Announcing Sgt. Dunn #9 - soon to be released!

I am thrilled to announce that Sgt. Dunn #9, which is titled Raid on Hitler's Dam, will be released around mid-January!

I'm currently working on edit #3. You can track my editing progress on my blog (upper left corner). I sent the second edit on to my trusted and super FIRST READERS to get their feedback a couple of days ago.

My friend and cover artist, David M. Jones, is working on the cover. As soon as that's ready, I'll do a cover reveal.

Here's the book description. 

Raid on Hitler’s Dam

U.S. Army Ranger Technical Sergeant Tom Dunn takes a trip he thought he might never get to make: go home. But just for a few days. He and his pregnant British wife, Pamela, are invited to the White House so he can receive the Medal of Honor from President Roosevelt. Dunn’s entire family will be there and he can’t wait to see them after almost three years.

The moment Dunn returns to England, he gets his new mission. It takes all of his remarkable skill to plan the mission with British Commando Sergeant Malcolm Saunders, who just returned to England following a very close-call rescue mission in Holland. The target is so ambitious it seems impossible, even ludicrous. But not to Dunn. He immediately determines he’ll need additional assistance and for the first time, a second Ranger squad is assigned to work for Dunn. Oh, one more thing, he also wants help from a major in the Army Corps of Engineers. Why an engineer? The mission is to destroy a hydroelectric dam, in western Germany not far from the industrial city of Stuttgart, and its power production capabilities. The idea is to cripple Stuttgart for the coming winter.

Dunn and Saunders, and their men, take all the equipment they’ll need, plus weapons, plus a 6,000 pound bomb to bust the dam wide open, and enough explosives to blow up the underground power production water turbines. Things are going smoothly. And then they aren’t.

In perhaps the most action-filled novel in the Sgt. Dunn WWII Action Thriller series, book nine, Raid on Hitler’s Dam, gives readers firefight after firefight, sniper fire by Jonesy and his British counterpart, Ira Myers, ground chases, P-51 escort air-to-air and air-to-ground combat by Captain Norman Miller, who stole the Nazis’ Horten 18 jet bomber in book one, Operation Devil’s Fire. Munsterman’s page-turning style gives the reader no choice but to charge forward page by page.


If you want to know exactly when the book is published, you can sign up for my Sgt. Dunn Newsletter in the upper right of this blog and be among the first to know!

Thanks for stopping by today.

December 7th - Remember Pearl Harbor

"Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

~ FDR, 8 December 19471

Entire speech 

A horrible day in American history. But let's remember that the Japanese commanders weren't as smart or courageous as they thought they were. They left the oil supply intact, which, if they'd destroyed that, would have crippled the U.S. Navy for much longer. We certainly would not have been able to fight the Battle of Midway.

Here are some newspaper headlines about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Cool WWII fact #2

The P-51 Mustang makes appearances in my books sometimes. The original name for the aircraft was the Apache!

Cool WWII fact

Norvell Gillespie designed the camouflage patterns for the U.S. He was the garden editor for Better Homes and Gardens magzine!

Thank you Veterans!

Today is Veterans Day (observed) and tomorrow, 11/11, is the historical date. 

Please take a moment to reflect on what these men and women have done, and continue to do, for us.

Veterans: Thank you!

I needed a laugh today, so . . .

. . . here are some puppy pictures for you and me. We already know that Pamela has two dogs and that Dunn likes them. More importantly, the dogs like him.

Happy Birthday to Sgt. Tom Dunn sort of . . .

Fourteen years ago, Tom Dunn came to life on the page for the first time. On 22 September 2003, I wrote this in my original notes for Operation Devil's Fire:

Title – Operation Devil’s Fire

Premise

Stop the construction of the first transatlantic bomber, the Horten GO-229 (nurflugel: only-wing) before it can strike Washington D.C. or New York City.

Main character is Tom Dunn, who is charged with finding the GO-229 and getting the American troops to the factory.

Locations

Washington D.C.
London
France
Germany


Characters and Plot in spreadsheet

On that day I was full of hope and excitement at starting my first novel. Since then, I've learned so much. I've had so much support from family and friends, and from you, my readers, to whom I am deeply grateful that you came along for the ride with Tom Dunn, Pamela, and all the others.

Thank you.

Sgt. Dunn novel Saving Paris is on sale for only 99 cents through 9/22/17!

You can get the 4th Sgt. Dunn novel, Saving Paris, for only 99 cents through 9/22/17! Come join the fun.

Now that Sword of Ice (#8) is published, I'm working on Sgt. Dunn novel #9

I just published Sword of Ice last Wednesday, so I've been feeling pretty happy. Today, just five days later, I finished plotting the next book! I've never had the fortune of completing that task so quickly in the 14 years I've been writing novels.

