C.K. McCusker
I was born in Chicago but raised in Connecticut. I went west for college to the University of Arizona, because it was much warmer than my New England options and had a large population of really beautiful girls. I graduated, unfortunately, in 1968 and was applying to law school when my draft board informed me that wouldn't work. I panicked, applied for a commission and flight training in the Air Force and, miraculously, I was accepted. I went through the training for 18 months that led to my commission as a 2nd Lieutenant and my Wings as a navigator. I was assigned to B-52s and flew over 100 combat missions in Vietnam, including Operation Linebacker II.
After my service, I joined General Electric and went through an 18 month management program which led to senior sales and marketing management positions in the following 12 years at GE. I remained in the corporate world in senior management positions until I began my entrepreneurial career in 1993.
Many people say they are going to write the next great war, romance, mystery, etc. novel "someday" and someday never arrives. I began writing Yankee Air Pirates at the insistence of an old friend while still working full time and it positively sucked pond scum. I found a way to teach myself how to write and my friends' reviews began to say "this sucks less" until finally I started getting "This is fantastic." I kept going back and re-writing the early chapters as I developed my writing style. Five years later, after writing nights and weekends, including a year completely away from writing, the novel was pubished by Deeds Publishing in Atlanta, which was the first publisher that saw the novel.
The publisher did a "soft launch" (no marketing) of the novel in September, 2010. I was frankly stunned by the reception the novel received from early readers, including one from General Richard Myers,USAF (ret.) and former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said, in part, "Yankee Air Pirates is the Catch-22 and M*A*S*H, of the Vietnam War." I was especially pleased that the reviews indicated that my humor translated so well and the full range of other emotions portrayed also received acknowledgements by my very enthusiastic (and appreciated)fans.
After enjoying Yankee Air Pirates, you should enjoy Col. Robert Certain's memoir "Unchained Eagle" which documents his shootdown and his resulting POW experience. I used his experiences as a basis for the POW thread that I have running through my novel. Another great memoir for aviation fans is Dave "Bio" Baranek's memoir "Top Gun Days" about his time as a Top Gun instructor, including advising on the film.
Currently, I'm busy trying to expand marketing of the novel in order to reach a much larger audience and I've already begun the sequel.
I reside in Scottsdale, Arizona with my wife of 42 years and have three married children (two sons and a daughter),two grandsons and a new grandaughter.
