Waterkill is a high-tech thriller that weaves a story around nanoscience and fanatical religious terrorism. This gripping story takes place on three continents. It’s a thrill of a ride that you won’t want to step off of once you open its cover and turn the first page.
It took me only about four months of actual writing time to complete the first draft. However, the writing process was a rocky road and involved a six-month hiatus. In total, about twelve months passed from when I started it until I had my first draft complete.
The second reason for the length of time it took me to complete the first draft of the book was the amount of research that went into writing it. As mentioned, Waterkill spans three continents: Asia, North America, and Europe. Early on, the story starts out in Yemen and moves to Alaska. From there, it crosses the “big pond” to Germany before eventually finding its way to Iran. With each new geographical location, I had to do extensive research on the respective local terrain, weather, people, language, and building architecture. In addition, and particularly with Yemen and Iran, I had to also research the local cultures, religion, food, and clothing styles of the indigenous people. Fortunately, I was able to interview my parents who spent nearly ten years living in Saudi Arabia, near the Yemen border and in the city of Riyadh. They were able to provide me with a wealth of first-hand experiences and knowledge of living in a predominately Muslim region of the world.
Yemeni village, flickr
Another extensive area of research that went into writing Waterkill was in the field of nanotechnology, and in particular medical and surveillance applications employing nanoscience. I already had a strong knowledge base for the use of nanotechnology in surveillance applications due to the extensive research I did on my first book, Nano Surveillance. I’m also an electrical engineer and have spent over thirty years in the development of various types of technologies, including magnetic, infrared, and radar sensors; computer and optical signal processing; and telecommunications.
an artist’s depiction of nanotechnology, wikipedia
Consequently, much of my new science research centered on the use of nanomaterials in medical applications, both for good and bad purposes. Much of what I write about involving medical applications using nanotechnology is true. For example, carbon nanotubes are heavily being researched and tested today in drug delivery applications and for killing cancer cells in humans. However, it is this same technology, and what I suggest in Waterkill, that could also be used by terrorist organizations and militaries for the manufacture and delivery of new forms of chemical and biological weapons.
London Centre for Nanotechnology, wikipedia
To put some perspective on the amount of money that has poured into nanotechnology since 2001, the United States Federal government alone has pumped $22B, cumulatively, into its “Nanotechnology Initiative” (NNI) with another $1.5B slated for 2016. These federal funds are used in various federal government departments and agencies: the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, NASA, Health and Human Resources, the National Science Foundation, and more.
Writing Waterkill also involved a significant amount of research into the United States intelligence community, homeland security defenses, and military organizations, operations, and weapons.
In regards to the aviation scenes in the book, I am a private pilot and spent much of my youth sitting in the right seat of Cessna 172s and 152s that my father flew all over the Chesapeake Bay area. As a result, those scenes draw from my extensive personal knowledge and experiences in flying small aircraft.
So to close, writing this book was a big project on multiple levels. First, simply writing a 100K-plus word book is a daunting task in and of itself. Second, the wide array of geographical regions and technologies added a great deal of complexity and effort in drafting the book. And finally, the editing stage was extremely time-consuming and possibly the most frustrating. However, in the end, after all the hard work, I feel I have now completed something that is informative, thought-provoking, and entertaining to read. If you choose to buy the book, I hope you will agree.
Recommended Article: Waterkill – a Review
