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Jerome Preisler – Battle of the Bulge, Net Force Dark Web - Jerome Preisler joins Pete A Turner for his 2nd visit to the Break It Down Show. Jerome and Pete recorded during the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne. That battle was broken open in part by Jake McNeice and his Pathfinders ultra-heroic actions. You are going to LOVE this story--you MUST get the book.
Get the incredible tale of the Nasty 13 in Preisler's First to Jump Get Jerome's rebooted Net Force series debut Dark Web from Tom Clancy Here But wait, there's more! Jerome has rebooted Tom Clancy's Net Force series with a new book called Net Force, Dark Web. Jerome describes pitching the Clancy estate on re-igniting the franchise. There's so much more to come from Jerome... Haiku He only brought orange Jumping within 30 yards Determination |
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Executive Producer/Host/Intro: Pete A. Turner
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Jerome Preisler
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Executive Producer/Host/Intro: Pete A. Turner
Producer: Damjan Gjorgjiev
Writer: Bojan Spasovski
Transcript
Pete Turner 0:00
Hey everybody this is Pete a Turner, executive producer and host of the breakdown show today's episode features best selling author Jerome Preisler Jerome has written Gosh, a lot of books. I love his book first to jump about the nasty 13 you know the movie Dirty Dozen. It's based on these guys. They were actual dudes, these were the guys that jumped into Normandy before the paratroopers. So keep this in mind they jump in hours before the full like these are the first guys in these are the actual first students.
Hey everybody this is Pete a Turner, executive producer and host of the breakdown show today's episode features best selling author Jerome Preisler Jerome has written Gosh, a lot of books. I love his book first to jump about the nasty 13 you know the movie Dirty Dozen. It's based on these guys. They were actual dudes, these were the guys that jumped into Normandy before the paratroopers. So keep this in mind they jump in hours before the full like these are the first guys in these are the actual first students.
Pete Turner 0:00
Hey everybody this is Pete a Turner, executive producer and host of the breakdown show today's episode features best selling author Jerome Preisler Jerome has written Gosh, a lot of books. I love his book first to jump about the nasty 13 you know the movie Dirty Dozen. It's based on these guys. They were actual dudes, these were the guys that jumped into Normandy before the paratroopers. So keep this in mind they jump in hours before the full like these are the first guys in these are the actual first students. These are all suicide mission they wanted to get after it's so bad that they would take any kind of mission and these were all one way missions and they jumped into bunch of times and we talk specifically about their mission to jump into the Battle of Estonia. The Battle of the stone just passed the 75th anniversary and guys like jack McNeese, who sort of the the leader of this, you know, nasty 13 this group of paratroopers. He was absolutely determined to help get that unit saved that was being encircled by Germans and if not for his efforts and efforts of a lot of other people. But this guy was so resolute so stalwart, you're not going to believe the story of jack McNeese and what he does at best stoned to change the tide, at least in terms of getting provisions because this is what these guys do. They jump in, they stay mark the site where the provisions can be dropped in and now an army that's encircled and add a ammo out of medical supplies out of food, all these things now it can provision itself and wait for help, which is coming in the form of general patent. So that's what they did. And it's miracle that those guys were able to jump in, but they did. So listen to that story. Jerome also writes for get this he writes for Tom Clancy, who's obviously passed on but he still has his net force series of books. And so Jerome said, Hey, let me reboot that put into a modern context because the books from 20 years years ago, they don't relate to what's going on now. And the Clancy family said yes. And so if you're into the net force books, they're all new is going to be a ton of them coming out and Jerome is a top notch author, you're gonna love that. I'll be really quick with everything else support the show like you've been doing, just keep on doing it if you're new to the show, we have all kinds of fantastic episodes. We have authors, PhDs, warriors, athletes, from the championship level, members of halls of fame, musicians, all kinds of things and tons of great new shows coming up five days a week, five days a week, I'm going to put a show out and you're going to get something you like. Hey, and also as always, I asked you to support save the brave, just a small donation each month, it comes straight out of your PayPal account, it can be small, it can be $5 $10 $15, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be big. Just go to save the brave.org and that's how you do it. Look for big things coming up from save the brave as we continue to grow. We see you that are helping and we thank you so much. Talk to me at Pete Turner or Heck, send me an email Pete at break it down show calm. All right, here comes Jerome Preisler
Unknown Speaker 3:08
lions rock productions.
Unknown Speaker 3:13
This is Jay Mohr and this is Jordan. Dexter from the Navy Sebastian youngsters, Rick maronna. Stewart.
Unknown Speaker 3:21
Handy somebody there's a skunk Baxter, Gabby Reese, Rob belly, this is Jon Leon Guerrero
Pete Turner 3:25
And this is Pete a Turner.
Jerome Preisler 3:30
Jerome Preisler, author of net force dark web, and I'm on the break it down show.
Pete Turner 3:38
This is pretty cool. I was just telling Jerome and he was episode number 22. So it's been almost exactly 600 episodes published since you were last on and you for sure will go up sometime, you know, deeper into the 600. That's too long of a gap man. You've been doing some incredible things. And I want to get into that but can we Just for a few minutes talk a little bit about your your book that got you on the show last time is it's called first jump and it was about the Pathfinders at World War Two. These were the guys who jumped before the guys who just so the paratroopers are guided him by guys called the headliners. And they made me sort of a movie about these guys called the Dirty Dozen. Put a reality Jerome wrote the book about the actual guys who are absolutely crazy enough to go on these suicide missions over and over again and right now 75 years ago, the Battle of the Bulge is going on and then jumped into that crazy fight. Let's talk about that.
Jerome Preisler 4:36
Well, you know what, what's called the Battle of the balls really started when the Germans crossed into Bastogne. In Belgium, they had truck sank, I believe it was 17,000 members of the hundred and first airborne, who were actually they just completed another operation so so they weren't and this is the middle of the So they weren't parachuted in. They were, as I said, they were selected by truck, maybe train, I'm not even certain they were ill equipped. They really didn't. They hadn't. They hadn't been reom they had gotten their ammunition. They had gotten uniforms. They had holes in their boots, they didn't have blankets. There they were sent in to defend that stone against this German push, that nobody anticipated, rather quickly found themselves circled by 10s of thousands of German troops, artillery, guns, tanks were obviously vastly outnumbered. They were, they were starving, they were freezing to death. And they were they didn't have enough bullets to fire their, their, their weapons. And they didn't have medicine and airlift was planned. But the only way they could they can execute this was to Know that there was some there was an area in which they could drop all the supplies. Of course, there was no GPS, there was no way that they could look no from the air what was happening. So they got together a small group of Pathfinders who volunteered for this mission was two planes full. So it was two sticks 12 to 13. Guys, their mission was to jump down and set off a either an orange flare which would indicate that there was that there was an opening for them to drop to drop. The supplies aren't haven't been the color of this free Netherlands or they would have set off a black smoke flare which would have signaled that the Germans had already closed in and there was no room to drop anything. The very interesting part of this whole, that whole aspect is that Jake McNeese, who was the crazy guy who had led the Pathfinders. And that particular mission. What he didn't tell anybody was that he never took any black flares with him. So no matter what happened, he was setting off the orange player to jump. They were about 30 yards I believe the closest drunk tank. And he set up he set off
Pete Turner 7:21
30 yards. 100 feet 30
Jerome Presiler 7:23
yards. Yeah, they were looking at the tank. They were literally looking straight at the tank when they land that shit. Yeah, yeah. He He set off the yarn smoke. The airlift. The earliest took place without that. Who knows what would have happened to these folks? I mean, is this some historical debate but my opinion, there's no way that they would have been our patents forces could have reached them in time. Certainly, certainly. Many, many, hundreds of them, if not thousands, would have died. I think thousands I don't know how they anybody would have gone True cheese. Wow. Yeah, it was it was is pretty phenomenal.
Pete Turner 8:04
That is as phenomenal as it gets. I mean you hear these incredible stories and we won't give jack all of the credit but when you understand just how unlikely and impossible this whole thing is. It's just it's jaw dropping to think that
Jerome Preisler 8:21
it yeah and and also it really depended on a break in the weather.
Pete Turner 8:26
Right tell them part of the story it's so good
Jerome Preisler 8:28
so good. It was and I have to refresh my own memory cuz a while ago but the there was a there was stormy conditions. I mean, it was just Blizzard like conditions that there was no Blake in the snow for a while. They had the Pathfinders had turned back the first time they set out I think they returned to their base in England. They started off again the next morning. Then the weather briefly cleared. They jumped the players will come in from all Although the airlift was coming in from, from from different locations, and as they flew in, it was just this miraculous break in the cloud. And again, this was on Christmas Day or I believe. Yeah. If you look at the pilots accounts, they were all standing they just got while it's kind of like a Christmas present. Just it just cleared long enough for them to to make the passes and save the day. And her old fashion,
Pete Turner 9:28
if I remember correctly, they try it on Christmas Eve, but the weather wouldn't allow there was no break.
Jerome Preisler 9:34
Exactly. And then,
Pete Turner 9:36
jack nice and those guys were like, you'll put us back in the plane. You'll keep going back and forth. We're going you know, and they insist if I remember the book correctly, they insisted on clothes here to take him in.
