I PASSED MY FAA EXAM!

Long-time readers of my WHAT’S NEW page know that I’ve been taking flight instruction for quite a while.  I started because I knew that there would be four aircraft sequences in THE SHIMMER.  My commitment to research prompted me to seek out a flight school, Sierra Aviation, here in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

It’s been a long process, partly because this liberal arts devotee isn’t used to dealing with mathematics and principles of physics.  But finally, last month, I took the FAA exam.  An examiner asked me questions for two hours and then flew with me for another two hours.  The day was especially gusty, with rising thermals adding to the difficulty, but I had so much training that the gusts were to me merely a breeze.  After the final landing, in which I was required to touch down at a specified spot and stop within two hundred feet, the examiner said (I’ll never forget it), “That’s it.  We’re done.  You’re very well prepared.”

There are only 236,000 private pilots in the United States.  Becoming one of them is a highlight of my life.

 THE SHIMMER IS NOW IN STORES.

This month, I’ll be traveling to various bookstores to sign copies of THE SHIMMER.  It’s one of my most attractive novels (see the cover below), and I’m grateful to Steve Berry, Sandra Brown, and James Rollin for their enthusiastic quotes about it.  Steve Berry’s comment is especially gratifying.  “David Morrell is, to me, the finest thriller writer living today, bar none.”

If you’d like to hear a 15-minute podcast in which I discuss the novel and a number of other topics, here is the link:

Podcast

 THRILLERMASTER

 This is an especially exciting month because, on July 11, I receive the ThrillerMaster award from the International Thriller Writers organization.  The ceremony occurs during ITW’s gala readers/writers conference, ThrillerFest, July 8-11, at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.  Previous recipients include Clive Cussler, James Patterson, and Sandra Brown.  If you’re a thriller fan and you’d like to attend, youh’ll find information at http://www.thrillerfest.com.  Sandra and Clive will be there, along with Robin Cook, Catherine Neville, David Baldacci, Brad Meltzer, Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Steve Berry, James Rollins, Heather Graham, Gayle Lynds, F. Paul Wilson, on and on.  More stars than in the heavens.  It’s a wonderful chance for readers and authors to talk with one another.

MY EVENTS PAGE

From time to time, please check my EVENTS page.  Recently I added new items for Chicago and Broward County in Florida (in addition to my upcoming appearances in southern California along with Seattle and San Francisco).  I also added an August 1 appearance in Alpine, Texas.  This is a small-town artists’ community in west Texas, about 20 miles from Marfa, where lights appear almost every night.  Those lights are the inspiration for the lights in THE SHIMMER.  I’ll do a book signing and then drive over to Marfa to be part of the crowd that watches the lights.  (Hopefully, no one will take out an assault rifle and shoot at the lights, as a character does in my novel.)