A Navy Commander and nuclear-weapons-trained fighter pilot, Dave served as the Strike Operations Officer for the Persian Gulf during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. He went on to lead classified defense programs and test-pilot new F-18s. He’s been 10 miles above the earth, 600 feet below the Atlantic, visited over 30 countries and somehow … survived hundreds of his OWN aircraft carrier landings. Dave holds engineering degrees from Cornell and the University of Michigan with post graduate work in astrophysics, human factors and statistics.

Research is critical but access to experts is more important. The Fuzed Advisory Board includes an International Space Station Commander, Google Advanced Projects Director, a CIA agent, an Admiral in charge of weapons development, a NASA Program Executive, CIA and AI and robotics experts, nationally acclaimed meteorologist and an internationally renowned theologian.

What drove a fighter pilot to pen apocalyptic thrillers and a disaster preparation book?

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. That type of accident kills almost 60% of all tactical jet pilots. When overloaded, we ignore warnings. Working with vision scientist Dr. Leonard Temme, I created an Artificial Horizon Altitude Warning System that used virtual peripheral vision cues to trigger a “falling sensation,” literally scaring the pilot into reacting. It received a government patent and was ranked #1 for DARPA funding.

After a Navy career that consisted largely of planning and executing disasters, I realized pilots aren’t the only ones who ignore things that will kill them. 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 but preventable threats to humanity and in some cases, life on earth. Ironically, the altitude warning system used fiction by projecting a “fake” horizon to scare pilots. The Fuzed fiction series does the same.

Landing on aircraft carriers and training to drop nuclear weapons makes you consider your own mortality as well as that of the human race. Ever since Isaac Newton demonstrated the world operates under natural laws, science and religion have collided. Today, quantum physics and cosmology, with multiple dimensions, particles popping into existence and dark matter and dark energy are as nonintuitive as religion. At the cutting-edge of physics, is it possible that science and what we consider the spiritual might 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 Matt Wagner (and the late Terry Burns) and my original publisher Tony Collins and Noelle Pederson from Lion Hudson/Monarch Books. I’m very grateful to my talented editors, Teri Burns, Naomi Chuckwuk, Ryan Deken, Normandie Fischer, Rick and Charolotte Kughen, Frankie Sutton and Jenny Ward.

The message inside would be lost without our brilliant and renowned advisers: Ken Bowersox, Jim Cantore, Carl Deckert, 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.