Jerome Preisler 9:49
Yeah, Jake insisted he was he was. He was. He wasn't canceling it. So he wasn't cloning mission for anything. One thing too, I think is worth talking about. One of the guys I wrote about in the book was actually an artilleryman. He was an officer. So he had been, he had been staying with some farmers. He and some other officers had, unlike the grunch, they at least had a warm place to stay. And they were they were building with a farmhouse with a family. Just outside this door. They got the call at the airlift was on. So they jumped into Jeeps, and they drove into town. I spoke to a 90 something year old. Right, Andrew, who gave me a first hand account of what it was like from from the ground. This is about two to three years ago. I was actually after I'd written the book that he got that I talked to him and he said to me, he said it was the most heroic thing he'd ever seen. Because putting, just putting aside the Pathfinders for involving the guys in the 47 years that we're dropping supplies, they will run on, those planes were flying in, they had light because well, they couldn't, they couldn't put the extra weight on. Because they needed to use every last bit of possible carry weight for the for the freight that they were dropping. So these guys were coming in taking German fire as it goes. In some cases they were they were just hanging out of the planes while the planes were burning, while the planes were going down and still dropping their, their their supplies. And knowing that they weren't going to make it and read words to me were, quite simply, it was the most heroic thing I'd ever seen in my life. So I mentioned that because in terms of the entire airlift, of course, with the Pathfinders did was insanely heroic, but I don't want the efforts of those pilots to go on Heroku because they were equally equally bold. It was it was pretty phenomenal obviously. Yeah, the
Pete Turner 12:12
I almost feel like I need to tell the whole story because it is so impossible. So when someone like jack jack, nice is his name right, that was Jake Jake. Jake McNeese. So he is so determined when he does this impossible thing that he doesn't even take the safety smoke grenade. He just takes the girls he
Jerome Preisler 12:32
goes, right he tells us he tells his commanding officer and he tells, I think even the pilot that he's got the orange smoke in the black smoke, but he never even never even took the black smoke. So no matter what he was going through with the mission, right, it was it was happening. It was happening as far as he was concerned anyway,
Pete Turner 12:53
but I mean, when that happens, like that kind of determination that leads to and I'm not going to give Jake, all of the credit, but that leads to other men saying I will. You know, I'll be damned if Jake is going to go do that. Right. I'll be damned if I'm short, you know?
Jerome Preisler 13:11
Exactly. And that's why his guys would follow him anywhere. In fact, I'm trying to think back they, most of the guys that that jumped with him had actually been part of a demolition outfit that that, that he was that he commanded at Normandy. He was not a Pathfinder, and that Appalachian and then, you know, he was always getting into trouble and all these guys were and they were they were they were rowdy loud, let's put it that way. And the and the so you know, it was kind of like in out of the brig and now, you know, they're CEOs are trying to figure out ways to get rid of them. So, Jake being the biggest troublemaker they said to him, do you want to volunteer for this? Pathfinder mission. And that was it wasn't even that I don't think they had that stone in mind at that point. It was just you want to volunteer for the Pathfinders. And basically, you know, he said, Well, yeah, why not? We'll get it'll get me out of it'll get me out of camp. Which, which bore the hell out of them. You know, he marched in from a CEOs office, walk to his tennis court, starts packing his bags, and all these other guys like, what when you go and he goes, Well, you know, it's got this Pathfinder thing I'm heading off, and they all start packing their bags to I'm going out going not going now these were guys who had who had been in Normandy with him, and they was following through to hell. So all of them, you know, I forget exactly how many there were, that were part of the devil unit, but, you know, six or seven of them at least, ended up volunteering to the past. Fine, just listen. And that was the kind of guy he was. And that's the kind also kind of guys they were, you know, they were, they were all as crazy as he were, but while or at least close, you know, I don't think he could be as crazy as Jake but they were close. Yeah,
Pete Turner 15:13
yeah. I mean, you talked about the pilots and the again, these men that were just you know, they would rather be damned you know, like they really would rather go to hell than to come up wanting in this in this fight and so there's God like Joel crouch who was a you assess reading this story he sent me he was united pilot, you know, like talking about having made before the war he's united pilot and flying people between LA and Seattle, in the in the 30s. And so, all he can do is go up and up and up and run, you know, be successful, but here he is just a badass. And I'll say the word combat pilot, you know, willing to go do anything to get his guys to where they had to go. It's a remarkable
Jerome Preisler 15:57
and you know, most of these guys, that's that With a guy from a guy from, you know, the private airlines when the war broke out, because these were the most skilled pilots, they had it, they had a lot of years flying under their belt, you know, they were seasoned so so these were the guys that they that they called upon, got somebody like crouch who, who had pioneered all sorts of techniques. I mean, he was a guy who led the first who was in the first plane of the first first first plane of the first Pathfinder group to leave to leave England going over the channel into Normandy. Again, when they when they when they flew through us, they actually hit a column of cloud that ran I don't know how many feet into the air, but they were just looking at at nothing. They were looking at a darkness. Crouch was able to navigate this because of his experience. Yeah, all the guys would have We've had turned back. And then and then when they, when they got over overland, they were, they were taking anti aircraft fire. So, so it wasn't as if you know, what they got through, they got through obliviate into into any, you know, an approved status they would just get it was just getting deeper and deeper into into hell, they were making these runs and then they and then after, you know, the successive waves of the of pilots who were dropping the, you know, the guys from 100 and first at second, you know, they would, they would, they would drop a stick, they would fly back to England, and then they would, you know, get shot out on the way in that, get shot out on the way out, pick up another stick of paratroopers and get shot out all over again. And, you know what, again, what amazes me is that they they had no guns aboard, none of these planes had any guns aboard. They couldn't defend themselves. So that's the thing that Excuse me, they're flying into a hell of a fire.
Pete Turner 18:04
And the planes are being hit, like hundreds of times with anything the Germans can throw up.
Jerome Preisler 18:12
Yeah, guys are like, you know, guys are sitting there and the bullets are flying past us. It's because they were the, they were really, really thin. You know, the underbellies of these planes were quite thin again, because they had to be like, a cargo plane.
Pete Turner 18:30
Yeah, that's the other thing is if you were to think and again, not 100% the same, but if you think about what any kind of cargo plane today or large passenger plane, right, like, it's basically the same thing. And these guys are flying these things at their engineered limit. I mean, right on top of it, because the lower you fly, the faster you the harder it is to be shot down hard, right? It's hard to use anti aircraft guns, it gets a gun that are playing that's, you know, no higher than the steeples of a church. So these guys are Taking, by the way, flight was invented 35 years before this war even happens, right?
Jerome Preisler 19:06
Yeah, think about that. Right. Flying like,
Pete Turner 19:12
you're 13 feet off the ground like and when should we get lower? You know?
Jerome Preisler 19:17
I know. I know, it sounds it sounds ridiculous to even have to mention this, but it is worth mentioning that, you know, there's no satellite data, right? There's no GPS data. So they don't really know exactly what's what's awaiting them. You know, they don't know what's on the ground. They don't know precisely where the where the artillery emplacements are. They have some idea because they've they've, you know, they there have been some spy flights there have been they've had, you know, French underground that have been conducting surveillance, but again, how long does it take from for a report to get from France to two headquarters, right. It's not instantaneous. They're not you know, they're not online.
Pete Turner 20:05
Yeah. And again, any information that's passed, right, here's the rule of spies, that information is compromised. So you really going off of the best information available, which you have no idea if it's any good, you know,
Jerome Preisler 20:16
can that's why they didn't know how to it's one of the reasons they didn't know how high the hitch rows were right. They had folio. They had photos, surveillance, photo recon, but, you know, they were expecting hedgerows that were like, I don't know, three, four feet. They weren't expecting to be landing in you know, 1520 foot hedgerows. Right. Right.
Pete Turner 20:39
Yeah, it's, it's just such a that's why I wanted to spend some time with this. Because to understand this endeavor, you know, and, and how many, I mean, patents audacity to do, you know, tell his generals, figure out the path that we're going to take, and then go ahead and start going before he even attends the plan. meeting where he says will be there in 48 hours. Like, that's audacious just to say, this is how we are, of course, we're going to be there. You know, this is what we do. All of these all of these things over and over again, these men all just doing impossible things and putting themselves not even second or third, but last, you know, that that pilot that you're talking about that's hanging out of his plane, making sure that last load goes out. He's jumping behind lines, and he's not prepared for that kind of, you know, an escape.
Jerome Preisler 21:32
No, no. And you know, they were, they were at different points. They were they were flying really low. A lot of these planes were burning. That was that was one of the things that really struck me when, you know, when I talked to read and read a lot of the accounts planeswalkers a lot of the planes was firing, the guys are still dropping their villages, supplies, the supplies, were color coded in each pair of the parachutes to which the crates were attached were different colors to indicate what what this again we're talking about best go now to indicate whether you know because they had obviously once they hit the ground they hadn't bought very quickly. So they had no you know, with you know get this unit the mentorship that this unit need the ammo that this unit need need uniforms, so they were coded accordingly and they had a load of they had you know, knowing what the colors were they had a loaded on to these trucks quickly and get them get them get them on to them and also getting back to the Pathfinders. You know we're jumping all over, but getting back to normal B, it's when they jump. They have 15 to 20 minutes in which to set up there. They are a beacon and the beacons weren't just it wasn't just a single It wasn't just that they put something on the ground, they were setting up what they call the tea, which were panel of lights. The tea was if you picture you know, playing coming in the long part of the teeth of the heart, the vertical bar would have been equivalent to a runway and cross bar would have been equivalent to actually we've been where they are at the point where the where the vertical bar meet met the crossbar is where they were supposed to drop the, you know, the guys from the hundred and first in the 82nd. So, all that had to be set up along with a radio beacon to that the planes were following in all within 15 minutes. And the fact it didn't happen Cleveland, you know, it was very chaotic. Because of the weather because of the fire. They were taking a lot of planes were coming in. Were coming in way off the mark. A lot of the the Pathfinders were were scattered far from where they're supposed to jump. And they were really assembling. They were assembling based on, you know, using an accomplices trying to figure out where they were. It was, it was pretty, pretty incredible that they were able to pull it off.
