The first time I heard about The Hurt Locker I was a little jealous.  What a great title.  I wished I’d thought of it for a book.  Saying you’re in the “hurt locker” or we’re going to put someone else in the “hurt locker” is a very common term in the military.  And it’s a perfect title for a book or a movie.  So I was immediately intrigued.  I didn’t get around to watching it in the theaters, but did watch the Oscars as it won best picture.  Wow.  A military film winning best picture?

It’s extremely rare for a military or war movie to win best picture.  But something that is growing even more rare, is for Hollywood to make a movie that portrays the military positively, and the conduct of a given war as reasonable, or even honorable.  If the film is about war, the general rule (not universal, see We Were Soldiers Once, and Young, and Saving Private Ryan) you can be fairly well assured the Hollywood of today will be against it, and the movie will show it.

In the last forty years there have been only four “war” films that have won best picture. The first, and the best known, is Patton.  1970.  It may have been the last one to imply that a given war may be worth fighting, and the men involved were honorable.  You could argue that they were showing Patton as crazy; but I’ve seen it several times and never came away from it with the idea that the movie was anti-war, anti-World War II.

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Welcome to the site. I became acutely aware that the old site was static, and didn’t allow me to interact with readers as I’d like to. When answering the letters and e-mails sent by readers in the past, I’ve run across some of the same questions, and started thinking that a blog, with its open interaction, might be a better way to connect with readers, and share questions and answers. Sometimes I do get a little behind in my replies—work, family writing, you know the story—but I promise I’ll do my best to stay on top of your questions and comments.

I’d also like to use the blog to take you behind the scenes. I’m often asked, as one example, how I came up with certain ideas—and if certain plots could exist in the real world. Everywhere I look, there are ideas being presented, often inspired by real-time events. This blog will discuss some of those events, how they’ve inspired or related to my books, and help put the events into context, exploring the key points I hope everyone will consider.

So come back and let me know what you think. Most importantly for today though, my new novel, Falcon Seven will be released in bookstores on Tuesday, May 11th. I hope you’ll check it out—and let me know what you think.

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