C. L. Swinney

A note from C.L. Swinney: "Gray Ghost was an amazing journey for me in my life.  It started almost fifteen years ago when I was working at a fly fishing store in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I sold enough trips to a resort lodge in Andros, Bahamas, that I was allowed to go on the trip!  While flying into the tiny airstrip the story of Gray Ghost began to develop.                                                                                                                             I noticed several downed planes, most of which were picked clean of their contents.  That was interesting to me so I began talking to the locals about the planes.  It turns out most (ok all) were related to narcotic smuggling.  I talked to locals, the police, lodge owner, fishing guides, anyone I could to learn about the mystery of the Bahamas.                                                          Fast forward eight years later and I was pushing a patrol car trying to make narcotic arrests so I could get promoted to a narcotic task force.  It worked, and I instantly got hooked.  My memories from the Bahamas and the narcotic cases I was working resulted in the plot and concept of Gray Ghost.                                                                                                                                               I wrote the book into the wee hours of the morning, and it took about three years to get it done...or so I thought!  I pitched the book to hundreds of publishers and got rejected.  However, some editors or publishers would give me tid-bits of feedback, which I used to re-tool the manuscript.  I also interviewed members of the Coast Guard, Miami-Dade PD, California Department of Motor Vehicles, and other key folks that would be blended into my story.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Then I was very fortunate.  I sent a query letter to Sunny Frazier, who at the time was the acquisitions editor for Oak Tree Press.  Lucky for me, she also was a retired office manager for a narcotic task force.  She asked me to send her the first twenty pages and she liked it.  From there, I worked on the manuscript, at one point re-writing it in a week, then finally met with the publisher.  A few more months went by and I was offered a contract for Gray Ghost.                                              Gray Ghost was edited and re-written three more times before seeing print.  It was a very challenging time for me, but, I was determined to make my dream come true.  I've learned a ton about the business, and I strive to write better each day.                                                                     The second book in the series, The Collectors, is written and in the editing phase.  It's not contracted, but I'll get it printed one way or another. I hope you enjoy Gray Ghost as much as I did writing it."