The Flood (40 page)

When Fick kisses Graybeard on the forehead before getting out of the helo, he did it in imitation of Medal of Honor recipient Captain William D. Swenson. (You can see him do it
here
. )

Surprise – “your operation just turned conventional” is from Iassen Donov in
SOFREP
.

Re: Wesley on his door - see:
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/titanic-survival-results/

Thanks to the suddenly/strangely indispensable Automatic Cyrillic Converter at
http://mashke.org/Conv/

Random shout-out, and mad propz, to the equally magisterial and indispensable
Internet Movie Firearms Database
.

Some books that were indispensable, helpful, or just inspirational in producing both Books Nine and Ten of ARISEN include:

• Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield
  , by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
  
• No Hero: The Evolution of a Navy SEAL
  , by Mark Own
  
• Plenty of Time When We Get Home: Love and Recovery in the Aftermath of War
  , by Kayla Williams
  
• The Lion's Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War
  , by Steven Pressfield
  
• The Mission, the Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander
  
• Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest
  , by Stephen E. Ambrose
  
• On Writing
  , by Ernest Hemingway
  
• Secrets Of Story: Well Told
  (Screenwriting Blue Books Book 4), by William C. Martell
  
• The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller
  , by John Truby
  
• Save the Cat!
  ®
  Strikes Back
  , by Blake Snyder
  

The entire playlist I wrote Books Nine and Ten to is available
here
. (I’m sorry it’s jumbled, but by the end I had moved most of the best stuff to the top, plus ordered it very specifically, plus put some songs in more than once (a lot more), to get the maximum jolt.) Very special extra recognition and thanks go out to:

• Soundgarden, “Jesus Christ Pose”
  (God, I miss the nineties.)
  
• XXX Car Ride (feat. Kem Secksdiin Famus & Str8 Jacket), “Bring the Pain”
  (“My goonies stay clipped up / That’s how we do it in the Midwest…”)
  
• Celldweller, “New Elysium”
  (Klayton’s still got it! Him and me both, I hope. And leave it to him to invent a new kind of music video. It rocks.)
  
• Hollywood Undead, “Usual Suspects”
  (again!) and
  “Been to Hell”
  
• Halestorm, “Amen”
  (God bless Halestorm.)
  
• Fort Minor, “Remember Name”
  (Thanks, Matt.)
  
• The beautiful new
  Children 18:3 album, Come In
  - all of it (I dumped the entire thing both in my work folder – for writing; and my running folder – for all the creative/story work.)
  
• Joel Nielsen,
  “Questionable Ethics 1”
  , from the
  Black Mesa video game soundtrack
  . Absolutely the one single thing to be said against this completely asskicking song is that it’s only 82 seconds long. My solution?
  

  

The (largely instrumental) playlist I
edited
Books Nine and Ten to is also available
here
.

A portion of the proceeds from this book will go to support the USX Veteran Everest Expedition. Amazing undertaking, terrific cause. Watch their awesome short video and learn more
here
.

ARISEN
Hope Never Dies.