The Secret Fraternity (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780965469845)

I, the author, had the experience of having my imagination come to life while serving in the U. S. Navy as a crew member on President John F. Kennedy's official flagship---a light cruiser, the USS Northampton (and yes, the president and his carefree wife, Jackie, actually came aboard several times for short pleasure excursions). I took a big-time interest in their ever-present Secret Service operatives who(m) always seemed to know everything about everybody! After five years of military service, I joined the electronic industry work force. My deep interest in secret organizations led me to study them further, and I became a historian. I started keeping permanent logbooks on people who(m) I thought were interesting characters. The records I've made in them over a period of 30 years always included a portrait of the subject either sketched or painted by me. I frequently use these records to create characters in my novels and short stories, and I usually place them in the roles and scenarios in which we were both familiar. Those events sometimes involved my personal experiences with a brotherhood whose activities were termed 'hush-hush' by the leaders, and, believe-it-or-not, discipline was enforced by a militant branch. Their military muscle sometimes resulted in disciplinary action that had deadly consequences for renegade members. And so now, I document my own personal past in the guise of fictional stories that I conjure up with my very active imagination.