Alone and Unafraid (American Praetorians Book 3) (37 page)

Author’s Note

The timing of this book was interesting, to say the least.  The Project, though
originally based on some of the political posturing going on about the Syrian Civil War, does touch on some similar themes that my friend Jack Murphy addressed in his novel
Direct Action
, which came out only a couple months before this writing.  While his was aimed at a particular set of individuals and their actions, the Project is based on a wider type that all of us who have worked with a gun in hostile places has encountered at least once or twice.

The really hairy part came with the overall situation.  While the plot was conceived some time before, as I was writing the evacuation under fire of the US Embassy in Baghdad, in real life, ISIS had just taken Mosul and Tikrit, and appeared poised to turn my fiction into reality; worse, before I was finished with it.  In the following weeks, the ISIS blitzkrieg slowed, and so, while this book is fiction, it is still a somewhat workable set of possibilities.  Such are the risks when one embarks on telling a story in a real-world conflict zone.  It is entirely possible that by the time this book comes out, the situation may have changed again.

Some will doubtless point out numerous inaccuracies as regards the security arrangements at the Embassy in Baghdad, and they would be right.  I have never been to the Embassy, and so have no first-hand knowledge of it.  Even if I did, or was willing to dig deeply enough in my research to portray it 100% accurately, I wouldn’t.  Especially as I write this, that information could very well mean life or death for any number of people, including some I may well have called “brother” at some time.

Once again, thank you for reading.  I hope you enjoyed this little high-octane roller coaster ride.  If you did, please feel free to review it on Amazon; that’s the way these books get more attention, and I can keep turning them out.