Books in Development
Much of what is in this section is very preliminary. In some cases the manuscripts are ready to go to a publisher. In others, they're just concepts or outlines.
Most of all, what is in this section could change in a heartbeat. But, the list gives you an idea of what is coming. When, and in some cases, if I finish the book, is up in the air. As things change in my writing life, this page will be updaed, so stay tuned.
Initially, there were seven books planned in the series. Now, there may be eight. The first five - Raider of the Scottish Coast, Carronade, Death of a Lady, Last Battles, and For a Few Francs - are out. So, here's the status of the remaining books:
Predators – At the end of For a Few Francs, the Quasi-War between the U.S. and France had just begun. Edmund Radcliffe has taken command of Rapier, a privateer sailing under a French letter of marque that allows him to take ships flying the flag of any enemy of France, of which the U.S. is one.
The U.S. Navy has just been reborn with the Navy Act of 1794, but its ships are still being built. U.S. merchant ships are being captured by the French Navy, French privateers and pirates based on the North African coast. Wealthy donors shorten the procurement cycle by directly paying for what is known as a subscription frigate named Osprey. Jaco is given command of the frigate, which is a larger version of Scorpion, and sent to the Caribbean to protect U.S. ships and capture or sink French Navy ships and privateers.
Predators should be released sometime in the first half of 2025 under the Rotorhead Media LLC imprint.
Fight We Shall – In the late 1790s, the Jacintos and Laredos form a consortium with other large ship owners to build and operate a squadron of six heavily armed corvettes tasked with protecting their merchant ships in the Mediterranean. Admiralty Law allows merchant ship captains and ship owners to defend their ships. This includes hiring armed vessels as escorts. If the armed escorts only act to defend a merchant ship or owner that has hired them, and do not “hunt” pirates, they are staying within the law.
Once the U.S. declares war on the Barbary Pirates in 1803, the consortium, Naval Escort Services, buys Osprey and its sister ship, Kestrel, from the U.S. government and adds them to the squadron. Darren is given command of Kestrel, and Jaco has Osprey.
Based in Gibraltar, their squadron has two missions. One, protect U.S. shipping. Two, defeat pirates based in the Western Mediterranean while the U.S. Navy deals with Tripoli.
Fight We Shall will be released in the second half of 2025 under the Rotorhead Media LLC imprint.
Prizes of Opportunity – In 1810, Darren, while captain of Tradewinds on a scheduled voyage to England, the American Shipping & Passenger owned schooner is stopped and Darren taken into custody by the Royal Navy. Even though he has renounced his British citizenship and his commission in the Royal Navy, Darren is imprisoned and about to be tried for treason.
Rescued by his friend Jaco, Darren vows to get revenge, and the War of 1812 gives Darren the chance. Both Jaco and he are again given command of Osprey and Kestrel which have been taken out of ordinary, refitted and re-armed with long-24 pounders. Their missions - disrupt British commerce and capture Royal merchant ships and Royal Navy frigates.
Prizes of Opportunity will be released in 2026 under the Rotorhead Media LLC imprint.
Only three, maybe four books are planned in this series. The first novel, Flight of the Pawnee and Failure to Fire were released in January 2021 and February 2022. The revised second editions of both books will be released during the summer of 2023.
The third book in the series - Insidious Dragon - will be released in 2023. It is a prequel to Flight of the Pawnee and takes place in 2000 - 2003. In the story, the People's Republic of China decides to test a bio weapon and see how the U.S. reacts.
This information is as of August 31st, 2026, and is subject to change. Here’s what I am working on by title and their status.
The Racing Assassin
This is the third and last novel featuring the character Janet Pulaski/Janis Goodrich. She first appeared in Forgotten which was the fourth novel in the Josh Haman Naval Aviator Series. Demand for a follow-on book was strong, so last year, The Red Star of Death was released.
However, in The Racing Assassin, the counterterrorism mission Janis began to take down key leaders in Hezbollah is still driving her life. Now in her early fifties, Janis realizes that her time as field operator was nearing an end and wanted to embark on a new career, that of a sports car racing driver. Her hobby was vintage car racing which led her into the cockpit of a Porsche GT3R in the American Le Mans series.
The Racing Assassin will be released under the Rotorhead Media LLC imprint sometime in 2026.
The Devil in a Forked Tail
Several of readers and buyers of my books have encouraged me to write a book that takes place in World War II. At first, I resisted, but now, not one, but two are coming.
The first is The Devil in a Forked Tail that takes place between 1940 and the first few months of 1943 in Occupied France, North Africa, and the U.S. Gunther Baumann, a German ace who flew in the Condor Legion in Spain, and then in France and the Battle of Britain is now in North Africa. He is living through the back and forth as the Afrika Corps pushes the British back to El Alamein and then retreats into Tunisia. Besides shortages of everything, he has to deal with suspicious Nazi Party Gauleiters who are questioning everyone’s loyalty to the Führer.
The other character is an American Army Air Force Pilot, Sol Rudnik. and a member of the 94th Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group. Flying P-38Fs, the 94th and the 1st Fighter Group are among the first fighter squadrons to deploy to North Africa and, like Baumann, not all goes according to plan.
The Devil in the Forked Tail will be released under the Rotorhead Media LLC imprint sometime late in 2026.
Skip Bomber
This is another novel that takes place during the North African Campaign in 1942 and 1943. It is a fictionalized account the 34th Bomb Squadron, 17th Bomb Group’s journey to North Africa and then their first year in the war. They had to learn how to fly a mission – skip bombing – for which they never trained in an airplane not designed for the mission.
When Sam Gorman earned his wings December 1942 after going through the single-engine fighter pilot training pipeline, he thought he was headed to either a P-40 or P-38 squadron. Instead, the Army Air Force assigned Gorman to a medium bomber unit flying an unproven and ultimately problematic airplane, the Martin B-26 Marauder.
On the other side, the Luftwaffe was an implacable, often desperate enemy who was not afraid to shoot at aircrews drifting down in their parachutes.
Skip Bomber will be released under the Rotorhead Media LLC imprint sometime in 2027.
Hahnenkamm and Ski Racer
The writing of these two books has been placed on the back burner until the three books listed above are published or close to being released.
Rather than write a memoir or a detailed history of my father's, my son's and my aviation careers, Gold & Silver Wings is collection of anecdotes from our experiences flying airplanes from World War II to the early 2000s. The focus is not on the combat flying with two exceptions about flying the B-26 which have never been told.
In the manuscript, you'll find stories that will make you smile, some that will make you cry and some that will force you to ask what were they thinking.
The manuscript is about 80% done. What is left is getting my son's input now that he has retired from the Navy so I can add stories from his flying career. In the Fun and Dumb section of this website, you can read some of the stories from the book that are being published by the Grandpaw Pettibone chapter of the Association of Naval Aviation.