Monday, October 20, 2014

"Blue Warrior"

Growing up in a working class family in central California, Mike Maden spent a fair share of his youth in slaughter houses, canneries and feed mills but a lifelong fascination with history and politics ultimately led to a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California (Davis) focusing on the areas of conflict, technology and international relations. After brief stints as a campus lecturer, political consultant and media commentator, Maden turned to studies in theology and a decade of work with a Dallas-based non-profit where he eventually discovered fiction writing. Drone was the result of a recent challenge by two published friends to try his hand at a novel. Written primarily in Texas, Blue Warrior was edited in the shadow of the gorgeous Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee where Maden and his wife Angela now happily reside.

Maden applied the Page 69 Test to Blue Warrior and reported the following:
Page 69 of Blue Warrior occurs in a Senate intelligence briefing. It’s a little wonky because it lays out what’s at stake for both the U.S. and China in the shifting sands of the distant Sahara desert. But the chapter also demonstrates the skill and insight of Senator Barbara Fiero, one of the novel’s primary antagonists. She’s the smartest person in the room—and also the most dangerous. Unfortunately, not a single drone takes flight nor do any bullets fly on this page but there’s plenty of that coming in the chapters that follow. I want my readers to know what’s at stake for all parties involved in my novels, especially the bad guys. Like some wag once said, every villain thinks she is the hero of the story. A great antagonist is never against the hero; she only pursues her own goals that happen to conflict with the hero’s goals. What Senator Fiero wants is actually much bigger than what they found in the desert, and she has both the power and the will to get what she wants, unless….
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My Book, The Movie: Drone.

The Page 69 Test: Drone.

My Book, The Movie: Blue Warrior.

--Marshal Zeringue