BLAST (Ben Blackshaw) by Robert Blake Whitehill-Review & Giveaway

BLAST (Ben Blackshaw 6) by Robert Blake Whitehill-Review and Giveaway


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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 24, 2022

Ben Blackshaw discovers a murdered woman’s corpse frozen in the Chesapeake Bay. All the signs point to her being crew on a massive Liquid Natural Gas transport ship that’s trapped in the channel ice. Blackshaw, his wife LuAnna, his friend Knocker Ellis, and a band of neighbors take different paths to solve the mystery before a thaw frees the ship to sail off with all the evidence, or destroy Washington, D.C. and the Chesapeake fishery, in a single fiery blast

••••••

REVIEW: BLAST is the sixth instalment in Robert Blake Whitehill’s contemporary, adult BEN BLACKSHAW military, suspense, thriller series focusing on retired US Navy SEAL Ben Blackshaw, his wife, former Natural Resources police officer LuAnna, and his eclectic company of cloak and dagger investigators, former military personnel and first responders. BLAST can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

Told from third person perspective, following numerous intersecting paths BLAST focuses on the discovery of several bodies encased in ice. Winter in Chesapeake Bay is dark and dangerous but Ben and his fellow residents including Vietnam veteran Knocker Ellis Hogan, have stumbled upon nine bodies, all frozen in the ice, all with apparent bullet wounds and injuries. Further investigation reveals a large tanker, trapped in the ice, a tanker whose cargo and location are too far off course. As Ben and Ellis begin a search for the truth including a clandestine exploration of the ice-jammed tanker, a group known as Faction takes aim at our story hero. From the FBI to rogue assassins and hired muscle, Ben, LuAnna and Ellis find themselves at the mercy of Mother Nature, and a potential bio-terrorist determined to take down the eco-system in Chesapeake Bay.

The large ensemble of secondary and supporting characters include FBI Special Agent Molly Wilde, and her husband Pershing Lowry, executive Assistant director for Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence; Sonny and Mary Wright; gun toting Reverend Mosby, as well as several members of different government agencies. The requisite evil has many faces.

BLAST is an intriguing, thrilling, and thought provoking yet cautionary tale of what ifs: of home-grown terrorism, power and control. The character driven premise is dramatic, detailed and intense; the characters are animated and unconventional-the camaraderie between the Smith Island residents is dynamic and incredible-they work together like the proverbial ‘well-oiled machine’.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Deadrise
Nitro Express
Tap Rack Bang
Geronimo Hotshot
Dog and Bitch Island

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Follow Robert: Facebook / Website / Twitter /

Robert Blake WhitehillRobert Blake Whitehill was born into a Quaker family in Mardela Springs, just outside Salisbury on Maryland’s Eastern Shore peninsula. The family home lay next to the pond that powered a colonial-era relic, the Barren Creek Mill. He grew up sailing the Chesapeake Bay, and one of her most beautiful tributaries, the Chester River.

After graduating from Westtown School Whitehill stayed in Pennsylvania to earn his B.A. in creative writing at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges. Later he trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. As with David Mamet, exhaustive studies of the best English language drama for the stage and screen transformed an aspiring actor into a passionate writer.

An early focus on feature screenwriting earned Whitehill film festival wins at the Hudson Valley Film Festival, and the Hamptons International Film Festival where he also received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship for his script U.X.O. (Unexploded Ordnance). His feature script Blue Rinse, co-written with Andrea Shane is currently under option with producer Bill Jarblum (Charley Bartlett, The Little Traitor, Cloudburst), with Olympia Dukakis to star, and Thom Fitzgerald slated to direct.

While writing many highly rated episodes of Discovery/Times Channel’s The New Detectives, Daring Capers, and The Bureau, he served as the Vice President of Independent Film Acquisitions for the groundbreaking Centerseat.com, developing and managing their Independent Film Channel.

His first thriller in the Ben Blackshaw series, Deadrise, was named by Cyrus Webb to the Conversations Book Club Top 100 Books of 2012. His second book in the series, Nitro Express, was named to the Conversations Book Club Top 50 Books of Fiction of 2013.

Movie studio HatLine Productions is optioning the first two books, as well as the third title in the series, Tap Rack Bang, for development into feature films.

Whitehill lives in New Jersey with his wife and son. For a number of years, he has worked with the Montclair Ambulance Unit as an emergency medical technician.

When not sailing, or knocking around the sky in a Cessna 152, Whitehill is a contributing writer to Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Robert Blake Whitehill is graciously offering a signed paper copy (US only) of BLAST to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.

1. If you have not previously registered at The Reading Cafe, please register by using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

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5. FOLLOW us on FACEBOOK  for an additional entry.

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7. Please FOLLOW us on GOODREADS for an additional entry.

8. Paperback giveaway is open to US only

9. Giveaway runs from November 24-29, 2022

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Dog and Bitch Island (Ben Blackshaw #5) by Robert Blake Whitehill-Review and Interview

DOG AND BITCH ISLAND (Ben Blackshaw #5) by Robert Blake Whitehill-Review and Interview

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 1, 2018

Ben Blackshaw’s old friend Travis Cynter is dead. Cynter was Blackshaw’s comrade-in-arms in the U.S. Navy SEALs. He was killed in full tactical gear during a black-ops mission on American soil. FBI Agents Molly Wilde and Pershing Lowry try to draw Blackshaw into helping them solve Cynter’s murder. The agents need Blackshaw because the case landed in their laps from an American intelligence agency with overseas interests. From two previous cases, these Feds have come to appreciate how Blackshaw can work in the shadows, off the books, and be easily disavowed should his investigations implode.

