THE
ESPIONAGE BLOG 2013
Noted author of espionage and intrigue, Paul Anthony, recently interviewed me and several other writers of espionage thrillers. I hope you enjoy the interview and the tour of espionage author sites.
ESPIONAGE is
best described as a Government, State, or individual, obtaining information
that is classified as ‘secret’ or ‘confidential’ by the owner or holder of that
information. Often referred to as ‘spying’, espionage, by its very nature, is
clandestine and unwelcome. It should not be confused with ‘intelligence
gathering’ which can often involve the collation of open-source information
received from anonymous ‘tip-offs’ or by researching publicly available data
found in public writings, social media postings, and ‘gossip’. No, espionage in
its truest sense, is a dangerous unforgiving activity that, when successfully
accomplished, often involves the gathering of data about an enemy’s military,
economic, or industrial capability. Spies can bring back all kinds of
information and identify dissidents that can be influenced to ‘change sides’,
to steal technology, to sabotage, to feed false information, to…… ?
Spying is one of
the most dangerous occupations in the world.
Welcome to the
Espionage blog 2013.
Paul Anthony is
trained in advance driving, ant-surveillance, counter surveillance, agent
running, intelligence gathering, and espionage. And he’s worked with the best
of the best. Now he is a writer and is pleased to welcome his friends in the
world of the literary genre – espionage – to this blog tour.
The espionage
genre is not about politics or imperfections. It’s about human relationships,
emotions, love, hate, murder, war, peace, mystery, adventure, tension, suspense
…. It’s about…. Thrillers…
Let’s hand over
to THE SPYMASTER and see what questions he has for our guests….
Q. Larry LaVoie, can you tell us something about yourself? Where do you live and what
do you do?
A. I live in Klamath Falls, Oregon, USA. I am retired from the
aerospace industry in which I worked as an engineer and in management for over
forty years. The industry is in constant danger from those trying to steal our technology, so I have some insight into what's required to keep our secrets from our enemies. I love a good thriller and started writing novels about eighteen
years ago.
Q. Why do enjoy
writing in the ‘espionage’ genre?
A. I enjoy a
good thriller and find that espionage provides a great background for excitement.
Who doesn’t like a good spy novel. There is so much intrigue in what goes on
behind the scenes in our defence and aerospace industries, I find it makes a
good story.
Q. What
distinguishes the espionage genre from the others?
A. Espionage,
the gathering, stealing or hiding information that can change the world makes
espionage stand out from most mysteries or there thriller genres. When the CIA
and FBI get involved with foreign operatives, things are bound to heat up.
Isn’t that exciting?
Q. Some readers
often perceive espionage in the political context. Do your books support that political
perception or do you deal with other individual desires?
A. My stories
involve the characters more than the governments. I suppose there is a
political element since there is an enemy involved, but for me that tends to be
another person who may be working for a foreign or even within the
protagonist’s own government.
Q. In your
books, have you created a particular spy character that you would like to share
with us?
A. My espionage
stories are not a series. I have three stories which fit the espionage genre
and all three have a different main character from a different background. Only
one, Trevor Lloyd can be considered a true spy. I have considered making a
series with him as the main character, but my other two espionage novels put an
everyday citizen in the middle of a diabolical plot to destroy the nation. I
like to put unlikely characters in the middle of chaos.
Q. In what part
of the world and in what time era are your books set?
A. One of my
novels, The Lightstream Conspiracy, takes place at the turn of the century when
there was a fear the millennium bug was
going to attack our governments computers. The others are contemporary.
Q. What elements
of your books embrace the genre ‘espionage’ – murder, mystery, suspense,
fantasy? What makes your book a thriller?
A. Two of my
books contain espionage as the main theme, the stealing of government secrets.
In Caldera, the main theme is the destruction of much of the United States
through the impending eruption of Yellowstone Park, a super volcano, but behind
the scenes a terrorist organization is planning on toppling the United States
Government in the aftermath of the disaster. Murder, and mystery and suspense
go without saying. What’s a good thriller, if no one dies. Mystery makes for
surprises and surprises makes great suspense.
