Two Trees, Two More Miles

My debut novel,  Columbia ,  is available for pre-order now on  Publishizer . The pre-order campaign lasts thirty days, and during that time, I am going to use my blog to post responses to frequently asked questions about the book, its inspiration and its development. Please click SUBSCRIBE on the campaign page to get updates sent automatically about each new post. ========== Day Three - DON'T Keep it 100! Wilt Chamberlain celebrates his 100-point game. Photo by Paul Vathis of Associated Press I had planned to re-create the iconic Wilt Chamberlain 100-point game photo when Columbia hit 100 pre-orders. But, I did not have time! Last night, the book hit 100 and sailed on past. As of this morning the book has more than 125 pre-orders on Publishizer. THANK YOU for helping me send the message to publishers that there is a market for this book and for a series about a spy who represents the best of America's diversity. The top-selling thriller titl...

My debut novel,  Columbia ,  is available for pre-order now on  Publishizer . The pre-order campaign lasts thirty days, and during that time, I am going to use my blog to post responses to frequently asked questions about the book, its inspiration and its development. Please click SUBSCRIBE on the campaign page to get updates sent automatically about each new post. ============== Day Two - Tradecraft in Columbia - "False Flag" I enlisted in the US military on October 23, 2001 and spent the better part of the following years in training and later in the practice of intelligence collection, analysis and counter-intel. So how much of that training and experience in operations made it into Columbia ? A lot! Movies and popular spy fiction might have you convinced that all spying takes place in glamorous global cities, behind the wheel of a racing Aston Martin, or at the business end of a Walther ( Bond ) or Tanfoglio ( Allon ). For some in the IC, it may, thoug...

My debut novel, Columbia,  is available for pre-order now on Publishizer .  The pre-order campaign lasts thirty days, and during that time, I am going to use my blog to post responses to frequently asked questions about the book, its inspiration and its development. Please click SUBSCRIBE on the campaign page to get updates sent automatically about each new post. ========== Day One - #WhoisTomTinker Columbia is a spy thriller based on my own experience working in intelligence and counter-terrorism between 2001 and 2006. But, you may not realize that Columbia's  earliest historical inspiration reaches much farther into history. In  Columbia ,  Sami is an off-the-books intelligence operative who is pulled into an investigation that implicates his estranged grandfather, a well-known DC-area imam. Sami quickly realized that while his grandfather may be involved, the operation has all the hallmarks of a false flag being run by a mysterious per...

September 14 – Tokyo, Japan “That’s impossible!” “What do you mean?” “It’s crazy!” I tell my son. We are standing in the bathroom – the tiny bathroom – of our hotel room in central Tokyo. With a mouth half-full of toothpaste, I continue. “Think about it, even if he went to 250 games a year, he would had to have done that for 100 years!” We go to a lot of baseball games. This season, we have been to more than 50 live baseball games. No particular team or league season, call it April to September, at all levels. Major League. Minors. College. When I tell people that we watch a lot of baseball, and they ask how much, and I say that we have been to 50 games this year, their eyebrows invariably arch. “50?” And here, on our second day in Japan, for a tour of Japanese ballparks with more than 30 other American baseball fans, my son and I are debating whether it is possible that the man that we just met downstairs could possibly have seen 25,000 live baseball games, as he told us h...