Blackshaw is torn. He has a longstanding mistrust of doing any kind of clandestine work for government intelligence agencies. In fact, when patriotism has led him to do the right thing in the past, usually against his better judgement and instincts, his friends and loved ones have suffered; many have died. Helping Wilde and Lowry always comes at too great a cost. This unhappy history weighs heavily against Blackshaw’s profound desire to solve the mystery of Travis Cynter’s death. Should he serve with patriotic duty to an ideal that might not exist, or act with honor to clear the name of his murdered friend?

Against the wishes of LuAnna, Blackshaw’s expectant wife, and contrary to the grim and hard-won advice of his friend Knocker Ellis Hogan, Blackshaw reluctantly launches the investigation with a close study of the murder scene on Dog Bitch Island near Ocean City, Maryland. The trio finds the exact spot where Travis Cynter died. It is LuAnna who discovers a clue which spins the team into a deadly transatlantic chase; she quickly learns that the Feds have not told them the whole truth about Cynter’s final mission.

Thanks to Ellis’s wisdom and wealth, and LuAnna’s independent deductive logic, Blackshaw operates like a small covert agency unto himself. Along the way, he tangles with an old enemy, discovers an unfinished SEAL mission, and cuts out rot at the highest levels of government, including a scandal that could rally terrorists the world over. And it is all controlled by the iron hand of a shadowy syndicate called Faction.

••••••••••

REVIEW: DOG AND BITCH ISLAND is the fifth installment in Robert Blake Whitehill’s contemporary, adult BEN BLACKSHAW military suspense series focusing on continuing adventures and investigations of retired Navy SEAL Ben Blackshaw. DOG AND BITCH ISLAND can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

Told from several third person perspectives including Ben Blackshaw and his wife former Natural Resources Police officer LuAnna Blackshaw DOG AND BITCH ISLAND follows Ben, LuAnna, and their friend, former business partner and Vietnam veteran Knocker Ellis Hogan as they hunt for the person who killed one of their own- Lieutenant Travis Cynter had been killed; a classified and covert mission focusing on the retrieval of an unknown package; and Ben Blackshaw was now the target of an FBI investigation that will take our hero from Smith Island to Bermuda as he searches for the truth.

DOG AND BITCH ISLAND is a fast paced, action packed, infinitely detailed story of intrigue, corruption, and the hunt for a killer. The political machine and the power elite are part a multi-faceted tool that controls the who and what of a mix of information that is revealed to the world- a world that is completely unaware of the backroom, and war room decisions that govern our lives and the lives of the people in the news. The allure of power, and the battle for control attract the wannabes and has-beens in a story that could be ripped from the headlines in a world at war. Robert Blake Whitehill’s DOG AND BITCH ISLAND is a thrilling, clever and intelligent tale of one man’s unique vision of right and wrong.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Deadrise
Nitro Express
Tap Rack Bang
Geronimo Hotshot
Dog and Bitch Island

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

TRC:  Hi Robert and welcome back to The Reading Café.

Robert: Hi Sandy! It’s a genuine pleasure to visit with you again. Your support putting readers together with authors and their books is so important.

TRC: For anyone who does not know you, please tell us something about yourself?

Robert: For a while, I was bucking the family tradition of writing (my father, Joseph Whitehill, was a novelist, and my mom, Cecily Sharp-Whitehill is a poet and editor) by studying acting. But memorizing roles, and even just working with great monologues, always brought me back to the power of the written word and how I enjoy writing them rather than only interpreting them. I love writing tight, pithy, sayable dialogue. I’ve written for true crime shows on Discovery, like The New Detectives, and screenplays.

Writing a novel was the suggestion of a good friend. It took the poor guy two years of nagging to get me started. I worked for eight years off and on to craft Deadrise, the first title in the Ben Blackshaw series. Of course I was researching the story’s location on the Chesapeake and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, even though I grew up there. I needed to see it afresh with an author’s eye, even the Chesapeake Bay islands, including Smith Island. During that time, I was looking at the big picture of the series, plotting later books that would follow Deadrise, which include Nitro Express, Tap Rack Bang, Geronimo Hotshot, and now, Dog & Bitch Island.

TRC: How did publishing your first book change your writing process?

Robert: Deadrise came out in 2012, and it was life-altering in so many ways. First of all, with thanks to reviewers like you, Sandy, I started meeting the Blackshaw readers, who up until then had been a dream.   I mentioned I took eight years to shape the Blackshaw series and the first book. Now I really had to step it up, and create one book per year, which is the usual output for an author crafting a popular fiction series.

The prospect of that workload was terrifying, but I had already taken the time to lay important groundwork that would serve the entire series. In order to keep up with the new demands of press interviews, readings, signings, I needed a highly structured work-week to make sure I could have a new book ready for publication a year later. Thank goodness, after all the research and preparation, I was able to bring out Nitro Express on time.

TRC: Would you please tell us something about your new release DOG & BITCH ISLAND?

Robert: In Dog & Bitch Island, the FBI calls upon Ben Blackshaw to assist in solving the murder of Lt. Travis Cynter, Blackshaw’s buddy from the Navy SEALs. Cynter died in full assault gear, but on the eponymous island near Ocean City, Maryland, which is very odd, since SEALs are always deployed overseas. Blackshaw reluctantly agrees to help the FBI, I think because Cynter is a little like Blackshaw himself, an independent operator working outside the system; Cynter went rogue. Blackshaw, himself a maverick, is the best guy to help figure out what happened. What’s fun about this fifth Blackshaw book is that LuAnna, Blackshaw’s wife who’s expecting their first baby, comes along to help with the investigation. Her insights are crucial to completing the mission. Of course, Blackshaw’s old friend Knocker Ellis Hogan is also right there with him start-to-finish.

TRC: What direction do you plan for the Ben Blackshaw Series?

Robert: The direction for the Blackshaw series is both outward and inward. It’s an outward direction, in that Blackshaw, though from a small Chesapeake island community, will continue to fight to right wrongs that affect us all, especially the weak, throughout the world.

