This novel is a continuation in the saga of Ralph Arnold and his adventures through life as a veteran with PTSD in a crazy world. When Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February this year, I thought that this might be an opportunity to utilise Ralph and his ‘abilities’ in the setting of a real-world, real-time story.
I was just putting the touches on what will be Episode Six in the Broken Arrow series when war broke out. As it turns out, Ralph was ending up in Kazakhstan by the end of the book. So, to become involved in the Ukraine war, was just a cross boarder event for him.
Every news channel was covering the invasion so there was plenty of points of view and critical analysis to filter through and work with as I devised a story plot. When one of the Russian billionaire oligarchs put a $1M bounty on Putin’s head, dead or alive; I thought, wow. My attention was then drawn to the man himself, Putin. How would someone get at one of the richest men in the world, with a four-tiered security detail numbering 50,000?
Keeping the veteran PTSD character background was important to the story; some things can’t be ignored or glossed over. Ralph’s struggles are part of his DNA now and I therefore are bound to include this level of detail.
Writing story plot, which involved real places, people and events was an interesting journey for me in writing fiction; contemporary fiction.
Once the book was complete, Amazon presented me with some hoops to jump through. As it was about a present event, they did not let me advertise and my book was hidden from the marketplace. I queried them on how other contemporary fiction writers, and non-fiction writers advertise their books with such rules. After many email and phone call attempts to gain an answer, they couldn’t identify how my book was different to other contemporary works, and I was allowed to sell and advertise my book, yay.
This book was principally written covering events over the first six weeks of war. The interweaving of my characters into the areas of battle had to fit perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle for the complete story picture to gain clarity. I believe that I have achieved this.
The name of the book; Putin Rendition 2022.1 might not sound too obvious to many as to its meaning. In military circles, a rendition is a scenario that you play out in various ways, configurations and strategies until you can achieve your objective with minimalistic or no casualties. The goal of this book was to get to Putin, so this is the Putin Rendition 2022.1.
I also decided on a penname, initially through fear of censorship, and having my whole author account shut down from writing such a book about Putin. Cymonev Polinksnia was created, a play on my own name to sound more Eastern Bloc.
The book was easy to write and I may use future global events again in the future. Writing about Ralph Arnold and his world is exciting and he is a man that I would like to meet and have a beer with.
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