PENMORE PRESS - Key Persons
North Korean officers Admiral Pak and General Jang are in charge of an operation that produces high-grade heroin to be sold in the United States as Asian Pure. But an alarming number of high-ranking officers in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are being accused of treason - and not surviving their arrests. Admiral Pak and General Jang suspect it is only a matter of time before their own heads will be on the execution block, unless they can make themselves to valuable to kill off. They figure out a way to dramatically reduce costs and increase the profit margin: rent Simushir Island from Russia and manufacture the drugs closer to their market destination. They even concoct a plausible cover story of establishing a maritime base for merchant shipping. It's a great plan - until other heads of state decide to militarize the operation with a ballistic missile launch facility.
Donald Michael Platt was born and raised in San Francisco, graduated from Lowell High School and received his BA in history from the University of California at Berkeley. After two years in the army, Donald attended graduate school at San Jose State, where he won a batch of literary awards in the annual Senator Phelan Literary Contest.
Donald taught English and creative writing at Los Gatos Union High School, then moved to Southern California to begin his professional writing career. He sold to the TV series Mr. Novak, ghosted for health food guru Dan Dale Alexander, and wrote for and with diverse producers, among them Harry Joe Brown, Sig Schlager, Albert J. Cohen, and Al Ruddy, as well as Paul Stader Sr., Hollywood stuntman and stunt/second unit director. While in Hollywood, Donald taught creative writing and advanced placement European history at Fairfax High School, where he was the chairman for the Social Studies Department.
Donald currently resides in Winter Haven Florida along with his cat, Bodo, a loquacious tyrant. Enjoy this interview of Donald Michael Platt with author Elizabeth Caulfield Felt.
Job Titles:
- Captain of the Continental Navy
Jaco Jacinto, captain of the Continental Navy frigate Scorpion, continues to be a thorn in the side of the Royal Navy by raiding British ports in the Caribbean and capturing prizes. Until the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress sends the solitary Scorpion on an impossible mission: to prevent a naval convoy from reaching Cornwallis.
Jaco's fiancée, Reyna Laredo, is leading a double life: accompanying her brother's militia unit to fight at the battle of Dorchester, and acting as physician to soldiers of both armies, much to the consternation of General Cornwallis's officers. Until a foolhardy officer captures Reyna and her traveling companions, and threatens to execute them all as traitors.
Jaco Jacinto Age of Sail Series Book 2. 1778: The American Revolution is in its fourth year. Even though France sides with the Americans, the issue is still very much in doubt. The Continental Congress is struggling to find money to fund the war. The British have turned their attention to the southern states, where Loyalists are numerous and influential. In December of 1778, Savannah falls to the British. But on the high seas, Britain's sovereignty is being challenged. Prize by prize, Jaco Jacinto and Scorpion are disrupting British commerce. Royal Navy captains fear any encounter with the small rebel frigate that outsails and outguns their ships of comparable size. A task
force consisting of three ships, led by Dilletante, a two-decker armed with 50 newly cast 24-pounder carronades, is sent to bring Scorpion to heel. In England, Jaco's friend Darren Smythe is now captain of Gladius, a frigate armed with twenty 12-pounders. When Dilletante fails to crush Scorpion, Smythe is given command of a small squadron. His sailing orders: Sink or capture Scorpion. If the seas are becoming dangerous territory for Jaco, land is no better. Southern Loyalists would like to see him captured and hanged. Further north, there is Edmund Radcliffe, a disgraced naval officer with a thirst for bloody vengeance.
Jaco Jacinto Age of Sail Series Book 1. It's 1775 and the American Revolution has begun. In England, the Royal Navy has one eye on the rebellious colonials and the other on its traditional enemy, the French. Two teenagers - Jaco Jacinto from Charleston, SC and Darren Smythe from Gosport, England - become midshipmen in their respective navies. Jacinto wants to help his countrymen win their freedom. Smythe has wanted to be a naval officer since he was a boy. From blockaded harbours and the cold northern waters off Nova Scotia and Scotland, to the islands of the Bahamas and Nassau, they serve with great leaders and bad ones through battles, politics and the school of naval hard knocks. Jacinto and Smythe are mortal enemies, but when they meet they become friends, even though they know they will be called again to battle one another.
Josh Haman Series Book 6. In 1991, Gorbachev signs the historic US/Soviet grain deal, committing the Soviets to purchasing eight million tons of grain over the next five years. In response, inflation in the Soviet Union rises almost out of control, the government loses its iron grip on the population, and the Soviet parliament votes to dissolve the Soviet Union. Hardliners want Gorbachev out of power, and the Iranians see the turmoil as a chance to acquire tactical nuclear weapons. The United States realizing it was receiving conflicting intelligence on the situation in the Soviet Union sends Josh Haman to Moscow as an independent set of eyes and ears. On the day he arrives, a KGB general promises to give him the names and addresses of the man who ordered the killing of his first wife's parents. Almost immediately, Haman's mission expands from gathering intelligence on the volatile political situation to stopping the delivery of the nuclear weapons to the Iranians, all the while tormented by the desire to exact revenge.
Josh Haman Series Book 1. In combat, there is a fine line between being overly cautious and cowardice. It's Josh Haman's first tour in Vietnam and he's fresh out of the training command - a "nugget" in Naval Aviator parlance. Josh Haman has to figure out on which side of the line the combat search and rescue detachment's officer-in-charge stands. Untested and without a lot of experience, he has to make a career and life and death decision and live with the consequences.
Josh gets his first taste of the unpredictability of Naval operations when he is picked to be a pioneer in flying helicopters in Navy special operations. He, and Marty Cabot, a Navy SEAL, become pawns in inter-service politics. The two of them are ordered to fly missions that could, if not carried out successfully, have international consequences beyond the war in Vietnam.
