Tune in to XTRA 99.1FM to hear the author interviewed by
Reese Williams on CBW's Second Monday monthly broadcast, May 13th
at about 8:05AM. If you missed the live broadcast, play the podcast.
Gilstrap will be the guest speaker at CBW's 20th Anniversary
Gala on June 19th.
About the Book
The hostages are young: a bus full of teenagers
on a church mission. The ransom demands are explicit: deliver
three million dollars—with zero involvement from law
enforcement—or all captives will be executed. But rescue
specialist Jonathan Grave doesn't believe in ultimatums. For him
and his elite team at Security Solutions, it's all about
protecting the innocent. Now Grave must face the chilling
possibility that someone within the U.S. government has a deadly
secret to protect—one that could jeopardize national security
like never before...
"Rousing... Readers will anxiously await the
next installment."
—Publishers Weekly
"I solemnly assure you that you have absolutely
nothing better to do than to read this book now, whether you are
on the beach while vacationing or at work... While all of the
Grave books have been riveting reads, Damage Control is
by far the best of the lot."
—Bookreporter.com [read
full review]
About the Author
"A little bit about my background... I've always
been a closet-writer. As a kid, I lived for the opportunity to
write short stories. I was the editor of my high school
newspaper for a while (the Valor Dictus, Robinson High School,
class of 1975), until I quit ("You can't fire me! I quit!") over
a lofty First Amendment issue that seemed very important at the
time. My goal, in fact, was to become a journalist in the vein
of Woodward or Bernstein. Okay, I confess, I wanted to be
Woodward; Robert Redford played him in the movie, and chicks
really dug Robert Redford.
I graduated from the College of William and Mary
in 1979, and armed with a degree in American history, I couldn't
find a job. I ended up settling for a position with a
little-noticed trade journal serving the construction industry.
They called me the managing editor and they paid me food stamp
wages. I hated it. About this time, I joined the Burke Volunteer
Fire Department in Fairfax County, Virginia, if only to find
relief from the boredom of my job. Running about a thousand
calls my first year with the department, I was hooked, and the
volunteer fire service became an important part of my life for
the next 15 years. In the early eighties, hating my job, I went
the way of all frustrated liberal arts undergrads—back to
graduate school. Earning a Master of Science degree in safety
engineering from the University of Southern California, I
started down a whole new road. For the next decade and a half, I
became an expert (don't you hate that word?) on explosives
safety and hazardous waste. Meanwhile, I kept writing. I didn't
tell anyone, of course, because, well, you just don't share
artistic dreams with fellow engineers. They look at you funny.
My first novel, Nathan's Run, was in
fact my fourth novel, and when it sold, it sold big. At a time
in my life when things were going well—I was president of my own
consulting firm—things were suddenly going very well.
Warner Bros. bought the movie rights to Nathan's Run
two days after the first book rights were sold, and as of this
date, the novel has been translated and published in one form or
another in over 20 countries. With Nathan's Run in the
can, as it were, I thought I might finally be on to something,
but I didn't quit my "day job" until after I sold the book and
movie rights to my second novel, At All Costs. I
figured that while one-in-a-row might be luck, two-in-a-row was
a trend. So, I started writing full-time.
More novels followed, and then a few
screenplays. I was living the dream.
But I really didn't like it much. I learned
pretty quickly that when you're born a Type-A personality, those
extrovert tendencies don't go away just because you're
practicing a craft you love. In fact, after just a couple of
years of dream fulfillment, I was pretty friggin' bored with the
company of my imaginary friends, so I did something that I've
never heard a full-time artist do before: I went back to a day
job. At first, it was just a matter of reactivating my
consulting business, but then, in 2004, I was handed my ideal
Big-Boy Job (that's what my wife calls it) working as the
director of safety for a trade association in Washington, DC.
And I continue to write. In 2006, Six
Minutes to Freedom was published to considerable acclaim.
My first (and probably last) foray into book-length non-fiction,
SixMin tells the story of Kurt Muse, the only civilian
of record ever rescued by the super-secret Delta Force. Thanks
to Kurt's cooperation (he is co-author), I gained access to
people and places that lifelong civilians like me should never
see. The heroic warriors I met during that research turned out
to be nothing like their movie stereotypes. These were not only
gentlemen, but gentle men, who remained free of the kind of
boasting and self-aggrandizement that I was expecting. They
were supreme professionals, and very nice guys.
And through them I got the idea for my new
series character, Jonathan Grave. He's former Delta, released
from the Army under circumstances that will be revealed over
time, and now he's a freelance hostage rescue specialist. He's
the finest friend you could ever have, and the worst enemy.
No Mercy, the first entry in the series, hit the shelves in
June of 2009, with Hostage Zero following in 2010,
Threat Warning in 2011, and Damage Control in
2012. If fans like him, and if they enjoy his adventures,
there'll be many more to come.
So that's it. My history in a few hundred
words. Now it's your turn. Please have a look at my work.
Enjoy. Drop me an email
and tell me what you think. I look forward to hearing from
you."
