did you decide to include any of the main characters from JET (Jet / Maya, Matt or Hannah?) If so, Why?

Emily: I included Jet because her and Sydney have so much in common. I couldn’t wait for them to meet.

Russell: What major theme comes across the clearest in your story? Is this a theme found consistently in your other works? Please market those works here! 

Emily: The major theme in IT TAKES TWO is justice which is also one of the most central themes in my Sydney Rye series.

Russell: Share some of your story about becoming a writer. Long version or short version. You decide.

Emily: I am very dyslexic, to the point that I had to attend a special school in order to learn how to read, so my Dad read aloud to me until I was 1 1 (when all the squiggles finally started looking like words). I fell in love with books in part because my Dad really made them come alive. Also, since I couldn’t read for so long I was really obsessed with books by the time I figured out how to read. The first book I read myself was an Agatha Christie and the mystery genre has been my thing ever since… though now I like a lot more violence in my stories.

Because I had so much trouble learning how to read it never occurred to me that I could be a writer. After I graduated high school I took a few years off and traveled the world working as a photographer which is when I figured out I didn’t actually want to be a photographer. So I went to college and wasn’t sure what to study despite my friends and family encouraging me to write, until one day I read a really bad book. It was so bad that I thought, you know, I can do better than that. And so I did.

Russell: Do you have a background related to your writing? Interests? 

Emily: In the first book Sydney Rye is working as a dog walker. I have experience working as a dog walker. In fact, walking dogs is something I still do today, though no one pays me anymore.

Besides my fascinating foray into the world of dog walking I’ve worked as a photographer, bartender, waitress, and as an intern at a Private Investigation firm. But I spend most my time and energy planning my next trip. Travel is my favorite thing to do. My husband proposed to me in JFK long term parking (get it “long term”). We are dedicated to having lots of adventures around the world and that’s what we’ve worked on for the last decade or so. In fact, my Sydney Rye series is kind of just a big excuse to travel. The books take place all over the world… so obviously I need to do my research.

Russell: What are you working on next, aside from the novella in the JET Series Kindle World?

Emily: My seventh Sydney Rye book, SHADOW HARVEST, launches on 8/8 and I’ve started writing the eighth.

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Stephen’s website is: www.stephenwrites.com.

Russell: How did you come to be interested in the JET Series Kindle World?

Stephen: Well, you see it all started with this crazy author I met on Facebook, and his endless stream of “Dear Diary” posts. . .nah, all kidding aside—my introduction to your work came through the El Rey novels. After hearing about the upcoming launch of the Kindle World, I began delving into the JET novels and became acquainted with her story.

Russell: Tell us how your story links to the JET Series. Characters, setting, specific event?

Stephen: With Lion of God: Episode I, I set out to tell part of the backstory of one of the first novel’s most important characters: David, or “Ariel”, to use his Mossad codename—a name which means “Lion of God.”

The novella finds Ariel as the leader of a small Kidon assassination team in October of 2000, as the Second Intifada explodes upon the scene and a pair of Israeli reservists are lynched by a mob in Ramallah. . .a real-life historical tragedy which sets the stage for everything that is to come, as Mossad Director Efraim Halevy authorizes the Kidon to track down and kill the man responsible—a journey that will take Ariel from the heights of the Golan to the arrondissements of Marseille, to the Tuscan island of Elba.

Russell: Is there any crossover or meetings between your characters and any of the original characters?

Stephen: Lion of God takes place well over a decade before the events of my first novel, Pandora’s Grave, but fans of my Shadow Warriors series will immediately recognize several characters—most notably the Mossad’s Avi ben Shoham, who serves as Ariel’s control for the operation. And David Lay, who is almost at the end of his tenure as CIA Station Chief Tel Aviv. Lion of God supplies details from both men’s pasts that haven’t been seen anywhere else, and their at-times contentious professional relationship provides ongoing drama. There’s even a very brief (Blink and you’ll miss it) cameo from my Shadow Warriors protagonist, CIA paramilitary operations officer Harry Nichols.

Russell: The JET series has been set all over the world… the Middle East, Asia, South American, the Caribbean, etc. Tell us about where you set your story, and why?

Stephen: The action of Lion of God begins in the Negev, shifting quickly to the streets of Ramallah and the Gaza Strip as the events of October 12th, 2000 unfold around you. You’ll look down on Tel Aviv from the heights of the Matkal Tower, the bastion of the IDF’s General Staff—and stride into Yasser Arafat’s compound alongside CIA Director George Tenet. From there, the story jaunts around the Mediterranean—from the marina of Marseille to the rocky cliffs of Elba.

Russell: Did you decide to include any other characters from JET besides that of Ariel?

Stephen: Yes. Readers of the first JET novel will remember Eli Cohen, the Mossad bureaucrat who sold out Jet’s team. Well. . .he wasn’t always a villain, and Lion of God delves into the story of the man he once was.

Russell: What major theme comes across the clearest in your story? Is this a theme found consistently in your other works? Please market those works here! 

Stephen: The thing I strive hardest to portray in my writing, both with Lion of God and my own Shadow Warriors series (Which has now grown to encompass five volumes: LODESTONE, NIGHTSHADE, Pandora’s Grave, Day of Reckoning, and TALISMAN) is the raw humanity of men and women at war, forced to make impossible choices in the face of overwhelming odds, in a world where alliances are uncertain and nothing is as it seems.