The series direction is also inward; I want to deepen the relationships between Blackshaw, his wife LuAnna, and his friend Ellis. I want to learn more about Blackshaw’s relationship as a grown man with his parents, both of whom abandoned caring for him when he was a teenager. They’re still alive, and they drop into the stories from time to time. There is still a lot to explore there. And what is Blackshaw’s relationship with his half-sister Annie Vo, and her wife? Relationships, and the emotional truths that surround, support, and infect them, are so important to the evolving arc of the Blackshaw series.

TRC: What type of research/plotting do you do, and how long do you spend researching /plotting before beginning a book?

Robert: I pull my plot cores from world events, local news, anything where the downtrodden need Blackshaw’s helping or his avenging hand. The Southern Poverty Law Center is a constant source of news about righteous fights on behalf the disadvantaged. And Project Censored always dives deep into news stories that might not be telegenic enough for CNN or Fox News.

Though the series starts in the Chesapeake Bay environs, there are far flung locations that require travel to research. When I can’t do that, I take extra time on the internet to get to know every aspect of a place.

That said, I don’t have a set research phase in the writing of a book. It’s always ongoing, and guided by plot turns and twists. I might study the plot core before starting the book, but I do so much more research between writing one line and the next while the work is in progress.

TRC: How often do real-life events influence your story lines and, ultimately the direction of your books and series?

Robert: Real-life events, both on grand and deeply personal scales, lie at the heart of the Blackshaw series. As an author, I have to be able to empathize, sympathize, or at the very least identify with every aspect of a book, every character, action, every line of narration, and every line of dialogue, or I can’t keep it. If it doesn’t move me, it won’t move a reader. That’s where my absorption with news media feeds the engine. Who needs help? Who needs avenging? Who has been forgotten? When I find the victims and the survivors, I quickly meet their oppressors. And then the oppressors quickly meet Blackshaw. And that’s all it takes to seed a Blackshaw story.

TRC: What has been your hardest scene –ever-to write?

Robert: In the main, I love writing, and letting moments emerge from my subconscious that shock even me. In Deadrise, LuAnna was badly and terribly injured. I asked myself, how could I do such a thing to such a wonderful, sterling character? However disturbing they are, I know I have to keep moments like those.

I suffered awfully once again when writing Tap Rack Bang. There were a number of scenes in which young children were in danger, and suffering in complete and bewildering terror. I remember being so afraid and alone at times as a child, so I had to relive those memories writing those scenes. I suppose having a vivid recollection aids me in writing these scenes as truthfully as possible. Blackshaw readers will be the ultimate judges of this.

TRC: Do you believe the cover image plays a deciding factor for many readers in the process of selecting a book or new series to read?

Robert: I absolutely believe a book cover plays an important role in helping a book or series find its audience. There was a time I worked as a pitch man, and the most important lesson I was taught to make a sale was put the item in the buyer’s hand. As soon prospect took hold of the product I was selling, it wasn’t mine anymore. The prospect immediately began to feel as though the item was theirs. Since I can’t be present whenever and wherever readers are looking for exciting new books, or a great new series, the book covers have to stand in for me. I’m always trying to imagine what kind of cover will make someone want to pick the book up at a store, or buy it on line.

I pitch my initial idea to the cover artist, and then we work through to the most intriguing image possible. I’ve worked with graphic artists like Carol Castelluccio at www.Studio042.com to create several exciting covers. Buffalo Gouge (https://www.facebook.com/buffalo.gouge) did amazing work on Geronimo Hotshot and Dog & Bitch Island. Betty Horne Fowler (https://www.facebook.com/betty.fowler) provided a totally haunting photograph for the cover of Tap Rack Bang. My covers are not standardized. They run the gamut in style, color palette, and original media. They are eclectic because my taste is eclectic; I never can tell which style of cover is going to draw a reader to a Blackshaw book for the first time.

TRC: How do you select the names of your characters?

Robert: No one’s asked me that before, Sandy! I sit through the end credits of movies, and text myself any names that are real grabbers. It might be a first name. It might be a last name. It might be a name that I change, but it’s inspired by a gaffer or a make-up artist, or a stunt double. I hate vanilla names. I really prefer names that are evocative, and that reveal something of the nature of the character. There you have it. Movie credits!

TRC: Do you listen to music while writing? If so, does the style of music influence the storyline direction? Characters?

Robert: I need serious quiet when I’m writing. Music just carries me away. I start listening, and stop writing. My father listened to classical music when he was writing. I can’t handle it. I don’t know how he did it. Music drowns out the voices of the characters rattling around my skull.

TRC: What do you believe is the biggest misconception people have about authors? About yourself?

Robert: Some readers might think writers are bookish loners, and introverts. I like being with other people, but only for short bursts.  Then I need some quiet time to charge the batteries. What folks might not know is that authors have to generate new work all the time, but after that first book comes out, they also must think and act like entrepreneurs, planning and executing marketing strategies, thinking about covers, making appearances at readings and signings. It goes from being a quiet life to an insanely busy life very quickly.

Thank goodness on the screenwriting side of things, I work with Liza Moore, who is an amazing producer in addition to being a manager with a strong guiding vision. On the book side, I am lucking to have amazing interns, like Erin Blake and Haylee Berry, and formerly, Heather Bailey. They free me up so much designing the Blackshaw travel app (available in the App store for Apple and Android as a guide to visit Smith Island where the series is set), and handling social media for me in such imaginative and creative ways. In return, the interns and I collaborate on Blackshaw short stories that are published at the end of the novels. Karl Guthrie is an amazing attorney who sees to it that I don’t make any mistakes with contract negotiations. An active author really needs a supportive team as soon as possible.

TRC: What are your thoughts on e-books vs paper? Traditional vs Independent publishing?

