Flying Boston to Bermuda tomorrow morning. The goal on assignment for SAILING Magazine is to bring home some good pix of the races and a sense of what the America's Cup hype is all about. But we won't be flying home. We'll be sailing Philip Kersten's 44-foot sloop Tioga back to Boston. Looking forward to the bluewater adventure.
Packing my photo gear for the America's Cup
Packing my photo gear for Bermuda and the America's Cup on assignment for SAILING Magazine. Woohoo!
New Zealand vs. USA. High-tech foiling catamarans with carbon fiber hulls that literally fly across the water. And when the race is over, there's the six-day sail back to Boston aboard a friend's sloop. Looking forward to the adventure.
Deadly Fare and Megan Leavey profile heroic military dogs
Here's where you can find heroic dog stories https://www.facebook.com/david.liscio/posts/10209529796698752?notif_t=like¬if_id=1496511240590657
Deadly Fare paints a picture of military veterans coming home
Here's an excerpt:
August 1985
Homecomings are for queens, not soldiers
Emmett Decker had seen all he wanted of the Middle East’s high-tension cities, North Africa’s unforgiving deserts and the unpredictable banana republics of Central America. He was psyched to return to the simple life he had once known in the rugged hills of Pennsylvania, even if it meant spending hours each week mending his war wounds at the Veterans’ Administration Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Shot twice during firefights with Syrian soldiers and later hit with shrapnel during a clash with Iraq’s Revolutionary Guards, Decker had earned his pay as an Army Special Forces Ranger. He had parachuted into places where other soldiers dared not tread, called in artillery coordinates for high-value targets, lugged his long-barrel Barrett M107 sniper rifle on dozens of missions, came very close to dying on several occasions, and decided after many months in Sandland that the U.S. Central Command hadn’t a clue about what to do with Lebanon.
My Photo-of-the-Week in SAILING Magazine
Sailing season has finally begun in New England after weeks of cold rain. So I wanted to share one of my images that was selected by the magazine's editors as a Photo-of-the-Week.
Japanese mobsters are a different breed
It always helps to have some real life experience when writing crime fiction. Thought I'd share some newspaper stories I wrote about the Japanese underworld -- aka Yakuza.
As a writer, I've always been fascinated by organized crime. So I jumped at the chance to go on a newspaper assignment in 1988 to the island of Saipan, where the Japanese mob was suspected of funneling heroin from Tokyo to San Francisco.
My series of articles was submitted by the editors for a Pulitzer Prize, and though we didn't win, my interest in the criminal underworld remained strong.
As of today, my serial-killer thriller Deadly Fare is on three Amazon bestseller lists, including Organized Crime. The book is a work of crime fiction and the Irish mobsters in Boston, Massachusetts play a key role in the story.
Here's a link: Amazon US……http://amzn.to/2iI5YHh
Journalists are murdered every week in Mexico
Award-winning investigative journalist Javier Valdez was gunned down over the weekend in Mexico. He had been reporting on Narcos, which is essentially unveiling the truth about rampant drug dealing, murder and government corruption. He made a lot of enemies.
Feeling the G-force of today's rocket launch for Deadly Fare
Deadly Fare burned up the charts on Amazon today. At 9 p.m., the book was ranked a bestseller in Crime Noir (No. 9), Serial Killers (No. 14), and Organized Crime (No. 19).
Students thank professor for imposing no-cell-phone rule
Woo hoo! Today is the last day of finals week at Endicott College and the official start of summer vacation.
Must say many of my millenial students shined brightly and I'll miss their humor and intellect. As we wrapped up the public relations course, three students personally thanked me for imposing the semester-long no-cell phones-or-laptops in the classroom rule.
As one student put it, "I learned so much more because I was wasn't distracted. If I'd had my phone or laptop, I wouldn't have learned half as much. So thank you, professor."
Endicott College shines light on Deadly Fare
This week's edition of Endicott College's Faculty News mentions the publication of my serial killer thriller Deadly Fare. The novel is available from Amazon in ebook and paperback. It's currently ranked 4.9 of 5 stars on Amazon and 4.85 on Goodreads.
Amazon US……http://amzn.to/2iI5YHh
Bermuda bound to cover the America's Cup
Just received word that my press credentials have been approved to cover the 35th America's Cup races in Bermuda in June. I'll be there as an editor/photographer for SAILING Magazine. Woohoo!