Russell: Were there any unique challenges you found in the writing of Lion of God: Episode I?

Stephen: Several. There was, of course, the distinct difference in writing about and working to flesh out a character created by another author. But principally, the most challenging proposition was the historical setting and the realities that presented —weaving fictional JET and Shadow Warriors characters into scenes with real-life individuals such as Yasser Arafat and George Tenet. Playing “what if” and trying to imagine (based off extensive research into bios, recorded speeches, and available transcripts) what such men might have said behind closed doors as the world came down around them.

Russell: You’ve called this story “Episode I.” Can we expect more from Lion of God?

Stephen: Yes, indeed. As readers will find as they finish the first episode, this story has just begun to unfold—with an ending plot twist that will take your breath away. Work on the second “episode” has already begun—and I am hoping, story permitting, for a trilogy.

Russell: Share some of your story about becoming a writer.

Stephen: Writing has simply always been a passion of mine, the beauty of losing yourself in a world of your own creation. Of drawing readers in to experience it with you—it’s a feeling like no other. I’ve been at work on the Shadow Warriors series for over a decade and creating that universe is the continual unfolding of a dream. I’m thrilled for all the people who have chosen to share it with me.

Russell: Do you have a background related to your writing? Interests? What makes you interesting outside of your books?

Stephen: That’s not what I understand from Dear Diary. . .ha, not really. I’ve simply been a student of military history ever since I was a kid. And, of course, thus espionage. . .for by way of deception, thou shalt make war. It’s been my unique honor along this journey to meet more than a few members of the American special operations and intelligence communities. Amazing individuals.

Russell: JET is set in a world where many governments including Israel and the U.S. have covert operations including false flag and assassinations. Do you believe this is really the world we live in? If so, what are your thoughts on the future?

Stephen: To an extent. In real life, such operations are far harder to execute than they are made to appear in fiction, whether on the page or the screen—and the old Scotsman’s proverb is always in effect, “Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” That being said, there are certainly such operations going on—I recommend Anthony Cave Brown’s massive tome Bodyguard of Lies on deception operations during the Second World War for those who want to imagine what could be taking place event today.

That being said, I think the more serious concern in reality is what gets to the core of actual intelligence work. . .control of information itself. Russia in particular has taken to the Internet like a fish to water, threatening to turn the Information Age into the age of dezinformatsiya—disinformation. I would say that hardly a day goes by that I don’t encounter some evidence of Kremlin influence ops on the Internet—whether it comes through official channels like RT, conspiracy sites, or the Snowden operation itself.

Russell: What are you working on next, aside from the next Lion of God novella in the JET Series Kindle World?

Stephen: I’m currently nearing the close of the next volume of the Shadow Warriors series, Embrace the Fire. Set in the UK, the story finds Harry Nichols caught up in the middle of steadily growing unrest as the nationalist far-right and Islamist forces come to blows, with tens of thousands of innocents caught in the cross-fire. His career with the CIA is over. . .his war has only just begun.

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Blog: http://writtenword.ca/wordpress/blog/

Russell: What brought you to the JET Series Kindle World?

Scott: I read the first JET novel as an advance review copy and loved the character and the world. I first heard about Kindle Worlds when another author, Toby Neal, invited me and a few others to participate in her Lei Crime Kindle World. I was knee-deep in writing that novella when Russell Blake invited me and other writers to join the JET Kindle World. How could I say no? The challenge was writing two short books, getting them edited and getting covers for them, then producing the e-book versions, on time. But it was a blast.

Russell: Tell us how your story links to the JET Series. Is there any crossover or meetings between your characters and any of the original characters? 

Scott: JET – Stealth includes Maya/Jet herself, and is set almost two years before the beginning of the action of the first JET novel. It begins with Jet on her way to her new, post-Mossad home in Trinidad, when she gets pulled into a new fight: an international crime cartel has stolen the prototype of a gun that can pass undetected by any technology. Naturally, the bad guys have the bad luck to try to hijack Jet’s flight. Mayhem ensues, during which Jet finds herself distracted by the unreasonably good looks of a freelancer opposing the Cartel and trying to take the stealth gun back to its inventor.

Russell: The JET Series books are fast-paced action and adventure stories. What other genres do you explore in your story?

Scott: I like blurring the boundaries between genres. With JET – Stealth, I decided to stay with action-adventure, but add in a little romance and a lot of humor. I’m hoping readers have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.

Russell: The JET series has been set all over the world… the Middle East, Asia, South American, the Caribbean, etc. Tell us about where you set your story, and why?

Scott: JET – Stealth is set in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, from Chetumal to Merida. I placed it there because it is plausibly en-route to Maya’s home in Trinidad from the first Jet novel.

Russell: Tell us a little about your main characters. Why do you think readers will like them?

Scott: Besides Jet, the protagonists in this story are Van and LeBrun. Van is both similar to Jet, and very different. For instance, he’s fit and unreasonably good looking. He knows how to handle weapons and how to fight. However, he doesn’t have a military background or any training in spycraft. Everything he knows, he’s had to learn by doing.
Van is also intelligent, and has a strong social conscience and an edgy, irrepressible sense of humor. Finally, Jet finds that there’s something about him that she just cannot stay away from.