Q. Where can we
find out more about your books from either a blogsite, website or retail site?
A. All of my
books are on Amazon.com and on my Scene-stealer blog http://larrylavoieauthor.blogspot.com
Q. Thank you for
joining the blog tour; is there anything else you would you like to tell us
about your books. Perhaps a link to an extract or something like that?
A. The three
books that I would classify as espionage genre are: The Lightstream Conspiracy, The Kessler Syndrome and Caldera. I have written ten additional novels which are mystery thrillers.
The Spymaster thanks you for joining ‘The Espionage Blog 2013’ and invites you to visit the following authors who are at the forefront of the ‘espionage’ genre….. Thank you for joining us.
AB Potts www.abpotts.co.uk
Vic Robbie http://www.vicrobbie.com
Paul Anthony
http://paulanthonys.blogspot.com/
THE LIGHTSTREAM CONSPIRACY
CIA
Agent, Trevor Lloyd, is furious when he is called in from the field to a desk job
at CIA Headquarters in Langley and he lets Margaret Ames, his new boss, know
it.
Ames
has a point to prove as the first female head of the CIA and isn’t taking any
guff from Lloyd and assigns him to a routine investigation with FBI Agent Terri
Summers, who has yet to get her feet wet. It is late 1999 and the Light Stream
Technologies computers have been compromised, spy satellites are being
destroyed, and the Defense Department is covering it up. The investigation
leads to NASA and an international conspiracy to bring the United States into a
nuclear war with Russia.
In
their effort to unravel the conspiracy, Lloyd and Summers are led to an obscure
company in California and a secret weapon that an enemy desperately wants; a
weapon that the U.S. Congress has de-funded, but secretly, the Ballistic Missile
Defense Organization, the U.S. Space Command, and the U.S. Air Force, all part
of the Strategic Defense Initiative have continued to fund. The result of that
program is the most destructive weapon the world has ever known─The Light
Stream Laser.
But there are those within the government who
have promised another, more conventional, means of protecting the world from
nuclear disaster, and they will do anything to prevent Light Stream
Technologies from launching their new weapon. Lloyd and Summers are on a run
for their lives from foreign enemies, as well as some within their own government.
They need to survive long enough to save the world from a devastating nuclear
war.
THE KESSLER SYNDROME
Tax accountant Raymond Phillips has just taken over
his father’s firm, but his life is about to change dramatically when he is mistaken for
aerospace scientist, Timothy Walker, a spy selling Defense Satellite secrets to
China.
An elusive spy ring dubbed, the China Connection, by
the CIA has delivered America’s latest space technology to China and Walker is
suspected of being the inside man. When Walker is found dead, a plan to use
Walker to export a package of data that will shut down the China Connection has
to be terminated, that is, unless they can convince look-alike Phillips to
deliver the package.
What was supposed to be a simple operation goes
terribly wrong when China decides to take Phillips and Lora Gains, the undercover
agent assigned to protect him, hostage. The president must give the word to
destroy the plane on which Phillips and Gains are being transported, or risk
losing the control of the worlds satellite communications to China. The stakes
are raised when it is found the data they are delivering may initiate the
Kessler Syndrome, destroying our ability to put satellites into orbit for
decades to come.
CALDERA
Six-hundred-thousand years ago the largest volcano in
the Western Hemisphere erupted covering much of what is now the Central United
States in a thick layer of ash. The explosion left behind a massive caldera
that today is known as Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone volcanologist Milton Bainbridge discovers
Yellowstone is about to erupt again and millions of Americans in thirteen
states will parish if they cannot be evacuated from the deadly path of the
fallout. Bainbridge mysteriously dies, leaving his assistant, Carlene Carlson,
and volcanologist, Jason Trask to save the United States from the worst natural
disaster in its history. To make matters worse, a little known terrorist group
is planning on using the eruption of Yellowstone to topple the U.S. government.
Trask and Carlson face off against a government
unwilling to believe an eruption is eminent and a terrorist group that is
conspiring to topple the United States in the aftermath of the natural disaster.
Caldera is an action packed thriller with a high degree of technical accuracy.
