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Welcome to It's Raining Books. If you could apologize to someone in your past, who would it be?
My mom. I wasn’t a bad kid, but I could have been better and she certainly deserved better.
If you could keep a mythical/ paranormal creature as a pet, what would you have?
A dragon, of course! How cool would that be?!
How do you keep your writing different from all the others that write in this particular genre?
My stories may be unlikely (e.g. the odds against all these adventures happening to one crew are astronomical), but they are always plausible. If you really want to see how ridiculously unreal the action/adventure genre has become (for movies, anyway) watch a few of Ryan George’s Pitch Meeting spots on Youtube. They are hilarious!
What are the best and worst pieces of writing advice you ever received?
Best—find a good editor and proofreader
Worst—that Facebook/Twitter/Instagram ads are worth the money.
Are the experiences in this book based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
Some are. The fishing scene in Dagger Quest is an absolutely true account of an experience I had on patrol with Dependable. Ben is from Northern Illinois, the son of an airline pilot and had a choice of the Naval and Coast Guard Academies but chose the latter (like me). Emilia Hopkins and Joe Williams are based largely on two of my former coworkers in the Coast Guard (right down to some of the conversations in the books).
An aging Coast Guard patrol boat is all that stands between the world and nuclear annihilation!
The world is on the brink of war, with NATO mobilizing to counter a Russian threat to Poland and Lithuania and leaders openly discussing war options. In the midst of the crisis, a Russian bomber collides with a U.S. fighter off Florida causing the accidental launch of a nuclear-tipped hypersonic missile.
A Coast Guard cutter on a routine patrol finds a drug-laden sailboat smashed and adrift north of the Florida Keys. The boat’s damage is from a near miss by the Russian missile which has not harmlessly flown deep into the Gulf of Mexico as initially thought, but crashed somewhere in the Keys.
The Coast Guard crew is in a race against a vicious and powerful international crime syndicate to find and recover the Russian nuke before its discovery can trigger a nuclear war.
Exploring the friendship and teamwork of a typical ship's crew, in the face of unexpected and hazardous challenges, Dagger Quest provides a fast-paced, taut story - excellent fare for both sea adventure and military thriller fans.
Mission: Five days to destroy the enemy in the Caribbean before a catastrophic weapon is unleashed—but all he can think about is the woman he left behind…
The deadliest nerve gas ever made has fallen into the hands of a murderous Caribbean drug cult. The criminal 252 Syndicate has the gas in a secret lab on an oil rig servicing ship, but the ship has been taken for ransom by the Salinas Cartel in a violent drug war. The U.S. can’t use airstrikes and calls on Coast Guard Officer Ben Wyporek to lead his crew through a risky covert raid on the Salinas cult’s fortified island base. He accepts the assignment, but remembers a previous lethal encounter with the 252s and struggles to say goodbye to the love of his life, Victoria Carpenter.
Ben and his crew aboard the stealth-equipped Cutter Kauai must sneak into the harbor and tow the ship away. But if Kauai is detected and defeated, death by gas or at the hands of vicious adversaries will follow. Now, every decision Ben makes will determine the fate of his entire crew—and the chances of reuniting with Victoria.
This second book of the series builds on the friendships and teamwork of Kauai's crew, this time in the face of several challenging missions and one potentially lethal encounter. It is a worthy sequel to Dagger Quest that sea adventure and military thriller fans will enjoy.
Young Coast Guard Lieutenant Haley Reardon has not even gotten her feet on the ground on her new patrol boat command when she finds herself and her crew supporting a dangerous covert mission. They must insert and retrieve a Defense Intelligence Agency operations team trying to seize a transnational criminal syndicate boss from a small Caribbean island controlled by a front company of the Chinese government and protected by a superior military force.
A honeymoon period would be lovely, but, as always, the world gets a vote.
Can Haley avoid leaving the DIA team to their fate, when attempting to rescue them could destroy her crew and boat and lead to war?
This third installment of the series conveys the humor, friendships, and teamwork of Kauai's crew from the previous books, with a new series of exciting actions from search and rescue to combat. The crew and their new skipper must come together for the toughest mission they have ever faced.
Read an Excerpt from Bravely and Faithfully
Another burst landed and detonated off the starboard side, and Hopkins ordered a course change to the right. Haley knew their luck would not hold for long—as soon as the gunboat captain realized what they were doing, he would go to rapid-fire. She selected UHF and keyed her microphone. “Starfish One Seven, Orchid Actual. Where’s that help? Over.”
“Orchid, Starfish One Seven. I’m on with a flight of F-16s from the 93rd. They’re three minutes out, over.”
“One Seven, Orchid Actual, roger, tell them to step on it! Out.”
Hopkins had just altered course to the left again, and the game went on for two more salvos. Then, as Haley feared, the Chinese captain tried a long burst. The twelve shells missed, falling on both sides. Two were close enough to pepper Kauai with shrapnel, sharp pings ringing through the Bridge like hail on a tin roof.
Their luck ran out on the next burst: one shell exploded on the left side of the mast, knocking out the EO camera and showering the Flying Bridge with shrapnel. Another struck the special operations boat and started a small fire. The fire itself was not an immediate danger to the ship, but it provided a beacon that brought hell down on them. Shells were bursting on the rear of the superstructure and in the water around Kauai. The bridge crew huddled behind what cover they could find as the windows in the rear doors shattered and debris scattered around them. As they kneeled together between the command chair and the FC3 console, Haley looked into Ben’s face and, seeing the same fear she had, reached out and gripped his hand.
About the Author:
Ed has two novels published right now (plus one launching in August 2022) in the Cutter Kauai Sea Adventures series about a Coast Guard patrol boat assigned to "special" missions. Dagger Quest takes place in the Florida Keys and involves an aging Coast Guard patrol boat dragooned into a search for a lost Russian nuclear weapon in a time of international crisis. The second, Caribbean Counterstrike, features the same patrol boat and crew, now with equipment and training upgrades, sent to recover a deadly nerve gas from a murderous Caribbean drug cartel. Bravely and Faithfully has Kauai, under a new captain supporting a covert raid on a Caribbean island held by the Chinese.
Ed's second series, C6S: Patrol Force deals with a combined defense establishment and constabulary for a galactic economic empire called the Confederation of the Six Systems (C6S). Ed has published two novellas and a novel-length collection late last year.
Website: https://www.edwardhochsmann.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20594307.Edward_Hochsmann
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edhochsmann/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/edward-m-hochsmann
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B1L82HD1/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B1N24GBV/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B1W1J26C/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B1W1J26C/
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/caribbean-counterstrike-1
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bravely-and-faithfully-1
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I enjoyed reading the interview and getting to know a little about you, Edward, The Cutter Kauai Sea Adventures sounds like a series that my dad and I will enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing it with me and have a splendid day!
Sounds like a great read.
ReplyDelete