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PILOT ERROR
Veteran crash investigator Nick Phillips has discovered evidence of fatal pilot error often enough to expect it. But when a private jet slams into a ridgeline, a far more disturbing possibility emerges.
Nick’s career-obsessed boss tries to remove him as head of the investigation team. His replacement? The boss’s clone, a quintessential minion who will do anything to climb the bureaucratic ladder. It’s an unusual move, and Nick’s personal radar takes notice.
The owner-pilot faced indictment for war crimes as the leader of an anti-terror assassination squad. What if he signed his own death warrant with his well-publicized threats to implicate the high-level government officials who sanctioned his targets?
Nick suspects a cover-up in the making. The victim’s legendary reputation as a mediocre aviator is a perfect smokescreen to conceal airborne murder behind an expeditious finding of pilot error.
But it’s not going to happen on Nick’s watch. They have no idea who they’re dealing with.
And neither does Nick . . .
RED LINE
Retired aviation accident investigator Nick Phillips wants nothing more than to be left alone. To run a flight school, be a good husband to his wife of twenty-five years, and a supportive father to his two college-age children.
But Nick’s tenacious investigation into the government’s sabotage of a private jet and assassination of a prominent political figure four years ago still captures the public’s imagination. His past will not be denied a continuing role in his life when a reporter for an obscure publication named American Vigilante contacts him to propose a “Where Is He Now?” article. Nick refuses the interview. The reporter writes it anyway and publishes an eBook titled Airborne Justice that sells over 200,000 copies in the first month alone.
Snooping tourists sporting cell phone cameras and paparazzi aiming lenses as long as their tentacle-like arms descend on the sleepy mountain town of Cedar Valley, Colorado, and wreak havoc on Nick’s once-quiet existence. Then into the mix drives a black Mercedes sedan with a married man’s worst nightmare at the wheel.
Caitlin Monroe, a heart-stopping beauty carrying a Walther PPK-S .380 semi-automatic pistol as more than a fashion accessory, preys upon what Nick has lost: the thrill of the hunt for clues as to how someone tampered with an airplane and transformed it into a pile of smoldering junk with her lover at the controls. Murder is no accident, and crash detective Nick Phillips cannot resist the temptation to prove it.
OASIS JACKET BLURB
Thirteen-year-old Toby Williams lives with his parents on US Space Station Oasis, orbiting the Moon in support of Moon Colony #1, an infinitely sustainable biosphere. Destined to be a refuge from the effects of overpopulation, environmental pollution, and climate change on Earth, Oasis has become the symbol of mankind’s survival as a species, and an invaluable prize worth taking by an international criminal conspiracy.
As the only human ever conceived and born in space, Toby yearns to visit Earth before it’s too late and experience the wonder of running barefoot in the grass, or learning to skip stones across the placid surface of a pond, or building a tree house with his dad. He also dreams of becoming a Space Command pilot like his hero, Captain Brett Larsen. But his plans for the future collapse around him when he finds out that he can’t learn to fly in space, and because all parent volunteers for Oasis duty signed contracts committing them to an indefinite period of service, he can’t visit Earth. Unwilling to accept the unfairness of being trapped in space due to no fault of his own, Toby begins scheming to change his destiny.
Events soon spiral out of control with arrival of the point man for the conspiracy, whose mission adds an insurmountable obstacle to Toby’s dream. The intruder takes a hostage; plants a bomb in the reactor room; demands a shuttle, loaded with a space fighter, and a pilot for his return to Earth.
When Toby learns that Brett has volunteered to be the pilot and agreed to sacrifice his own life to prevent the takeover of Oasis, he comes up with a desperate plan to stowaway on the shuttle, do whatever it takes to save Brett’s life, and prevent the loss of his family’s Oasis in the sky.
From the cockpits of a space fighter and a shuttle, to deep within the core of a space station, to night aerial combat as seen through the eyes of a fighter pilot, the novel Oasis tells a story about the power of dreams and the indomitable spirit of a teenager who refuses to accept the destiny imposed upon him by others.
OASIS AUTHOR’S FOREWORD
Oasis is a novel of the alternative past that begins approximately 30 years prior to present day, based on three questions.
What if the 1984 NASA Space Station Freedom project had not been transformed into the International Space Station in 1993?
And what if chaos born of overpopulation, environmental pollution, unceasing warfare, climate change, and a series of increasingly virulent pandemics had put Earth on an unalterable 30-year collision course toward a final global apocalypse?
How might these events might have changed history?
In the real historical timeline, the space race is born in the 1950s as an extension of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
After an impressive string of “firsts” for the Soviets in the early ’60s, the Americans solidify their technological supremacy through the Apollo program and plant a U.S. flag on the moon on July 20, 1969. The Soviets are unable to respond in kind.