I recall an author (I believe Stephen King mentions him in his book On Writing) who was a postman in England. He wrote for exactly two hours every morning before work. When he hit two hours he left for work. If he finished a book before the two hours was up, he started on the next one! Incredible.

Now that I know where I'm headed, I can start writing the book, probably later today!

Now that the new book, Sword of Ice, is published . . .

. . . my wife and I treated ourselves to a night of movies. Well, one movie: we watched the entire 6 hours of Stephen King's The Stand ! We love that movie, but hadn't seen it in about 5 years.

Meanwhile, every 30 minutes I pressed F5 to refresh my Kindle author bookshelf page to see if the new book was LIVE on Amazon. I wanted to send an email to my reader list with the link. I was finally able to do that a little after 10:00 p.m.

Today, I'm working on the plot of Sgt. Dunn #9. Let's just say the guys are going to need a lot of explosives. Lots.

Sgt. Dunn Novel #8, Sword of Ice, Available On Amazon!

The Kindle version of Sword of Ice is now available on Amazon! Here's the link:

http://a.co/do6uasn

Thanks for your support! I hope you enjoy the new book.

Sword of Ice in the publishing process on Amazon

I clicked the Publish button at 12:38 CDT! Now we have to wait for Amazon's system to process the book and make it available on the store.

I'll post a link as soon as I see the book live.

I’m afraid the rest of my day will be spent pressing F5 to refresh my Kindle Bookshelf page to know when the book is live. No, really, I’m not kidding . . . Oh, and I'll be starting on Sgt. Dunn Novel #9!

Sword of Ice update, 9/4/17

I'm in the home stretch! At 68% on the final edit, which I should finish tomorrow. Getting close to release.

Sgt. Dunn Novel #8, Sword of Ice, Coming very soon! - Cover Reveal

Hello Sgt. Dunn Readers!

I’m pleased to announce the upcoming release of the eighth Sgt. Dunn novel, Sword of Ice. The book description is below.

Below is the awesome new cover (below), created by my good friend David M. Jones (Jonesy, the sniper).

I expect to publish very soon, after the Labor Day Weekend.

Thank you so much for your support.

Sword of Ice

The Nazi’s are up to something. This is not news, but the location is. What are they doing on an island above the Arctic Circle? The truth lies with Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, head of the dreaded SS, who is a fervent believer in Germany’s ancient Aryan myths and history. A creative German archaeologist discovers the location of something powerful and valuable, which Himmler wants to present to Hitler in the full belief it will change the course of the war. Himmler sends an SS expedition to the island to retrieve it.

The Allies discover the island is occupied, but don’t know why the Nazis are there. Enter U.S. Army Sgt. Tom Dunn and his squad of lethal Rangers. He leads his squad through frigid, miserable Arctic survival training before tackling the Germans on the Arctic Ocean island thousands of miles from anywhere.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, British Intelligence learns that Egyptian rebels, who want to force the British out sooner rather than later, are planning attacks on the extremely valuable and critical Suez Canal. Sgt. Malcolm Saunders and his squad of British Commandos are sent in to solve the problem. Saunders, who fought the Germans in North Africa in ’41 and ’42, is less than thrilled at the prospect of going back to the blistering desert. He also has three worries: can they complete the mission; will he lose men again; will the five new replacements hold their own?

After arriving on the Arctic island, Dunn and his men uncover the Nazi plot. They are forced to race across the island’s treacherous glacier, which is occupied not only by Nazi SS troops, but also by one of the world’s greatest and feared predators. What could possibly go wrong?

In book eight of the Sgt. Dunn WWII Action Thriller series, Munsterman, in his gripping page-turning style, alternately makes the reader shiver and sweat as he weaves story lines from the frozen Arctic to the scorching Egyptian desert. He continues to masterfully blend fiction and historical fact to create an action-packed plot.

Moon shot

Nothing to do with Sgt. Dunn, except for maybe because most of the time he's working at night.

Went to a Single A baseball game tonight and took a couple of pics of the moon.

Sword of Ice update, 8/30/17

Only 1/3 of the book to go on the next to last edit! Expect to finish the edit tomorrow. Then a bit of time for things like the acknowledgments and author's notes, then on to the final proofread. 

Sword of Ice update, 8/28/17, 11:47 pm CDT

Finished edit #5 of 7 for Sgt. Dunn Novel #8, Sword of Ice today! Yay! Each edit takes me 10 - 11 hours. But I truly love it, fixing things or using a perfect word in the right place. Writing happiness is simple- hard to do, but yet simple.

Only 2 more to go! Then get ready to publish soon, probably next week.

Been also thinking about Sgt. Dunn #9 and the main story is in my head. Also mentally working on the first book in a WWII Pacific Theater series, which I expect to have as a main character a PT Torpedo Boat captain. Getting excited. Dunn's brother in law, Danny Young, married to Dunn's sister, Hazel, may be a secondary character serving on a Submarine.

