Strike Zone

Interviewer: Dreamland is the first novel in a new series you’re co-writing with Jim DeFelice. Can you give us an idea of how the writing process works?

Dale Brown: It should be bylined “Jim DeFelice with Dale Brown,” by the way. I invented the basic backdrop of the“Dreamland” series — the time, place, circumstances. I help devel- op the plot and the characters, and I review the manuscript. Jim does everything else. He’s an incredibly talented writer and we work well together.

Interviewer: As well as describing the development of the weapons and their use in combat, Dreamland also details the crucial political background to the military action. Which part do you prefer writing?

Dale Brown: I prefer describing weapons and technology by far. But the fighting is actually just a tiny fraction of the conflict. The political/diplomatic stuff is not as exciting sometimes, but it’s every bit as important to the story.

Interviewer: Dreamland’ s characters — “Dog” Bastian; his daughter, Bree Stockard; her husband,

“Zen”; Mack “Knife” Smith — all face different challenges and all have different goals in mind at the begi

Dale Brown: We all know characters like these — the hot dogs, the dedicated ones, the smart ones, the obsessed ones. So all of mycharacters are based on folks I know. But it’s also true that the characters take on a life of their own. Jim DeFelice and I talk about the characters as if they’re real persons: “Bree wouldn’t do that”; “Mack would say this.”

Interviewer: The novel depicts certain rivalries among those on the ground and those who take to the air. It’s the latter groupwho get the glory, yes?

Dale Brown: No one likes to admit it, because it doesn’t fit in with the “whole force” politically-correct concept, but the pilot is and will always be king of the U.S. Air Force. Only seventeen percent of USAF

perso

Page 259

Interviewer: Life in a secret establishment such as Dreamland — or even on a “normal” military base

— must be hard enough without the staff having relationships. In your experience, do these relationships lead to difficult situations?

Dale Brown: All the time — that’s why we authors put them in our stories! We are always looking for conflict. It’s another complication in wartime.

Interviewer: Since the end of the Cold War, threats to “our way of life” are not so neatly geographically placed. Nor, aside from Saddam Hussein and various terrorist groups, is it clear where we should place our military priorities.

Dale Brown: There are plenty of bad guys out there — but it sometimes takes more background to explain why they are the bad guys. Fifteen years ago, everyone understood why we were fighting the Soviets. But if you set a war story in Ukraine or Lithuania or the Philippines, you need to take some time and explain why we’re fighting there.

Interviewer: What effect has the advent of improved technology had on the art of being a fighter pilot?

Dale Brown: It has changed it completely. The “dogfight” — two pilots, two planes — is all but dead.

Life and death takes placein split-second battles that happen across dozens of miles, usually without either adversary ever seeing the other. Pilots are more systems operators than fliers nowadays. Sooner than most folks think, our fighters won’t even have pilots in them!

This interview was first published, in a slightly different form, at www.fireandwater.com, the website of HarperCollins UK.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

DALE BROWNis the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers including Flight of the Old Dog and Wings of Fire. He also created the Dreamland series, co-authored by Jim DeFelice. A former U.S.

Air Force bombardier, Dale Brown is an instrument-rated private pilot and can often be found flying his own plane across the United States. He lives near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

JIM DEFELICE’s technothrillers include Brother’s Keeper(2000) and Havana Strike(1997). Jim has also written more than a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction for young people. He lives with his wife and son in upstate New York, and can be contacted by email at [email protected] /* */

Also in the Dreamland Series

DALEBROWN’SDREAMLAND

(with Jim DeFelice)

DALEBROWN’SDREAMLAND:NERVECENTER

(with Jim DeFelice)

DALEBROWN’SDREAMLAND:RAZOR’SEDGE

(with Jim DeFelice)

Page 260

DALEBROWN’SDREAMLAND:PIRANHA

(with Jim DeFelice)

Titles by Dale Brown

WINGS OFFIRE

WARRIORCLASS

BATTLEBORN

THETINMAN

FATALTERRAIN

SHADOWS OFSTEEL

STORMINGHEAVEN

CHAINS OFCOMMAND

NIGHT OF THEHAWK

SKYMASTERS

HAMMERHEADS

DAY OF THECHEETAH

SILVERTOWER

FLIGHT OF THEOLDDOG

RAVES FOR THE NOVELS OF NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

DALE BROWN

“The best military writer in the country today.”

Clive Cussler

“Brown puts us in the cockpits of wonderful machines and gives us quite a ride… . [His] flying sequences are terrific. Authentic and gripping, they will have you breathing a bit heavily.”

New York Times Book Review

“Dale Brown has an unca

. His knowledge of world politics and possible military alliances is stu

beyond a mere mortal’s imagination.”

Tulsa World

“One of the premier writers [of] techno-thrillers.”

Virginian-Pilot

“Brown [writes] consistent page-turners.”

Booklist

“Brown is a master … bringing to life his characters with a few deft strokes.”

Publishers Weekly

“The talk makes Brown’s novels authentic. What makes them riveting is the rapid pace and headline urgency of his plots.”

San Francisco Chronicle

“[His] richness of detail will appeal to the many readers taken with military weaponry, air combat, and the Byzantine secrets of military command.”

Chicago Tribune

“Brown can spin a suspenseful yarn.”

Richmond Times

“N obody … does it better than Brown.”

Kirkus Reviews

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DALE BROWN’S DREAMLAND: Strike Zone.Copyright© 2004 by Air Battle Force, Inc.All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.

PerfectBound™ and the PerfectBound™ logo are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

“E-Book Extras.” Copyright © 2003 by Air Battle Force, Inc.