His partner, the man who provides his weapons, gadgets and money, is a hardware genius named Earl LeBrun. This is the kind of guy who can make his own smart phone out of a broken mirror and components from an eight-track tape deck.

Russell:What made you into a writer?

Scott: I’ve loved writing stories since I was a child. After 20-plus year career as a journalist and editor, I decided to return to fiction and actually write those books I had dreamt of writing for so many years.

In 2012, I published the historical fantasy I had worked on intermittently for seven years: The Bones of the Earth. And it was then that I discovered the vibrant community of supportive writers online. I have published three more novels since then, as well as short stories and I cannot imagine how many blog posts. I have also found that I have more and more ideas for books, far more than I think I’ll ever be able to write.

Russell: Tell us about your interests besides writing.

Scott: I love to travel, to learn about different places I see on maps. I hope to be able to combine writing and travel more. For instance, my visits to the Yucatan, where JET – Stealth is set, informed the descriptions in the novella. I also visited Maui to do research for my previous book, Torn Roots.

In the future, I will try to base more stories on places I’ve actually been, or even better, visit interesting places that would make good settings for books.

Russell: What are you working on next, aside from the novella in the JET Series Kindle World?

Scott: I just may continue the story of Van and LeBrun, two freelancers fighting international crime and terrorism.

The next project that I absolutely have to finish is the follow-up to my memoir in novel form, Army of Worn Soles. That tells the true story of a man drafted into the USSR’s Red Army in 1941, just in time to face Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany’s invasions of the Soviet Union. I hope to be able to publish Under the Nazi Heel this year. It will tell the true story of my father-in-law’s role in the underground resistance to the Nazi occupation of Ukraine in 1942–44.

After that, all my readers tell me I have to write the sequel to The Bones of the Earth. I have the plot outlined. But it’s a big book. I just hope it doesn’t take me another seven years to complete.

And of course, if readers want it, I can write more about Van and LeBrun.

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A summary:

Jet, kidnapped and stripped of her memories, is imprisoned on an island Fortress forgotten by time. She’s being used as a human guinea pig in a series of diabolical experiments by a man who’s a worthy heir to the Nazi Angel of Death, Joseph Mengele.

But she’s not alone. Three other master operatives are imprisoned beside her and subjected to identical treatments.

No explanations. No hope. No way out.

They’re the best of the best that the CIA, Mossad, KGB & the North Korean RGB intelligence services have to offer, and they’re trapped like mice in a locked maze.

They’ve been stripped down to nothing save for a burning desire for
revenge and their remarkable sets of skills.

Russell: How did you come to be interested in the JET Series Kindle World?

Bob: I’ve read a bunch of the Jet novels and, while my own thrillers have a lot of action and suspense, I jumped at the opportunity to write in the world of covert operations and powerful people manipulating and controlling the lives and destinies of others and the course of nations.

Russell: Tell us how your story links to the JET Series. Characters, setting, specific event? Is there any crossover or meetings between your characters and any of the original characters?

Bob: Jet is a major character and interacts throughout the novella with three other top operatives who I invented from various security services, along with Marsh, a character taken from my soon-to-be published Max Plank mystery series.

Russell: The JET Series books are fast-paced action and adventure stories. What genre(s) do you explore in your story?

Bob: Same genre. Action/adventure. Very close to the thrillers I’ve written which are filled with A/A.

Russell: The JET series has been set all over the world… the Middle East, Asia, South American, the Caribbean, etc. Tell us about where you set your story, and why?

Bob: Except for a brief couple of chapters that take us to Sydney, Australia, the entire story is set in a Fortress on one of the tiniest of the 778 islands that make up the Falklands. I’m planning on continuing the series and those books will take us to far-flung locales all over the world.

Russell: Tell us a little about your main characters. Why do you think readers will like them?

Bob: There are five main characters I introduce in The Fortress, Jet being one of them. They’re all operatives, all the best of the best for their respective security services–CIA, Mossad, KGB, MI6 and the North Korean RGB. Being highly-trained agents, all are full spunk and vinegar, heart and soul, but have their fair share of personal problems and neuroses.

Russell: What major theme comes across the clearest in your story? Is this a theme found consistently in your other works? 

Bob: Courage in the face of overwhelming adversity. The nature of evil and how it’s never just black and white. Betrayal and revenge are also themes consistent to this story and all of my novels. My mysteries and thrillers include Between a Smile and a Tear, Ransom Dreams, Acapella Blues, and Love Stings. You can find out more at robertbucchianeri.com or go to my author page at Amazon.

Russell: Do you have a background related to your writing? Interests? What makes you interesting outside of your books?

Bob: I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology! Seriously, most of my learning has been by the book. I’ve read widely from literary to pulp fiction and studied the masters and not-somasterly in most commercial genres.

I write in bed, like Proust. Other than that habit and the fact that he’s french and I love croissants, we have little else in common. Actually, I write where I sleep because my dog wants to lie beside me. It’s always been my burden, whether it’s dogs or women.

With all this lying about all day, I try to counteract with bursts of running, yoga, and P90X.

Russell: JET is set in a world where many governments including Israel and the U.S. have covert operations including false flag and assassinations. Do you believe this is really the world we live in? If so, what are your thoughts on the future?

Bob: ‘fraid so. There are lots of good books that reveal the history that’s not taught in our schools, but I’d recommend retired Army colonel and Professor Andrew Bacevich’s tomes such as Washington Rules or American Empire for insight.

