Tom Clancy was my inspiration. It started with Red Storm Rising. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was written by Larry Bond. Tom was the minor co-author. Regardless, I then read Cardinal of the Kremlin and Red October. Then, I followed the Jack Ryan sagas to the bitter end.

I was a techy. I had worked on several defense systems, all of which are now long gone. I’m a military brat and even lived on base for a couple of years. So, I had a background in the field.

And, I was a writer. No, I never wrote anything you might have read. They were mostly histories, scientific reports and essays. But, I believed that I could write a techno-thriller at least as good as Tom’s or Larry’s.

Jihad was my first novel. It was a work of an obsessed passion. I wrote until my hands cramped and swelled. I clutched ice cubes until the swelling came down, and then wrote more and more. My entire world became this novel. And, it wrote itself. I was just the agent that interacted with the real world so that this story could escape into the universe.

When it was accepted by a publisher, I was elated. When the publisher went bankrupt, they took by book with them into oblivion. The edited version you are reading is the first time this novel has been available in almost 20 years. There are two more, but I doubt that I can rewrite them sufficiently for this forum.

However, without Tom Clancy’s inspiration I’d have never tried to write Jihad or any of my other works. So, thank you, Tom. I will miss you, but your works will live on, inspiring the next generation of writers.