Pete Turner 24:26
Yeah, I'll say it is pretty incredible that they were able to pull it off understatement of the year because, again, like in the case of Normandy, these guys are turning the lights on for the paratroopers to be the tip of the spear. And, you know, they're, they're right there the tip of the tip of the tip of the spear, you know, they're, they're ahead of them. And if they fail with their mission, you know, thousands of people are now not going to have that light to guide them in and they're still going to jump no matter what but now they really have no chance and so Just all of these things is drum thanks for telling that story man because it's just it is so illustrative of what it means to go do this this kind of you know, this kind of crazy work that that you know if we were to do all of it again quite likely doesn't work out best stone goes to the Germans in there. Yeah, yeah, we're changes
Jerome Preisler 25:24
it sounds It sounds so cliche to say it but you know, these what these men accomplished and trying to kind of and as I do as a writer trying to put put oneself in their in their shoes. This was this was not you know, this was these are citizen soldiers. These were guys who were drafted out of ordinary life. They didn't have, you know, months and months to train. They didn't have the kind of equipment that guys do now. Nothing anyway. And I'm certainly not, you know, in any way you know, disparaging right, what what are what soldiers now do I I don't think anyone needs to suggest that but I'm just saying that these women who grew up in a in a very simple time as compared to now, and we're really pulled out of lines that were so so far from, you know, any any kind of combat experience and for them to kind of kind of for them to mobilize as quickly as they did to train as quickly as they did, and to have the guts that they did. It's something that endlessly amazes me, you know, I, I'll never stop being amazed by it.
Pete Turner 26:44
It is, in terms of our position, obviously, I put different points of view, but it is truly the pinnacle of like, you know, I know that we put people on the moon but this is such a bigger, harder, more consequential problem than than even that so
Jerome Preisler 27:00
It's a well cuz they were getting shot at
Pete Turner 27:05
the adversary was a space which is not a lot nothing to laugh at but yeah it was. This was not a simple
Jerome Preisler 27:12
there was there was a there was a great void of space but we don't want to finish that right?
Pete Turner 27:18
Hey, this is Pete a Turner from lions rock productions, we create podcasts around here and if you your brand or your company want to figure out how to do a podcast, just talk to me. I'll give you the advice on the right gear, the best plan to show you how to take a podcast that makes sense for you. That's sustainable. That's scalable and fun. Hit me up at Pete at breakdown show calm. Let me help. I want to hear about it.
Jerome Preisler 27:41
We can finish that right.
Pete Turner 27:44
Yeah, but but really you have people purposely trying to kill and defeat you constantly in different ways and trying to deceive you. And you know, there's so many different ways this could have gone in a not so good outcome for us. So it's just yeah, it's remarkable and I love that we get to spend time talking about that. Especially as we think about the anniversary, but let's talk a little bit about your national bestseller written you're kind of a would you call it a reboot? Is that what it is for the year your net force series? This is like a reboot or how would you characterize your Tom Clancy book?
Jerome Preisler 28:16
Yeah. That's that's pretty good word for it, reboot relaunch. The series is called net force in the first book, which is out now and as you point out, just became a national bestseller. It's called dark web. That force was one of three series co created by Tom Clancy in his lifetime, other than the Jaqueline. And back in the mid 90s, When, when, when Air Force was first published, I wrote one of the other series, one called power plays and I wrote that for about a 10 years and back in back in sometime around 2010, I guess net Force powerplays and the other series which was closed off center will cease to exist and it was a lot of internal stuff going on and publishing. So and they will they were almost selling quite well be that as it may so I really thought that was behind me. I didn't think I was going to be doing any any Clancy franchise related work and then some years passed and I got a phone call and and some of the people connected with the estate had asked me and the publishing line has had been considering relaunching that force. They asked if I would be interested. I certainly was what was really what what really hooked me was that I was given I was asked whether I would like to kind of pick up with the original continuity or reboot it with new characters and you know, update the concept and I thought that was important because networks really deals with cybercrime and cyber warfare. And if you go back to when, when the series was originally created the 90s, you know, our view of what the internet would be like and what virtual reality would be like, is obviously, the reality of how things turned out is very different, you know, then what might have been anticipated back in, in 1998. It's not the same as you know, you can you can, you can pick up in continuity. If, you know, let's say you're dealing with another character in a in a situation that really doesn't involve the internet cyberspace, if it's just sort of a political thriller. You can age the character a number of years just sort of pick up a few years later. But if, if the technology really, really is different, I think I think the better route to go was with was to was the one I took, which was to reboot it. So that's what I did. And it took a lot of there was a lot, a lot of stuff that we had to get through in order to really watch the series. So it took a while, but we got it done,
Pete Turner 31:15
how often you're going to be putting books out.
Jerome Preisler 31:18
Initially, we've got got four books coming out one a year, the first one just came out. In between each each novel we're going to be doing, I'm going to be writing a novella. So it'll be on the novel, just the first book just came out. They'll come out every November and the novella will come out late May or June or something like that. First one is already written. The first one's called, I have the drone and you can actually pre order it on Amazon and it's one of my most fun things I ever wrote. One of my I totally love, love this novella for a lot of different reasons. And it's actually a prequel to the book, that Okay, book open. The first book opens with one is with with one of our, my my heroes or the heroine. Her name is Kali alaka. And she's what's known as a grey hat hacker, who someone who was in her case, she's walking by every country on earth and every law enforcement group on earth and she is a person who has who has according to her own moral code. The story opens with her being pursued by a CIA, Manhunter who kind of knows that she's on the side of the angels but has been tasked with bringing her in. He doesn't want to see her behind bars. Because you know, she can be a powerful asset. And he also knows that from from having tells her around the world, and as it turns out, to be involved in some adventure with her previously, she knows he knows that she's you know, she's she's in the right city. Our hearts in the right spot. The novella really kind of tells the story of what holidays, they first encountered each other three months before the the opening sequence of the first novel. If you can follow Yeah, okay.
Pete Turner 33:16
So okay, when you Yeah, what a remarkable thing, man to be able to do this and take this sorry and bring it to where it's at now, at Sony, are you writing these solo? And then how do you get your guidance on on what like is like what's cool to do in terms of a no, we're not gonna let you do that with it because it's not your franchise. I mean, this is someone else's Baby, you know. So how does that work? The just
Jerome Preisler 33:43
really, really, it's up to me at this point. You know, I think one of the reasons that that, you know, that I was first became involved in this was that I had, you know, I had worked with Tom when he was alive. And I knew the parameters of writing where the series so there was a lot of trust in terms of what I could do. You know, I, I understand the dynamic of writing something for the Clancy franchise. So, at the same time, I also realize that it's important I, in my view to to grow our readership, you know, a lot of people is, you know, I was telling the kids at my local bank, I was, I was, I was putting some money in the bank or something. And kid knows I'm a writer, and he said, Oh, you know, what are you working on? They said on a book called net force that was co created by Tom Clancy. And he goes, Oh, he did something besides video games. You know, I mean, that's, that's really, you know, it's important for me to realize, I think, I think there's an object lesson there. And that is that you have to realize that, you know, a lot of a lot of kindness passed. And we're whereas it's, it's obviously really important to, to know what Clancy readers expect in a novel. It's also it's equally vital that, that I that I reach 25 year olds who don't, and who are who are looking for something reasonable, were interested in and, you know, who know about the internet and know cyberspace, and if they're into video games, or they seen the matrix, you know, and, and they really, they're looking for a book that they can identify with. So, so I think it's so you know, that's my long winded way of saying that, with my experience, I really have, you know, free hand in what I'm doing here.
Pete Turner 35:52
Yeah, that's needs to be at that point in your career. And so you're going to do this fashion. Definitely. Right.
Jerome Preisler 35:57
I hope so. You know, it's, it's, I know, there was a point at which, as I said, between that first phone call and the time we actually relaunched the series a number of years past and project sold out for one, one reason or another, and about two years ago, I spoke to my agent. And I said, Look, you know, with, with everything in the news about cyberspace and the internet, I think this is the time to really relaunch the series. So we, we contacted the powers that be and we said, Look, you know, let's, let's try to roll on this thing. It was, you know, it's so the major thrust really came from from me and my agent, and we got everybody else on board. So and the reason I say that is that yeah, I mean, it's, it's a dream come true that I actually got it that we got it going, because it was a group effort. We have a great publisher and over square press. Which is division of Harlequin, which is a division of Harper Collins, which is a division of who knows what. I think we can stop it how to calm. But Byron's great, they're really forward thinking they're really into it. And not what they've done a great job getting the book out and getting a lot of copies onto the, onto the shelves. Yeah, I hope to do it indefinitely. I think one thing about the novelists like to blab on, please is that there were a couple of goals, goal posts that I set for myself, and one was I knew that there have been you know, at this point people are, are hip to hacking inside of this cyber crime or or cyber terrorism. There's been movies and we know about the big stuff and you know, the movies where the power grid goes out as the movies where the planes, you know, the control system goes haywire. So a lot of The big stuff that of course you want to have like this, because an action novel has been, you know, it's something that people know about fairly widely. But what I wanted to do was, in part, let people have a story that showed what happens to the average person what happened because just the guy, you know, me and you and the guy on the street, and you know, the guy who's trying to save up for his house, and the guy whose wife is ill and needs a few bucks and they get kind of pulled into their affected by cyber crime that I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but I really want to show how it affects the ordinary person. before and I and I do a slow build of the story from from what looks like a bank, kind of a cyber bank heist, something that ended Being an internet enacted international terrorism, cyber terrorism, but I think it was very important for people to understand that cybercrime affects them in ways that might not be quite as grandiose as the power grid shutting down, that it can hurt them in ways that are more subtle. The other thing I tried to do, because I do create winds up being a superbug, I call it hecate. In the in the in the story and it's a it's a, it's a bug that can endlessly transformative, it keeps changing itself into something else. What I wanted to do was was again show how a malware infection spreads. I had spoken to some people who were involved in cyber crime and in solving cybercrime, and I've spoken to a lot of computer security people in the course of plotting this out. And one of the first things I was told by a guy in the FBI was way before, you know, and I think a lot of people have heard the term the Internet of Things. Which resource which, to those who haven't. The first to kind of all the gadgets that we have, that are plugged in, you know, you know, the home security cameras, the smart refrigerators, the smart coffee makers, the smart toothbrushes, the smart wireless, smart cars, those are mo our phones, all those things that are these gadgets that are that are not well protected against a malware infection, they don't have the kinds of firewalls that your desktop computers or your corporate network have. So, what I was told back a few years ago by the FBI was well you know, that's what we're really worried about. Because it's through the internet of things that that a cyber virus will spread. While recently I was talking to a security expert, this is why I was actually midway through the book. And and she was telling me Well, what we're really afraid of now is near field communication. And what that is, of course, you know, we all we all have phones that we, you know, you can wave in front of the scanner, so you don't have to use your credit card. And you go to the gas station and use your phone. And when we go to concert, we don't have physical tickets anymore. We use our phones and so near field communication, right. Yeah. And the problem with that is they're they're very vulnerable. How do you lock
Pete Turner 41:41
that down?