As to the future, I wouldn’t presume to presume. No way to control for variables but, since humans are involved, we can be pretty sure it won’t be entirely peachy.

Russell: What are you working on next, aside from the novella in the JET Series Kindle World?

Bob: I’m working on the first three books in my Max Plank mystery series set in San Francisco. Hope to have all of them up or nearly so before summer ends. I’m also planning on continuing the Jet Kindle World Series, Ex-Ops Chronicles, I’ve started with The Fortress. So if readers like the characters they meet in the first one, there’ll be more coming soon.

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After months of behind the scenes work, it’s finally time! , wherein authors have spun yarns within the world of JET, the Mossad’s deadliest assassin, is now live, with a plethora of entrants. Featuring authors Kim Cano, Toby Neal, Steven Konkoly, Stephen England, Andrew Harding, A.J. Carella, Kerry Gardiner, Scott Bury, Lynda Filler, Kim Cresswell, Claude Bouchard, Douglas Dorow, Jason Cipriano, Brian Anderson, Steven Bird, Malcolm Aylward, Robert Bucchianeri, and more to follow shortly, this is a strong lineup of stellar talents whose takes on the world are as different as the spellings of their names.

So where do you start with all this great stuff? That’s a tough one. Hard to go wrong with any of ’em, although some are more kindred to the original JET than others. I’d browse the Look Insides for a taste, and wouldn’t hesitate to load up on the ones that resonate.

More titles are coming on live as we speak, so keep checking over the next few days as the gears mesh and the machine comes to life.

To everyone who contributed so far, thanks so much. It’s humbling to see so many authors wanting to work within the world, and I wish you all mucho success with your offerings.

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Summary:

JET – Outbreak is the continuing story of Maya, the Mossad operative who would become Jet, who finds herself in the midst of a terrifying epidemic in Tel Aviv, battling hordes of infected humans and fighting time itself in a nail-biting race to contain and stop this deadly plague before it spreads any further.

Russell: How did you come to be interested in the JET Series Kindle World?

Malcolm: I write action/adventure so I have been following Russell Blake since I first read about him in a Kindle newsletter sometime last year. I noticed that with the Jet books he created a fully developed character and has had amazing success with gaining so many fans of the series. I figured this guy knows what the heck he is doing, so I have been following his sage advice ever since. I am a relatively new author and just happened to be looking through the Kindle World choices last month and thinking about writing a KW book when Russell posted he was opening up Jet to KW. I am so very grateful to him for giving me a chance to explore his world.

Russell: Tell us how your story links to the JET Series. Characters, setting, specific event? Is there any crossover or meetings between your characters and any of the original characters?

Malcolm: Jet: Outbreak takes place shortly after the events in Terror Alert and several years before the first Jet novel. She is on a new mission for the Mossad but soon a deadly outbreak unleashes hordes of infected innocents. She crosses paths with two of my characters during the chaos that ensues.

Russell: The JET Series books are fast-paced action and adventure stories. What genre(s) do you explore in your story?

Malcolm: The books that I read are usually thrillers and action/adventure stories, so those are the genres I usually explore. But in Jet: Outbreak I venture a bit into the sci-fi and horror areas. I love The Walking Dead, so I thought I would like to incorporate some of that into this book.

Russell: The JET series has been set all over the world… the Middle East, Asia, South American, the Caribbean, etc. Tell us about where you set your story, and why?

Malcolm: Jet: Outbreak takes place in several different parts of the world. It starts out with a confrontation between Maya and one of my characters on an exotic island. Then they go to Paris, where my character, the French spy Josette Perot, is from. They run into another one of my characters there and eventually end up in Israel where they have to dish out the pain.

Russell:  Tell us a little about your main character(s). Why do you think readers will like him or her?

Malcolm: Well, besides Maya/Jet, she recruits a character from my upcoming series The Specialists to help out; computer genius and outlaw hacker Chase Thompson. Chase is a good looking guy about the same age as Maya. He’s from Texas, laid back and funny, and of course, brilliant. I think readers will find it easy to connect with him. He also appears in my latest book, the novella prequel to The Specialists called Dunn’s Revenge, which just came out for Kindle on July 11th.

Russell: Did you decide to include any of the main characters from JET (Jet / Maya, Matt or Hannah?) If so, Why?

Malcolm: Yes, I included Maya/Jet, she is the main protag, and a few others play minor roles. This story takes place before Hannah comes along or she meets Matt. Maya is about twenty-one years old in Jet: Outbreak and she meets up with Chase in Paris. Did I mention these two crazy kids are in Paris?

Russell: What major theme comes across the clearest in your story? Is this a theme found consistently in your other works?

Malcolm: I usually stick with themes about overcoming odds to succeed at something or finding something out about yourself you didn’t expect. In Jet: Outbreak I would say the major theme is the latter, where the protag has doubts about what they can feel or not feel. By the end they discover that they might just be wrong.

Russell: Share some of your story about becoming a writer. 