Robert: I sell mostly ebooks, but I make sure an attractive paperback edition is also available for those who prefer print books. The paperbacks are also important if you ever want to do signings in brick-and-mortar bookstores.

When it comes to the question of legacy vs. independent publishing, I guess I’m a hybrid case, Sandy. For English language Blackshaw books, I still believe in independent publishing for both the ebooks and paperbacks as I said. But the German publisher, Luzifer-Verlag bought the German language rights in a legacy, or traditional agreement structured in the usual way, with advances followed by royalties. They purchased the rights to the first four Blackshaw books all in a bundle like that. I’m happy to break the tremendous news here that Luzifer-Verlag have just agreed to purchase Dog & Bitch Island as well, for release in 2019. I am so fortunate to be associated with such a terrific publishing company. Their translations are excellent, the covers are mind-blowing, and their marketing team is quite creatively aggressive. It boils down to which style of publishing offers the greatest creative freedom for the greatest financial opportunity. Every situation is different. One no longer has to handle publishing in just one way.

TRC: What is something that few, if anybody, knows about you?

Robert: Very few folks know that one of my former gigs was as a bridge tender on the Old Severn River Bridge outside Annapolis, Maryland. I had twelve and twenty-four hour shifts, opening the bridge now and then for passing boats. I could get pizza delivered at any time, the view was spectacular both up- and downriver, and it was a tremendous private office for a writer.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Robert: At the moment, I’m working on the screenplay adaptation of Tap Rack Bang, the third book in the Ben Blackshaw series. After that is complete, I’ll continue with Blackshaw Book 6, entitled simply, Blast.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Robert: As ever, I would like to thank the Ben Blackshaw readers for all their support and encouragement for the series. I must also thank them for their patience awaiting Dog & Bitch Island. Other writing commitments prevented my bringing this new book out as quickly as I would have wished. I truly hope readers will share their enjoyment of Blackshaw with their friends and family.

I welcome emails directly from Blackshaw readers at rbw@robertblakewhitehill.com anytime, and try to reply as promptly as possible. You can sign up for newsletters, or follow Blackshaw and me at:

www.robertblakewhitehill.com

@rbwhitehill

https://www.facebook.com/rbwhitehill/

Free Blackshaw Travel App for Visiting or Learning About Smith Island

Apple
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blackshaw/id1159429726?mt=8

Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.swjrtgkuqrpveflmnzzipuvdiafxybkndwygscmqlbo&hl=en

TRC: Thank you Robert for taking the time to answer our questions.

Robert: Your questions teach me about Blackshaw and his world, and about myself as an author.

TRC: Congratulations on the release of Dog & Bitch Island.

Robert: And thank you Sandy. You are such a terrific advocate for readers and authors alike.

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Geronimo Hotshot (The Ben Blackshaw Series #4) by Robert Blake Whitehill-Review, Guest Post and Giveaway

GERONIMO HOTSHOT (The Ben Blackshaw Series #4) by Robert Blake Whitehill-Review, Guest Post and Giveaway

Geronimo Hotshot Banner

Geronimo Hotshot
The Ben Blackshaw Series #4
by Robert Blake Whitehill
Release Date: October 1, 2015
Genre: adult, contemporary, mystery, suspense

Geronimo Hotshot

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date: October 1, 2015

Ben Blackshaw’s wife, LuAnna, has been shot and lies in a permanent coma on Smith Island. Blackshaw has a disastrous falling out with his best friend, Knocker Ellis. Licking his wounds alone on Lethe Island, Blackshaw resolves to quit the Chesapeake. To his disgust, he soon uncovers evidence of the brutal lynching of a young black boy. Police fail to capture the murderers despite the evidence Blackshaw turns over; Blackshaw himself becomes a suspect. He deploys west to Arizona in search of the killers, and discovers an encampment of armed ranchers, along with a one-percenter biker gang, and a cult of white supremacist vigilantes who have all sworn to stop the flood of undocumented immigrants crossing the Mexico line.

But everyone hides deadly secrets, including a biologic Weapon of Mass Destruction, the bizarre shoot-down of a Customs and Border Protection helicopter, and the disappearance of its crew. The vigilante camp itself is surrounded by a raging wildfire. Blackshaw teams with Del, an Apache member of the Geronimo Interagency Hotshot Crew, who was detailed to battle the blaze. Together they patrol in on the gathering of monsters. Part of their treacherous journey takes Blackshaw and Del through a cavern system of strange, wondrous, and lethal beauty. In the end, fire and hate threaten to consume everyone; the light of the inferno reveals that Blackshaw might be no better than the quarry he hunts.

•••••••••••••

REVIEW: GERONIMO HOTSHOT is the fourth installment in Robert Blake Whitehill’s adult, contemporary Ben Blackshaw suspense series focusing on retired Navy SEAL Ben Blackshaw. Although this is the fourth book in the series, GERONIMO HOTSHOT can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any previous information will be revealed where necessary.

Told from several third person perspectives the storyline advances the series one month. Ben’s wife had been injured in the previous storyline (TAP RACK BANG) and currently remains in a coma; our hero is unable to consider the future without his wife and embarks on another solo adventure to Bisbee, Arizona where racist bigots and white supremacists find themselves involved in a high tech drug war with the FBI, Customs and Border Patrol, a former sheriff, a murderous motorcycle gang, and the possibility of a biological weapon of mass destruction. Raging wildfires add another dangerous dimension to the equation wherein Ben Bradshaw finds himself trapped between the fires and his imminent death.

The lynching and murder of a young African American boy finds Ben on a mission to locate the people responsible and the connection to a religious cult known as the Pure Nation Comitatus wherein the leader presents himself as The Messiah. On a cross country journey from Smith Island on the Chesapeake Bay to the drought riddled forests of Arizona, Ben will come in contact with several people whose connections to and information about the PNC sparks a new sense of dread and urgency in our hero. A local Native American will follow Ben on his journey in the hopes of retribution and revenge.

