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A military historian by avocation, William Roskey has been a cab driver, a member of a moving crew, a Korean translator, an intelligence analyst, a proofreader, a writer, a program analyst, a switchboard operator, a farm hand, a budget officer, a soldier, an editor, a bailiff, a management analyst, and a locksmith. He is a veteran, has prospected for gold in the Arizona desert and mountains, written seven novels and numerous magazine articles over the years, most of them about military history and technology. Examples are Civil War cryptology, satellite photoreconnaissance, North Korean Army special forces, armistice negotiations, and prisoner of war escapes.
WRITE FASTER BILL!
That's what a lot of readers have urged, and I'm delighted to learn that there are so many people who are enjoying the adventures of Dade and Rachael and their friends. I must confess that I'm envious when I read the Acknowledgements section of books by many other novelists. The writers thank all their research assistants, subject matter specialists, agents, publicists, managing editors, copy editors, beta readers, proofreaders, typists, fact checkers, and often numerous others by name who have all helped and encouraged the author at every step along the way.
Friends, I'm doing the best I can, but this is just a one-man operation until I complete each book. That's when my wife, Carol, and I proofread by taking turns reading the entire manuscript to each other three times. During the proofreading sessions I make revisions, some of them pretty extensive. Then I put the manuscript into the code that Amazon uses to produce ebooks and upload it. Next, I layout each page of the book as it will appear in paperback and upload the book as a pdf file. I strive for excellence in every book, which sometimes means discarding large sections of what I've written and starting over. That's what happened in Book 5 for one example. I wrote for a solid two months before I decided to start over with an entirely different plot. In Book 1, I discarded about 35 percent of what I wrote. There were events and characters that I never included in the final manuscript.
I'm not complaining, just trying to explain why it takes me so long to write each book. I do all my own research and fact checking. I do my own editing. Now that I've written five books in the series though, I don't need to do as much research as I did in the beginning, but it's still necessary for every book. At age 77, I don't have the same energy that I had decades ago, and don't write day and night as I once did. That's another factor. Nevertheless, I resolve to spend more time in the coming year writing so fans of the series won't have to wait so long between books. Thanks to all of you for your enthusiasm and support.