Author David E. Stevens was a Navy Commander and fighter pilot.
Don’t have to be a rocket scientist to write techno thrillers … but with a graduate degree in aerospace engineering….
Meet Commander Dave
Commander Dave Stevens was a nuclear weapons qualified Navy fighter pilot. He served as Strike Operations Officer for the Persian Gulf. With a Top Secret clearance, he led classified defense programs, test piloted new F-18 fighters and earned an aviation patent. He’s sailed around world, been to over 30 countries, 10 miles above the earth, 600 feet below the Atlantic and survived hundreds of his own carrier landings. Dave has aerospace engineering degrees from Cornell and the University of Michigan, with graduate work in astrophysics and statistics. With an Advisory Board of renowned experts, he creates reality-based stories to entertain and warn.
Fuzed Advisory Board: When scaring people, it’s important to get your information right. Research is critical but access to renowned experts is even more important. The Advisory Board includes an International Space Station Commander, former Google Advanced Projects Director, Special Forces and Intelligence operatives, an Admiral and COO of iRobot, NASA’s Program Executive for Exploration of the Solar System, a world famous meteorologist and an internationally renowned theologian. Stay tuned. We’ll be doing video interviews with many of them soon.
What led a fighter pilot to pen an apocalyptic thriller?
My good friend and flight-school roommate was killed in a crash. During a night low-level mission, his jet hit the ground with no ejection attempted. The accident that claimed his life kills 60% of all tactical jet pilots. When we’re overloaded, we ignore warnings … so I created a virtual altitude warning system. It used peripheral vision cues to trigger a “falling sensation,” and literally scare the pilot into reacting. It worked. It received a government patent and was ranked #1 for DARPA funding.
After the Navy, I studied cataclysmic disasters and realized pilots weren’t the only ones who needed “scaring.” We’re all very good at ignoring things that can kill us. What if we could identify the most deadly threats to the human race and scare ourselves into doing something about them? Using Probabilistic Risk Analysis, we determined the top apocalyptic, preventable threats to us, and in some cases, all life on earth. Ironically, the Fuzed Trilogy uses fiction to make the threats real.
Landing on aircraft carriers and training to drop nuclear weapons makes you consider your own mortality, not to mention the survival of the human race. Since Issac Newton demonstrated the world operates under natural laws, science and religion have collided. Today quantum physics and cosmology, with multiple dimensions, singularities, etc., are so bizarre they’re starting to look like what most of us considered the spiritual in the past. At the cutting-edge of physics, could science and the spiritual one day intersect?
Special Thanks.
These stories hinge on the expertise of many, from physicists to philosophers, editors to authors, literary agents to secret agents. A huge thanks to my producers, Rick Eldridge and Fred Miller, my Literary Agent Terry Burns and publishers Tony Collins and Noelle Pederson. I’m very grateful to my talented editors, Teri Burns, Ryan Deken, Normandie Fischer, Frankie Sutton and Jenny Ward.
The message inside would be lost without our brilliant and renowned advisers: Ken Bowersox, Jim Cantore, Admiral Joe Dyer, Susan Dyer, Stuart Frisch, Allen Jackson, Dave Lavery, Dr. Ed Lu, Jerry Meadows, Dr. Bill Napier, Nick Nickles and Dr. Joe Veverka.
The accuracy of this story also hinges on brilliant subject matter experts: Chris Boblit, CDR Thomas Bosy, Winston Broad, Naomi Chuckwuk, Mike Craddock, Randall Dark, Reed DeVries, Nikko Dutton, Jim Eisenbeck, Julie Eisenbeck, Amy Hunter, Garrett Johnson, Kristi Kyle, Col John Marshall, Cherry Meadows, Dr. Adrian Melott, CDR Jim Roberts, Brett Sappington, Lanelle Shepherd, Dr. Carolyn Shoemaker, Dan Smith, Scott Straub, Lilli Stevens, Dr. Ann Ward, Dr. Brad Ward, David Welch and Doyle Yager. A few remain unnamed, due to the dangerous work they do.
I also want to thank the many exceptional reviewers, authors, friends and family who helped me craft a better story. They include Joe Baggett, Linda Baggett, Pat Barnes, Ron Barnes, Stan Boyd, Jackie Bray, Albert Comulada, Victoria Comulada, Jasmine Dary, Nate Dary, Lori Davidson, Carol Deken, Dr. Lou Deken, Lester Eisenbeck, Margaret Eisenbeck, Rob Gryger, Sam Hailes, Lesia Harper, Tommy Harper, Tim Hendricks, Laura Stevens-Hawkins, Keith Houk, Stacy Houk, Christian Johnson, Judy Johnson, Kevin Johnson, Rob King, Tracy Kuhar, Leslee Kitchings, Mike Lee, Catherine Murray, Richard Mustakos, Molly Mueller, Dr. Mike Pasternack, Ellen O’Neal, Patrick O’Neal, Lee Person, Jessica Peterson, Steve Ray, Carrol Rae, Norma Rae, Jeff Shortall, Betsy Smith, Dale Stevens, Ray Stone and Bart Waggoner.
Some of the character … of the story’s characters … was provided by some of the characters above.
What more could you ask for in an action adventure!
Thrilling … can only come from someone who’s ‘been there done that.
Highlights a real-life threat facing all of us, and packages it into a highly entertaining action adventure.
… perhaps it won’t be long before his novels are sitting next to Tom Clancy and Dan Brown.
David Stevens has written a fascinating and exciting novel … how to prevent a real life catastrophe of major proportions.