Ghost Flight

One of the greatest mysteries of the 20^th Century is the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan on their famed around the world flight in 1937. The world was watching every aspect of the flight, but her plane disappeared, never to be found again.

In Ghost Flight, Scott Tanner and his quirky partner David Stafford are attempting to re-create the leg of the famous flight where Amelia Earhart’s plane disappeared. In an effort to find the lost plane, or determine what went wrong. Stafford builds an exact replica of the Lockheed Electra Amelia used on her fateful flight and aptly names it Spirit of Amelia. In an effort to be as accurate as possible, the plane is equipped with every item the plane carried including circa 1937 radio and navigation equipment. To play it safe, they also have backed up the outdated navigation equipment with modern instruments that they will only use if there is an emergency. What could go wrong?

Unknown to Scott and David there are those who wish the mystery of Amelia Earhart left unsolved and their efforts to stop the flight are made know before they even leave Oakland Airport, the same place Earhart began her historic attempt. As they fly over the same isolated part of the Pacific where Amelia disappeared, David and Scott began to understand what could have happened on that fateful day back in 1937. Now, Scott and David’s lives are in danger and the likelihood of them completing the flight to the tiny island in the Pacific, the same island where the famed aviatrix never arrived, is in doubt.

Available in paperback and e-book on Amazon

Paradox

How will World War III be fought and with whom?

When Scott Tanner’s father, the Chief Engineer of North Star Industries, mysteriously dies, Scott asks David Stafford to help investigate North Star Industries, the major Defense contractor where his father worked.  It is the remaining few months of his term and President Tindall wants anything but war, but a cascading number of events is leading him n that direction. With very few options left, and an enemy who is holding all the cards, there seems to be no other option than a preemptive strike against the largest population in the world.

China, through an elaborate scheme is in possession of Top Secret United States satellite technology code named Paradox and has launched a version of the satellite that will insure their future domination of space rendering the United States military unable to communicate. 

With the next World War on the horizon, Scott Tanner and David Stafford are asked to take over North Star Industries and Paradox development and save the United States from almost certain destruction, but even they know last ditch effort could be too late to save the nation. 
Check out this thriller on Amazon

The most misused word in the English language

Okay, I don’t really know this for a fact, but I’m pretty certain you’ll agree with me on this.

I recently received a manuscript back from my editor with much of the dialog marked up for incorrect grammar.  

Now, I try and make my characters as lifelike as possible so I listen to the way people talk and universally, whether educated or not, the word can is used in place of the word may. This is a sad bastardization of the English language, but none the less, in spite of the games we were taught as children the word may has all but disappeared from our language.

Remember “Mother May I “, a game we played for hours which was sadly replaced at some time by “Simon says”?

My English teacher in high school would answer, when the asked, can I do this or that; “If you are asking for my permission, yes you may, but you can only do it if you are able.”

So when a character uses can instead of may in his or her conversations, it is only a reflection of the times we’re living in.

Of course I’m not talking about Literary Fiction, which should offend the reader if the word is misused, but my characters seldom rise to the level of a literary professor or an English Major.

So, to keep my characters as true to life as possible, they seldom use may when asking a question, that is, unless they are a character from an earlier time when proper English was taught and spoken and not abused.
Check out my novels at www.Larrylavoieauthor.com

What goes into a character?

Apart from people asking how I came up with an idea for a book, I get asked about my characters the most. I’ve been asked if they are based on me or people I know or if they can be a character in one of my novels.

All of the above are true to some extent. One of my main characters, September Gale, happened to be a real person I met at a restaurant. The name intrigued me and I later told her I had used her name as the lead detective in my novel Threads of the Shroud.

Sometimes I have a personality in mind when I develop a character, as if did with Trick, a support character in Yellowstone Brief. A longtime friend had just the personality I needed for the flamboyant, yet reckless and carefree geologist.

My latest series starting with Crater features Scott Tanner a former Navy SEAL. He’s middle class, handsome, rugged, and slightly introverted man who is suffering PTSD. Scott has taken up treasure hunting as a business. His partner is a polar opposite, David Stafford, a former UC Berkley nerd who happens to be a genius and uses his inherited fortune to push the envelope of technology. They are an unlikely pare who have formed a symbiotic relationship that gets them into and out of trouble. I haven’t a clue where these characters came from but they were necessary for the adventures.

Check out Crater, the first book in the series featuring Tanner and Stafford.

Sub Zero an Antarctic Thriller

Check out my latest Scott Tanner novel.
This is the second novel in the Scott Tanner series.

It’s not Global Warming that’s heating up the frozen continent. Russia has broken the 1959 Antarctic Treaty that forbids using the continent for anything other than scientific research.

 Scott Tanner and David Stafford are in Antarctica testing a revolutionary new type of machine called Sub Zero that can travel through and under the Antarctic Ice and are asked by the CIA to head a rescue mission for two environmental scientists thought to be held captive at Vostok Station, a remote Russian outpost.

Russian military is able to track Sub Zero as it travels under the ice allowing Lebedev, a Russian oligarch operating the illegal activities, to launch a plan to kill the crew and steal Sub Zero. With no US military on the continent to save them, Scott and David are forced to play cat and mouse with the Russian military as they race across and under the wasteland of ice trying to reach an American outpost. As the hunt goes on, United States President Tindall is faced with the grim possibility of launching a rescue plan that could lead to war with Russia. 

Check it out on Amazon