Jerome Preisler 41:42
Yeah. If you look at it, in terms of looking at biological how biological bug spreads, look, if you've got the flu, and you know, you've got a guy and he's using his head off and he walks out to the subway subway in New York and he gets onto a crowded train you sneezing Using all those people on the train or getting affected and he leaves the train and he walks into a coffee shop and he's using everybody in the coffee shop gets expected. Now let's look at somebody who who has a smartphone that's been infected and they walk onto the subway and they use it you know now in New York at any rate and also in Washington DC and probably in all is going to Chicago lately but it probably in most major cities within the next few years. All these Metro cards and you know, the, that used to get onto the subway systems will be replaced by Near Field Communication scanners here in New York. They're already at my local train station. They're already on Time Square at Grand Central Station. So you use your phone your phone's infected, it spreads via the phone. Again, you're you're that you're like the guy with the flu. who now has spread it through the subway system you've got you get on a train. You get you get to work before you get to work and you Is your phone to buy a Starbucks coffee? It's just that, you know, there's all sorts of vectors of transmission for an electronic bug. So it's a scary proposition and security experts have not yet figured out how to nail it down. And so I use that in, in, in, in network darkweb
Pete Turner 43:24
Yeah, it's that whole thing you're talking about. So I've done quite a bit of research on my into technology or for technology with with the shows that I've done, like popping the bubble. And the idea of a lot of these technologies shared web access, you know, almost like a like Airbnb for your wireless signal to to monetize that, that requires an enough permissibility that right firewall is sort of like it's it's a great place. Mr. Robot that show they use a thermostat to get into do some hacking, you know, because these things are connected. And they the security on them isn't what they, what the and then who's got the money? You know, in a giant? Imagine the Pentagon and how many internet of things things could be attacked, you know, like it's just you could spend a billion dollars just getting all that stuff up to speed.
Jerome Preisler 44:18
Yeah. And you know, there was I think a few last week there was a story it was about security camera that was hacked by some some guy and you know, little girls room. And you know, this was an old newspapers. And actually, it's what happens with just using security cameras, for example. Most of these cameras, all of these cameras come out of the factory with default. And, and what what you're supposed to do, if you read the manual is you change the default password to your own personal past password, but nobody bothers to do it because nobody reads the manual. They just they You know, they hook the cameras up. So anybody who wants to hack into these cameras can just go on to some online database, where all of the factory defaults are listed. It's not a great feat, you know, it's not, it's not some, some evil geniuses doing it just takes somebody to actually, you know, get on one of these databases, and look up what x brand default passwords are, and then just just trying them, you know, it's and it goes and with Internet of Things stuff it, you can you can just sort of apply that across the board. So yeah, it's, it's frightening. And it was, it was another aspect to and that is just kind of holding, pulling, pulling back from the threat of cybercrime or, or cyber terrorism and looking at the internet itself. I think I thought it was important in in looking at an overview for this series to consider what what in fact, does the internet mean what is it evolving into? What is what is the good part of it? What is the scary part of it? What would since we're dealing with heroic fiction, what we are good guys, what would their view of the internet be? Would they would they all have we all my heroes have a view that's, that's coherent and consistent with one another? And getting a little, maybe some a little vague here, but because I'm dealing with enough force, I'm dealing with organization that in my series, it's actually a cabinet level organization, on on par with say Homeland Security and it has different it has this Elements it has a military element that has a law enforcement element. It has research elements, and it has forensic elements and all of those, all of that. So there are various people who are involved in, in the different parts of a group like this. There are, you know, there were guys who were, who spent, were FBI, recruited from the FBI guys with the CIA, but they're also academics. And they're also as in the case of say, my character, Cali, people, someone who's a hacker and who's approaching it, a very different point of view than maybe some of the other people in the group. And, and the reason I pull these different types of characters in is because they're very different visions of the Internet, and what it represents. And I think it's important that we consider many of them or at least, if not all of them, because it's impossible. to control it. So therefore, we have to consider what it is and how we manage different aspects of
Pete Turner 48:10
these problems. I mean, they absolutely are made for exactly what you're doing because you can try to have an ethical approach to these things, but unethical people will do unethical things to your ethical network, you know, like you put a lot of trust into these things and or just you don't think about how can this be attacked? You know, it's, there's, there's so many angles. Hey, I wanted to ask you this question. One, I love the attitude of Hey, this has been on the shelf a while it needs freshening up and going and taking the bold step of saying, Let me help your brand. Let me write these things. You know, I'm the right guy for it. Because if you don't have that conversation, I don't know what the odds are. But I'm assuming no one's no one's just waiting, like and running up to Jerome's door to Hey, hey, takeover our franchise even though you're qualified to do this, but I love that bold step, how did you how did you get to that audacious moment and said, I'm going to do it?
Jerome Preisler 49:05
You know, it was funny. It just sort of popped out. And the I guess, I guess what happened was, I, I knew that I had some familiarity with the series. And it was a great series in its time, but I knew that the characters that were written part of it wouldn't necessarily translate into modern characters if I tried to do it. If I try to take those characters and kind of say, Okay, here's here's where they are now. It my instantaneous thought was, it was feel dated, it wouldn't work. So I just threw it out there. I think it's better. I always think it's better to if you can work with characters of your own creation because they they obviously reflect you know, your sensibilities. Yeah. And you're, you're in you know, your view of what, what good heroes are what the villains And, yeah, I mean, it's even even as I sit here and talk to you. It's when you're actually in it and you're writing it, you think, wow, I sure hope people like these these these characters, you know, because it's suddenly it suddenly occurred to me like what if, you know, what if they hate it all right, you know, you kind of hope this is when you, you know, you read a lot of books and you kind of hope that if you like them, people will like, would you like the story people like it? Because, you know, it's again, it's been sent a lot by writers that you write to please yourself, but it's been said a lot because it's true. And you know, just to sort of have a little fun, the two characters, and I won't say who they are, because I want to surprise people but the two they'll actually the three characters that carry over from the original series, okay. Two of them, however, and I picked them for reasons. One was a really nice guy and I made him a jerk. The other guy was kind of like, you know, a very conservative sort of character and I made him I've been quite the opposite of that. So I just figured I'd play with people's heads and turn the characters around. So they're totally different than they were. So if somebody loves them, hopefully they'll get a kick out of what I did with them. Yeah. And not hate me for me drone. Come on. You know, you know, the time was right. Also, because people are familiar with reboots, you know, people have seen it. You know, X number of reboots of spider man, what is it three or four X number? Batman. So, you know, and and the characters obviously change a lot, you know, the Batman of today's not the Batman of Adam West, and the TV show. So, you know, it's something that I think is very much in people's sensibilities for movies and television. And I think at this point they can carry over successfully into black and blue so far can be can be catching on.
Pete Turner 51:58
Yeah, no, that's awesome. Love it, you are getting a chance to do this. And then the other question is, is, no matter how many times you write these books, you know, you're going to have two names above yours. You You have as an author, right? If you tell your young Jerome like, Listen, here's going to be the deal. You're going to have these incredible opportunities. You're going to write all these books, and make money doing what you love. But Tom Clancy's name is always going to be above yours is how does how does an author deal with that? I mean, you get to write your own books in your own time, but this is going to keep you busy, is that when you look at ways to be an author, you have bigger more grandiose visions in your head, like I'm going to be like Stephen King, or, you know, whoever it is, right. But you have this wonderful success. I mean, it doesn't get bigger than a national bestseller in free sales and all the, you know, you you've done it, but there's always that thing where like, you know, Tom Clancy is going to be above you
Jerome Preisler 52:56
know, it's a good question and I Tell him my case. I truly don't mind. And I guess I'll I this is for a few reasons. First is that, you know, for me, you know, I started writing when I was 11 years old I wrote my first novel started when I was 10 or 11. I started writing writing longhand on you know, I'm just mostly paper right and taught myself how to type and by the time I finished it, so the first part of the book which I still have is all you know, pens and pencil ends up being and can you see the evolution of the thing is typer I'm got into it because you know, was just something that was that I love to do that I that was for me, it saved my, my sanity, even as a kid and as adults even more so. So, so So Ryan is just what I do. I really never got into writing to see my name. No lights or no to, to think of my or more worried about being, you know, being streamis or anything like that I just want to be able to, to, to have a career writing. And that's always been my attitude. But that kind of transfers. In other words. Let me try to articulate this for me to take that to the next phase. I've written a lot of books under my own name. I've got a book coming out next year. That's a civil war narrative history. I've written all sorts of novels, just under my name, for me to be able to work in this universe, actually, have people pay attention to it, because it's part of the Tom Clancy franchise is something I see as, as a blessing. I don't see it as any kind of negative it's a positive to me. I feel very privileged to to be writing The book that's in the classic franchise, they're only the only three that he created. So for me, or co created so for the maybe it's funny, but I don't look at it that way I don't, I don't really worry about the names that are above mine or below mine. I really just kind of worried about whether people are going to read it, you know, and, and, and if a lot of people are reading it, if some of them come to it because they like my work with some of them come to it because they, they're, they're fans of Clancy if they come to it because they like Tom Clancy and then say, Hey, I, you know, I like the way this guy drone like, whatever way it is. I'm fine with it. As long as people are reading it. This this great with me.
