EDITING TLC

Have you ever been in the cockpit of a fighter jet? Author Ric Hunter takes his readers there and leaves them breathless. He wrote Firehammer, which is based on a true story, in honor of Lance Corporal Timothy S. Davies, USMC, who gave his life for his country. Ric Hunter and Timothy Davies were high school friends.

Firehammer takes us into the last of the Vietnam War days…based on Ric Hunter’s (COL USAF retired) experiences. He was a fighter pilot and several-time Top Gun, who has chosen to share his story in a creative, dramatic historical fiction novel.

Having had the honor to meet Ric several times, and work alongside him in the copy-editing phase, I can assure readers that they won’t be disappointed with the ups and downs (literally and metaphorically speaking) throughout this book. Readers will appreciate the romance, the quirkiness of fighter pilot antics, and all that goes with the fighter pilot life—both in the air and on land, in training and in combat situations.

Discovering what my peers were experiencing during the Vietnam era, while I was attending college and beginning my career, saddens me. I wish I could have been more supportive on their return to the States. Helping veterans get their stories out for others to read is a small part of my mission today. Thank you, Ric Hunter, for writing this story so that others can realize the truth about part of our U.S. history. 

  Many people these days search for their family genealogy, but how often do individuals discover their true “history”? Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could go back in time and “see” the happenings of our ancestors? Forgotten Roots had created that desire within me. Author Richard Whitten Barnes has created strong, interesting characters, and he weaves a story that keeps the reader guessing until the very end as to how these lives are connected. He writes both in the days of the early 1800s and in the present; he pulls those two eras together beautifully. When an author can use descriptive language to get his readers to places via visual imagery, he’s done his job. He was able to wrap my heart around that of the characters, especially one, but I won’t include a spoiler here. As a reader, I feel that I can describe both the world of the 1800’s story and the present-day mystery included in the book, thanks to the wonderful writing of Richard Barnes. Readers who enjoy historical fiction and/or a great mystery will find Forgotten Roots a book of choice for their reading repertoire.