Since his first book was published in 1983, Jon Land has written twenty-eight novels, seventeen of which have appeared on national bestseller lists. He began writing technothrillers before Tom Clancy put them in vogue, and his strong prose, easy characterization, and commitment to technical accuracy have made him a pillar of the genre.

Land spent his college years at Brown University, where he convinced the faculty to let him attempt writing a thriller as his senior honors thesis. Four years later, his first novel, The Doomsday Spiral, appeared in print. In the last years of the Cold War, he found a place writing chilling portrayals of threats to the United States, and of the men and women who operated undercover and outside the law to maintain U.S. security. His most successful of those novels were the nine starring Blaine McCracken, a rogue CIA agent and former Green Beret with the skills of James Bond but none of the Englishman’s tact.

In 1998 Land published the first novel in his Ben and Danielle series, comprised of fast-paced thrillers whose heroes, a Detroit cop and an Israeli detective, work together to protect the Holy Land, falling in love in the process. He has written seven of these so far. The most recent, The Last Prophecy, was released in 2004.

Recently, RT Book Reviews gave Jon a special prize for pioneering genre fiction, and his short story “Killing Time” was shortlisted for the 2010 Dagger Award for best short fiction and included in 2010’s The Best American Mystery Stories. Land is currently writing Blood Strong, his fourth novel to feature Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong—a female hero in a genre which, Land has said, has too few of them. The second book in the series, Strong Justice (2010), was named a Top Thriller of the Year by Library Journal and runner-up for Best Novel of the Year by the New England Book Festival. The third, Strong at the Break, will be released this year, and the fourth, Blood Strong, will follow in 2012. His first nonfiction book, Betrayal, written with Robert Fitzpatrick, tells the behind-the-scenes story of a deputy FBI chief attempting to bring down Boston crime lord Whitey Bulger, and will also be released in 2011.

Land currently lives in Providence, not far from his alma mater.

Steve Giblin is a retired Navy SEAL Master Chief. Two months after high school he joined the Navy at 17 years old hoping that a four-year enlistment would help him grow up and obtain a trade that he could use back in the civilian world. That didn’t pan out the way he or his parents thought it would. Steve learned about the SEAL Teams and Frogmen and wanted to be a part of that. His parents on the other hand were not so enthused as the hopes of his return to home were dashed.

After a one-year tour on the carrier USS Ranger Steve was granted orders to BUD/S, Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training where he learned the basics of being a Frogman, aka SEAL.

Steve spent the next 26 years in the SEAL Teams bouncing around the globe conducting special operations, training with foreign partner special operations units and contingency operations. He operated mini-wet-submersibles from submarines and surface ships, conducted more than 1,200 military parachute drops, blew things up and was a member of SEAL Team Six for 14 years. He was a Command Master Chief at two Naval Special Warfare commands then finished out his career where he started, BUD/S, as a phase Master Chief and Operations Master Chief.

After retirement from active-duty Steve continued to work for his community as a contractor and then Government Civil Service for another 9 years. Steve spent 37 years serving his country in and out of uniform.

Steve is the author of Walking In Mud. Drawing on his two and a half decades as a Navy SEAL, he uses his own experiences to offer wisdom and counsel on how to cope with the new normal imposed by COVID-19 and life in general.