Where did you grow up?
A little town on the Mississippi River in southwest Wisconsin. We moved to Potosi when I finished 5th grade. My father was the new superintendent of schools. We’d lived the previous year in a suburb of Milwaukee, so going to a town of about 750 people was a real change. My folks were in their 14th year of marriage and this was the first house they’d ever owned. All of my grandparents and assorted aunts, uncles, and cousins lived in the same county. It was a great place and time in which to grow up. I didn’t really appreciate it at the time, but I sure do now.
When did you begin writing?
I had a couple great English teachers at Potosi, Mrs. Millman and then, in high school, Mrs. Leonard, who taught me the basics of composition and introduced me to literature. I started writing stories in 7th grade, and by the time I finished high school, I’d written a novel, that will never see the light of day, hopefully.
Do you write during the day, at night, or whenever you can sneak a
few moments?
Usually during the day, when I get home after a morning workout, or in the afternoon if the morning is full of errands in town or chores at home. I’m still working part-time—I’m not exactly sure why—so that can cause a change in the writing process, but I adapt.
What is this book about?
The Silver Falcon is the 4th entry in the White Vixen series. The protagonist is Lt. Col. Jo Ann Geary, USAF Special Operations, an expert martial artist and linguist. The story is set in the fall of 1990. A mysterious object is seen floating eastward over Alaska. It can’t be tracked on radar, but fighter pilots can acquire it visually, although they can’t lock their weapons on it and photographs show nothing. It comes down in a remote section of the Yukon Territory in Canada. Jo Geary is at a Canadian Air Force base near Vancouver on a guest training rotation when the word comes from Washington: go to Dawson City in the Yukon, join up with a Canadian intelligence agent and a group of Canadian Rangers, all indigenous troops, to go into the Tombstone Territorial Park. They are to locate it and secure it, and they can’t waste time, because an unknown aircraft has just come in from the Arctic and dropped paratroopers north of the object’s last known location. Who are they, and how far will they go to keep the target out of Canadian and American hands? And, most importantly, what is this thing that the First Nations people are calling the Silver Falcon?
What inspired you to write it?
Like most Americans, I was amazed when our government allowed that Chinese balloon to sail completely across the country a couple years ago. Why didn’t they shoot it down before it finished its mission and reached the Atlantic? What was it really up there for? I decided to explore that a little bit, putting the Vixen on the case and therefore making it set around 1990 or so, when the administration in charge might have been a little more aggressive. But I also wanted to make the Silver Falcon much more than just a spy balloon. It's so valuable that one nation is willing to risk war to keep it from falling into the hands of its adversary.
Was the road to publication smooth sailing or a bumpy ride?
This is my 9th novel published through KDP Select, and the 6th or 7th time I’ve used Tanja at Bookcoverworld as my cover artist, so those parts went smoothly. I found a new formatter through Reedsy, and she did a great job, so the whole project came together nicely.
If you knew then what you know now, is there anything you would
have done differently?
That’s
always a tough question because it’s like saying, “Would you go back in time
to give your younger self advice?” The answer to that one, in a general sense,
is no. Who’s to say that the advice I’d give my younger self would make things
turn out any better than how they have? I was fortunate to get myself into a
good critique group with other aspiring authors in my area and that has been
immensely helpful.
What is one piece of advice you would like to share with aspiring
authors everywhere?
What I tell new writers now is that the path ahead of them won’t be easy and might not make them much money, but it will be rewarding for them on many other levels. It’s like being any other kind of artist, a musician or a painter or a sculptor. You may not get rich doing this, but that’s not why you’re doing it. You never stop writing, you never stop reading, you never stop learning, because there’s always another story to write, a book to read, a lesson to learn. And get yourself a critique group. You never stop networking, either.
What is up next for you?
I’m
starting work on the next entry in what I call the Men of Honor series,
which has two books so far. These stories and characters aren’t connected other
than by general theme, in which I take my protagonist, an average guy in many
respects, and put him in challenging situations that really test not only his
physical and emotional limits but his sense of personal honor, which is
something I think we’ve really lost sight of these days. The new book is The
Dance We Shared. My guy is Ben Fletcher, a former radio announcer in his
early 50s, now working for the college in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Ben was
divorced about 25 years ago, and shortly after that, he met Veronica Starr, a
TV news anchor in the city. She became the love of his life, but she broke it
off after he made a stupid mistake. Shortly after that, she married an older man
and then moved to the Twin Cities. Ben has never forgiven himself, has not
found another woman to love, and fills his life with his work and martial arts
training. One day, cleaning out a file cabinet, he finds a piece of mail inside
an old catalogue. Inside the envelope is a card, with a phone number and three
words, written in Ronnie’s unmistakable hand: “Please help me.” The problem is,
as the postmark reveals, the card was sent five years ago…shortly before
Veronica Starr, the most prominent TV newscaster in Minnesota, disappeared.
Now, Ben finally has a chance to redeem himself in her eyes, if he can find
her.
Is there anything you would like to add?
I enjoy interacting with my readers in person and on social media. Please check out my website, www.davidtindellauthor.com, for a list of my appearances and links to my blog and social media accounts. Thanks for reading!
Visit David Tindell's website at https://www.davidtindellauthor.com/about-my-books.html to read an excerpt from The Silver Falcon.
Visit Amazon to purchase a copy of the book.
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