It’s hard to find a place more beautiful than Wyoming. PHOTO: Forest Dramis

I love living in Spain, but after a year there I always start to think of my home in Wyoming. It usually unfolds as a simple memory—the heavy scent of evergreen trees, the sudden cold at sunset, watching thunderheads roll in over the mountains. At some point these musings become a distraction that causes me to stop writing mid-sentence whenever a friend sends backcountry photos or a report on his or her latest adventure.

The telltale sign that it’s finally time to head back to the West, however, is when I have an irresistible urge to binge-watch Lonesome Dove. There must be a specific look in my eye because even if I try to sneak an episode on my laptop, my wife seems to be able to tell. The concerned expression is always the same, as is the question. “Are you watching that again?”

So, it’s good to be back, covered in dust and mosquito bites. Wrenching on my mountain bikes and giving my trail-running shoes a workout. I think the moose missed me.

Stay Tuned For My Tour Schedule

After two years of virtual tours, I’m looking forward to hitting the road again. There’s an energy that comes with talking to fans and booksellers face-to-face that can’t be replicated online. On the other hand, virtual tours have been a great way to reach readers who aren’t able to travel to the venues I frequent.

It’s almost time to release Oath of Loyalty into the wild, and I can’t wait. This brings closure to the story arc started in Enemy at the Gates and very much begins where that book leaves off. In fact, the opening of Oath of Loyalty is a retelling of the end of Enemy at the Gates, but from Mitch’s point of view instead of Mike Nash’s. It was a really interesting exercise to see how differently Mitch saw those events.

And so far, so good. I’ve been overwhelmed by the positive reviews from the Mitch Rapp Ambassadors who’ve read the prepublication copy. Now the clock is ticking down to the moment everyone can weigh in. Thanks to all the fans for many years of support. I hope to see you in a bookstore along the way!

While based in Spain this year, I’ve squeezed in a lot of travel between research and writing the next Mitch Rapp saga. I’ve been sharing stories and photos from the road lately, and this will be the last entry. We’re wrapping up our time in Europe and soon I’ll be back at my desk in Wyoming. As fun as it’s been, it’s hard not to eventually start missing the rugged landscapes and open spaces of home.

This time, it’s Greece. The cradle of democracy that became the pattern for the free world many of us are lucky enough to live in today. Lots of people go to Greece for the beaches, but to be honest, I’m not much of a beach guy. I’ll take an old ruin or battlefield over surf and sand every time.

Athens

Most people tolerate Athens’ crowds and the heat for a day until they can get on a ferry to the nearest island paradise. In reality, though, it’s a terrific city with a great vibe, delicious food, and amazing archaeological sites and museums. Our few days there turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip.

Our only regret is that we didn’t stay long enough to see live music at one of several amphitheaters around the city. Amazing that after thousands of years, they’re still in operation.

Hydra

Greece encompasses 6,000 islands, only 227 of which are inhabited. But 200+ islands makes it difficult to decide where to go. Brad Thor recommended Hydra, so that’s where we started our journey. Compared to some of the more high-profile destinations in Greece, it’s relatively unknown to foreigners.

Motorized vehicles are prohibited, creating interesting challenges and a quiet, sleepy atmosphere that we loved. That, and a few excellent hikes to lonely monasteries, made this our favorite stop on the trip.

Paros

Our next ferry took us to Paros, which is much deeper into the Aegean and has the white buildings, blue domed churches, and windmills that many of us associate with Greece.

Paros’ fame comes, in part, from its culinary scene and world-class kite and wind surfing. More touristy than Hydra and with streets packed with people, it was still a relaxing spot to write for a few days. Here, bougainvillea hangs over walls and accordion music drifts in from the street.

Santorini

I will admit that, initially, a stop in Santorini wasn’t appealing in the height of tourist season. Now that I’ve been, though, I’m glad we made the trip. The bright white villages are situated along the top of a volcano crater and steep hillsides plunge into a dark blue sea. The food is terrific and the atmosphere lively. Sometimes a little too lively…

For those who like to recreate on vacation, the caldera hike shouldn’t be missed. It’s nearly 6.5 miles of rolling trail that winds along the edge of the crater, through towns and unpopulated terrain. Even in one of the busiest times of the year, there are very few people on the hike if you start early in the morning.

Santorini is where the young and beautiful pose for the elaborate photos we’ve all seen on social media. I tried to take a similar shot of my wife, but I might need a little more practice.

Crete

Crete, our last stop before heading home, is the largest of the Greek islands and known around the world for its cuisine. We stayed in the old Venetian port town of Chania where there are narrow alleys and tiny restaurants with outdoor seating tucked into ruins. Here, crumbling walls and a missing roof aren’t a bug, they’re a feature. Combined with the beautiful sunsets and popular beaches, I can see why this destination is high on a lot of people’s lists.

If a European trip is on your horizon, check out my posts for Portugal, Normandy, and southwestern Spain.

I’ve become a barrel aficionado since living in Spain. There’s just something about a makeshift table on a sidewalk that I can’t resist.

Cádiz, Province and City

Even though I spend a lot of time in this part of the world, there are still many places I haven’t visited yet. Each of the provinces has a feel of its own so I enjoy jumping in a car and heading off in a random direction. A few months ago, we drove through the southwestern corner of the country to the city of Cádiz. Strangely, there aren’t a lot of tourists in this part of Spain despite plenty of coastline. Those who do make the trip, though, will find landscapes that stretch from beaches to rugged cliffs, Spain’s famed sherry, and some of the best food I’ve come across while living in my adopted country.