Come along on the ride with me when the books come out.

Sgt. Dunn Novel #8, Sword of Ice, Editing update

Just finished edit #5! Did 76 pages today to get caught up. So far, I've added almost 2,000 words, which is about 6 book pages. Added a chapter I'd originally purposely left out and then decided the book needed it after all, plus a bunch of other things.

Only 2 more edits to go.

Sgt. Dunn Novel #8, Sword of Ice Editing update

Yay! 

Starting on edit number 5 (of 7) tomorrow (Friday). I'm 57% done with the overall process. Finding plenty of little changes to make like improvements to a sentence here and there, but the book is beginning to take on what I call the final "look." Edits 5 -7 will focus more on typing mistakes and in some cases, just finding a better word here and there. Actually something I enjoy quite a bit.

I should have the book description ready in a few days. I need to to let a few days go by for another edit on it.

My wife, she with the dreaded red pen, gets the book tomorrow, too. Pray for me.

Ronn

Edit #4 for Sgt. Dunn Novels Book 8, Sword of Ice underway

Starting Edit #4 today on my newest Sgt. Dunn Novel, Sword of Ice. After this edit, my wife attacks it with her red pen. I have to buy her a dozen! :)

She does two edits for me and is merciless, let me tell you!

Sgt. Dunn Novel #8, Sword of Ice, Editing update

Finished edit #3 today (of 7). Added another chapter for Alan Finch, the British character who works for Winston Churchill. Had the chapter in the original plot, but for some reason or other, chose to leave it out. After 3 edits, I realized it had to be included, so I wrote that today, too.

Since, I'm done editing for the day, I might turn my attention to the Author's notes and the Acknowledgements. 

Or I might work on ideas for Sgt. Dunn number 9!

Thanks for stopping by today!

WWII reenactment - pics

Went to a local museum's WWII event today. Here are some pics.

Kubelwagen

Russian, Polish, and German soldiers

Sten gun

Webley .455

Hitler's buzzsaw - the MG42

German soldier

Restored 1941 production Willys Jeep

Willys Jeep

Bazooka with rocket just loaded

Captured German rations - crackers

Sgt. Dunn novel #8, Sword of Ice - editing update

First edit was ugly, as it always is.The book is in the hands of my trusted FIRST READERS now!

Edit number 2 just finished, only 5 more to go. Went much smoother. 

Sgt. Dunn number 8 FIRST DRAFT complete!

Happy Day! I just finished the first draft of Sgt. Dunn novel number 8, Sword of Ice, five minutes ago!

Now the editing begins and I hand off the book my infamous FIRST READERS.

The book description is not ready yet, but I can tell you that Dunn goes to the frigid world of the Arctic while Saunders makes a return to the blistering hot desert in North Africa, Egypt.

You can track where I am in the editing process on the upper left of my blog starting tomorrow (8/13/17). Be sure to check back often as I get closer and closer to the publication date.

I'm aiming to publish Sword of Ice as soon as humanly possible!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Ronn

73rd Anniversary of D-Day

Our thanks to the brave men who fought on the beaches of Normandy, this day, 73 years ago.

US Army D-Day page

75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway - Extraordinary men, extraordinary results!

Here's an excellent article and video.

Thank you to the members of the United States Navy who accomplished this WWII turning point victory.

http://www.navy.mil/ah_online/ftrStory.asp?issue=3&id=100827

Memorial Day - a day of remembrance

Memorial Day

In honor of those who have fallen for our country.

Thank you.

Thank you, readers!

To my readers, a big, heartfelt thank you for the success of the Sgt. Dunn Novels. Each of the seven books broke into the top 20s or higher within the categories of War and Military.

I'm working on book 8, which sends Dunn to the Arctic and Saunders to Egypt!

Book 1, Operation Devil's Fire, is on sale through 4/14 for only 99 cents.

Operation Devil's Fire on sale 4/8 - 4/14 for only 99 cents!

The book that started it all for Sgt. Dunn is on sale for only 99 cents for seven days!

Egypt pics - 2

Here are some more pics from Egypt.

At the end of Saving Paris, Neil Marston touches the Arch of Triumph in Paris. In the Author's notes, I mention that I hoped to one day touch the pyramids. I was fortunate enough to do that.

Workers doing some repair. The angle of the slope is 51 degrees! Practically straight up. Note the hard hats. Doh!

What? You talkin' to me?

Looking south from the overloook.

Yep, that's me.

Lucky shot.

Aswan, Egypt - picture of crane (the bird)

My wife and I walked down to the Nile River today, about a block from our apartment. We sat there admiring the view for about forty minutes. She spotted this crane flying low over the water and I got the camera up just in time to snap this great picture. Note the shadow on the rock.

Photos of the week - Egypt

Here are some pics from our trip to Egypt.