Dan Pollock

Author of thrillers -- LAIR OF THE FOX, DUEL OF ASSASSINS, ORINOCO, PRECIPICE, THE RUNNING BOY, COUNTDOWN TO CASABLANCA/
International Thriller Writers member

[Saint Adaugoijele ✝️ @JustAdaugoijele]

Shoutout to all the warriors!
The ones who keep pushing through silent battles, who smile through the struggle, who carry strength in their spirit even when they’re tired. You may bend, but you don’t break, and that’s your power.
Keep moving!

[Danah AL. @DanahAALLL]

They buried the truth when they were seventeen.

BEFORE THE FIREWORKS is a domestic suspense novel.

One Fourth of July.
One missing girl.
Ten years later, someone is finally digging up the truth.

#UnhingedPit #A #S #W
#writingcommunity #amquerying

[Dan Pollock @danielpollock]

Wow, you had the deluxe edition. I had the budget, red and blue binding, but it too was my Internet.

[Miles Commodore @miles_commodore]

When I was 12 years old, this was my internet.

[Joel Brigham @joelbrigham]

Writers: try to avoid ANY flashbacks, info-dumps, context-building, or stage setting in at least the first chapter, but preferably the first two or three. There are good reasons for this:

[Martin Roy Hill @MartinRoyHill]

My latest WWII spy thriller, THE LAST SABOTEUR, lands April 15. But you can pre-order it now in your favorite e-book formats! https://t.co/IviSO5Q3NY #thriller #Espionage #WWII

[Athenaeum Book Club @athenaeumbc]

G. K. Chesterton explains that reading gives a man more lives than he was born with:

“A man who has read a thousand books is armed for life; a man who has read none is easy prey. The man who has read a thousand books has lived a thousand lives. He has seen cities he has never visited, spoken to men who died centuries ago, and walked in worlds that no longer exist. Reading does not merely inform him; it enlarges him. It stretches the boundaries of his own experience until he becomes something more than himself.”

[Spybrary @spybrary]

Len Deighton reshaped the spy fiction genre… In this special tribute episode, we celebrate the working-class outsider who gave us Bernard Samson, Harry Palmer and some of the greatest spy novels ever written. #LenDeighton

https://t.co/eWOZ0ylM8U via @YouTube

[Spybrary @spybrary]

Len Deighton didn't just write spy fiction he changed the entire genre. In this special tribute episode, we celebrate the working-class outsider who gave us some of the greatest spy novels ever written.

Available on good podcast apps & YouTube - just search Spybrary #LenDeighton

[Jack Carr @JackCarrUSA]

Happy Birthday to Stephen Hunter! It was one of the greatest honors of my life to start our book tours together in 2019, and I will forever be indebted to him for taking the time to read and blurb my first novel. If you are not reading Stephen Hunter, you should start immediately. This picture is from SHOT Show when Stephen surprised me at a book signing. I still have my original copy of POINT OF IMPACT which remains one of my most prized possessions. Happy Birthday, my friend!

[_DavidMorrell @_DavidMorrell]

I’m a big fan of Westerns. My debut novel, FIRST BLOOD (Rambo), was inspired by Westerns and my Western novel, LAST REVEILLE, was inspired by Sam Peckinpah’s classic Western movie, THE WILD BUNCH.
https://t.co/rxRU2CaqsM

[Victoria 🇺🇸⏳🗽🚔 @Loveof1776]

Humility is the key to attaining your goals; not greed or ego.
David Goggins, a triathlete, ultramarathoner and retired Navy SEAL, is often nicknamed "the toughest man alive" or "the world's toughest man" for his extreme athletic feats.

But behind closed doors, David revealed in his memoir, his father was a cruel tyrant who brutally beat his children and their mother on a regular basis. When David was 8 years old, his mother left her abuser and took David and his older brother to her parents' house in rural Indiana.

But their new life in Brazil, Indiana, was a struggle. On top of the family's poverty, Goggins experienced academic and social problems in school. He was bullied and admitted cheating his way through his classes. Then, in another tragic milestone of his young life, his mother's new love interest -- a kind man who could have been a stable, loving stepfather to David -- was shot and killed in front of his home.

While still in high school, he later took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and failed, earning only a 20.

“From then on, I brainwashed myself into craving discomfort. ... As a result, I became tougher. And being tough and resilient helped me meet my goals," he wrote in his memoir.

Goggins was finally accepted into training with the Air Force Pararescue Team, but after he enrolled, he was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia and had to drop out. He could have returned to training later but decided not to, mostly because he so disliked the swimming aspect of it.
However, he did complete training for the Air Force Tactical Air Control Party and served as a member of the TACP from 1994 to 1999.

