I wrote the plot for Dagger Quest over a year ago, well before the crisis in Ukraine erupted into full-scale war. At the time, I thought the crisis that precipitated the incident serving as the trigger event for the story, an aggressive Russian move to seize and annex a corridor to Kaliningrad, to be somewhat fanciful. Today we talk of that very thing as Lithuania imposes a partial blockade of railroad traffic between Russia and Kaliningrad from sanctions imposed due to the war in Ukraine. A fascinating case of life imitating art, and very, VERY frightening.
Dagger Quest was my first novel, and with it, I learned a lot about the objectives of fiction writing and the publishing process. One of the most challenging things to achieve in a fictional military thriller is the balance between realism and readability in the characters’ dialog. Military people use a lot of technical terms and jargon (as well as very “salty†language) in their everyday speech. Replicating this would be very realistic, but people who haven’t lived in this environment would have difficulty understanding what is being said and what is going on. The language today is a good deal less “salty†(in the Coast Guard, at least) than it was when I came up, but it is still more than you would typically experience outside of a locker room, which also has the potential to turn off readers. On the other hand, having a character refer to the “bow†as “the pointy end up at the front of the boat†and never using a four-letter word is eye-rolling unrealistic. So, I compromised, toned down some of the jargon and most foul language, and put a glossary in the front for some of the less self-evident technical terms. Hopefully, I hit close to the center of the target and ask for the patience of both veterans and people with no experience in this world.
The esprit de corps of the crew of Kauai is somewhat atypical, but not unknown, particularly for a purpose-built elite unit (as Kauai is revealed to be at the end of the story). The team/family feel of a small unit like this is not unusual. These people depend on each other for their lives, which yields a closeness not generally found among co-workers outside of the military. The closest analog in civilian life would be police officer partners. The relationship between the officers and crew is also more intimate than you would typically see, but not beyond the realm of the possible, particularly for command cadre handpicked to clean up the wreckage left by an incompetent tyrant relieved for cause. Bad commanding officers are fortunately scarce, but not unknown—the man portrayed as Sam’s predecessor was based on a true story of a Navy cruiser captain relieved for cause for abuse of the crew.
I originally envisioned Victoria Carpenter as a “brush-by†character to provide some quirky color to the DIA ground team. As things developed, I realized she had tremendous potential as a romantic interest for Ben, if not a main character in her own right. Giving her a larger role in Dagger Quest was not feasible, but she features prominently in the subsequent stories. She was another difficult element for balance, giving her an unusual challenge (her mild autism) without making her into a caricature. I thank Helen Huong for this—her novel The Kissing Quotient presented an excellent reference for a point of view from someone “on the spectrum.â€
This story is a sea adventure, plain and simple, designed to help you escape the madness that pervades the real world (for a while, at least). It does not feature superheroes or super-soldiers—just ordinary but dedicated people rising to the challenge. A reader of an earlier edition said that when the story ended, she felt sad at having to leave the crew. I hope you feel that same level of closeness, but don’t be sad; the crew of Kauai is ready to welcome you in the follow-on stories.