Marc Liebman, a former U.S. Navy Captain and Naval Aviator, is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, the Tanker Wars of the 1980s, and Desert Shield/Desert Storm. He served twenty-four years in the Navy and a military career that took him all over the world. Liebman has worked with the armed forces of Australia, Canada, Japan, Thailand, Republic of Korea, the Philippines, and the U.K.
Liebman has just under 6,000 hours of pilot-in-command/co-pilot flight time in a variety of tactical military, civilian fixed and rotary wing aircraft. In the business world, he has been the CEO of an aerospace and defense manufacturing firm, an associate editor of a national magazine and a copywriter for an advertising agency as well as a senior executive of a global business process management firm. He retired from the business world in 2015 to become a full time author.
He lives in Savannah, Texas with his wife of 45+ years and three poodles and spends a lot of time visiting his four grandchildren.
Women Struggling for Visibility in a Gender-Biased World - Sandy Camillo is an Italian American native New Yorker who as a young girl dreamed of becoming either a newspaper reporter like Lois Lane shadowing Superman as he battled the forces of evil or enthralling a jury as the prosecutor in a real- life Law & Order trial. Society however had a different idea regarding the appropriate career choices for women of her generation and dictated that they should happily become nurses, secretaries, or teachers. She originally conformed to this dictate by becoming a teacher, then in her never-ending quest to remain visible, she explored various professions in her home state of New York and adopted states of Texas and Missouri, including teacher, school principal, paralegal, receivership specialist, realtor, court appointed special advocate, legal compliance and governance expert, as well as dedicating her pen to blogging and writing.
Sandy has always practiced walking the walk, not just talking the talk. Throughout her life, she has dedicated herself to promoting equity for women through advocacy. She served as a Director, Secretary and Governance Consultant of the National Board of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a top-ranked women's advocacy nonprofit dedicated to empowering women, and traveled across the U.S to speak to AAUW stakeholders about women's issues. During her spare time, Sandy is happiest hanging out at the beach with her family. When she gets home all sunburned, her dog Sophie and cat Chloe are there to greet her. She is an avid reader and a micro-blogger, focusing on women's issues and aging, with more than 1,500 followers on Twitter. Ms. Camillo holds a bachelor's and master's degree in Education, a postgraduate Certification in Administration, a Court Appointed Special Advocate Certification and real estate licenses from New York and Texas.
Stephan A. Silva is a pharmacist, physician, and foot surgeon who grew up in Westchester County, New York. He earned an undergraduate degree from St. John's University in pharmacy and a doctorate from New York College of Podiatric Medicine. He is board certified in podiatric medicine and surgery, as well as advanced wound care.
In addition to being a writer, Stephan owns and operates a wound care clinic in Boca Raton, Florida. He has been married to his wife, Debra, for thirty years. They have three children and a schnauzer. When not writing or practicing the healing arts, he enjoys martial arts like aikido as well as tennis and racquetball. His true passion is international travel and spending time with his cousins in Piacenza, Italy.
Vincente de Rocamora Book 2. A new life and a new name … House of Rocamora, a novel of the 17th century, continues the exceptional life of roguish Vicente de Rocamora, a former Dominican friar, confessor to the Infanta of Spain, and almost Inquisitor General. After Rocamora arrives in Amsterdam at age forty-two, asserts he is a Jew, and takes the name, "Isaac," he revels in the freedom to become whatever he chooses for the first time in his life. Rocamora makes new friends, both Christian and Jew, including scholars, men of power and, typically, the disreputable. He also acquires enemies in the Sephardic community who believe he is a spy for the Inquisition or resent him for having been a Dominican.
As Isaac Israel de Rocamora, he studies Medicine at Leyden and, at age forty-six, receives a license to practice. That same year Rocamora weds twenty-five year old Abigail Touro, and together they raise a large family. During his time in Amsterdam, Rocamora has a bizarre encounter with Rembrandt, serves the House of Orange as physician, and advises Spinoza before the philosopher's excommunication. He survives a murder attempt, learns from the great English physician Harvey, and a surprise visit from a childhood friend leads to an unusual business venture. Life is never routine or dull for Rocamora. The intrigues start with his arrival in Amsterdam and do not end until he takes his last breath.
"Rocamora is the best historical novel I have read, a fascinating story, well written with vividly portrayed unforgettable characters." -Christiane Engel, MD, PhD, concert pianist, and member Board of Directors of her grandfather Albert Schweitzer's Hospital in Lambarene, Gabon "You have a fine historical novel." -Barnaby Conrad, author of Matador, Manolete, and The Second Life of John Wilkes Booth
Vincente de Rocamora Book 1. No man is closer to a woman than her confessor, not her father, not her brother, not her husband. -Spanish saying. Vicente de Rocamora, the epitome of a young renaissance man in 17th century Spain, questions the goals of the Inquisition and the brutal means used by King Philip IV and the Roman Church to achieve them. Spain vows to eliminate the heretical influences attributed to Jews, Moors, and others who would taint the limpieza de sangre, purity of Spanish blood. At the insistence of his family, the handsome and charismatic Vicente enters the Dominican Order and is soon thrust into the scheming political hierarchy that rules Spain. As confessor to the king's sister, the Infanta Doña María, and assistant to Philip's chief minister, Olivares, Vicente ascends through the ranks and before long finds himself poised to attain not only the ambitious dreams of the Rocamora family but also-if named Spain's Inquisitor General-to bring about an end to the atrocities committed in the name of the blood purity laws. The resourceful young man must survive assassination attempts from a growing list of ruthless foes in both Church and court, solve a centuries-old riddle to quell rumors of his own impurity of blood, and above all, suppress his love for the seemingly unattainable Doña María.