GERONIMO HOTSHOT is a storyline with several intersecting paths, graphic violence, murder, action and adventure. From racism, prejudice, drug trafficking and murderous vendettas GERONIMO HOTSHOT looks at cult and culture; society, social inequality and community; race relations and ‘new age religion’ wherein people are seeking direction from a charismatic leader who demands obedience and proof of loyalty.

The numerous colorful and dynamic characters drive a good portion of the storyline as the build up follows several plotlines that will intersect and merge throughout the course of the novel. One thing is for sure: Ben Blackshaw is not your stereotypical hero-more of an anti hero-but a man who will command your respect and interest. There is intrapersonal conflict for Ben; and intergroup conflict between the PNC, biker gangs and the former local sheriff. The backdrop of the Arizona forests is a major player throughout the story.

GERONIMO HOTSHOT is an intriguing, enthralling and intense topical storyline. Robert Blake Whitehill will seduce your mind into a world of retribution and revenge. The destructive nature and powerful control of cults, drug trafficking and gangs are central to the storyline premise wherein the ill-fated machinations of the Messiah, the sheriff, and the drug lord will see reprisal and retaliation in the form of Ben Blackshaw and the FBI. Prepare to be pulled into a dark and destructive storyline.

Reading Order
1. Deadrise
2. Nitro Express
3. Tap Rack Bang
4. Geronimo Hotshot

Copy supplied by the author.

Reviewed by Sandy

guest post

Amateur Editors and Rewrites: From Hard Lessons to High Praise
By Robert Blake Whitehill

In film making, the editor assembles the movie from the raw footage gathered during production. In the newspaper business, an editor has the overall shape of the day’s edition in mind when recommending changes to the articles, and laying out their positions. In writing novels, there are different sorts of editors, and they can all make your book better, or make you crazy, depending on your point of view.

Every reader with an advance copy of your latest manuscript is also an editor. Every moment of the story, every word choice gets a subconscious yay or nay of judgment from the reader about the work. The reader might not realize this process is going on if you know your business, tell an interesting, well-structured story, and have done a few passes over the work by yourself before handing it off.

What happens if the reader finds a typo, or doesn’t like something in the story? The reader is pulled out of the story. Something got a nay. A professional editor will tell you exactly what the problem is with fine strokes of a red pen, or clever notes in an annotated .pdf file. An amateur reader/editor will identify trouble, or perhaps a specific issue. As writer, you might not agree that the noted point is a problem. That is always your choice.

Don’t overlook your readers’ concerns. They might not be able to articulate issues with the specific clarity of a professional editor, but their inner story-tellers are wired to flag problem areas. It is up to you to determine if the reader’s note relates to the exact place they mention, or if it is referred pain from a structural issue elsewhere in the manuscript. The reader is not at fault for missing your genius. Trust the reader’s judgment. Examine the area of concern closely. Nothing seems amiss? Next, examine what has come before that problem area in the manuscript. Still all good? Examine what comes after the place your reader planted that red flag. Yes, not providing certain information soon enough in the story might leave your reader confused. You cannot afford that.

The amateur editor will help you make your manuscript better. As an author, you must learn to interpret an amateur editor’s remarks to fully exploit their great value. Remember, amateur means doing a thing for the love of it. Quite possibly it is not for the love of reading that your editor has taken on your work. It is likely the reader has accepted your manuscript out of love for you. Respect that this affection can lead you to the truth of your best work.

~~Robert Blake Whitehill~~

About The Author

Follow Robert: Facebook / Website / Twitter /

Robert Blake WhitehillRobert Blake Whitehill was born into a Quaker family in Mardela Springs, just outside Salisbury on Maryland’s Eastern Shore peninsula. The family home lay next to the pond that powered a colonial-era relic, the Barren Creek Mill. He grew up sailing the Chesapeake Bay, and one of her most beautiful tributaries, the Chester River.

After graduating from Westtown School Whitehill stayed in Pennsylvania to earn his B.A. in creative writing at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges. Later he trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. As with David Mamet, exhaustive studies of the best English language drama for the stage and screen transformed an aspiring actor into a passionate writer.

An early focus on feature screenwriting earned Whitehill film festival wins at the Hudson Valley Film Festival, and the Hamptons International Film Festival where he also received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship for his script U.X.O. (Unexploded Ordnance). His feature script Blue Rinse, co-written with Andrea Shane is currently under option with producer Bill Jarblum (Charley Bartlett, The Little Traitor, Cloudburst), with Olympia Dukakis to star, and Thom Fitzgerald slated to direct.

While writing many highly rated episodes of Discovery/Times Channel’s The New Detectives, Daring Capers, and The Bureau, he served as the Vice President of Independent Film Acquisitions for the groundbreaking Centerseat.com, developing and managing their Independent Film Channel.

His first thriller in the Ben Blackshaw series, Deadrise, was named by Cyrus Webb to the Conversations Book Club Top 100 Books of 2012. His second book in the series, Nitro Express, was named to the Conversations Book Club Top 50 Books of Fiction of 2013.

Movie studio HatLine Productions is optioning the first two books, as well as the third title in the series, Tap Rack Bang, for development into feature films.

Whitehill lives in New Jersey with his wife and son. For a number of years, he has worked with the Montclair Ambulance Unit as an emergency medical technician.

When not sailing, or knocking around the sky in a Cessna 152, Whitehill is a contributing writer to Chesapeake Bay Magazine.

giveaway

Robert Blake Whitehill is graciously offering a signed paper copy of GERONIMO HOTSHOT to FIVE (5) lucky commenters at The Reading Cafe.