Goggins' Navy SEAL training is legendary.
After his Air Force stint, it took him two years to reach his next goal of becoming a Navy SEAL. His weight had ballooned, and he was 297 pounds when this dream took root. Plus, he was getting older, and at the beginning, he had a hard time even getting a recruiter to talk to him.

Yet eventually, he graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training with Class 235 in 2001 and was assigned to SEAL Team 5. But he had to endure three Hell Weeks before getting there.
At the time of his first Hell Week, he suffered a stress fracture and came down with pneumonia. He wanted to try again, but his second Hell Week was scrapped for him because he fractured his kneecap. Yet he tried again two weeks later and made it through.
After completing BUD/S, Goggins and his SEAL team deployed to Iraq just a few weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"In 2004, he was the only SEAL in his class to graduate from Army Ranger School," according to the VA. The part of the Ranger creed that says "my country expects me to move further, faster and fight harder than any other soldier" seems custom-made for Goggins.

Goggins was searching for a way to make a difference after the tragedy of Operation Red Wings in Afghanistan in 2005. Twelve Navy SEALs were killed, and Goggins knew each of them personally.
"I wanted to find a way that I could raise money for their families," he told the U.S. Navy's All Hands publication.
In July 2006, he finished the Badwater 135 in Death Valley, California, in fifth place.
He has raised more than $2 million for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

[Jack Carr @JackCarrUSA]

Thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered THE FOURTH OPTION. Means the world 🙏
https://t.co/YAXkebIbXv

[_DavidMorrell @_DavidMorrell]

I talked about storytelling Westerns in a recent cover story for SADDLEBAG DISPATCHES. The Western is “the narrative device America returns to when it wants to discuss belonging and exclusion, violence and law, and civilization’s promises and failures.”
https://t.co/5ztbn9EPVL

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

The Turin shroud, brought to life by AI

[mark greaney @MarkGreaneyBook]

Today in the interrogation chair, it's #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Gray Man series, Mark Greaney. Listen to what Mark learned about the craft of writing when he was writing with Tom Clancy, get the set up for his 15th Gray Man book, THE HARD LINE, and find out what Mark left under the seat of his car when he got dropped off at the airport on his way to his latest overseas research trip. Mark Greaney always delivers!

https://t.co/8Ihld0OrhN

[Jack Carr @JackCarrUSA]

Thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered THE FOURTH OPTION. It means the world 🙏

THE FOURTH OPTION - Hardcover / eBook / Audiobook narrated by Ray Porter - MAY 12

https://t.co/rnbWqje3Iz

[_DavidMorrell @_DavidMorrell]

My dear friend & incomparable author Dan Simmons died Saturday from a stroke at age 77. He defied literary norms, exploring historical fiction, horror, crime & other genres. His must-read titles include THE SONG OF KALI & HYPERION. He was one of a kind.
https://t.co/NcBFT4hBc6

[Jack Carr @JackCarrUSA]

Lee Marvin was born on this day in 1924. He grew up hunting and fishing, and like many in his generation he served in World War II seeing action in the Pacific as a Marine. He was hit by machine gun fire in the Battle of Saipan. It took a year to recover from his wounds. He would go on to star in over fifty films and television shows including THE PROFESSIONALS, THE DIRTY DOZEN, POINT BLANK, THE BIG RED ONE, DEATH HUNT, and THE DELTA FORCE. His acting career spanned from 1951 to 1986 and included an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1965 for CAT BALLOU.

He chose to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery along with 400,000 other soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. His headstone in Section 7A, Grave 176 reads: 
LEE MARVIN
PFC
US MARINE CORPS
WORLD WAR II
FEB 19 1924
AUG 29 1987

[Don Bentley @bentleydonb]

Congrats, Ryan!

[Jack Carr @JackCarrUSA]

Chuck Yeager was born on this day in 1923. A true American hero, I read his book, YEAGER: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY when it came out in the mid-80s and remember it as one of my fondest reading experiences during that formative time in my life. If you have not read it, I highly recommend adding it to your library. If you have kids in the middle to high school years, it is one of the books they simply must read to help with perspective through the appreciation of sacrifices made by a generation that preserved freedom for us all.

General Yeager passed away on December 7th, 2020 at age 97.

I also recommend reading THE RIGHT STUFF by Tom Wolfe and watching the 1983 movie adaptation of the same name. Keep an eye out and you might recognize Chuck Yeager in a cameo.