Meet James Stejskal

 

***Note From James: My frog voice is a consequence of getting hit by shrapnel in the throat.***

 

Background: James Stejskal is a military historian, conflict archaeologist, and author of six books, including Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army’s Elite and Masters of Mayhem, a study of Lawrence of Arabia and the inception of modern British unconventional warfare, a Military History Matters Silver Medal winner.

He has had numerous military history and national security articles published in peer-reviewed journals and elsewhere.

To get inspiration for his writing, he spent 35 years as a soldier and intelligence officer with the US Army Special Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency in hot and not so hot spots overseas. His worldview has been shaped by his travels and the people he met around the world.

Latest Book: Appointment in Tehran, a Cold War spy thriller, the second novel in the Snake Eater Chronicles (summary, reviews and links to purchase).

Authors That Influenced You: Charles McCarry, Alan Furst, Ishmael Beah, V. S. Naipaul, L.Frank Baum, JRR Tolkien, Jaroslav Hašek, Ian Fleming, Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, WEB Griffen, Frederick Forsyth and David Cornwell.

Authors/Books You Would Recommend: The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst, Slow Horses by Nick Herron, Havana by Stephen Hunter and Carnival of Spies by Robert Moss.

Favorite Indie Bookstore: Old Town Books in Alexandria, VA.

Charities: Fisher House Foundation builds comfort homes where military & veteran families can stay free of charge, while a loved one is in the hospital. The Green Beret Foundation provides Special Forces Soldiers and their families with emergency, immediate, and ongoing support. Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is dedicated to saving the cheetah in the wild.

How To Contact James: Website and Facebook.

Appointment In Tehran (The Snake Eater Chronicles #2)

 
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When radical Iranian students seize the U.S. Embassy compound in Tehran and take over fifty diplomats hostage the U.S. President has to negotiate with a government that wants only to humiliate the United States. When talks fail, the President must turn to the military to bring the Americans home by force.

As preparations are made for an audacious rescue, an American intelligence officer hides alone in a Tehran safehouse with a secret. He is protecting a powerful weapon known as the Perses Device, which is now at risk of being captured and employed against the United States. The Agency Director orders that it must be brought out at all costs.

But as a small American team clandestinely enters Tehran to lead the way for the rescue force, a traitor spills the secret and KGB Spetsnaz operatives begin their own search for the weapon.

At the last minute, one more American is added to the advance team—his sole mission is to get the Agency officer and the Perses device to safety.

When the rescue mission fails, only two Americans are left to run the gauntlet of enemy agents and get the weapon out.

Getting in was easy…

A Question Of Time (The Snake Eater Chronicles #1)

Berlin, 1979.

When the CIA’s most valuable spy is compromised, the Agency realizes it does not have the capability to bring him to safety. If he cannot evade the dreaded East German security service, the result will be chaos and a cascade of failures throughout the Agency’s worldwide operations.

Master Sergeant Kim Becker lived through the hell of Vietnam as a member of the elite Studies and Operations Group. When he lost one of his best men in a pointless operation, he began to question his mission. Now, he is serving with an even more secretive Army Special Forces unit based in Berlin on the front line of the Cold War.

The CIA turns to Becker’s team of unconventional warfare specialists to pull their bacon out of the fire. Becker and his men must devise a plan to get him out by whatever means possible. It's a race against time to prepare and execute the plan while, alone in East Berlin, the agent must avoid his nemesis and play for time inside the hostile secret service headquarters he has betrayed.

One question remains — is the man worth the risk?

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