Malcolm: I am just starting out in my adventure of self-publishing but I have always had a firm love of reading and books since I first learned how to read. I had written quite a few songs and had dabbled in writing some novels over the years but life always seemed to get in the way. After raising my kids and accomplishing some other goals I had set, I turned my attention to writing. I started writing a few short stories and just fell in love with the written word all over again. Something just clicked in my head that told me this is what I should have been doing with my life all along, whether I am successful at it or not. I just really felt the need to just write. It really helped to all of a sudden wake up one day and find I had all these stories and ideas swirling around in my head that seemed to be screaming at me to let them out and tell them. That almost makes it easy, but not really. Writing is hard. But it is an extremely enjoyable hard, if that makes any sense.

Russell: Do you have a background related to your writing? Interests? What makes you interesting outside of your books…Authors are often some of the most interesting people I’ve met, although admittedly I don’t get out much.

Malcolm: I love to try new things, mainly because I get bored very easily. I have been a musician most of my life, playing lead guitar and singing in various bands, writing and recording songs. I study Martial Arts and I am fascinated by and have looked at about every fighting discipline known to man. I love working out and I try to inspire people who have Type 2 diabetes to work hard so they can eradicate all the effects of that disease like I did. My first non-fiction book, How I Kicked Type 2 Diabetes Butt is available for Kindle and in print. It chronicles how I went from having a blood sugar level in excess of 400 and being out of shape several years ago to a normal blood sugar level of 90-100 and in reasonably good shape. I obviously highly recommend it for anyone or a loved one that has been diagnosed with Type 2.

Russell: JET is set in a world where many governments including Israel and the U.S. have covert operations including false flag and assassinations. Do you believe this is really the world we live in? If so, what are your thoughts on the future?

Malcolm: Oh, yes. Big Brother is alive and well and is certainly listening. (He is probably recording my keystrokes as I type.) Being a student of history, I can easily see that this has always been the case since the beginning of civilization. Man is inherently flawed, corrupt and easily swayed. As Russell and I can readily attest to, but the swaying usually involves Tequila with him and Cinnamon Whiskey with me.

What are my thoughts on the future? Stock up on ammo and Cinnamon Whiskey (and/or Tequila). And remember the immortal words of Bruce Lee… Be water, my friend.

Russell: What are you working on next, aside from the novella in the JET Series Kindle World?

Malcolm: I just finished the novella prequel Dunn’s Revenge for Kindle, a work of fiction that is available right now on Amazon.com. Right after Jet: Outbreak is released I will be working on another KW novella for the J.A. Konrath’s Codename:Chandler series.  Then I will be completing the first Specialists full-length novel featuring Major John Dunn from Dunn’s Revenge. On the back-burner I have been working on a screenplay/novel for an action/sci-fi/thriller story that I am really excited about.

So, yes, my dance card is very full! My only regret is that I should have started doing this four years ago. I have some serious catching up to do. Cheers!

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Russell: How did you come to be interested in the JET Series Kindle World?

Steve: I googled tequila and came across your Facebook profile.

No, but seriously, having been involved with Steven Konkoly’s Perseid Collapse Kindle World, I really enjoyed eMeeting everyone involved and had a great time working on it. Also, being fairly new to the world of writing with only four of my own novels and one Kindle World’s Novella under my belt, I felt it would be a great way to expand my horizons. And considered was chocked full of shooting and killing, it was right up my alley.

Russell: Tell us how your story links to the JET Series. Characters, setting, specific event? Is there any crossover or meetings between your characters and any of the original characters?

Steve: My novella, JET: Dangerous Prey, involves Jet during her time with the Mossad. As she wraps up a sanction on a Bolivian drug smuggler that uses profits from the drug trade to fund a Middle-Eastern terror organization, her clean get away falls apart and an entirely new struggle arises. The story starts off in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, then on to Chimore, Cochabamba, Bolivia, and then deep in the jungle that spans the borders of Bolivia and Peru.

Russell: The JET Series books are fast-paced action and adventure stories. What genre(s) do you explore in your story?

Steve: Fast-paced action and adventure just like the original. No aliens, zombies, or romance. Although, maybe aliens or zombies would have been an excellent addition to the series.

Russell: The JET series has been set all over the world… the Middle East, Asia, South American, the Caribbean, etc. Tell us about where you set your story, and why?

Steve: Due to the fact that I was using Jet’s time with the Mossad, I wanted to develop a mission for her that would somehow include the defense of Israel on an unseen level. I also wanted to include a mountainous or jungle environment outside of any major metropolitan or urban area. I’m at home in nature and the outdoors so I wanted to take the readers there as well. With the idea to use the drug trade as a funding source for an anti-Israel Middle-Eastern terrorist organization, I was naturally drawn to Bolivia.

Russell: Tell us a little about your main character. Why do you think readers will like her?

Steve: Jet/Maya herself is the main character. She is joined by an Amercian ex-pat pilot who would otherwise be a decent guy but got himself caught up in some things that were way over his head. His involvement with Jet gives him the opportunity to somewhat redeem himself—even if that redemption is only in the heart of the reader.

Russell: Did you decide to include any of the main characters from JET (Jet / Maya, Matt or Hannah?) If so, Why?

Steve: Just Jet, alone on what started out as a routine assignment.

Russell: What major theme comes across the clearest in your story? Is this a theme found consistently in your other works? Please market those works here! 

