Under a Tell-Tale Sky: Disruption - Book 1 (49 page)

Thanks and an Invitation!

There isn’t any shortage of thrillers in the world, so I’m truly honored you chose to read mine and I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. I’m hard at work on
Pushback: Disruption Book
2 and will get it out as soon as I can.

While you’re waiting (and if you haven’t already read them) please consider my Dugan thrillers. As a matter of fact, as a thank you for your readership, I’m offering you a gift of your choice of any of my current Dugan thrillers.

So what’s the catch? There’s only a small one, and I’ll be up front about it. I’d like you to accept my invitation to subscribe to my email notification list so I can keep you updated on progress on
Pushback
and notify you when it’s published. I know some of you might sign up anyway, but if you’re on the fence, I decided to try a free gift as an inducement (okay, bribe).

And when I give gifts, I like them to be something of value I’d enjoy receiving myself. So I’m not offering a novella or a short story or something I wrote just to give away, because to me that would be like giving the folks collecting for a food drive the dented can of creamed spinach from the back of the pantry. It might technically qualify as generosity, but I wouldn’t feel good about it. I also didn’t want to choose the gift book, because it might be one you’ve already read. So my solution was to let you choose which of my books you’d like as a gift.

I don’t know of any other authors doing this, so it’s either fiendishly clever or remarkably stupid, but I suppose time will tell. In the interim, I encourage you to take advantage of my lunacy by claiming your next thriller at:

http://www.remcdermott.com/subscribe-to-mailing-list
.

Note that I bury this offer in the back of the book intentionally, on the theory if you’ve read this far, you are at least somewhat interested. It’s meant to be not only an inducement, but (hopefully) a pleasant surprise that enhances your reading experience. Obviously, it’s one free book per customer. One other point, and I’ll leave this subject. Given the limited keyboards of many reading devices, it may be easier to sign up and claim your book by just typing the URL of my sign-up page (
http://www.remcdermott.com/subscribe-to-mailing-list
) into the browser on your computer.

With that out of the way, let me say I truly enjoy hearing from readers, so if you have questions, comments, or suggestions, let me know. Feel free to shoot me an email via my website contact page at:

http://www.remcdermott.com/contact
.

And finally, independent authors such as myself live and die on the strength of our Amazon reviews, so for us they’re a very big deal. But it’s not enough to just accumulate a lot of good reviews, as factors in the Amazon quality ratings also include both the frequency and timeliness of those reviews. Thus a book with a lot of great reviews will tumble in the ratings if reviews don’t continue to accumulate on a regular basis.

So the bottom line is, I regularly beg for reviews and appreciate every single one.

If you’re so inclined, please consider leaving a review of
Under a Tell-Tale Sky
on Amazon.

On that note, and whatever your decision regarding a review, I’ll close by thanking you once again for taking a chance on a new author, with the hope that I’ve entertained you at least a bit, and with the promise that I’ll always strive to deliver a good story at a fair price.

Sincerely,

R.E. (Bob) McDermott

P.S. Check out my other books on the following page.

More Books by

R.E. McDermott

Deadly Straits
- When marine engineer and very part-time spook Tom Dugan becomes collateral damage in the War on Terror, he's not about to take it lying down. Falsely implicated in a hijacking, he's offered a chance to clear himself by helping the CIA snare their real prey, Dugan's best friend, London ship owner Alex Kairouz. But Dugan has some plans of his own. Learn more and read a sample on
Amazon US
,
Amazon UK
,
Amazon Canada
,
Amazon Australia
.

Deadly Coast
- Dugan thought Somali pirates were bad news, then it got worse. As Tom Dugan and Alex Kairouz, his partner and best friend, struggle to ransom their ship and crew from murderous Somali pirates, things take a turn for the worse. A US Navy contracted tanker with a full load of jet fuel is also hijacked, not by garden variety pirates, but by terrorists with links to Al Qaeda, changing the playing field completely. Learn more and read a sample on
Amazon US
,
Amazon UK
,
Amazon Canada
,
Amazon Australia
.

Deadly Crossing
- Dugan’s attempts to help his friends rescue an innocent girl from the Russian mob plunge him into a world he’d scarcely imagined, endangering him and everyone he holds dear. A world of modern day slavery and unspeakable cruelty, from which no one will escape, unless Dugan can weather a Deadly Crossing. Learn more and read a sample on
Amazon US
,
Amazon UK
,
Amazon Canada
,
Amazon Australia
.

The Tom Dugan Series: Books 1-3 (Boxed Set)
- Want them all? Buy the boxed set and get all three of the current Dugan thrillers in one convenient package. Over 1,200 pages of pulse-pounding action, all in one place. Check it out on
Amazon US
,
Amazon UK
,
Amazon Canada
,
Amazon Australia
.

Acknowledgments

With each new book, the ranks of supportive people to whom I owe thanks grows.

As always, my wife, Andrea, was my first reader and sounding board, saving readers from any number of less than wonderful turns of phrase.

Longtime friends and former classmates Captains Ken Varall and Seth Harris once again lent their combined seventy-plus years of sailing experience to the cause, reading the shipboard scenes and making valuable suggestions to improve both their technical accuracy and plausibility.

Also from the fraternity of sailormen, Captain William Heu of the Wilmington, North Carolina, pilots gave generously of his time and helped me avoid putting the fictional
Pecos Trader
aground. I appreciate his efforts and also thank Captain Jorge Viso for introducing me to Captain Heu.

I have no trouble ensuring sailors talk like sailors, but longtime reader (and now friend) First Sergeant David Schoettle of the 101st Airborne (aka
The Screaming Eagles
) made sure the dialogue between soldiers rang true. I thank Dave for both his help and service to our country.

Beta reader extraordinaire Barbara Elsborg read the manuscript multiple times, making terrific suggestions with each iteration. Our son Chris and daughter-in-law Jennifer read the final draft, which as it turned out, wasn’t quite so final. Many thanks to them for catching multiple errors which had eluded me. Our son Andy through-hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in 2011, and serves as my resident expert on all things related to the AT. A special thanks to him for keeping my Appalachian Trail scenes accurate and realistic.

On the publishing front, Pauline Nolet turned her eagle eyes to purging all remaining errors. I’ve come to rely on her completely as the best proofreader I’ve ever used. Guido Henkel jumped in on very short notice to do his normal excellent job of formatting the ebook, and Jeroen ten Berge once again blew me away with yet another astounding cover. I say this each time, but I think this is his best one yet.

Over two hundred readers of my previous books volunteered to read the advance review copy of
Under a Tell-Tale Sky
. Space prevents me from mentioning each by name, but you know who you are and you have my profound thanks.

And last but far from least, the character Laura Hughes is named for Laura McKinney, and I thank Allyn and Laura McKinney for allowing use of her name. Laura’s role in the Disruption series is far from over.

Any errors made, despite all this excellent help and support, are mine and mine alone.

Table of Contents

Under a Tell-Tale Sky

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Author's Notes

Thanks and an Invitation

More Books by R.E. McDermott