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Tap Rack Bang (Ben Blackshaw #3) by Robert Blake Whitehill-Review and Interview

TAP RACK BANG (Ben Blackshaw #3) by Robert Blake Whitehill-Review and Interview

Tap Rack Bang

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RELEASE DATE: September 4, 2014

Former Navy Seal Ben Blackshaw lurks in solitude aboard the shoaled wreck of the American Mariner in the Chesapeake Bay. He is awakened one stormy spring night when a drifting dinghy slams into the old ship’s hull. Blackshaw investigates, and discovers there is only one occupant in the sinking boat, a naked young woman lying unconscious in the bilge.

Against his better judgment, and risking his own undercover operation, Blackshaw gives shelter to Tally, the terrified refugee. He soon learns Tally has escaped a calculating crew of sociopaths who are about to launch an internet site called L’Abattoir, on which hostages will be tortured, and then executed. Tally was able to free herself, but she now she must return to the dreaded dungeon with help to rescue her little sister, and to free twenty other victims-in-waiting.

••••••••••••••••••

REVIEW: TAP RACK BANG is the third installment in Robert Blake Whitehill’s contemporary, adult Ben Blackshaw mystery, suspense series focusing on former Navy SEAL Ben Blackshaw. Although this is the third storyline in the series it can be read as a stand alone without too much difficulty but saying that there is plenty of previous storyline scenarios referred to and discussed, some of which are important to the current timeline. A former nemesis will be front and center in TAP RACK BANG-I only wish I had more information about their previous encounters.

The story follows Ben Blackshaw, a former Navy SEAL who has been in hiding, presumed dead, and now must come out of seclusion to aid a young woman, an escapee, known as Tally whose story of abduction and torture seems too hard to believe. An internet site known as L’Abattoir (French for slaughterhouse) is set to launch, and Tally and her fellow kidnapped detainees are scheduled as the night’s main event.

Ben Blackshaw is a man possessed. He is the hero whose soul is stained with the blood of many. A man whose history is dark but for the number of lives he has saved and secured. When Ben’s wife goes missing, he will do everything possible to ensure her safe return.

Robert Blake Whitehill pulls the reader into a storyline of action, suspense, mystery and drama. There are moments of murderous rage and gluttonous ego wrapped in an abhorrent scenario of human trafficking and sexual perversion. From the elite of society to the political who’s who, the audience of deviant watchers must pay the price for their horrendous and alarming voyeuristic proclivities. The victims are the nameless; the homeless; and the poor; with no one waiting for their return.

The storyline is slow to build as our ‘hero’ must ferret out the people, the places and the information needed to attempt a rescue and take down. The secondary characters are numerous, colorful and complex; from the nemesis, the sidekick, the mentor and the fool, each character will play an important role as Ben gathers intel for the final scene. We will be reintroduced to Ben’s friends and former neighbors who owe Ben more than just their lives.

TAP RACK BANG is an imaginative, graphically violent and compelling storyline that reads like a movie where the action and suspense builds until the final minutes. The novel does not end on a happily ever after for everyone. There are moments of heartbreak, sorrow and loss. No one is safe and everyone is targeted-in the end.

Copy supplied by the publisher.

Reviewed by Sandy

Interview

TRC: Hi Robert and welcome to The Reading Café. Congratulations on the release of TAP RACK BANG.

Robert Blake WhitehillRobert: Thank you! It’s great to speak with you. And I am so happy to have Tap Rack Bang done and out there in readers’ hands. It was difficult to write. Human trafficking is an awful subject to delve into, particularly when it deals with snuff entertainment.

TRC: We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

Follow Robert: Facebook / Website / Twitter /

Robert: I was born and raised a Quaker on Maryland’s Eastern Shore Peninsula by the Chesapeake Bay. Grew up on the water. A little sailing. A little crabbing. Lots of walks in the woods.

I’ve been writing for a long time. Even though I began as an actor, between gigs I custom-wrote audition monologues for other actors I knew. I mean, their headshots look like them. Their resumes reflected their unique experience. Why, I wondered, should they audition with monologues written for somebody else? That’s how my paid writing career really got started.

Since then, I’ve also written a number of highly-rated true-crime shows for Discovery, as well as some award-winning feature scripts. U.X.O. (Unexploded Ordnance) won an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship at the Hamptons International Film Festival.

I have worked as a bridge tender on the Old Severn River Bridge next to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. That was a great office, out there in the middle of the water. What a view! It was a peaceful place to write. I was also a Ginsu Knife pitchman for a time to pay some bills. I’m very proud to have served my town of Montclair, New Jersey on their ambulances as an Emergency Medical Technician. That was a revelatory experience. It was nice to have the company car, the clothing allowance, and for once, not to not have to pull over when I saw the flashing lights of a police escort behind me. Seriously, I got to help folks in the worst ten minutes of their lives. That was quite an honor and a privilege.

TRC: Who or what influenced your career in writing?

Robert: I met my primary writing influences early. My mom is an excellent poet, and a fine editor. My dad was an award-winning short story author and novelist. I got to see what a writer’s day-to-day life looked like, and learned so much from their work. Professor Robert H. Butman at Haverford College, and Dominic Le Poer Power at the British and European Studies Group: London taught me a tremendous amount about dramatic writing.

It might seem strange, but I learned most about writing, and how much I loved it, during my study of acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Memorize and perform some of the best dramatic writing in the English language, and it really sticks with you. I realized I was full of stories, and infested by strange voices for which the only exorcism was writing.

Robert McKee remains an important teacher. If he is revered as a writing guru, he earned it.

I read Melville, Stevenson, Defoe, Wyss, and Verne when I was in grade school, and yes, The Hardy Boys, too. Today, I admire the work of Carl Hiaasen, Scott Smith, Alistair MacLean, Tom Robbins, Randy Wayne White, Lee Child, Dennis Lehane, and James Lee Burke. My Ben Blackshaw Series has elements of each of those great authors, at least to some degree.