Pete Turner 55:51
Yeah, and I think that's why I wanted to ask the questions because our folks out there that are trying to figure out how to write and it's less about where you end up and and Can you earn a living a real living, you know, writing books, because that's exactly what you're doing, you get this great ability to create and sit down for 10 hours with a yellow pad and some ideas and work and then go, Well, I need to work another 10 hours. You know, it's it's a remarkable thing. And man, I just appreciate the heck out of you coming on and talking World War Two with me and talking about the new series. And I just, I'm just super excited for you to have all of this. All of this, you know, hard earned good fortune. It's called net force darkweb. It's out on Amazon. It came out in November, you can get that now. And then there are more books to come novellas, that kind of thing. And this is what Jerome does. If you guys want to support, go to Amazon, get the net force books. And then I always rate these things. Five stars provide a review, even if the review is simple. That makes the computer say hey, people are reading and writing about this book. And it pumps it up in the ratings and it
Jerome Preisler 56:55
helps celebrate
Pete Turner 56:56
what Jerome is doing and the stories he's creating and make Again, I appreciate the heck of the heck out of you for coming on the show.
Jerome Preisler 57:04
Thank you why I love being on
Hey everybody this is Pete a Turner, executive producer and host of the breakdown show today's episode features best selling author Jerome Preisler Jerome has written Gosh, a lot of books. I love his book first to jump about the nasty 13 you know the movie Dirty Dozen. It's based on these guys. They were actual dudes, these were the guys that jumped into Normandy before the paratroopers. So keep this in mind they jump in hours before the full like these are the first guys in these are the actual first students. These are all suicide mission they wanted to get after it's so bad that they would take any kind of mission and these were all one way missions and they jumped into bunch of times and we talk specifically about their mission to jump into the Battle of Estonia. The Battle of the stone just passed the 75th anniversary and guys like jack McNeese, who sort of the the leader of this, you know, nasty 13 this group of paratroopers. He was absolutely determined to help get that unit saved that was being encircled by Germans and if not for his efforts and efforts of a lot of other people. But this guy was so resolute so stalwart, you're not going to believe the story of jack McNeese and what he does at best stoned to change the tide, at least in terms of getting provisions because this is what these guys do. They jump in, they stay mark the site where the provisions can be dropped in and now an army that's encircled and add a ammo out of medical supplies out of food, all these things now it can provision itself and wait for help, which is coming in the form of general patent. So that's what they did. And it's miracle that those guys were able to jump in, but they did. So listen to that story. Jerome also writes for get this he writes for Tom Clancy, who's obviously passed on but he still has his net force series of books. And so Jerome said, Hey, let me reboot that put into a modern context because the books from 20 years years ago, they don't relate to what's going on now. And the Clancy family said yes. And so if you're into the net force books, they're all new is going to be a ton of them coming out and Jerome is a top notch author, you're gonna love that. I'll be really quick with everything else support the show like you've been doing, just keep on doing it if you're new to the show, we have all kinds of fantastic episodes. We have authors, PhDs, warriors, athletes, from the championship level, members of halls of fame, musicians, all kinds of things and tons of great new shows coming up five days a week, five days a week, I'm going to put a show out and you're going to get something you like. Hey, and also as always, I asked you to support save the brave, just a small donation each month, it comes straight out of your PayPal account, it can be small, it can be $5 $10 $15, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be big. Just go to save the brave.org and that's how you do it. Look for big things coming up from save the brave as we continue to grow. We see you that are helping and we thank you so much. Talk to me at Pete Turner or Heck, send me an email Pete at break it down show calm. All right, here comes Jerome Preisler
Unknown Speaker 3:08
lions rock productions.
Unknown Speaker 3:13
This is Jay Mohr and this is Jordan. Dexter from the Navy Sebastian youngsters, Rick maronna. Stewart.
Unknown Speaker 3:21
Handy somebody there's a skunk Baxter, Gabby Reese, Rob belly, this is Jon Leon Guerrero
Pete Turner 3:25
And this is Pete a Turner.
Jerome Preisler 3:30
Jerome Preisler, author of net force dark web, and I'm on the break it down show.
Pete Turner 3:38
This is pretty cool. I was just telling Jerome and he was episode number 22. So it's been almost exactly 600 episodes published since you were last on and you for sure will go up sometime, you know, deeper into the 600. That's too long of a gap man. You've been doing some incredible things. And I want to get into that but can we Just for a few minutes talk a little bit about your your book that got you on the show last time is it's called first jump and it was about the Pathfinders at World War Two. These were the guys who jumped before the guys who just so the paratroopers are guided him by guys called the headliners. And they made me sort of a movie about these guys called the Dirty Dozen. Put a reality Jerome wrote the book about the actual guys who are absolutely crazy enough to go on these suicide missions over and over again and right now 75 years ago, the Battle of the Bulge is going on and then jumped into that crazy fight. Let's talk about that.
Jerome Preisler 4:36
Well, you know what, what's called the Battle of the balls really started when the Germans crossed into Bastogne. In Belgium, they had truck sank, I believe it was 17,000 members of the hundred and first airborne, who were actually they just completed another operation so so they weren't and this is the middle of the So they weren't parachuted in. They were, as I said, they were selected by truck, maybe train, I'm not even certain they were ill equipped. They really didn't. They hadn't. They hadn't been reom they had gotten their ammunition. They had gotten uniforms. They had holes in their boots, they didn't have blankets. There they were sent in to defend that stone against this German push, that nobody anticipated, rather quickly found themselves circled by 10s of thousands of German troops, artillery, guns, tanks were obviously vastly outnumbered. They were, they were starving, they were freezing to death. And they were they didn't have enough bullets to fire their, their, their weapons. And they didn't have medicine and airlift was planned. But the only way they could they can execute this was to Know that there was some there was an area in which they could drop all the supplies. Of course, there was no GPS, there was no way that they could look no from the air what was happening. So they got together a small group of Pathfinders who volunteered for this mission was two planes full. So it was two sticks 12 to 13. Guys, their mission was to jump down and set off a either an orange flare which would indicate that there was that there was an opening for them to drop to drop. The supplies aren't haven't been the color of this free Netherlands or they would have set off a black smoke flare which would have signaled that the Germans had already closed in and there was no room to drop anything. The very interesting part of this whole, that whole aspect is that Jake McNeese, who was the crazy guy who had led the Pathfinders. And that particular mission. What he didn't tell anybody was that he never took any black flares with him. So no matter what happened, he was setting off the orange player to jump. They were about 30 yards I believe the closest drunk tank. And he set up he set off
Pete Turner 7:21
30 yards. 100 feet 30
Jerome Presiler 7:23
yards. Yeah, they were looking at the tank. They were literally looking straight at the tank when they land that shit. Yeah, yeah. He He set off the yarn smoke. The airlift. The earliest took place without that. Who knows what would have happened to these folks? I mean, is this some historical debate but my opinion, there's no way that they would have been our patents forces could have reached them in time. Certainly, certainly. Many, many, hundreds of them, if not thousands, would have died. I think thousands I don't know how they anybody would have gone True cheese. Wow. Yeah, it was it was is pretty phenomenal.
Pete Turner 8:04
That is as phenomenal as it gets. I mean you hear these incredible stories and we won't give jack all of the credit but when you understand just how unlikely and impossible this whole thing is. It's just it's jaw dropping to think that
Jerome Preisler 8:21
it yeah and and also it really depended on a break in the weather.
Pete Turner 8:26
Right tell them part of the story it's so good
Jerome Preisler 8:28
so good. It was and I have to refresh my own memory cuz a while ago but the there was a there was stormy conditions. I mean, it was just Blizzard like conditions that there was no Blake in the snow for a while. They had the Pathfinders had turned back the first time they set out I think they returned to their base in England. They started off again the next morning. Then the weather briefly cleared. They jumped the players will come in from all Although the airlift was coming in from, from from different locations, and as they flew in, it was just this miraculous break in the cloud. And again, this was on Christmas Day or I believe. Yeah. If you look at the pilots accounts, they were all standing they just got while it's kind of like a Christmas present. Just it just cleared long enough for them to to make the passes and save the day. And her old fashion,
Pete Turner 9:28
if I remember correctly, they try it on Christmas Eve, but the weather wouldn't allow there was no break.
Jerome Preisler 9:34
Exactly. And then,
Pete Turner 9:36
jack nice and those guys were like, you'll put us back in the plane. You'll keep going back and forth. We're going you know, and they insist if I remember the book correctly, they insisted on clothes here to take him in.
Jerome Preisler 9:49
Yeah, Jake insisted he was he was. He was. He wasn't canceling it. So he wasn't cloning mission for anything. One thing too, I think is worth talking about. One of the guys I wrote about in the book was actually an artilleryman. He was an officer. So he had been, he had been staying with some farmers. He and some other officers had, unlike the grunch, they at least had a warm place to stay. And they were they were building with a farmhouse with a family. Just outside this door. They got the call at the airlift was on. So they jumped into Jeeps, and they drove into town. I spoke to a 90 something year old. Right, Andrew, who gave me a first hand account of what it was like from from the ground. This is about two to three years ago. I was actually after I'd written the book that he got that I talked to him and he said to me, he said it was the most heroic thing he'd ever seen. Because putting, just putting aside the Pathfinders for involving the guys in the 47 years that we're dropping supplies, they will run on, those planes were flying in, they had light because well, they couldn't, they couldn't put the extra weight on. Because they needed to use every last bit of possible carry weight for the for the freight that they were dropping. So these guys were coming in taking German fire as it goes. In some cases they were they were just hanging out of the planes while the planes were burning, while the planes were going down and still dropping their, their their supplies. And knowing that they weren't going to make it and read words to me were, quite simply, it was the most heroic thing I'd ever seen in my life. So I mentioned that because in terms of the entire airlift, of course, with the Pathfinders did was insanely heroic, but I don't want the efforts of those pilots to go on Heroku because they were equally equally bold. It was it was pretty phenomenal obviously. Yeah, the
Pete Turner 12:12
I almost feel like I need to tell the whole story because it is so impossible. So when someone like jack jack, nice is his name right, that was Jake Jake. Jake McNeese. So he is so determined when he does this impossible thing that he doesn't even take the safety smoke grenade. He just takes the girls he
Jerome Preisler 12:32
goes, right he tells us he tells his commanding officer and he tells, I think even the pilot that he's got the orange smoke in the black smoke, but he never even never even took the black smoke. So no matter what he was going through with the mission, right, it was it was happening. It was happening as far as he was concerned anyway,
Pete Turner 12:53
but I mean, when that happens, like that kind of determination that leads to and I'm not going to give Jake, all of the credit, but that leads to other men saying I will. You know, I'll be damned if Jake is going to go do that. Right. I'll be damned if I'm short, you know?
