The War

Three years ago, a soldier wrote to me saying how much he enjoyed The First Counsel, and it meant so much. I actually got 40,000 paperbacks -- from all different thriller authors -- donated through the USO. We never publicized it. Never told a single newspaper. But to be honest, I never knew what happened. Last night, I got the below, which just answered the question.

Whatever your feelings on the war, those troops are fighting for us. And I hope they know how much we appreciate it.

I am writing you from Balad, Iraq. I wanted to take a second to share a story about your books and there role in the war. I was first here in 2003. Several months in to the invasion things were still pretty primitive but mail was finally starting to catch up. One day a rather large box showed up from a womens club in Indiana. The box was addressed to Solider in the War. Inside the box was a bunch of used books. Everybody dove for what they like best. I ran across the book First Council. I read it as often as time and bad guys would allow. I was hooked. I loved the book. As I finished it I started reading the first chapter of The Millionaires that was included in at the end of First Council. So well written and just enough information to get you hooked. For days I was bothered by the fact that would no way be able to read it until I got home, several months from that point. Sitting in the Detroit Airport on my trip home from Iraq I walked in to a book store and found it. So overwhelmed with joy I had it read before I ever made it home. Fast forward through a few years of college and no enjoyment reading. The other day I am on a mission, some thing happened and we were not going to be able to make it back to our FOB (forward operating base) so we had to stop at one that was a little closer. On every post there is a MWR (Moral, Welfare and Recreation) center. MWR centers are almost always made up of the same affair of phone, internet linked computers, TVs and if you were lucky a run down pool table. We headed over to Camp Tajis MWR center and to my surprise they had a small library room in this MWR. It was probably not more than a few thousand used paperbacks lining the walls. The books were arranged in no order with the exception of one small book case where the books were organized by author. To my delight they had a section of the book shelf dedicated to just your books. Labeled with a hand made label, the shelf had almost all your books in multiple copies. It is weird how I have to come to a war zone to be able to enjoy your books. I read The Zero Game while we were there and am currently working on The Book of Fate.

Have no fear, your work dose not always go to a used book store to wait for the next reader but rather some of them take a different journey. Read amidst the chaos and the boredom but only once used to make sure my dinner that night was not as cold as it was served. Sorry but it was just a few chapters.

Keep up the good work and I patiently wait for your next book.