The next step for the U.S. is development of a space shuttle designed to supply Freedom, both unrealized technological leaps. Budgetary cuts, design changes and ballooning costs halt any significant advances in the Freedom program while space shuttle development continues. With the collaboration of Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada, the Freedom project becomes the International Space Station.
In the alternative history of Oasis, squabbling among ISS members, Russian budgetary constraints, and a series of technological problems cause Russia to drop out. The ISS project is terminated.
Loss of the ISS and increasingly dire predictions for the future of mankind remove any US government hesitancy with regard to accelerating completion of Freedom and implementing changes in the space shuttle program with the following objectives: increase payloads; add the capability to leave low Earth orbit for travel to the Moon; utilize powered flight after returning from space; reduce turnaround time for the next launch; and incorporate the latest developments in military aviation technology as defense against any attempts by foreign governments to interfere with America’s dominance in space and controlling access to Moon Colony #1.
These space shuttle improvements accelerate construction of Freedom, which becomes operational with full-time crew member presence, followed by the first successful space shuttle departure from Earth orbit, trip to the Moon, and entry into Lunar orbit.
Construction of Oasis begins. Shortly after the space station receives its first permanent crew member contingent, the Lunar Landing Module transfer of construction materials and supplies for Moon Colony #1 further solidifies and accelerates progress.
In July, 2012, The United States Space Command successfully proves viability of each individual element of the project to the point at which shuttle missions provide a steady stream of supplies in sufficient quantity to support Oasis and the Moon Colony #1 project, and the Top Secret Lunar Defense Project delivers its first Spacefighter to Oasis.
As the story begins in April, 2017, might not the world look like this?
The United States has been relatively successful in stemming the tide of self-destruction by aggressively adopting measures to reverse the trends. It has clean water, food production capability meeting its needs, and a stable population. Other industrialized nations are for the most part attempting to do the same, but with varying degrees of success. For the underdeveloped countries, however, the prognosis is not good, with starvation, disease, war, and pestilence exacting a grim toll. It is this widening gulf of disparity which has created the current quintessential have and have-not dichotomy of the world.
Traditional military and border patrol functions have been combined to provide the necessary protection from illegal immigration, but the task is becoming increasingly more difficult. It is a defensive posture of dubious longevity.
Construction of Moon Colony #1, an infinitely sustainable human habitat in space, is publicly dedicated to developing and testing the feasibility of totally recycling all consumable resources, but is privately considered to be the key to survival of the species Homo Sapiens.
U.S. Space Station Oasis is a massive spin-gravity structure, home to about 3000 crew members and their families, all of whom volunteered for an indefinite period of duty with the understanding that they may never be allowed to return to Earth.
Thirteen-year-old Toby Williams, the only human ever conceived and born in space, lives with his parents on Oasis. He has never been fully accepted by the other kids, all of whom migrated to the space station when they were between three to five years old. Ostracized and excluded, Toby has developed an independent, adventurous spirit fueled by a loner mentality.
As the novel opens, Toby is also dealing with the internalized, never-revealed fear that the other kids might be right, and he indeed is a freak. For the last couple of years, he has become increasingly aware that he can extend his ability to sense audio, spatial, and heat anomalies beyond his immediate surroundings.
Little does he know how vitally important these unique gifts will soon become.
WINGS ON MY WORDS
Do you have a novel in you, trapped by the gatekeeper monopoly of literary agents and the Big 5?
Has the eBook revolution re-awakened your aspirations?
Are you hesitating, unsure how to make your dream a reality?
In Book One of Wings On My Words, tales from the writer’s desk, Tosh McIntosh shares the lessons learned during his personal journey from the seed of a story idea to completed novel and his decision to Go Indie.
Takeaways in each chapter identify key milestones along the way and provide the motivation of common experience to help you keep the goal in sight and persevere.
WORDS ON MY WINGS
Boarding an airliner, do you ever glance to your left for a quick peek into the cockpit? And do you wonder what it’s like up there with your hands and feet on the controls, doing all the things commercial pilots do?
What about those military pilots who put themselves in harm’s way to protect the freedoms we enjoy? Have you ever fantasized about flying one of those magnificent flying machines?
Tosh McIntosh knows. With over forty years as a professional aviator in tactical fighters and commercial jets, he puts you in the cockpit for a glimpse of his world as seen through the lens of personal experience.
Book One of Words On My Wings, tales from the cockpit, begins with the fickle role of fate in setting the course of Tosh’s career, covers the early days of learning to fly light aircraft, and describes the initial portion of his Undergraduate Pilot Training with the United States Air Force.
Subsequent books in the series will cover the stages of his military and civilian careers and the transition to sport aviation after retirement from professional aviation.