Jerome Preisler 13:11
Exactly. And that's why his guys would follow him anywhere. In fact, I'm trying to think back they, most of the guys that that jumped with him had actually been part of a demolition outfit that that, that he was that he commanded at Normandy. He was not a Pathfinder, and that Appalachian and then, you know, he was always getting into trouble and all these guys were and they were they were they were rowdy loud, let's put it that way. And the and the so you know, it was kind of like in out of the brig and now, you know, they're CEOs are trying to figure out ways to get rid of them. So, Jake being the biggest troublemaker they said to him, do you want to volunteer for this? Pathfinder mission. And that was it wasn't even that I don't think they had that stone in mind at that point. It was just you want to volunteer for the Pathfinders. And basically, you know, he said, Well, yeah, why not? We'll get it'll get me out of it'll get me out of camp. Which, which bore the hell out of them. You know, he marched in from a CEOs office, walk to his tennis court, starts packing his bags, and all these other guys like, what when you go and he goes, Well, you know, it's got this Pathfinder thing I'm heading off, and they all start packing their bags to I'm going out going not going now these were guys who had who had been in Normandy with him, and they was following through to hell. So all of them, you know, I forget exactly how many there were, that were part of the devil unit, but, you know, six or seven of them at least, ended up volunteering to the past. Fine, just listen. And that was the kind of guy he was. And that's the kind also kind of guys they were, you know, they were, they were all as crazy as he were, but while or at least close, you know, I don't think he could be as crazy as Jake but they were close. Yeah,
Pete Turner 15:13
yeah. I mean, you talked about the pilots and the again, these men that were just you know, they would rather be damned you know, like they really would rather go to hell than to come up wanting in this in this fight and so there's God like Joel crouch who was a you assess reading this story he sent me he was united pilot, you know, like talking about having made before the war he's united pilot and flying people between LA and Seattle, in the in the 30s. And so, all he can do is go up and up and up and run, you know, be successful, but here he is just a badass. And I'll say the word combat pilot, you know, willing to go do anything to get his guys to where they had to go. It's a remarkable
Jerome Preisler 15:57
and you know, most of these guys, that's that With a guy from a guy from, you know, the private airlines when the war broke out, because these were the most skilled pilots, they had it, they had a lot of years flying under their belt, you know, they were seasoned so so these were the guys that they that they called upon, got somebody like crouch who, who had pioneered all sorts of techniques. I mean, he was a guy who led the first who was in the first plane of the first first first plane of the first Pathfinder group to leave to leave England going over the channel into Normandy. Again, when they when they when they flew through us, they actually hit a column of cloud that ran I don't know how many feet into the air, but they were just looking at at nothing. They were looking at a darkness. Crouch was able to navigate this because of his experience. Yeah, all the guys would have We've had turned back. And then and then when they, when they got over overland, they were, they were taking anti aircraft fire. So, so it wasn't as if you know, what they got through, they got through obliviate into into any, you know, an approved status they would just get it was just getting deeper and deeper into into hell, they were making these runs and then they and then after, you know, the successive waves of the of pilots who were dropping the, you know, the guys from 100 and first at second, you know, they would, they would, they would drop a stick, they would fly back to England, and then they would, you know, get shot out on the way in that, get shot out on the way out, pick up another stick of paratroopers and get shot out all over again. And, you know what, again, what amazes me is that they they had no guns aboard, none of these planes had any guns aboard. They couldn't defend themselves. So that's the thing that Excuse me, they're flying into a hell of a fire.
Pete Turner 18:04
And the planes are being hit, like hundreds of times with anything the Germans can throw up.
Jerome Preisler 18:12
Yeah, guys are like, you know, guys are sitting there and the bullets are flying past us. It's because they were the, they were really, really thin. You know, the underbellies of these planes were quite thin again, because they had to be like, a cargo plane.
Pete Turner 18:30
Yeah, that's the other thing is if you were to think and again, not 100% the same, but if you think about what any kind of cargo plane today or large passenger plane, right, like, it's basically the same thing. And these guys are flying these things at their engineered limit. I mean, right on top of it, because the lower you fly, the faster you the harder it is to be shot down hard, right? It's hard to use anti aircraft guns, it gets a gun that are playing that's, you know, no higher than the steeples of a church. So these guys are Taking, by the way, flight was invented 35 years before this war even happens, right?
Jerome Preisler 19:06
Yeah, think about that. Right. Flying like,
Pete Turner 19:12
you're 13 feet off the ground like and when should we get lower? You know?
Jerome Preisler 19:17
I know. I know, it sounds it sounds ridiculous to even have to mention this, but it is worth mentioning that, you know, there's no satellite data, right? There's no GPS data. So they don't really know exactly what's what's awaiting them. You know, they don't know what's on the ground. They don't know precisely where the where the artillery emplacements are. They have some idea because they've they've, you know, they there have been some spy flights there have been they've had, you know, French underground that have been conducting surveillance, but again, how long does it take from for a report to get from France to two headquarters, right. It's not instantaneous. They're not you know, they're not online.
Pete Turner 20:05
Yeah. And again, any information that's passed, right, here's the rule of spies, that information is compromised. So you really going off of the best information available, which you have no idea if it's any good, you know,
Jerome Preisler 20:16
can that's why they didn't know how to it's one of the reasons they didn't know how high the hitch rows were right. They had folio. They had photos, surveillance, photo recon, but, you know, they were expecting hedgerows that were like, I don't know, three, four feet. They weren't expecting to be landing in you know, 1520 foot hedgerows. Right. Right.
Pete Turner 20:39
Yeah, it's, it's just such a that's why I wanted to spend some time with this. Because to understand this endeavor, you know, and, and how many, I mean, patents audacity to do, you know, tell his generals, figure out the path that we're going to take, and then go ahead and start going before he even attends the plan. meeting where he says will be there in 48 hours. Like, that's audacious just to say, this is how we are, of course, we're going to be there. You know, this is what we do. All of these all of these things over and over again, these men all just doing impossible things and putting themselves not even second or third, but last, you know, that that pilot that you're talking about that's hanging out of his plane, making sure that last load goes out. He's jumping behind lines, and he's not prepared for that kind of, you know, an escape.
Jerome Preisler 21:32
No, no. And you know, they were, they were at different points. They were they were flying really low. A lot of these planes were burning. That was that was one of the things that really struck me when, you know, when I talked to read and read a lot of the accounts planeswalkers a lot of the planes was firing, the guys are still dropping their villages, supplies, the supplies, were color coded in each pair of the parachutes to which the crates were attached were different colors to indicate what what this again we're talking about best go now to indicate whether you know because they had obviously once they hit the ground they hadn't bought very quickly. So they had no you know, with you know get this unit the mentorship that this unit need the ammo that this unit need need uniforms, so they were coded accordingly and they had a load of they had you know, knowing what the colors were they had a loaded on to these trucks quickly and get them get them get them on to them and also getting back to the Pathfinders. You know we're jumping all over, but getting back to normal B, it's when they jump. They have 15 to 20 minutes in which to set up there. They are a beacon and the beacons weren't just it wasn't just a single It wasn't just that they put something on the ground, they were setting up what they call the tea, which were panel of lights. The tea was if you picture you know, playing coming in the long part of the teeth of the heart, the vertical bar would have been equivalent to a runway and cross bar would have been equivalent to actually we've been where they are at the point where the where the vertical bar meet met the crossbar is where they were supposed to drop the, you know, the guys from the hundred and first in the 82nd. So, all that had to be set up along with a radio beacon to that the planes were following in all within 15 minutes. And the fact it didn't happen Cleveland, you know, it was very chaotic. Because of the weather because of the fire. They were taking a lot of planes were coming in. Were coming in way off the mark. A lot of the the Pathfinders were were scattered far from where they're supposed to jump. And they were really assembling. They were assembling based on, you know, using an accomplices trying to figure out where they were. It was, it was pretty, pretty incredible that they were able to pull it off.
Pete Turner 24:26
Yeah, I'll say it is pretty incredible that they were able to pull it off understatement of the year because, again, like in the case of Normandy, these guys are turning the lights on for the paratroopers to be the tip of the spear. And, you know, they're, they're right there the tip of the tip of the tip of the spear, you know, they're, they're ahead of them. And if they fail with their mission, you know, thousands of people are now not going to have that light to guide them in and they're still going to jump no matter what but now they really have no chance and so Just all of these things is drum thanks for telling that story man because it's just it is so illustrative of what it means to go do this this kind of you know, this kind of crazy work that that you know if we were to do all of it again quite likely doesn't work out best stone goes to the Germans in there. Yeah, yeah, we're changes
Jerome Preisler 25:24
it sounds It sounds so cliche to say it but you know, these what these men accomplished and trying to kind of and as I do as a writer trying to put put oneself in their in their shoes. This was this was not you know, this was these are citizen soldiers. These were guys who were drafted out of ordinary life. They didn't have, you know, months and months to train. They didn't have the kind of equipment that guys do now. Nothing anyway. And I'm certainly not, you know, in any way you know, disparaging right, what what are what soldiers now do I I don't think anyone needs to suggest that but I'm just saying that these women who grew up in a in a very simple time as compared to now, and we're really pulled out of lines that were so so far from, you know, any any kind of combat experience and for them to kind of kind of for them to mobilize as quickly as they did to train as quickly as they did, and to have the guts that they did. It's something that endlessly amazes me, you know, I, I'll never stop being amazed by it.
