Lazar’s Mission by Kevin Sterling @ksterlingwriter

0Excerpt from Chapter Four

It was eleven fifteen, and there was no sign of Melati. She could have been late for a number of reasons, or a complete no-show for that matter, and Jack hoped it was the former. No doubt, fraternizing with the passengers was forbidden, or at least frowned upon. So the question was whether she had been sufficiently lured by Jack’s charm to break the rules. His stomach was in knots from the anticipation of seeing her, and he paced the floor of his suite like a caged animal.

Part of him was over-the-top excited to see her, play with her. But a voice of reason in the depths of his consciousness couldn’t help but speculate whether he was getting himself into trouble again. He just couldn’t see how.

Perhaps Jack was just channeling his Eastern mentor, Tasagi, who had not only been his private jujitsu and karate instructor for several years now, but over time had become a valuable spiritual guide as well. According to Tasagi, Jack was bringing dangerous situations to himself through a process called the Law of Attraction, and it was tied to his internal belief system. That meant Jack consciously believed he had chosen to involve himself with certain people or situations because of their reasonable appearance on the surface, whereas in reality his energy had attracted an underlying issue or conflict, and he didn’t recognize it until it was too late.

The problem was that Tasagi had him questioning everything now, including sweet Balinese girls, and he knew he had finally taken it too far. He knew there was nothing at all wrong with Melati, and he prayed he would soon hear her knock on the door.

In the meantime, he forced himself to stop pacing, and he reclined on the couch with a bottle of water to hydrate himself for what he hoped to be a spirited night.

To get more comfortable, he had changed into a loose-fitting pair of white drawstring linen pants with an aquamarine linen shirt and brown woven leather loafers sans the socks. After all, the ship was traversing the Mediterranean Sea toward the north coast of Africa, so an outfit leaning toward the tropical seemed most fitting.

Also, despite his earlier wine-opening announcement of eleven o’clock, he chose to uncork the bottle of Caymus Special Selection Napa Cab at ten and empty it into a decanter to let it breathe. The wine steward had thoughtfully included a pair of Spiegelau vinovino Cabernet wineglasses, and Jack knew the large, appellation-designed bowls would let the wine open up to its full potential.

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Genre – Action, Mystery, Suspense

Rating – R

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Caroline Kennedy – On Being A Writer @StephenWardBook

On Being A Writer

Being a writer is something I have always known I was going to be. I can’t remember a time in my life that being a writer wasn’t an aspiration. From as young as five years old I was always scribbling stories, always writing long handwritten letters, always imagining the day when I would be a successful author.  I never went through that phase of indecision when adults would ask me, “And what do you want to be when you grow up?”  It’s just something I have always known. It certainly made life simpler. I didn’t have to make difficult decisions when it came to selecting “O” level or “A” level subjects. English, Creative Writing and History (since I was definitely addicted to non-fiction books) were a natural choice for me.

I often dreamt of the day I would see my name next to a number one best-seller. I anticipated the newspaper interviews, the TV appearances and the accolades I would receive. These were definitely the optimistic hopes of a young and eager writer. I knew they were not realistic and I never really believed they would happen. But when they did my reaction to them was surprising. There was no feeling of immense joy, pride or self-satisfaction. When I saw my name attached to the number one best-selling book in May-June 1987, I simply felt a certain calm – yes, I had achieved it…but then, so what? The same when I was invited to go on television to be interviewed about the book, I took it all in my stride but felt no particular sense of pride in myself. It was simply something that had happened in my life and it was back to being a mother again.

Little did I realize that 25 years after the book, “An Affair of State”, was published it would get a new lease on life as “How the English Establishment Framed Stephen Ward” – that Andrew Lloyd-Weber would produce a musical based on my main character. Stephen Ward – and that a leading Human Rights QC would take up Ward’s case, using much of the evidence I provided in the book, to have the conviction against Ward overturned. Now that is what really thrilled me and filled me with pride. If my research helped lead to Ward’s conviction being quashed then that was my greatest achievement – not the number one bestseller!

"How the English Establishment Framed Stephen Ward" is a major expose of a government cover-up that has lasted half a century. It is a powerful story of sexual compulsion, political malice and ultimate betrayal. A number-one bestseller when it came out in 1987 under its original title, "An Affair of State", the book reveals never-before-heard testimony that has been uncovered by the authors in the years since the scandal broke. Using startling new evidence, including Ward’s own unpublished memoirs and hundreds of interviews with many who, conscience-stricken, have now spoken out for the first time, this important account rips through a half-century cover-up in order to show exactly why the government, the police forces, the Judiciary and the security forces decided to frame Stephen Ward. Stephen Ward is now the subject of an upcoming Andrew Lloyd-Weber musical and this book offers a wider perspective on its complex, central character as well as a broader insight into one of the greatest scandals of the past 100 years. As the authors’ research reveals, Ward’s “trial of the century” was caused by an unprecedented corruption of justice and political malice which resulted in an innocent man becoming a scapegoat for those who could not bear to lose power. This is an epic tale of sex, lies, and governmental abuse whose aftermath almost brought down the government and shook the American, British, and Soviet espionage worlds to their core. With its surprising revelations and meticulous research, Ward’s complete story can finally be told.

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Genre – Politics, Espionage, Scandal

Rating – PG-16

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