Steve: Being a gun guy (some would say a fanatic), firearms usage is prevalent in all of my works. I believe the only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun… or rather a good gal in this case. Also, suffering from self-diagnosed ADD, I tend to write in a rather fast-paced manner, keeping myself from becoming bored. In my own series, The New Homefront the characters often have to do less than peaceful things to ensure the safety of their own families during a time of crisis and collapse. Although Jet is working on a national and not personal level, the same theme rings through.

Russell: Share some of your story about becoming a writer. 

Steve: I’m sure every author out there has some sort of unique story on what got them started. I’m what I would consider to be far from your typical novelist. For example, I read my first fiction novel EVER in March of 2013. Before that, I generally read non-fiction books on subjects such as history, astrophysics, politics, mechanics, survival, etc., but after reading the book Patriot Dawn, I was hooked. I was a power reader for the next few months until one day I said to myself, Hell, I can do that. At that moment, I started writing my first book on my Andriod phone… and I’m sure that shows when you read it 😉 That novel was self-published in March of 2014, only one year after giving the world of fiction a try. In the year that followed, I completed a four book series that has earned quite the following and has motivated me to pursue writing on a much more serious level.

Russell: Do you have a background related to your writing? Interests? What makes you interesting outside of your books…Authors are often some of the most interesting people I’ve met, although admittedly I don’t get out much.

Steve: I joke with people that I help to carry on the southern stereotype. I drive a big diesel 4×4 truck, I hunt, raise sheep, chickens, honey bees, and have a guard donkey. Yes, I said guard donkey. I’m a gun fanatic. My gun room resembles a Hollywood prop room in both volume and diversity, covering numerous eras in firearms development. Oh, and I’m an airline pilot and a retired Navy Reserve Chief.

Between flying for a living, hobby farming, and being a father of three, on top of putting out a novel each quarter, I feel like I have about six full-time jobs.

Russell: JET is set in a world where many governments including Israel and the U.S. have covert operations including false flag and assassinations. Do you believe this is really the world we live in? If so, what are your thoughts on the future?

Steve: As William Blum said, “No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine.”

As far as the future goes, I’m personally hoping for a zombie apocalypse. It’s really the only way I can see us fixing things. Some people just need to be eaten.

Russell: What are you working on next, aside from the novella in the JET Series Kindle World?

Steve: A post-apocalyptic (sort of) sci-fi/thriller set on Mount Erebus, Antarctica, at the MEVO observatory as well as McMurdo Station.

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Summary:

Eva, an assassin for one of the most secretive organizations on the planet, lives a life surrounded by death and danger. But for Eva, it is a life she understands. Never has she failed. Never has she faltered. However, when faced with the deepest betrayal, the predator finds herself the prey. And all the things she once thought she could see clearly are blurred by the fog of deceit. As the pieces fall into place and secrets are revealed, her world is shattered. And her enemies are determined to see that she carries those secrets to the grave.

Russell: How did you come to be interested in the JET Series Kindle World?

Brian: I had just finished a novel and had some time before I needed to start the next. I was considering writing outside of my normal genre to give my mind a breather from swords, dragons, and magic, when you announced the Jet Kindle World. I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to expand and diversify. And I must admit, I’ve had a great time.

Russell: Tell us how your story links to the JET Series. Characters, setting, specific event? Is there any crossover or meetings between your characters and any of the original characters?

Brian: Our story introduces a brand new character – Eva. I thought the readers might enjoy it more if I added to the world rather than write a continuation of the Jet story. It takes you back before the first book when Jet is still in the Mossad and Ariel (David) is not completely settled at his position. He and Jet have not known one another long and there is no romance between them (though there is attraction). Actually Jet and Ariel are secondary characters in this story and only make brief appearances. Eva is the primary focus.

Russell: The JET Series books are fast-paced action and adventure stories. What genre(s) do you explore in your story?

Brian: Action/Adventure primarily. But there is plenty of intrigue and various plot twists which I hope will keep the readers on their toes.

Russell: The JET series has been set all over the world… the Middle East, Asia, South American, the Caribbean, etc. Tell us about where you set your story, and why?

Brian: There are multiple locations. I needed to move from scene to scene in order to tie the plot together and I couldn’t do that with a single location. They include – Tel Aviv, St. Petersburg, London, and New York.

Russell: Tell us a little about your main character(s). Why do you think readers will like him/her/it?

Brian: Eva is a world class assassin who works for a secret organization that does the jobs governments can’t be seen doing. Much like Jet herself, she is at the top of her profession and a very dangerous woman. As to why people will like her…well she sexy, dangerous, intelligent, did I mention sexy? Anyway, I like her.

Russell: Did you decide to include any of the main characters from JET (Jet / Maya, Matt or Hannah?) If so, Why?

Brian: I did, but only in a few scenes. I liked David from the first book, and thought he might make an interesting addition being that I was prequeling Jet. As for Jet herself, I added her to give more dimension to the story and to Eva.

Russell: What major theme comes across the clearest in your story? Is this a theme found consistently in your other works?

Brian: Theme? Nothing that jumps out at me. Just a fun romp with a dash of conspiracy, a pinch of betrayal, and a splash of blood.

Russell: Share some of your story about becoming a writer.

Brian: Oh geez…it will have to be the short version. I had never taken writing seriously until my son came to me with the idea for a fantasy story and asked me to write it for him. After hearing his idea, I enthusiastically said I would. The resulting book ended up launching my career and taking me places I’ve never imagined I could go. Since the release of that first novel I have followed it up with seven more and now can proudly say I write for a living. So, basically, I owe it all to my son.