Pete Turner 26:44
It is, in terms of our position, obviously, I put different points of view, but it is truly the pinnacle of like, you know, I know that we put people on the moon but this is such a bigger, harder, more consequential problem than than even that so
Jerome Preisler 27:00
It's a well cuz they were getting shot at
Pete Turner 27:05
the adversary was a space which is not a lot nothing to laugh at but yeah it was. This was not a simple
Jerome Preisler 27:12
there was there was a there was a great void of space but we don't want to finish that right?
Pete Turner 27:18
Hey, this is Pete a Turner from lions rock productions, we create podcasts around here and if you your brand or your company want to figure out how to do a podcast, just talk to me. I'll give you the advice on the right gear, the best plan to show you how to take a podcast that makes sense for you. That's sustainable. That's scalable and fun. Hit me up at Pete at breakdown show calm. Let me help. I want to hear about it.
Jerome Preisler 27:41
We can finish that right.
Pete Turner 27:44
Yeah, but but really you have people purposely trying to kill and defeat you constantly in different ways and trying to deceive you. And you know, there's so many different ways this could have gone in a not so good outcome for us. So it's just yeah, it's remarkable and I love that we get to spend time talking about that. Especially as we think about the anniversary, but let's talk a little bit about your national bestseller written you're kind of a would you call it a reboot? Is that what it is for the year your net force series? This is like a reboot or how would you characterize your Tom Clancy book?
Jerome Preisler 28:16
Yeah. That's that's pretty good word for it, reboot relaunch. The series is called net force in the first book, which is out now and as you point out, just became a national bestseller. It's called dark web. That force was one of three series co created by Tom Clancy in his lifetime, other than the Jaqueline. And back in the mid 90s, When, when, when Air Force was first published, I wrote one of the other series, one called power plays and I wrote that for about a 10 years and back in back in sometime around 2010, I guess net Force powerplays and the other series which was closed off center will cease to exist and it was a lot of internal stuff going on and publishing. So and they will they were almost selling quite well be that as it may so I really thought that was behind me. I didn't think I was going to be doing any any Clancy franchise related work and then some years passed and I got a phone call and and some of the people connected with the estate had asked me and the publishing line has had been considering relaunching that force. They asked if I would be interested. I certainly was what was really what what really hooked me was that I was given I was asked whether I would like to kind of pick up with the original continuity or reboot it with new characters and you know, update the concept and I thought that was important because networks really deals with cybercrime and cyber warfare. And if you go back to when, when the series was originally created the 90s, you know, our view of what the internet would be like and what virtual reality would be like, is obviously, the reality of how things turned out is very different, you know, then what might have been anticipated back in, in 1998. It's not the same as you know, you can you can, you can pick up in continuity. If, you know, let's say you're dealing with another character in a in a situation that really doesn't involve the internet cyberspace, if it's just sort of a political thriller. You can age the character a number of years just sort of pick up a few years later. But if, if the technology really, really is different, I think I think the better route to go was with was to was the one I took, which was to reboot it. So that's what I did. And it took a lot of there was a lot, a lot of stuff that we had to get through in order to really watch the series. So it took a while, but we got it done,
Pete Turner 31:15
how often you're going to be putting books out.
Jerome Preisler 31:18
Initially, we've got got four books coming out one a year, the first one just came out. In between each each novel we're going to be doing, I'm going to be writing a novella. So it'll be on the novel, just the first book just came out. They'll come out every November and the novella will come out late May or June or something like that. First one is already written. The first one's called, I have the drone and you can actually pre order it on Amazon and it's one of my most fun things I ever wrote. One of my I totally love, love this novella for a lot of different reasons. And it's actually a prequel to the book, that Okay, book open. The first book opens with one is with with one of our, my my heroes or the heroine. Her name is Kali alaka. And she's what's known as a grey hat hacker, who someone who was in her case, she's walking by every country on earth and every law enforcement group on earth and she is a person who has who has according to her own moral code. The story opens with her being pursued by a CIA, Manhunter who kind of knows that she's on the side of the angels but has been tasked with bringing her in. He doesn't want to see her behind bars. Because you know, she can be a powerful asset. And he also knows that from from having tells her around the world, and as it turns out, to be involved in some adventure with her previously, she knows he knows that she's you know, she's she's in the right city. Our hearts in the right spot. The novella really kind of tells the story of what holidays, they first encountered each other three months before the the opening sequence of the first novel. If you can follow Yeah, okay.
Pete Turner 33:16
So okay, when you Yeah, what a remarkable thing, man to be able to do this and take this sorry and bring it to where it's at now, at Sony, are you writing these solo? And then how do you get your guidance on on what like is like what's cool to do in terms of a no, we're not gonna let you do that with it because it's not your franchise. I mean, this is someone else's Baby, you know. So how does that work? The just
Jerome Preisler 33:43
really, really, it's up to me at this point. You know, I think one of the reasons that that, you know, that I was first became involved in this was that I had, you know, I had worked with Tom when he was alive. And I knew the parameters of writing where the series so there was a lot of trust in terms of what I could do. You know, I, I understand the dynamic of writing something for the Clancy franchise. So, at the same time, I also realize that it's important I, in my view to to grow our readership, you know, a lot of people is, you know, I was telling the kids at my local bank, I was, I was, I was putting some money in the bank or something. And kid knows I'm a writer, and he said, Oh, you know, what are you working on? They said on a book called net force that was co created by Tom Clancy. And he goes, Oh, he did something besides video games. You know, I mean, that's, that's really, you know, it's important for me to realize, I think, I think there's an object lesson there. And that is that you have to realize that, you know, a lot of a lot of kindness passed. And we're whereas it's, it's obviously really important to, to know what Clancy readers expect in a novel. It's also it's equally vital that, that I that I reach 25 year olds who don't, and who are who are looking for something reasonable, were interested in and, you know, who know about the internet and know cyberspace, and if they're into video games, or they seen the matrix, you know, and, and they really, they're looking for a book that they can identify with. So, so I think it's so you know, that's my long winded way of saying that, with my experience, I really have, you know, free hand in what I'm doing here.
Pete Turner 35:52
Yeah, that's needs to be at that point in your career. And so you're going to do this fashion. Definitely. Right.
Jerome Preisler 35:57
I hope so. You know, it's, it's, I know, there was a point at which, as I said, between that first phone call and the time we actually relaunched the series a number of years past and project sold out for one, one reason or another, and about two years ago, I spoke to my agent. And I said, Look, you know, with, with everything in the news about cyberspace and the internet, I think this is the time to really relaunch the series. So we, we contacted the powers that be and we said, Look, you know, let's, let's try to roll on this thing. It was, you know, it's so the major thrust really came from from me and my agent, and we got everybody else on board. So and the reason I say that is that yeah, I mean, it's, it's a dream come true that I actually got it that we got it going, because it was a group effort. We have a great publisher and over square press. Which is division of Harlequin, which is a division of Harper Collins, which is a division of who knows what. I think we can stop it how to calm. But Byron's great, they're really forward thinking they're really into it. And not what they've done a great job getting the book out and getting a lot of copies onto the, onto the shelves. Yeah, I hope to do it indefinitely. I think one thing about the novelists like to blab on, please is that there were a couple of goals, goal posts that I set for myself, and one was I knew that there have been you know, at this point people are, are hip to hacking inside of this cyber crime or or cyber terrorism. There's been movies and we know about the big stuff and you know, the movies where the power grid goes out as the movies where the planes, you know, the control system goes haywire. So a lot of The big stuff that of course you want to have like this, because an action novel has been, you know, it's something that people know about fairly widely. But what I wanted to do was, in part, let people have a story that showed what happens to the average person what happened because just the guy, you know, me and you and the guy on the street, and you know, the guy who's trying to save up for his house, and the guy whose wife is ill and needs a few bucks and they get kind of pulled into their affected by cyber crime that I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but I really want to show how it affects the ordinary person. before and I and I do a slow build of the story from from what looks like a bank, kind of a cyber bank heist, something that ended Being an internet enacted international terrorism, cyber terrorism, but I think it was very important for people to understand that cybercrime affects them in ways that might not be quite as grandiose as the power grid shutting down, that it can hurt them in ways that are more subtle. The other thing I tried to do, because I do create winds up being a superbug, I call it hecate. In the in the in the story and it's a it's a, it's a bug that can endlessly transformative, it keeps changing itself into something else. What I wanted to do was was again show how a malware infection spreads. I had spoken to some people who were involved in cyber crime and in solving cybercrime, and I've spoken to a lot of computer security people in the course of plotting this out. And one of the first things I was told by a guy in the FBI was way before, you know, and I think a lot of people have heard the term the Internet of Things. Which resource which, to those who haven't. The first to kind of all the gadgets that we have, that are plugged in, you know, you know, the home security cameras, the smart refrigerators, the smart coffee makers, the smart toothbrushes, the smart wireless, smart cars, those are mo our phones, all those things that are these gadgets that are that are not well protected against a malware infection, they don't have the kinds of firewalls that your desktop computers or your corporate network have. So, what I was told back a few years ago by the FBI was well you know, that's what we're really worried about. Because it's through the internet of things that that a cyber virus will spread. While recently I was talking to a security expert, this is why I was actually midway through the book. And and she was telling me Well, what we're really afraid of now is near field communication. And what that is, of course, you know, we all we all have phones that we, you know, you can wave in front of the scanner, so you don't have to use your credit card. And you go to the gas station and use your phone. And when we go to concert, we don't have physical tickets anymore. We use our phones and so near field communication, right. Yeah. And the problem with that is they're they're very vulnerable. How do you lock
Pete Turner 41:41
that down?
