Today’s special guest is author Edward Hochsmann and we’re chatting about his Cutter Kauai Sea Adventures series, and book 1, Dagger Quest in particular.
During his virtual book tour, Ed will be raffling off a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!
Bio:
Edward Hochsmann is the pen name of a retired U. S. Coast Guard search and rescue and law enforcement professional. The veteran mariner, aviator, college professor, and defense analyst has added “author” to his list of experiences. Ed likes reading, police procedurals, contemporary music on the road, and classical music in the office. After a career traveling from Australia in the west to Italy and Germany in the east, Ed has settled into a quiet life in the Florida Panhandle to focus on writing (and not shoveling snow!)
Ed has two novels published right now (plus one launching in August 2022) in the Cutter Kauai Sea Adventures series about a Coast Guard patrol boat assigned to “special” missions. Dagger Quest takes place in the Florida Keys and involves an aging Coast Guard patrol boat dragooned into a search for a lost Russian nuclear weapon in a time of international crisis. The second, Caribbean Counterstrike, features the same patrol boat and crew, now with equipment and training upgrades, sent to recover a deadly nerve gas from a murderous Caribbean drug cartel. Bravely and Faithfully has Kauai, under a new captain supporting a covert raid on a Caribbean island held by the Chinese.
Ed’s second series, C6S: Patrol Force deals with a combined defense establishment and constabulary for a galactic economic empire called the Confederation of the Six Systems (C6S). Ed has published two novellas and a novel-length collection late last year.
Welcome, Ed. Please tell us about your new release.
An aging Coast Guard patrol boat is all that stands between the world and nuclear annihilation!
The world is on the brink of war, with NATO mobilizing to counter a Russian threat to Poland and Lithuania and leaders openly discussing war options. In the midst of the crisis, a Russian bomber collides with a U.S. fighter off Florida causing the accidental launch of a nuclear-tipped hypersonic missile.
A Coast Guard cutter on a routine patrol finds a drug-laden sailboat smashed and adrift north of the Florida Keys. The boat’s damage is from a near miss by the Russian missile which has not harmlessly flown deep into the Gulf of Mexico as initially thought, but crashed somewhere in the Keys.
The Coast Guard crew is in a race against a vicious and powerful international crime syndicate to find and recover the Russian nuke before its discovery can trigger a nuclear war.
Exploring the friendship and teamwork of a typical ship’s crew, in the face of unexpected and hazardous challenges, Dagger Quest provides a fast-paced, taut story – excellent fare for both sea adventure and military thriller fans.
Tell us about your main character and who inspired him/her.
Ben Wyporek has some of me, it a bit of my son (also Ben) and several of classmates from when I was at the Coast Guard Academy.
Excerpt from Dagger Quest:
Kauai joins the fight at Resolution Key:
On the Puma’s video display, Sam saw Bill take the fatal hit and fall back dead. His heart was in his throat until he leaned forward to peer at the screen, then a wave of relief when he saw the long hair and beach clothing, apparent even in the low-resolution image. It must be the prisoner. He noted a pause in the action and saw the figures behind the westernmost vehicle aim a mortar-like device and fire it. The camera picked up a flash of a small object, then a burst overhead Ben and Simmons’s redoubt. Either Ben or Simmons—from the camera aspect and mist, he couldn’t tell which—fast-crawled to the other briefly, then returned to his position. Sam was unconsciously pounding his right fist on his thigh as the scene played out before him.
“Getting something,” Williams said. “Yes! Two targets on long-wave IR.”
Sam leaned in. “Surface action starboard, train on the target on the far left and standby. Deffler, illuminate the hostile vehicle farthest west.” Standing up, he shouted, “OOD, Crash Back Now!” He keyed his handheld radio. “Pickins, haul ass back to the boat deck now!”
Hopkins shouted into the telephone, “Main Control, Conn, Crash Back, all back full!”
“Unmasked,” Deffler piped up. “Target illuminated.”
Sam held on to the safety rail as the patrol boat pitched down and violently shuddered while shedding speed quickly in the emergency stop. He watched the firing resume on the screen, and the figures started moving from behind the vehicles and closing on Ben and Simmons’s position.
“Main Control, Conn, All Stop!” Hopkins shouted into the phone when the speed dropped to zero. The roar of the engines immediately died away.
“Conn, Mount 51, more continuous gunfire bearing zero-six-zero relative, no visual target!”
“Conn, aye!” Hopkins replied.
“Target identified, target confirmed, on target and tracking!” Williams said.
“Batteries release. Commence fire!”
Do you ever read your stories out loud?
No, but part of my quality assurance process is to put my writing through text-to-speech software like Naturalreaders. I frequently find errors that I and the two editing applications I use (Grammarly and ProWritingAid) have missed.
Do you listen to music when you’re writing?
I like to have classical music playing the background, but I don’t concentrate on the music. I find myself less distracted by ambient noise when there is good (non-vocal) music in the background.
Have you ever had an imaginary friend?
No, I guess I didn’t have that much imagination when I was child. Probably for the best—my siblings and schoolmates would have made short work of me if I were caught with imaginary friends.
Do you have any phobias?
Yes, of course. Who doesn’t? Spiders for one. I don’t set out to kill them—a harmless and beneficial animal should not have to die because I have a psychological glitch—but if one gets on me, all bets are off. Heights when I am not strapped in a seat (flying is OK, standing and looking over the edge, not so much). Being restrained under water—you can’t imagine what a horror the flight training dunkers were for me.
Links:
Website | Goodreads | Instagram | Bookbub | Amazon | Kobo
Hello, everybody! I would like to thank Lisa for hosting the interview today.
The Cutter Kauai series books are character-driven, based on personal experience and knowledge, with the best qualities of the many wonderful people I met in the Coast Guard woven into the stories. I aim to put you in the story alongside the characters, experiencing the excitement, fear, humor, joy, and sadness of an elite team of maritime professionals as they face extraordinary challenges. I think you will enjoy the books and if you have any questions that could remove any doubt of that, please ask—I am at your service. I will do my best to answer any questions, but I ask your patience as I have a day job (one of those where you have to dump cellphones and other electronics at the door), so it may be evening before I get a chance to answer.
I look forward to your comments and questions, and thank you and Lisa again for your consideration.
Thanks for hosting!
Really nice cover and excerpt, looking forward to reading this!
Thanks, Sherry!
Dagger Quest by Edward Hochsmann sounds like an action packed book that would be impossible to put down once you started reading it.
Thanks Nancy! And in my opinion (and the reviewer) each subsequent book is more exciting than its predecessor.
The book sounds very exciting. Great cover.
I enjoyed reading the interview and getting to know you a bit, Edward, I also enjoyed the excerpt and The Cutter Kauai Sea Adventures series sounds like exciting books for me to read and enjoy!
Thanks for sharing it with me and have a spectacular weekend!
Wow, this looks like an adventure! Thanks for the giveaway!