Did Bin Laden read my book?

Let me start out by saying there is absolutely no proof supporting the rumor that a dog-eared copy of my book, “The Eighth Day”, was found in the Bin Laden compound. (hat tip, Lawyer Robert Rosenblatt) Yet, rumors can be persistently pesky little gnats always buzzing around. Like the one that I got an $8 million dollar advance for the film rights to “The Eighth Day.” Let me categorically state for all you who are reading this, and any IRS agents, that I have not received that check yet.

But as someone once said, “Why let the facts get in the way of a good story?” of course his name is a fact that never came with the story so he will remain “someone.” As an author, some rumors are cool, “I have Alec Baldwin on speed dial”, “I used to hang with Raquel Welch”, “Tom Clancy liked my book.” “Bill Clinton gave me the final green light to write, “The Hammer of God.”

Now, here’s the thing, that last one, about Clinton, was True! Yet, with all these other tall tales out there, who’s going to believe it? For years I hesitated to publish “Hammer” the sequel to “The Eighth Day” because I didn’t know if the “secrets” revealed within would hurt America’s National Security. After a generous, and in-depth discussion with the former president, he assured me that as far as global thermo nuclear war was concerned, those “secrets” were, at best, theories, but ones that never the less, ever crossed his desk or was part of the SIOP (Single Integrated Operational Plan, which was the secret playbook for American Nuclear response). So, here I sit cut by the double-edged sword of the rumor mill. While any unfounded item, at minimum, gets your name out there, they also create a fog that makes it hard to see the truth underlying the main plot point to my second novel in Bill Hiccock’s Quarterback Operations Group, Thrillogy.

I have to tell you, it’s enough to push me to spend the entire 8 million on an ad campaign to set the record straight.

PTS8JHS5KZ4Z

Scientists find God on Mars… Sort of

Like at least 204,329 Earthlings “Early in the morning of Monday Aug 6th, I watched the feed from NASA and rode the 2.5 billion dollar roller coaster ride down to the dusty red planet with it’s “7 minutes of terror” drop. What a ride! 500,000 lines of computer code had to be flawless, least a single semicolon, out of place, relegate Curiosity to a smoking hulk of debris marring Mars. At 350,000,000 miles (14 light minutes away) it was the greatest robotic/engineering feat in all of human history.

In my upcoming book, The God Particle, I delve into the science/religion divide. A topic that underlined the Stokes Monkey Trial in the early 20th century, which “evolved” into the movie, Inherit the Wind. There was also vehement religious objection to the first inroads of nuclear energy. As the third installment of my Bill Hiccock “Thrillogy,” my action-adventure book focuses, in part, on this same divide. It’s alive today as the rift between the “Black-Holers” and the scientists.

That night, the word most spontaneously uttered by the crew at the JPL was “God”. Think about that, in the epicenter of the greatest Science, Technology, Engineering and Math minds the human race has ever assembled, and at the moment of their and our greatest triumph, they collectively and individually acknowledged – God! Be it in unconscious comments or pure out praise, it just slipped out.

The lesson: If the great parishioners of science can see the resonance of the divine in the perfection of their accomplishment, why do we allow petty differences over religion and tradition impede our progress over war, hate, intolerance and evil.

If the smartest folks in creation can recognize the role of the “supreme inertial guidance package” in the red dust, 350,000,000 miles off, shouldn’t it be some what more obvious closer in… like on this planet?