SPECIAL--July 2021--Author Spotlight

Hello I’m David and this is not a MOJO Minute.   Lol

But This is a special little episode and I’m excited to be sharing this one with you.

This is one friend telling another friend of a great writer and the love of his books.

This special segment we are going to call our “author spotlight”

We will feature a new author each month and will highlight their books on special page at the Team MOJO Academy website. 

I will talk more about this segment later but for now, here's the opening preface from one of my favorite authors and our first inaugural MOJO Academy author spotlight

“Helicopters, it was said, didn’t fly—they merely beat the air into submission. 

But halfway between continental Norway and the North Pole, it felt as if the air were winning. 

As sleet slammed against the exterior, another sixty-plus-mile-per-hour gust rocked the airframe. 

The rotors groaned in protest. There was only so much the helo could handle. 

They were pushing it beyond its limits. Scot Harvath didn’t need to see the water to know the slate-gray ocean was roiling with whitecaps. 

This far above the Arctic Circle, where moisture from the south collided with icy polar winds, massive depressions formed, unleashing nightmare weather. 

If anything went wrong, there would be no rescue. No one back at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, much less anyone at the White House, would acknowledge him, or the mission he was on. 

He glanced at the cracked face of his watch, blood crusted atop its bezel. 

Just a little farther, he thought to himself. We’re almost there. 

Ignoring the pain in his ribs, he reached for his pack and opened it. 

Everything was still in place. Take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you . 

It was a mantra that had saved his life again and again. Under his mountaineering jacket, he felt the cold press of metal against his skin. 

No one knew if the odd-shaped key, hanging from a piece of paracord, would even work—not after all this time. 

If it didn’t, all of the danger, all of the risk, would be for nothing, and the consequences would be deadly. 

Failure, however, wasn’t an option. That was the world he lived in. 

He wasn’t interested in easy tasks. In fact, he had always chosen the most difficult, the most perilous assignments. It was how he was wired. 

No matter how bleak the scenario, he would never give up. Success was the only outcome he would entertain. 

But as yet another gale-force blast of frigid air convulsed the helicopter, causing it to swing violently from side to side, he began to have his doubts. Moments later, an alarm began shrieking from the cockpit, and Harvath knew they were in trouble. 

The pilots, though, were able to regain control. The bird was still swaying, but nowhere near as badly as before. 

It looked like everything was going to be okay. Then there was an earsplitting crack. It sounded as if the helo had been hit by lightning. 

It was followed by the tail rotor completely shearing off. And as it did, the helicopter began to spiral. 

They were going down.”

And that my friends is the opening preface to the NEW Brad Thor novel , Black Ice, which was just released this past week and let me tell you, I read it in 4 days.  Lol 

So the Team MOJO Academy first author spotlight is going to be Brad Thor

Now you may be thinking, hey wait, Brad Thor is a fiction writer and that is strange because the Academy doesnt do fiction book reviews.

And you would be correct, lol

But I wanted to share Brad Thor with you all because I just love his writing and I love his books and I love sharing my love of books with you in the audience.

IN fact, that is the reason for me starting the MOJO Academy was because of my love for wisdom and wanting to help others find that wisdom and share that wisdom and these MOJO minutes all to wrap up into what we have termed her to live a flourishing life.

So back to author spotlight and back to this little segment we are going to do monthly.

Question:  Who is Brad Thor?

He is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of 21 thrillers.    21 folks.   

This guy is crazy productive at putting out new books each and every year.

I started reading back in 2015 or 16 and I think found him first in an airport bookstore.   

If you liked Tom Clancy back in the day.   If you like Vince Flynn and you like authors that keep and weave their main protagonist through different books, then you will love love love, Brad Thor and his main character, Scott Harvath.

This genre is cloak and dagger spy stuff.   

Back to Brad’s biography…

Brad has appeared on all the major media  channels ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, FOX, CNN.

Question:  What makes Thor’s writing so good?

So for me, three things stand out when you are reading any Thor novel and I have read I think 5 or 6 of the 21 books so far now.

Thor was one of two authors invited after September 11th by the White House to get people outside the beltway who are thinking about possible terrorist attacks and who can think outside the box on these things and how we as a country could be proactive.

At the time, the Department of Homeland Security created what they called their “Analytic Red Cell Unit”

Thor served as a member of that organization.

Also because he has been in the radar for some time in Washington and he is a favorite among the tier one special operations folks, his books get passed around from one guy to another.   

Meaning the plot of his books have been talked about and explored with those guys and you can hear Brad laugh in many interviews he has done regarding is his unique way of conducting research 

namely buying many spec ops guys, a lot of steak dinners and bottles of wines at nice restaurants to hear those same guys them tell their stories, details and tidbits and 

then go back and begin to craft a storyline for a fiction book.

So that is one reason in that his books always have a possible plot around the current trends in the news headlines.  

Number 2.   He is a really gifted writer.   I mean really gifted.   Once you begin to read any of his novels you will understand quickly how good he is.

For example, almost all the chapters are short.   Quick action, setting up and filling our characters and backstories, great dialog among the characters, interesting tidbits on history and cultural references to real life events.   

Almost every chapter ends with a minor cliff hanger.   It ends with a tease as it is known in the radio world but it makes you want to start the next chapter to know how that particular event or conversation or specific detail comes to fruition.  Ultimately how that minor cliff-hanger was resolved.

Thats just great writing.  Brad delivers well on being a great writer.   

Lastly, Thor fills out his characters and their motivations, and once you have read one Brad Thor novel, I believe you will love his main character, Scott Harvath.   

So once you love his main character, then you want to follow Scot around on his all his adventures from one end of the world to the other.  And from one book to another.  

The great thing about any Brad Thor novel is they are James Bond movies, you can pick up any novel and read it and Brad will fill you in and get you caught up quickly enough that you will know what is going on.  Thats another great thing about his novels.  

And I might add just one bonus reason why Brad Thor is our first author of the “author spotlight” and this comes through on almost every interview he gives.    He is always trying to become a better writer.   

That is what is most impressive about his writing.   In my mind, over the past 6 books I have read, I feel he is becoming a better writer book by book.   Thats encouraging in a cultural where mediocrity is often rewarding.   There is an author is who is pushing himself and his art and craft to live that flourishing life to its peak.  

Thats impressive and that is why he is our Team MOJO Academy author of the month!

Please check out our webpage where we have all of his books listed and also, i have linked a long in depth sit down interview with Brad.  I believe it is over an hour and half.   

Incidentally, that program is one of the greatest programs on television ever produced for book lovers.  It is called in depth and it is on Cspan and almost always airs on the weekends.   More to come on that great television show.   

But for now, i hope you enjoy Brad Thors new book, Black Ice and please check out our webpage for the author spotlight on him.

And thank you for joining me for this special episode on Theory to Action podcast.