ABOUT THE NOVEL

The novel is finished. The title is: General Trinh is Delivering Papers. All 90+ chapters are posted in the “Best Of” over on the left. For those of you in the Google blog, you have to go to www.letterfrombangkok.net. I cannot control the archives in the Google blog.

The story is about a guy who is sent to western Iran to rescue a supposed CIA agent.

The hero, Steve Kincaid, is an amalgamation of many people I have known, some of whom actually did have a price on their heads.

The character of Ahmed Kurtsan is based on a fascinating man I knew in northwestern Iran. He was a British educated local and spoke with an upper class English accent. He lived with us in our tent camp in the beginning, when it was the most dangerous, because it “amused” him. He thought me a pest because I stared at him a lot. I couldn’t help it.

Mohammed Parsee is also based on a real life man I knew. I won’t say more for fear of ‘spoiling’ an important plot line.

I lived among Rhade tribes in the Vietnamese highlands. These Montagnards became Steve Kincaid’s army of irregulars.

The two airstrips in western Iran near Sanandaj and Shahabad were, and perhaps still are, real. I designed and helped build them.