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It's Spring, Finally
If your weather is like
ours in Nashville, you have been freezing one day
and burning up the next. But I think the warm
weather is finally here to stay. So welcome to my
Spring 2013 Newsletter. Let's get up close and
personal.
I'm fresh off a weekend in
Knoxville at the Writers Homicide School. Nope, I
didn't learn how to eliminate the competition. It's
how to get the story right when you're dealing with
homicide detectives. As you know, all of my private
investigators—Greg and Jill McKenzie and Sid
Chance—make good use of their close relationships
with homicide cops. What I learned in Knoxville
should help me keep the facts straight.
Our teacher was retired
Sgt. Derek Pacifico, who spent many years as a
homicide detective with the San Bernardino County
Sheriff's Department in California. The county he
covered is the largest in the country, its 20,000
square-mile area bigger than the nine smallest
states.
Now let's see what's
happening and what's in the works.
Completing
the Trilogy
Follow the thrilling
adventures of Burke Hill, the reluctant spy, who
trekked about the globe searching for what lay
behind an enigmatic operation called “Jabberwock.”
What he found put his life at risk. Burke and his
accomplice,
 Lorelei
Quinn, realized that they alone had any chance of
halting a plot by disaffected Cold Warriors to
assassinate the American and Russian presidents.
Beware the Jabberwock
is the first of three exciting stories that track
Burke Hill's journey through the looking glass into
the arcane world of espionage. There's a love
interest to spice up the action. The book opens at
the end of the Cold War as the Soviet Union is
crumbling apart. Check the column at right for a
special deal on the ebook later this month.
 Taking
place less than a year later is the second book,
The Poksu Conspiracy. Much of the story is set
in South Korea and provides a bit of alternative
history. Besides being a political thriller, it is
also a Korean police procedural, following the work
of a Seoul Metropolitan Police Bureau homicide
detective. He joins forces with Burke Hill to track
down a vicious assassin who's been killing prominent
Koreans friendly to the U.S. But the real object of
the hunt is the mastermind responsible for setting
the hired killer loose and plotting nuclear havoc in
the Far East. The Poksu Conspiracy is
available for the Kindle at
http://amzn.to/R9g5Pd.
 The
last book in the series follows parallel plot lines
that begin in September of 1991. One concerns an
explosion during a Soviet army exercise in the
Ukraine. The other deals with a clandestine Air
Force Special Operations mission to Iran directed
from the Situation Room at the White House. The main
character in the first story line is an investigator
for the Minsk, Belarus city prosecutor whose brother
was killed in the Ukraine explosion. The main
character in the second plot line is the helicopter
pilot who took the blame for flying into an ambush,
though it was actually the fault of the Air Force
Chief of Staff.
Overture to Disaster
brings the story lines together when the two
characters join forces to thwart a plot by a former
KGB officer and an "enforcer" with a cabal of
international financiers. Burke Hill enters the
action when they seek his help to avoid capture and
track down the intended use of a stolen cache of
lethal chemical weapons. The ebook will be available
for the Kindle in a few weeks. I’ll keep you
advised.
What's Been Happening
I suppose I should start with a bit of old news. At
my age you tend to forget things, particularly if
they happen in the midst of something you'd like not
to remember. Toward the end of last summer I got
slammed with a case of bronchitis that laid me low
for several days. I missed the Killer Nashville
conference whose great programs for writers and
readers I always look forward to. However, I made it
to the final banquet with considerable urging. It
was there that Mystery Writers of America Southeast
Chapter President Rick Helms presented me the 2012
Magnolia Award for dedication and service to the
chapter.
Rick Helms, center, and Clay Stafford, head of the
Killer Nashville conference, stand by as I accept
the 2012 SEMWA Magnolia Award.
We started the year off as usual with the 6th annual
Author Signing at the Manchester, TN Public Library.
Manchester is a neat little town near Arnold Air
Force Base, home of a character in several of my
Greg McKenzie mysteries. In March I spoke to the Stones River Woman's Club at
Marathon Village in Nashville. It was a fun event that took place
in the old showroom filled with touring cars from
100 years ago. If you've read The Marathon
Murders, you're familiar with the place.
I'll be appearing at the annual RC Cola/Moon Pie
Festival in Bell Buckle, TN on Saturday, June 15. If
you're among the thousands attending, drop by the
tent I share with Jaden (Beth) Terrell and say "hi."
Hopefully, I'll make it to the Killer Nashville
conference this year (August 22-25) at the Hutton
Hotel in
 Nashville.
And Jaden and I will also sign books in our
tent October 5 at the Main Street Festival in
Gallatin, TN.
I'd like to regale you with a bunch of funny stories
but fortunately I haven't been the butt of any jokes
lately. The funniest thing I've witnessed, though,
were two t-ball (or tee-ball) games that involved
our great-grandson, five-year-old Link Yerbich (we
share the same birthday 82 years apart). Throwing
the ball and running all over the place, those kids
make quite a spectacle.
That's all for now. To see the latest news, check occasionally at
ChesterDCampbell.com.
And don't forget to email me if you're changing
your email address. I don't like to lose readers
from bounced
issues.
Chester |
