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.

Win a Challenge Coin

The pictured item is it the challenge coin for the United States Air Force MQ-9 Reaper Drone, a remotely piloted aircraft system.

If you collect challenge coins you will want to add this MQ-9 Reaper to your collection.  If you are not already a collector, this coin would be a could start.  It weighs over two ounces with a 2 ¼ inch diameter.

MQ-9 Reaper is featured in my latest novel, Beyond Visual Range.  In the new book, a modern day Dr. Strangelove is set to deploy a super non-nuclear weapon from space. Beyond Visual Range is-a frightening, plausible thriller that Foreword Clarion Review described as right out of today’s news when it gave the book four stars.

Enter the contest to win one of the five challenge coins (a $20.00 value), I am giving away this week.

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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.

Beyond Visual Range

Book 6, in the Mark Rollins Adventure series is targeted for a March 2020 release. You can take advantage of a prerelease sale price by going to: https://www.tomcollinsauthor.com/books/beyond-visual-range-prerelease .

The advance order sale price for signed copies of the library quality hardcover edition is $15.00 with free shipping verses the release price of $29.00.

In Beyond Visual range The Speaker of the house has scheduled a vote on a resolution to impeach the President of the United States. With exaggerated piety the Speaker decried, “The President has violated his oath of office. Among other crimes, he ignores the sovereignty of other nations, including our allies, using unmanned drones to assassinate their citizens without due process.”

In response to what they view as a legislative coup, a rogue military element threatens to break with 250 years of tradition and use military force to stop the impeachment. 

Facing impeachment and an apparent unlawful insurrection among the ranks of the military, the President is  unsure who he can trust. He turns to a Florida-based drone team, wheelchair bound Major Samantha Miller and her crewmate Airman Rebecca Armistead, to counter the military threat.  Both crew members are from the Nashville, Tennessee area and have connections to Mark Rollins and team.

Unusual events and unexplained aerial phenomena, including the downing of Major Miller’s F-35 and the sabotage of her drone missions, focus attention on outer space. The X-37B, a remotely piloted spacecraft,  has returned to Earth after spending a reported two years in space. Its mission is top secret. There is evidence that the military has lost control of the craft when it makes an unauthorized return to the heavens.

The battle moves to outer space.   And in the end, our heroines must deal with an enemy 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 from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. Audio versions of The Claret Murders and  Diversion are available from iTunes, Audibles and Amazon. eBook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBook’s Store and Smashwords.com. 
Published by I-65 North, Inc.