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About Joe

A former intelligence officer, Joe holds degrees from Boston University, the Defense Language Institute and Suffolk University Law School. His freelance writing has featured in WSJ and been syndicated by Reuters.

Joe's debut novel, Columbia, is available for pre-order until February 27, 2019 on Publishizer. Based on Joe's own experience in counter-terrorism, Columbia is the story of Sami Lakhani, a gay, Muslim-American man working in the dark corners of US intelligence who finds that the family secrets that pushed him to become a spy must be confronted to stop a domestic terror attack that links his estranged grandfather, a white nationalist group and the White House.

The blog also features Joe's writing on passions that include reading, baseball (Go Dodgers!), world football (COYS!) and whiskey. An avid runner, Joe has completed the 39.3 mile Goofy and the 48.9 mile Dopey Challenges at the Walt Disney World Marathon and the 208-mile Blue Ridge Relay.

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Read the First Chapter of Columbia for FREE

The first chapter of my debut novel  Columbia    is now available for free at: https://bit.ly/2HLdQp8 . If you have already bought the book, I hope you enjoy the sneak preview. If not, I hope it whets your appetite and convinces you to pre-order a copy . In the book's opening, readers will meet Gerald Seymour, a powerful but mysterious White House aide who is committed to breaking tradition, even if it means breaking Washington. Fair warning, there is a little bit of language in this chapter (it seems Seymour is not a fan of the Attorney General or the Director of the FBI). In my next post, I am going to analyze this chapter, including factors like the choice to write Seymour with colorful language coming out of his mouth, and a bunch of other writing choices I made when shaping this all-important opening chapter.

The real-life events that informed Columbia's plot

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All the right people are taking notice of Columbia. Yes, Putin, I'm talking to you!

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