TRC: When not writing, what do you do to relax?

Robert: When I’m not writing, I really enjoy reading, hitting movies, practicing tai chi, exercising, birding, hiking, knocking around in our flying club’s planes, getting out on the Chesapeake, and most of all, hanging with my wife and son.

Tap Rack BangTRC: Would you please tell us something about the premise of TAP RACK BANG-the third installment in your Ben Blackshaw mystery/suspense series?

Robert: Tap Rack Bang finds former U.S. Navy SEAL Ben Blackshaw lying low aboard the shoaled wreck of an old Liberty Ship in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Late one night he discovers an old dinghy washed up at the wreck, with a woman lying dead in it. Turns out, she was only exhausted and unconscious, and she has just escaped from a human trafficking ring that was planning to kill her, as well as her little sister, and a number of other hostages on a high-priced on-line snuff site. Without quite knowing what he is up against, Blackshaw risks blowing his own cover and agrees to help free the fugitive’s sister and the other hostages. He teams with his old friend Knocker Ellis Hogan, but realizes he is going to need the help of a few of his neighbors as well. Not everybody wants to pitch in. In the final assault on the snuff site’s impregnable hideout, Blackshaw and Ellis are outgunned. Blackshaw risks losing the one thing in life he values most. The outcome, well, it’s devastating. Tough as he is, Blackshaw’s psyche just about comes unglued. No spoilers, but it isn’t clear he is going to get through this one alive, or what will be left of him if he makes it.

TRC: How many books do you have planned for the Ben Blackshaw series?

Robert: I’m in for at least ten missions in The Ben Blackshaw Series, but there will likely be many more. I’m having too much fun!

TRC: Can each book be read as a stand-alone?

Robert: Every book in the Ben Blackshaw Series is a stand-alone work. Deadrise is the first book. There is a bit of relevant back-story in each subsequent book, Nitro Express, and Tap Rack Bang, but only as needed. A paragraph or two. That’s it. Just enough to make sense of the current mission, without doing a whole extended recap. Of course, growing with a character from his inception offers readers the pleasure of certain nuances and inside references and clues, but by no means do you need to read Deadrise to understand Nitro Express and Tap Rack Bang.

Ben Blackshaw Series

TRC: Is there any new information or news regarding the possibility of the Ben Blackshaw series optioning to television or motion pictures?

Robert: I am elated to report that HatLine Productions, based in Los Angeles, has optioned the feature film and television rights to Deadrise, Nitro Express, and Tap Rack Bang. I wrote about that optioning process for Writer’s Digest, but the main thing is, you never know who is connected to whom in terms of helping one’s dream be realized. HatLine, including Stephanie Bell, with whom I attended Haverford College, and Michael Lipoma and Tamra Teig, are an amazing visionary troika. I feel assured The Ben Blackshaw Series movies will be successful in their hands. I was thrilled to learn they felt I was uniquely qualified to adapt the books into screenplays myself. That level of involvement is afforded very few novelists. I’m very grateful for the privilege, and for their confidence. The prospect of seeing The Ben Blackshaw Series on the big screen is so exciting, even though it is a long way off with so much work to do along the way.

TRC: Which actor or model would best represent your ideal image of Ben Blackshaw?

Robert: Not to burst anyone’s bubble, but casting Ben Blackshaw will come pretty close to using a movie industry algorithm to make that final determination. The producers and distributors will put their heads together and see which actors are drawing big audiences. Those actors will be approached, and if we’re lucky, one will love the project and still have availability in his schedule for the shoot. If one of them likes the project, but is not available, the production might wait until he is free.

It’s a funny thing, but statistics show that casting a big star often does not produce wham-bam box office results, but it gives the distributors confidence. Saving the megastar’s massive fee and rider costs by casting a lesser known talent would drastically lower the film’s breakeven point, but a star represents insurance in the distributor’s mind. That said, producers can innovate in casting outreach more, the further they are working from the project’s larger above-the-line roles. My own thoughts for Ben Blackshaw include Matthew McConaughey, Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Jeremy Renner, and Timothy Olyphant.

Of course, a hero is ultimately judged by the power and savagery of the monster he defeats. The antagonist in Deadrise, a bastard named Maynard Chalk, would no doubt be incredibly well-rendered by Jack Nicholson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sharlto Copley, Geoffrey Rush, or Bill Nighy.

But let’s not forget the other ways we judge a hero: by the strength of his friendships and the depths of his love. For Blackshaw’s spotter, Knocker Ellis Hogan, I could envision Samuel L. Jackson, Delroy Lindo, Morgan Freeman, Laurence Fishburne or Keith David. For Ben Blackshaw’s beloved fiancée, LuAnna Bryce, I could see Anna Faris, Noomi Rapace, Claire Danes, or Anna Paquin.

I’m actually very curious to learn from readers who they think would best play Ben Blackshaw and the others.

TRC: How do you keep the plot unpredictable without sacrificing content and believability?

Robert: After a few initial lines of writing, the characters take over, keeping the plot very unpredictable. Plot is the sum of the characters’ decisions, actions and the results of those actions. The Blackshaw Series crew, both good and bad, is always surprising me. If their actions are grounded in emotional truth, then I can sustain believability, and sometimes stretch it without breaking. My readers love action-adventure, mysteries, and thrillers. They get some romance, too, no charge.

TRC: What challenges or difficulties (research, logistics, background) did you encounter writing this particular storyline and series?

Robert: Though I am from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, I constantly research the places and people there, to deepen my knowledge of the Chesapeake Bay region. That shows in The Ben Blackshaw Series, I sincerely hope. I often go to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, in St. Michaels, Maryland, to see what’s new in their understanding of history. I visit Smith Island, where Blackshaw is from, and Tangier Island as well. All that keeps my background for the stories solid.