Edward Abbey was one smart guy
I keep hearing all this mumbo-jumbo from short-sighted businessmen about profit, about making everything bigger and brighter and faster and more expensive. And after a while it's like white noise. There's no focus on goodness, no awareness of what might make a society better. It's just powerful people with no vision of tomorrow.
Here's a thought to chew on from environmentalist Edward Abbey:
"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."
Earth Day doesn't make sense
We humans are truly whacked. One day each year we set aside a few moments to think about the plight of the earth. Wow. For an entire 24 hours we try not to pollute. Don't pour the motor oil down the storm drain. Don't toss that tractor battery into the trout stream. Don't let that McDonald's trash fly out the car window.
Let's look at this differently.
Why not annually celebrate Pollution Day?
Once a year, people who feel compelled to damage the planet can have free rein. They can pollute to their heart's content. Needlessly chop down healthy trees. Throw their recyclables into the garbage can. Set some rubber tires on fire. Soak the backyard gardens with Monsanto's poisons.
Sure, that sounds awful. But it would only be allowed on that one day, giving the earth 364 days to recover, because respecting our planet only on Earth Day just doesn't make sense.
Bermuda or Bust
The spring issue of 01907 Magazine contains my story and photographs about six guys from Massachusetts' North Shore, including me, who sailed from Boston to Bermuda. It's a timely piece since the America's Cup races will soon begin on that little island.
Making the rhino dance
This is a rhino. I know, you remember seeing a similar photo in the second grade. You don’t mess with a rhino. Also, getting them to move is not easy. They’re big, powerful, and potentially menacing.
For me, the rhino represents Amazon’s rating algorithms used to rank authors who are selling ebooks and paperbacks on the global giant’s retail app.
The only way to ensure the rhino notices a book is to poke it. If I use a toothpick, nothing happens. Doesn’t even feel it. Tough hide. I literally have to light a fire under the rhino’s belly before it stirs.
The fire I’m talking about isn’t made of flames. It’s fueled by positive reviews from readers like you who post on Amazon and Goodreads, the latter of which is owned by the same company. Without reviews in this digital age, the world’s best books might simply go out of print once the rhino forgets about them.
If you’ve already read my serial killer thriller Deadly Fare, or are planning on it, I’m hoping you’ll help light the fire and make the rhino dance.
Deadly Fare on Amazon and Goodreads.
Amazon US……http://amzn.to/2iI5YHh
Amazon UK…...http://amzn.to/2iETi3u
Goodreads…… https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=deadly+fare
Thanks much.
Residents shudder when murder happens in a rich Massachusetts town
Authors of Wellesley murder book draw crowd in Falmouth
Former Boston Herald newspaper reporter Tom Farmer and ex-Massachusetts State Police homicide detective Marty Foley drew a crowd today (March 25) at the Falmouth Historical Society in Falmouth, MA, where they discussed their well-received book “A Murder in Wellesley.”
Here’s the scoop on the book: On Halloween morning in 1999, Mabel Greineder was savagely murdered along a wooded trail in the well-heeled community of Wellesley, Massachusetts. As the shock following the brutal killing slowly subsided, the community was further shaken when the focus of the investigation turned to her husband, Dirk Greineder, a prominent Ivy League physician and family man who was soon revealed to be leading a secret double life involving prostitutes, pornography, and trysts solicited through the Internet.
Farmer and Foley have enthralled audiences throughout the state since the book was published in 2012.
Click and you’ll be taken to the book’s listing on Amazon:
Author and friend Drew Yanno getting some recognition
My friend Drew Yanno, the Boston-based author of the thriller "The Smart One", is getting some well-deserved recognition from prestigious Publishers Weekly. PW has starred the book, which wouldn't have happened unless the editors thought it was damn good.
Here's where to find "The Smart One" on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Smart-One-Drew-Yanno-ebook/dp/B01M66D07W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489862329&sr=8-1&keywords=the+smart+one+drew+y
When you truly get assigned to write a fluff story
ONE Magazine is a regional quarterly that publishes in communities north of Boston, Massachusetts. The most recent issue contains my story about Marshmallow Fluff, a white, spreadable and edible goop that's pretty much synonymous with the city of Lynn.
Here's a link to the fluff piece: http://onethemag.com/lynns-sweet-on-fluff/#more-6842
An unsolved American serial killer case: Who murdered Tina Louise Leone?
Before launching a career as a crime fiction writer, I spent years as a newspaper reporter covering all sorts of human misdeeds in the courts and on the street. Some of those cases stick with you, perhaps because they remain unsolved. The case of Tina Louise Leone is one of them.
You can read my 2005 news story by clicking on the link below.