Wounds of War

A June 5 Wall Street Journal article titled The Physic Toll of Killing with Drones documents the mental and emotional wounds suffered by crews of Remotely Piloted Aircraft, RPA. Like other warriors some suffer gravely from PTSD experiencing flashbacks, recurrent memories and difficulty sleeping. It a subject covered in my recent book, Beyond Visual Range.

Beyond Visual Range uses the pending impeachment of the President as a backdrop, and its main character is Major Samantha Miller (aka Sam or “Sparks”). Major Miller earned the nickname Sparks as an F-35 fighter pilot before a terrible crash put her in a wheelchair, forcing her to leave airborne work to become a pilot of a MQ-9 Reaper drone or what the Air Force now calls a Remotely Piloted Aircraft or RPA.

Here is an excerpt where Major Miller is explaining what it is like to hunt and kill a high value target.

“Finally, I have him alone and in the open. There is a nearby alternate safe target if for any reason at the last minute I need to abort the kill. I fire my missile. Seconds before the missile will strike home, a little girl runs out of the house and wraps her arms around his legs. I prepare to send the missile to the safe site only to discover that it has now become a soccer field full of little boys. There is nothing I can do. I watch the horror on my victim’s face. I see it in his eyes as he looks up in the direction of a faint whining noise that he hears for the first time. Then nothing. After a few minutes, I look down on the spot where he and the little girl had stood. There is only a smoking hole—a crater in the ground. Then I see his wife running from the house, her arms flailing over her head, and she’s screaming. Of course, there is no audio, but I hear her screams anyway—even if just in my head.”

Beyond Visual Range is available in print, digital and audio formats from amazon and other online retail outlets.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. Check out the latest book by Tom Collins, Stories from Applewood Manor, that explores Asheville, North Carolina’s History, Mysteries, Ghosts, and Tall Tales.  
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

The Story Behind The Story

I was talking with a reporter last night who was preparing a story about giving books for Christmas. She wanted to know why I wrote my new book, Beyond Visual Range. I tried to explain, but it wasn’t until we ended our call that I got the words in the right order and realized why the book was a good choice for Christmas. At first glance the story of two women drone pilots battling a rouge military, in space, that is bent on overthrowing the government doesn’t sound very Christmassy.

Here is what makes the book different. I wanted to tell the true story of our military drone pilots, but as a mystery author, I wanted to do so using my fiction adventure mystery genre. That is what Beyond Visual Range is—the true story of our drone warriors in a fictional mystery format. These warriors protect the rest of us every single day of the year including Christmas Day. And they do so at great sacrifice and suffer grave wounds. Consider these lines from the book:

“It is an environment full of grays with few blacks and whites. It’s a job where it is easy to violate one’s sense of what’s right or at least to question it. We can recover from horror, fear, and grief. Warriors have been doing that for all of history, but when we feel we have crossed the line—violated what’s right, it injures our very souls. The closeness of the drone pilot to his victim creates a bond of sorts. To strike when he least expects it seems cowardly or a betrayal. Worse is to kill an innocent, like the little girl, by accident or not. That is an act that stays in your head forever.

Your gift of Beyond Visual Range will be an entertaining mystery adventure that tells the true story of the struggles our military drone warriors face protecting us so we can enjoy a safe Christmas. And, until December 21st you can give a signed library quality edition at a 40% discount with free shipping. Just go to https://www.tomcollinsauthor.com/specials-2020.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. Be sure to check out the latest Tom Collins Novel, Beyond Visual Range on Amazon.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Reading Selections From Beyond Visual Range

For the most part, COVID-19 has shut down the opportunity to meet with book clubs and fans of the Mark Rollins adventure series. I have always enjoy doing readings at those events. Since I can’t do it in person, I’ll occasional do so by way of the internet. Today I am reading from Chapter 12, The long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Fans of Douglas Adams will recognize that the chapter takes its name from one of Adam’s books.

Author reading selections from Beyond Visual Range

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. Be sure to check out the latest Tom Collins Novel, Beyond Visual Range on Amazon.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Audible Editions of Mark Rollins Adventures

Beyond Visual Range joins Diversion and The Claret Murders on Audible. The other three books in the series will follow, hopefully by the end of the year. I do have a few promotion coupons reserved for Facebook Friends that are still available for Beyond Visual Range and Diversion. Email me before the end of the week, and be sure to indicate if your request is for Diversion or Beyond Visual Range. While I can’t require it, if you request one of the coupons please consider posting a review.

The audio editions are available from Amazon, Apple Books or directly from Audible.

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Signed copies of Collins’s books are available at www.tomcollinsauthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audible editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com.

Audio Edition of "Beyond Visual Range"

My seventh novel, Beyond Visual Range, is now available as an audio book. The Audible edition joins three other formats—hardcover, paperback and eBook editions. On June 28, Foreword Clarion Review described the new mystery as “a military thriller with a tinge of political realism” and gave the book four stars.

Collins writes from his home in Franklin, Tennessee, where his characters come to life and frequent familiar places in the bucolic Middle Tennessee landscape. What makes Collins’s latest mystery different from other novels in his Mark Rollins adventures series is that his Nashville heroines take the story into outer space.

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The Audible edition is available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. Signed copies of Collins’s books are available at www.tomcollinsauthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available on Amazon, Google Books, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores.

What One Reviewer Had To Say

The reviewer preceded his review comments with the statement that Beyond Visual Range should be required reading. Since my writing is financed from royalties that would be great—I wish! While it will not become required reading, I hope you will read it and if you do, I hope you will post a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or another book related site.

The technology exists. The possibilities are all too real... and frightening. Once I started into it, I couldn't stop reading until the end. It was captivating and well written all the way through.

Politics usually sends me off in another direction when I'm looking for something good to read, but the technical aspects got my attention. This novel peels the skin from the flesh and bone of our everyday life. Not only can this happen; some or all of it probably is happening. Not only is our future in the balance, our very existence is too.

Right now, you can still take advantage of the one month sale ending June 31st. Until then you can purchase the Kindle edition for only $0.99. July 1st the price reverts to $4.99. And don’t forget that the audio editions of Diversion and The Claret Murders are currently on sale for $7.49. Shortly Beyond Visual Range will also be available in an audio edition. Production has been completed, we are just waiting on Audible to distribute the finished product to Amazon, iTunes and other retailers.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook and audio editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.