Jerome Preisler 41:42
Yeah. If you look at it, in terms of looking at biological how biological bug spreads, look, if you've got the flu, and you know, you've got a guy and he's using his head off and he walks out to the subway subway in New York and he gets onto a crowded train you sneezing Using all those people on the train or getting affected and he leaves the train and he walks into a coffee shop and he's using everybody in the coffee shop gets expected. Now let's look at somebody who who has a smartphone that's been infected and they walk onto the subway and they use it you know now in New York at any rate and also in Washington DC and probably in all is going to Chicago lately but it probably in most major cities within the next few years. All these Metro cards and you know, the, that used to get onto the subway systems will be replaced by Near Field Communication scanners here in New York. They're already at my local train station. They're already on Time Square at Grand Central Station. So you use your phone your phone's infected, it spreads via the phone. Again, you're you're that you're like the guy with the flu. who now has spread it through the subway system you've got you get on a train. You get you get to work before you get to work and you Is your phone to buy a Starbucks coffee? It's just that, you know, there's all sorts of vectors of transmission for an electronic bug. So it's a scary proposition and security experts have not yet figured out how to nail it down. And so I use that in, in, in, in network darkweb
Pete Turner 43:24
Yeah, it's that whole thing you're talking about. So I've done quite a bit of research on my into technology or for technology with with the shows that I've done, like popping the bubble. And the idea of a lot of these technologies shared web access, you know, almost like a like Airbnb for your wireless signal to to monetize that, that requires an enough permissibility that right firewall is sort of like it's it's a great place. Mr. Robot that show they use a thermostat to get into do some hacking, you know, because these things are connected. And they the security on them isn't what they, what the and then who's got the money? You know, in a giant? Imagine the Pentagon and how many internet of things things could be attacked, you know, like it's just you could spend a billion dollars just getting all that stuff up to speed.
Jerome Preisler 44:18
Yeah. And you know, there was I think a few last week there was a story it was about security camera that was hacked by some some guy and you know, little girls room. And you know, this was an old newspapers. And actually, it's what happens with just using security cameras, for example. Most of these cameras, all of these cameras come out of the factory with default. And, and what what you're supposed to do, if you read the manual is you change the default password to your own personal past password, but nobody bothers to do it because nobody reads the manual. They just they You know, they hook the cameras up. So anybody who wants to hack into these cameras can just go on to some online database, where all of the factory defaults are listed. It's not a great feat, you know, it's not, it's not some, some evil geniuses doing it just takes somebody to actually, you know, get on one of these databases, and look up what x brand default passwords are, and then just just trying them, you know, it's and it goes and with Internet of Things stuff it, you can you can just sort of apply that across the board. So yeah, it's, it's frightening. And it was, it was another aspect to and that is just kind of holding, pulling, pulling back from the threat of cybercrime or, or cyber terrorism and looking at the internet itself. I think I thought it was important in in looking at an overview for this series to consider what what in fact, does the internet mean what is it evolving into? What is what is the good part of it? What is the scary part of it? What would since we're dealing with heroic fiction, what we are good guys, what would their view of the internet be? Would they would they all have we all my heroes have a view that's, that's coherent and consistent with one another? And getting a little, maybe some a little vague here, but because I'm dealing with enough force, I'm dealing with organization that in my series, it's actually a cabinet level organization, on on par with say Homeland Security and it has different it has this Elements it has a military element that has a law enforcement element. It has research elements, and it has forensic elements and all of those, all of that. So there are various people who are involved in, in the different parts of a group like this. There are, you know, there were guys who were, who spent, were FBI, recruited from the FBI guys with the CIA, but they're also academics. And they're also as in the case of say, my character, Cali, people, someone who's a hacker and who's approaching it, a very different point of view than maybe some of the other people in the group. And, and the reason I pull these different types of characters in is because they're very different visions of the Internet, and what it represents. And I think it's important that we consider many of them or at least, if not all of them, because it's impossible. to control it. So therefore, we have to consider what it is and how we manage different aspects of
Pete Turner 48:10
these problems. I mean, they absolutely are made for exactly what you're doing because you can try to have an ethical approach to these things, but unethical people will do unethical things to your ethical network, you know, like you put a lot of trust into these things and or just you don't think about how can this be attacked? You know, it's, there's, there's so many angles. Hey, I wanted to ask you this question. One, I love the attitude of Hey, this has been on the shelf a while it needs freshening up and going and taking the bold step of saying, Let me help your brand. Let me write these things. You know, I'm the right guy for it. Because if you don't have that conversation, I don't know what the odds are. But I'm assuming no one's no one's just waiting, like and running up to Jerome's door to Hey, hey, takeover our franchise even though you're qualified to do this, but I love that bold step, how did you how did you get to that audacious moment and said, I'm going to do it?
Jerome Preisler 49:05
You know, it was funny. It just sort of popped out. And the I guess, I guess what happened was, I, I knew that I had some familiarity with the series. And it was a great series in its time, but I knew that the characters that were written part of it wouldn't necessarily translate into modern characters if I tried to do it. If I try to take those characters and kind of say, Okay, here's here's where they are now. It my instantaneous thought was, it was feel dated, it wouldn't work. So I just threw it out there. I think it's better. I always think it's better to if you can work with characters of your own creation because they they obviously reflect you know, your sensibilities. Yeah. And you're, you're in you know, your view of what, what good heroes are what the villains And, yeah, I mean, it's even even as I sit here and talk to you. It's when you're actually in it and you're writing it, you think, wow, I sure hope people like these these these characters, you know, because it's suddenly it suddenly occurred to me like what if, you know, what if they hate it all right, you know, you kind of hope this is when you, you know, you read a lot of books and you kind of hope that if you like them, people will like, would you like the story people like it? Because, you know, it's again, it's been sent a lot by writers that you write to please yourself, but it's been said a lot because it's true. And you know, just to sort of have a little fun, the two characters, and I won't say who they are, because I want to surprise people but the two they'll actually the three characters that carry over from the original series, okay. Two of them, however, and I picked them for reasons. One was a really nice guy and I made him a jerk. The other guy was kind of like, you know, a very conservative sort of character and I made him I've been quite the opposite of that. So I just figured I'd play with people's heads and turn the characters around. So they're totally different than they were. So if somebody loves them, hopefully they'll get a kick out of what I did with them. Yeah. And not hate me for me drone. Come on. You know, you know, the time was right. Also, because people are familiar with reboots, you know, people have seen it. You know, X number of reboots of spider man, what is it three or four X number? Batman. So, you know, and and the characters obviously change a lot, you know, the Batman of today's not the Batman of Adam West, and the TV show. So, you know, it's something that I think is very much in people's sensibilities for movies and television. And I think at this point they can carry over successfully into black and blue so far can be can be catching on.
Pete Turner 51:58
Yeah, no, that's awesome. Love it, you are getting a chance to do this. And then the other question is, is, no matter how many times you write these books, you know, you're going to have two names above yours. You You have as an author, right? If you tell your young Jerome like, Listen, here's going to be the deal. You're going to have these incredible opportunities. You're going to write all these books, and make money doing what you love. But Tom Clancy's name is always going to be above yours is how does how does an author deal with that? I mean, you get to write your own books in your own time, but this is going to keep you busy, is that when you look at ways to be an author, you have bigger more grandiose visions in your head, like I'm going to be like Stephen King, or, you know, whoever it is, right. But you have this wonderful success. I mean, it doesn't get bigger than a national bestseller in free sales and all the, you know, you you've done it, but there's always that thing where like, you know, Tom Clancy is going to be above you
Jerome Preisler 52:56
know, it's a good question and I Tell him my case. I truly don't mind. And I guess I'll I this is for a few reasons. First is that, you know, for me, you know, I started writing when I was 11 years old I wrote my first novel started when I was 10 or 11. I started writing writing longhand on you know, I'm just mostly paper right and taught myself how to type and by the time I finished it, so the first part of the book which I still have is all you know, pens and pencil ends up being and can you see the evolution of the thing is typer I'm got into it because you know, was just something that was that I love to do that I that was for me, it saved my, my sanity, even as a kid and as adults even more so. So, so So Ryan is just what I do. I really never got into writing to see my name. No lights or no to, to think of my or more worried about being, you know, being streamis or anything like that I just want to be able to, to, to have a career writing. And that's always been my attitude. But that kind of transfers. In other words. Let me try to articulate this for me to take that to the next phase. I've written a lot of books under my own name. I've got a book coming out next year. That's a civil war narrative history. I've written all sorts of novels, just under my name, for me to be able to work in this universe, actually, have people pay attention to it, because it's part of the Tom Clancy franchise is something I see as, as a blessing. I don't see it as any kind of negative it's a positive to me. I feel very privileged to to be writing The book that's in the classic franchise, they're only the only three that he created. So for me, or co created so for the maybe it's funny, but I don't look at it that way I don't, I don't really worry about the names that are above mine or below mine. I really just kind of worried about whether people are going to read it, you know, and, and, and if a lot of people are reading it, if some of them come to it because they like my work with some of them come to it because they, they're, they're fans of Clancy if they come to it because they like Tom Clancy and then say, Hey, I, you know, I like the way this guy drone like, whatever way it is. I'm fine with it. As long as people are reading it. This this great with me.
Pete Turner 55:51
Yeah, and I think that's why I wanted to ask the questions because our folks out there that are trying to figure out how to write and it's less about where you end up and and Can you earn a living a real living, you know, writing books, because that's exactly what you're doing, you get this great ability to create and sit down for 10 hours with a yellow pad and some ideas and work and then go, Well, I need to work another 10 hours. You know, it's it's a remarkable thing. And man, I just appreciate the heck out of you coming on and talking World War Two with me and talking about the new series. And I just, I'm just super excited for you to have all of this. All of this, you know, hard earned good fortune. It's called net force darkweb. It's out on Amazon. It came out in November, you can get that now. And then there are more books to come novellas, that kind of thing. And this is what Jerome does. If you guys want to support, go to Amazon, get the net force books. And then I always rate these things. Five stars provide a review, even if the review is simple. That makes the computer say hey, people are reading and writing about this book. And it pumps it up in the ratings and it
Jerome Preisler 56:55
helps celebrate
Pete Turner 56:56
what Jerome is doing and the stories he's creating and make Again, I appreciate the heck of the heck out of you for coming on the show.
Jerome Preisler 57:04
Thank you why I love being on
