I am convinced that the only difference between a published author and the reader is the willingness to devote the time to write the story. Like most authors, I am compelled to write. I don't look for ideas; they come to me through the news, through observation, and through listening. When something stirs inside me, it's time to put those thoughts down in words.
My keyboard is a medium that allows my subconscious thoughts to be brought to the computer screen. Through this link, characters develop and storylines flow. It is a very rewarding craft.
Writing reality-based fiction is fascinating. More often than I can count, I have had coincidences where things I wrote about came to life. I was writing a political conspiracy story called The Patriot (not to be confused with Mel Gibson's movie) and in it, a high ranking Air Force General was murdered, but it looked like a suicide. Two weeks after I wrote that, Admiral Boorda, the Chief of Naval Operations, commited suicide. I shelved The Patriot when a movie called Swordfish came out due to several plot similarities. In Danger Within, I needed to set an airplane ditching near shallow water because the real storyline is lying in the ocean and divers had to be able to reach the wreckage. A few years after I wrote this, Alaska Airlines crashed a jet less than two miles from my fictitious crash site. In Diablo's Shadow, I provided a courtesy copy of the manuscript to the Regional Parks Police in the Bay Area. The day they received it, there was a sighting similar to what I wrote about in the book; the first time any such thing had happened there. Nothing makes me happier than to see such coincidences, for they confirm what I write is feasible.
My transition from writing non-fiction magazine articles to fiction novels was an evolutionary process. I never dreamed I would be writing stories, yet now I cannot stop. My mind is always engaged in some writing project, even when I am unable to write it down. I still write non-fiction when there is a worthwhile topic, but my heart lies in writing stories that resolve some societal conflicts.
As an international airline pilot, I have learned much about this world. Regardless of what people look like or what religion they practice, most people want the same things in life. To laugh, to love, to live their lives. Sadly, there will always be a portion of the population who want to rob us of those things. They put fear in us, and it is that fear that we are fascinated with. Ironically, without fear, there would be no suspense.