Russell: Do you have a background related to your writing? Interests?

Brian: As primarily a fantasy writer it’s difficult to actually DO the things I write about. I suppose I could start wandering around and slashing bad guys with swords, but that probably wouldn’t end well. As far as interests…naps. Whiskey and naps. Food and naps. Just about anything that leads to a nap afterward. Aside from that, I play piano, enjoy chess, sports, I’m certainly a sci-fi/fantasy geek, and I love history. Okay…now that I realize how boring I am, I need a nap.

Russell: JET is set in a world where many governments including Israel and the U.S. have covert operations including false flag and assassinations. Do you believe this is really the world we live in? If so, what are your thoughts on the future?

Brian: I think if we really knew what went on behind the scenes it would scare the hell out of us. It’s probably best we don’t know, otherwise it would drive us insane with fear. Damn it! I frightened myself. Time for a nap.

Russell: What are you working on next, aside from the novella in the JET Series Kindle World?

Brian: Right now I’m working on Book Three in the Dragonvein series along with Book One in a new series – Akiri.

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A.J.’s website is www.ajcarella.com.

Russell: How did you come to be interested in the JET Series Kindle World?

A.J.: I kept hearing about this Russell Blake guy so I decided to check him out for myself. He’s irreverent, fun and slightly unhinged. Oh, and his books are great!

Russell: Tell us how your story links to the JET Series. Characters, setting, specific event? Is there any crossover or meetings between your characters and any of the original characters?

A.J.: Jet’s Curse is set several years after the Jet series and follows Hannah, Jet’s daughter. Her fractured upbringing has had an impact on her adult life and we see that she is more like her mother than she’d like to admit. Though the story is firmly focused on Hannah, Jet does make an appearance.

Russell: The JET Series books are fast-paced action and adventure stories. What genre(s) do you explore in your story?

A.J.: Jet’s curse is a fast-paced crime fiction/thriller, with a hint of romance.

Russell: The JET series has been set all over the world… the Middle East, Asia, South American, the Caribbean, etc. Tell us about where you set your story, and why?

A.J.: My story is set in the US as that’s where Hannah grew up (in Jet’s Curse).

Russell: Tell us a little about your main character. Why do you think readers will like her?

A.J.: Hannah has had it tough. Raised away from her mother, in an abusive environment, she had to grow up fast. Spending time in a children’s home and watching her adored adoptive mother die behind bars could have made her turn bad, but it didn’t. She strongly believes in justice, by whatever means. She chooses a path that she knows in the eyes of many will be seen as criminal, but she believes it to be justified.

Russell: Did you decide to include any of the main characters from JET (Jet / Maya, Matt or Hannah?) If so, Why?

A.J.: Jet makes an appearance, albeit brief. Though Hannah’s relationship with Maya is difficult, at the end of the day she is the only person she can turn to for help.

Russell: What major theme comes across the clearest in your story? Is this a theme found consistently in your other works? Please market those works here!

A.J.: All my works feature strong female characters. They are:

• To Kill For
• Blood Sport
• Hard Time
• Gang Land
• True Lies

Russell: Share some of your story about becoming a writer. Long version or short version. You decide.

A.J.: Since I was a kid I’ve dreamt of writing a book. Who hasn’t? It wasn’t until I went to university to study law though that the idea started becoming less of a dream and more of possibility.

As a single parent, putting myself through school later in life was hard but I did well and one of the recurring themes in the feedback from my work was that I my writing was really good.

Fast forward a couple of years and my law degree wasn’t working for me as I expected and I needed to find a way of supporting us. Thus my first work of fiction was written. I’ve never looked back.

Russell: Do you have a background related to your writing? Interests? What makes you interesting outside of your books…Authors are often some of the most interesting people I’ve met, although admittedly I don’t get out much.

A.J.: I’m not interesting at all – except in my dreams where I am, of course, a jet-setting, crime solving, bestselling novelist. And no, I’m not Jessica Fletcher!

Russell: JET is set in a world where many governments including Israel and the U.S. have covert operations including false flag and assassinations. Do you believe this is really the world we live in? If so, what are your thoughts on the future?

A.J.: I do believe that this is the world today. I find it both worrying and reassuring. Today people cry out for transparency of Government, for accountability but I don’t think in reality that we should know everything.

Yes, there are clearly circumstances when the population has a right to know what actions are being taken in their name, but equally, from a security point of view, I realize that this can rarely happen.

However, with the lack of transparency comes the need to trust that those governing us aren’t going to far. And how can we know that without that transparency?

It’s a tough question!

Russell: What are you working on next, aside from the novella in the JET Series Kindle World?

A.J.: I’m working on True Lies, the next book in my blindsided series. Available for pre-order on Amazon!

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Summary:

The hybrids, on their first five consecutive days off, ever, normally on permanent call-out, were requested to go on a mercy mission, from a General in the United States, they’d met the previous summer in London. They were told there’d been a hit on one of their top operatives – so serious, it was a matter of life or death, asking if Alli would turn her to keep her alive as they were unsure how to do it themselves.

With the request coming from top brass in their military, how could they say no? The Army in UK offered to fly them there in a troupe carrier, so four of them and their boss in MI5, dropped everything to go, never thinking it would open a massive can of worms.

