ESPIONAGE BLOG TOUR

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

Steve Konkoly http://stevenkonkoly.com/2013/04/14/espionage-tour-de-force/

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.