A difficulty writing The Ben Blackshaw Series is the fact that I was raised Quaker, which is among other things, a pacifist religion. I have never served in the military. For my military strategies, tactics, ballistics and ordnance usage, I rely on reading books, and searching the Internet. All that information then gets vetted by two guys. The first is my cousin, decorated veteran Walter Whitehill, who served very effectively overseas on a sniper team. I get further ideas from Adam Gubar, a noted, quoted scholar on ballistics and armaments.

For Tap Rack Bang in particular, researching human trafficking of adults and children, as well as learning about gore sites on the Internet, was simply depressing, but it had to be done. Of course, at some point you start writing, you integrate and synthesize the facts, and see where they take you. I am told I have a pretty sick imagination, but then things I thought were fiction, things I was putting into Tap Rack Bang, began to be reported on the news. A fellow writer says, “It’s only fiction until it happens.” I did not want to be right about a lot of this material. For good or ill, it turns out I was.

TRC: When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Robert: Bear with me for a moment on this. It is easy to market a series by aligning the author with the main character. Their names are the key elements of the series brand. What few realize is that, while the marquee character recurs from book to book, the author’s real comradery is with the antagonist, the hero’s enemy. If you see an author standing proudly by his main character, what you might not see is that author pressing a shiv against the character’s kidney out of sight of any onlooker. I think Ben Blackshaw is a great character, but who would really know what Blackshaw is made of if all his nemeses, like Maynard Chalk, or Nitro Express, or Joachim DePriest, were wimps! A mystery/thriller author is at his, or her, best when acting as the hero’s worst enemy.

All that said, The Ben Blackshaw Series characters run the show. I just sit down at the keyboard every morning and dream up problems, fascinated to see what they’ll do next. They always surprise me.

TRC: The mark of a good writer is to pull the reader into the storyline so that they experience the emotions along with the characters. What do you believe a writer must do to make this happen? Where do you believe writer’s fail in this endeavor?

Robert: I think that finding emotional truth is the best way to help readers empathize with the main character. I often work with Blackshaw’s fears: fear of losing what he has, and fear of not getting what he wants. Every reader, every human can identify with those two manifestations of fear. Moving forward in the face of fear, in the face of danger, and insurmountable obstacles, makes Blackshaw a guy readers want to root for. He doesn’t have a lock on any situation. He cannot completely rely on his closest friends. We have all been there. The fact that Blackshaw will come through is teased by my including the opening chapter of his next mission at the end of every book. But what kind of shape will he be in? Rested? Healthy? Sane? Ready to sally forth? No. Never. Blackshaw might barely make it through one book, but I still prefer to start him off in the next book at an ebb, and pull him even farther down into a riptide of obstacles.

Some authors are great at creating cold, practical, implacable hero characters. Many readers want to identify with a hard guy. Readers can definitely project their own emotions onto a tabula rasa character like that. I prefer to make Blackshaw as relatable as possible, with human foibles, with prosaic fears, and then see how he pulls himself through the catastrophes thrown at him, even if he is staggering or crawling at the end.

TRC: Writer’s Block is a very real phenomenon for some authors. How do you handle the pressures and anxiety of writer’s block?

Robert: I write five pages a day, five days a week, for four or five months to come up with a complete draft I can edit. I stick to that. It might take eight hours to meet that daily goal, or it might take eighteen hours. It doesn’t matter. If I manage that smaller result, the bigger result of knowing I will have a full rough draft to edit after a few months helps me handle the daily pressures. Then comes the editing, which cures any problems that cropped up along the way.

TRC: Many authors bounce ideas and information with other authors or friends and family. With whom do you bounce ideas?

Robert: My father, award-winning short story author and novelist Joseph Whitehill, told me never to shop ideas at cocktail parties or anywhere else, because it vitiates a writer’s story-telling urge. Saps it. Lets the air out of the balloon. For a while, I thought Dad was wrong on this point. Then I tested a few premature ideas with friends, and yes, I even did it a few parties to feel, well, more interesting. I discovered afterward that I did not feel the least drive to write that story anymore. Sometimes I couldn’t even remember the original idea at all. Phhttt! It was gone! So now I keep radio silence until the rough draft is done, or even until there has been at least one editorial pass. Then I show the work to a very few trusted friends.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Robert: Right now, I am excited to be writing the screenplay for Deadrise, as well as Book 4 in the Ben Blackshaw Series, entitled Geronimo Hotshot.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Robert: You ask great questions. I would like to suggest The Ben Blackshaw Series to anyone who loves a great yarn, and who also wants to understand the unique people and setting of the Chesapeake Bay region. It is a very special place to me. As a Smith Islander, Ben Blackshaw is a decent, faithful man with extraordinary skills who fights hard for justice, for home, and for his people. I hope readers will want to get to know a man like that.

Also, anybody is welcome to get in touch with me about The Ben Blackshaw Series, or writing, or whatever’s on your mind at rbw@robertblakewhitehill.com. I respond to every email.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite TV Show: The Bridge.

Last Movie You Saw: Interstellar.

Favorite Musical Group: Ingrid Lucia and the Flying Neutrinos.

Dark or Milk Chocolate: Yes.

Secret Celebrity Crush: My wife Mary is my only crush. I respect and admire Mimi Leder as a director, and Stephanie Bell as a producer.

Last Vacation Destination: Quebec City, like Europe on our own continent.

Do you have any pets? We have a beta named Minnie Estelle.

Pet Peeve: I dislike clichés, whether colloquial, or of my own creation from repeating a key word or phrase within the same chapter. It strikes me as lazy. God forbid!

TRC: Thank you Robert for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations and all the best.

Robert: Thank you so much! It has been a genuine pleasure visiting with you.

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