Kirkus' review of The Compass Room has dropped! Kirkus Reviews is notorious for not holding back - they tell it like they see it. That's what makes them the industry standard. So awaiting their verdict is always accompanied with trepidation.
Blog
I've Moved to Substack!
I've moved to Substack! This way it will be easier for readers to get notifications via email whenever I post an update.
We Are Not Ready
"I can see the future, kid. We're not ready."
Tenure, by Blaine L. Pardoe and Mike Baron
What a ride! Tenure by Blaine Pardoe and Mike Baron was a lot of fun. It's a revenge fantasy – Death Wish in the Age of Wokeness. Braxton Knox, a not-yet-tenured university professor of history is fired and cancelled after a female student accuses him of bigotry and homophobia after he had used the wrong pronoun, calling her "Miss." She...
North Arrow Press proudly presents The Wartmann Series, a pair of timely, high-stakes geopolitical thrillers by Kirkus-starred author Mark James.
The Wartmann Series
Get ready for The Wartmann Series, launching in 2026 with the award-winning Friendship Games and the forthcoming The Compass Room!
On Titles
I've written previously about the titles of my first two novels, Alter Road (2020) and Friendship Games (2023), and how they came about. In both cases, I had a different working title that would eventually be abandoned in favor of those two titles.
The Compass Room
In the aftermath of a catastrophic naval disaster in the Persian Gulf, the United States is thrust into a war it cannot finish—and a crisis it cannot control. As missile strikes reach American soil and the global order begins to fracture, President Cynthia Belle retreats to a secure bunker, paralyzed by indecision. Left to face the fallout is her...
Vice President George "Daddy Longlegs" Wartmann has spent his career in the shadows—until the sinking of the USS George W. Bush forces him into the spotlight. From the Compass Room at Number One Observatory Circle, he plots a daring evacuation of Americans stranded in the Middle East while global powers jockey for influence. Facing...
A Most Uncivil War, by Blaine Pardoe
It's been over two years since I wrote a review of Blaine Pardoe's Blue Dawn. My apologies to Mr. Pardoe for taking so long to get around to reading book 2 in the Blue Dawn series, A Most Uncivil War. It was on my reading list, but in preparation for my own follow up to a book, Friendship Games...









