Search Forum Home   Starfist: Main  Starfist 11: Flashfire  Another great i...  Another great installment   cutiger90 3 posts Joined 1/24/2006 Another great installment Posted: 02 Feb 06 7:30 AM I was able to purchase Flashfire on 1-28-06 and it is definitely a great addition to the Starfist Universe . My only complaint is I will have to wait on the next installment to find out the conclusion of the campaign and how the story lines will play out. Once again another great read. Finucane 1932 posts Joined 1/25/2006 Re: Another great installment Posted: 03 Feb 06 5:04 AM Cutiger:  Well, aren't you the early bird!  Thanks for that and thanks for the compliment.  We enjoyed writing this one and personally, I think the cover for FLASHFIRE the best of the whole series, suitable for framing.  We've already submitted a sequel, POINTBLANK, that'll be out supposedly late this summer. A lot has to happen though before that comes true, but I guarantee you, PB is a ripsnorter.  David and I are getting together early next month to plot the next book, working title, FIRESTORM. Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.  People like you are very important to us and we appreciate hearing from you.  Now, go out and buy more copies of our books.  We need the royalties! Best personal regards, Dan kb7iuj 61 posts Joined 4/5/2006 Re: Another great installment Posted: 05 Apr 06 2:59 PM I rather liked it myself.  Billie is the most dangerous of leaders:  the one that doesn't listen, even when all the evidence points against him.  shadowghost1 100 posts Joined 2/4/2006 Re: Another great installment Posted: 05 Apr 06 4:00 PM Billie reminds me a bit of Gen. Westmoreland.  Westmoreland would at least sit there and hear what the others had to say.  He might or might not take the advice, but at least he heard what was said. Finucane 1932 posts Joined 1/25/2006 Re: Another great installment Posted: 05 Apr 06 4:44 PM General Billie was not based on any actual figure, at least not the way I wrote him in my scenes.  David might've had someone in mind but to me he was a combination of all the personality traits of a successful manipulator, not a leader.  Actually, if you ever read ONCE AN EAGLE, I think Billie might've been very close to Gen. Courtney Massingill.  I was actually on Westmoreland's personal staff in Saigon for a while.  I worked for his command historian.  At the end of each day Westy would sit down with his stenographer and dictate his impressions of what he'd seen or been discussing on that particular day as well as his impressions on how the war was going.   He called them his "historical notes" and he shared them with his command historian, my boss.  They were not for attribution or publication, just his private thoughts on things.  When the colonel, my boss, was out and there was nobody else in the office, I'd go in and read the transcriptions of Westy's notes.  They were fascinating.  He definitely thought the Marines in I Corps were pursuing a counterproductive strategy.  He was all for "search and destroy" missions which the Marines in his opinion did not do enough of.  You'll remember when Creighton Abrams became COMUSMACV  he abaondoned Westy's strategy.  At the time I thought Westy was just the man for the job in Vietnam.  He was no Billie but he had his favorites and some of them were absolute bums but as long as Westmoreland liked them they could do no wrong.  The big mistake many military commanders make is to accentuate the positive and this leads the staff to downplay the negative sometimes to the point of ignoring significant bad news because everyone's afraid to upset the general.  No staff officer dares go into his general and scream, "You're gonna get us all killed!" because that'd be the end of his career in a heartbeat.  And when the general announces his decision, everyone falls into line despite objections they might've had during the planning phase.  And there are always people around the center of power who'll constantly support what the boss wants, stroke his ego, even to the unfair degradation of those who disagree.  It's hard for anyone in an atmosphere like that to remember he's only human and can screw up.  This can corrupt even basically honest people. Keep your eye on Cazombi and Lyons in the forthcoming POINTBLANK. Dan  Page 1 of 2 12Next    Starfist: Main  Starfist 11: Flashfire  Another great i... Flat View Tree View Oldest To Newest Newest To Oldest