Russell: How did you come to be interested in the JET Series Kindle World?

Andrew: Initially, I contacted Amazon to find out why I couldn’t buy books from any of the worlds and was told by them it was only on the US site. I also asked if there was any way to write in one. They said no. I don’t like the word no, so when Russell divulged on FB he was approached to do a Jet Kindle World, I decided to write in it, compelled one night when the story jumped into my head – linking perfectly with events from book 5 in my series. I decided to wait with it written, until they changed things, if ever. I told Russell what I was doing and the rest is history.

Russell: Tell us how your story links to the JET Series. Characters, setting, specific event. Is there any crossover or meetings between your characters and any of the original characters?

Andrew: My main characters from the Hybrid Series, Harvey and Alli, both human/vampire hybrids, met an American nurse and her husband, General Scott, in book 5 of my series, during a demonstration they did in London, using venom to heal a soldier, crippled by an IUD in Afghanistan. In The First, the hybrids are called upon for a mercy mission, to turn an ex-operative in Special Ops. They were contacted by General Scott , who told them that Maya was so severely injured, she didn’t have long to live. Normally on call 24/7, the hybrids offer to go, without hesitation, foregoing the first time off they’d ever had…anything to help.

Russell: The JET Series books are fast-paced action and adventure stories. What genre do you explore in your story?

Andrew: I write supernatural stories. The hybrids are detectives in a murder squad and an MI5 project in The Hybrid Series books. They too are fast paced, so the story in The First had to be the same with the hybrids involved – never a dull moment.

Russell: The JET series has been set all over the world… the Middle East, Asia, South America, the Caribbean, etc. Tell us about where you set your story, and why?

Andrew: This story is set near London where the hybrids work for the police. They fly to Area 51 in the desert to help Maya and then they go to New York. I won’t say anymore as it’ll spoil your read.

Russell: Tell us a little about your main character(s). Why do you think readers will like him/her/it?

Andrew: Harvey and Alli Burgess have been married for two years and during that time have taken other hybrids into their home. The new hybrids were all taken on by the police because of the different gifts they possessed. They’re only serious when it comes to work, making them a hoot to write into any story, but I should warn folks, they get up to some strange stuff in the series books, although The First is as clean as a whistle.

Russell: Did you decide to include any of the main characters from JET (Jet / Maya, Matt or Hannah?) If so, Why?

Andrew: They all had to be involved. They were the hook to get the hybrids there, only the General bit off more than he could chew – not understanding the hybrids or what they were capable of.

Russell: What major theme comes across the clearest in your story? Is this a theme found consistently in your other works?

Andrew: The main theme is how the hybrids care for each other and the public at large. Their values of right and wrong are perfect for the work they do. They can’t lie unless it’s to save someone’s feelings and laws were changed to accommodate their gifts, with the crime figures climbing rapidly, especially serial murders where they deal with the most horrific crimes imaginable. So the General was really out of his depth.

Russell: Share some of your story about becoming a writer. 

Andrew: Most know I have MS and writing has given me a new life and a total escape. Living with the characters in my books, buzzing around my head, is preferable to reality, some of the time. Finding I could write a compelling story, having written a trilogy at my first attempt, was a wonderful surprise to me, although I did nothing with it (published now) and went on to start the Hybrid Series. I was offered a publishing deal for the first two books in the series and went through a year of hell with them, shafting me completely. Glad, after they’d had them sitting on their FB site for two years, to be able to ask them to remainder them. Now an Indie author and master of my own ship, yes, marketing as well, I’m happy.

The Hybrid Series books:

#1 Split Decision

#2 Critical Moments

#3 Devil’s Dyke

#4 Wet Daddy

#5 Medium Rare

#7 Didymus

#6 is HWSNBN (He Who Shall Not Be Named) is a free book on Amazon and Smashwords. It was written on my website, over an 18months period. This book links with #5 and #7 in places. The new cell in the free book need help with their case, so there are visits in both directions with the series characters, who finally have to help them round up their protagonists. This book gives a good hint of the series and why I started it, having had 1 Million readers online, by the middle of Feb 2015.

My website is: http://www.ahardingbooks.co.uk/

My author page on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-

Harding/e/B0097OEGD2/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Russell: Do you have a background related to your writing? Interests? What makes you interesting outside of your books…Authors are often some of the most interesting people I’ve met, although admittedly I don’t get out much.

Andrew: I like to paint, but haven’t for a while, having nowhere to leave paints out in my house as I live in a shoebox. All that has changed and now I have a studio in my garden, to either paint or write in, also somewhere to exercise, to keep me mobile. If you don’t use it, you lose it. I’ve found that’s true…

Russell: JET is set in a world where many governments including Israel and the U.S. have covert operations including false flag and assassinations. Do you believe this is really the world we live in? If so, what are your thoughts on the future?

Andrew: You’re deluded if you don’t believe it. I try not to think where it’ll end; becoming an ostrich, burying my head in my next book and not listening to the news, if at all possible. That’s my safety net…and I’m sticking to it…

Russell: What are you working on next, aside from the novella in the JET Series Kindle World?

Andrew: I was half-way through Bk1 Vault, in my new ‘The Dint Finder’ series, and half- way through the sequel to the Spirit Trilogy, Oedema, when I found out I could publish in your world. Happy to drop them both until my story was finished.

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