What’s this book about again?
If you are familiar with my style of writing you know I like to use current events in stories. Much like the Law & Order shows, my topics are “ripped from the headlines” and then given their own unique twist. The Twelve Shepherds does this as well and plays off the storyline in Closure in order to happen.
In Closure we had Sam Shepherd, a military veteran who is driven by personal tragedy into conducting a violent campaign against the justice system. NOT the people that make up the system, but rather the way the system is run. His victims were based on real-life criminals and the ways they slipped through the system. That theme continues in The Twelve Shepherds, only this time there are twelve Sams, and still only one Jack. His fight has become an epic one.
If you pick up Episode one you will soon draw connections to the case of an affluent Texas teenager who felt he was above the law. Things work out a little differently for the kid in the book.
Is it just Jack in this one?
No, Jack is joined my all of the usual suspects you’ve come to know in the previous novels. Sydney is there as well as Larry. Greg is back, although a bit slower. Jack’s boss is still in charge and doing his best to keep Jack safe from the politicians and government insiders. There’s also a new threat, one that’s bigger and outside the law as much as the Shepherds are. The battle quickly becomes one of three fronts with Jack in the minority. Lenny from Interpol has yet to appear, but as the story progresses his presence will become necessary.
Do I need to read all of the Jack Randall series before starting The Twelve Shepherds?
No, but I highly recommend reading Closure before taking on The Twelve Shepherds. The characters and their histories are all spelled out there and the books make several references to things that happened in the past that will be confusing to a reader who picks up The Twelve Shepherds first. Closure is still free on all platforms and will remain so for some time. The timeline of The Twelve Shepherds takes up after the forth book in the series, Security, but the references to it and the other books is not enough to throw off the reader who skips them to start The Twelve Shepherds after Closure.
When is the forth episode coming out?
Episode 4 will be out July 24th with the following episodes released a week apart until all twelve episodes of Season one are out. The Season Two will be released one episode a month after that. There is no end in sight. As long as you want the story to continue I intend to keep writing it. Game of Thrones is in its sixth year. Law & Order has been with us since 1990. The West Wing lasted seven years. If that kind of longevity works for The Twelve Shepherds I will be quite happy.
“Your subject matter hits a little close to home.”
This is true. I’ve thought about this in the past and even worried about it to the point of changing some things I have written. In the end I’ve decided to write what I write, but be careful in some areas.
If a writer can pen his story without making the world a more dangerous place, I feel he/she should do so. But we can’t be held responsible for what goes on in another persona head either. There’s a fine line one needs to be aware of I think. Granted we can’t control, nor should we control, what’s in a person’s mind, but we can at least, in theory, deny them the ability to be more lethal when they do make the decision to be violent. But am I really doing that?
Nothing I write about, be it shooting, or explosives, or military tactics, is confined to my personal knowledge and experience. It can all be found in any number of sources. The internet. Real world training. History books. Movies. Video games. And yes, other books. I feel I simply assemble them into a form of entertainment.
We’ve seen a lot of violence in America and around the world lately. More than we ever should. But fiction is just that, fiction. If we start placing restraints on it we may as well do away with it all together.
That, to me, is an even bigger crime.
I have just finished Closure and having slept on it a few nights, I have a suggestion. You have,I am sure, been watching the circus that is the run up to the Presidential election in November. There is an obvious yearning of the people for a drastic change in the way our government is run. This feeling is apparent in other countries as well. I have a feeling that people everywhere are considering a revolution at some level. With Islamic jihadism at all time levels and immigrants flooding into western countries by the thousands, I think it is only a short time, if not already, before people will had enough. Both of our candidates have radically different ideas on how our country should be run and it is scary to think what will happen next January. You may as well use some of this angst in a storyline and present some of the possible outcomes. Will it be Armageddon or the Second Coming? Have fun working it all out for us.
I also have just finished reading Closure. It’s amazing to realize that some people don’t understand that there are people trained to do exactly what Sam and Jack had been trained to do in order to protect our country. Are we really that naive? I actually cheered when the Senator died and that was when I realized that it’s definitely time for some changes in how our government is being run. I agree with mainebeekeeper. I have a bit of vigilante in me, I guess but I know that despicable things are being done behind the scenes for selfish reasons, not to help our country. That needs to change…Closure should be required reading in schools and our children and young adults should be prompted to come up with sensible solutions. Keep these great books coming…on to The Twelve Shepherds..
I have read all 11 and I am waiting for 12 and season 2, a great read!