RJ MacDonald

2019 Winner, military fiction, Independent Press Awards

2019 Gold Medal Award, historical fiction, Military Writers Society of America

2019 Finalist, military category, American Fiction Awards

RJ MacDonald is an award-winning part-time author. He grew up in a small coastal fishing village in Scotland. He crossed the Atlantic and attended Cate School before studying both military history and social science at the University of California at Berkeley, where his dissertation professor was Stephen Ambrose (Band of Brothers). After graduating with two BAs, he enlisted in the US Marines as a reservist. Boot camp in San Diego went well for five days until the drill instructors read his personnel file and discovered not only a ‘Berkeley hippy freak infiltrating their Marine Corps’, but also one with an accent, ‘You speak funny private, are you Russian?’ Meritoriously promoted to sergeant, he served in a helicopter support squadron at NAS Miramar and as an expert marksman and marksmanship instructor, before returning to Scotland to complete two masters degrees and joining the Royal Air Force Reserves- ‘You speak funny sir, are you Canadian?’ Parachute qualified with jump-wings from Holland, the Czech Republic and US Special Operations Command Europe, he deployed as an intelligence officer with a Puma helicopter detachment during the war in Iraq, and then again to Cyprus during the conflict in Libya.

Now a director within a small research company, he also serves on a Royal National Lifeboat Institute volunteer lifeboat crew tasked with a 24/7 all-weather search and rescue role in some of the roughest seas in the world. He lives with his wife, three children, and a very cute but equally stupid cocker spaniel, in the East Neuk of Fife, where he grew up. He can often be found tapping away on his laptop while waiting for various after-school clubs to finish. A Distant Field is his debut novel and the first in The Seaforths series. His second novel, The Chosen Heroes, is underway.