This region is dotted with stunning white villages and makes for an interesting stop, be it for a couple of hours or a couple of days. Vejer de la Frontera, one of the prettiest in the area, blew us away with delicious dinners and an endless sea of blocky white buildings that were so bright they were difficult to look at in the sun.

Restaurants like this are a common sight in Andalucía. This one perfectly captured the things the southern Spanish hold dear: cured ham, music, and bullfighting. Regardless of your position on bullfighting, tradition reigns here and the men and women who step into the ring are some of the most revered in the country.

Can you name the musician in the black and white photo over my right shoulder? It’s Paco de Lucía, one of my favorite Spanish classical guitarists. I knew I’d found my people when we stopped here.

Cádiz is said to be the oldest city that’s still standing in western Europe, founded by the Phoenicians in the 12^th century. Today it’s a lively spot with flamenco, breezy plazas, and one of the best carnivals in all of Spain.

The Sherry Triangle, a wine region in Cádiz, is the only place in the world where sherry is produced. My advice is to find a sunny table and pair whatever sherry the waiter recommends with some just-off-the-boat seafood.

I always take time to explore the local markets, and Cádiz has some of the most interesting fishmongers I’ve ever seen. I would have bet good money that you couldn’t make a living by selling just fish faces.

Next time I visit the province of Cádiz, I’m going to take my bike. This region has a series of Via Verdes—designated routes that wind through mountain passes, green landscapes, and tiny villages. I’m convinced that getting out of the car is critical to experiencing the people, traditions, and pueblos that make this part of Spain so special.

Do you like to travel? If so, check out my road trips through Portugal and Normandy.

Les Braves, a sculpture on Omaha Beach, honors Allied D-Day troops.

Readers often ask me if I think there are real Mitch Rapps out there and I recently had the honor of going to a place where many of them fought: Normandy, France. It would actually be hard to write some of these soldiers’ stories because they would seem too far-fetched. People climbing cliffs with ropes and grappling hooks to assault massive German bunkers. The defenses and artillery fire that the Allies faced. The incredible rate of casualties that never dampened our troops’ resolve.

D-Day Sites

Many historic locations around Normandy have remained unchanged and are hard to fully grasp without standing in the middle of them. Pointe du Hoc, the elevated site the Germans used to bombard Omaha Beach, is the perfect example of this kind of place. Covered in overgrown bomb craters and bunkers, this spot tells the story of the soldiers who scaled a 100-foot cliff while Germans shot down on them. Despite incredible odds, they managed to accomplish their mission.

Get the enemy’s perspective from a German gun placement. Drive through the countryside and see for yourself why our men got bogged down in the fields. Touch the remains of a Mulberry harbor, a mobile structure for unloading troops and supplies, left behind on Gold Beach. There are also many war museums and other interesting stops in the region, but it was impossible to see them all in one trip. I chose to meander and get an overall flavor with the plan to return for a more in-depth visit in the future.

Cemeteries

The Normandy American Cemetery and Monument at Colleville-sur-Mer is everything I expected it to be—an airy and bright celebration of heroism and sacrifice. It’s hard to imagine what more than 9,300 deaths look like until you walk through the orderly rows of simple white crosses. While I don’t have any relatives buried there, I can imagine what it must feel like for those who do. It’s a powerful place, without doubt.

I wouldn’t say that I think a lot about graveyards. That is until I visited La Cambe, the German war cemetery that is only a few miles from Omaha Beach. The experience was jarring as the clouds rolled in and the atmosphere turned heavy on the out-of-the-way plot of land. Passing through the entrance couldn’t have been more different than what I’d just experienced on American soil an hour earlier. The dark carved stone crosses are used sparingly, and simple flat stones mark the graves of more than 21,000 German soldiers. They surround a large central mound topped with an ominous sculpture that seems designed as a counterpoint to draw a stark line between good and evil.

Architecture and Food

Normandy is easily one of the most beautiful regions I’ve driven through in France. Green rolling hills meet seaside towns and the buildings feel old and aristocratic. Half-timbered houses made of lumber and stone are also a common sight here and create endless variety.

I’d read that the most popular cuisine in Normandy can be summed up with the four Cs: cider, Camembert, cream sauces, and Calvados. After the first day, we realized that one of the hardest parts of this trip would be to not gain thirty pounds.

Mont Saint-Michel

Mont Saint-Michel is a UNESCO-listed medieval town and ancient abbey perched high on an island in the bay between Normandy and Brittany. Depending on the tide, it may or may not be surrounded by water when you’re there, but either way, it was a beautiful last look at France’s northern coast before we headed back to Spain. Photo credit: WikiCommons Hans Hillewaert

Random Discoveries

Bayeux, a town close to Omaha Beach, is a popular and convenient base for exploring the WWII sites. Visitors also come to see the Bayeux Tapestry, a UNESCO-recognized embroidered cloth that’s nearly 230 feet long. It depicts the duke of Normandy’s conquest of England in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. From what I’ve read, this medieval masterpiece will be loaned to the UK at some point in the near future.

Rouen, another of my favorite stops, has an interesting claim to fame. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake there. La Couronne, France’s oldest restaurant founded in 1345, is located close by.

Do you like to travel? If so, check out my road trips through Portugal and Spain.

It’s been nearly a year now that I’ve been back in Spain and I’ve been using my time here as an opportunity to scout some interesting settings for future books. The past eleven months have been a whirlwind—in between all that travel, I had to write Oath of Loyalty and now I’m working on Mitch’s twenty-second adventure.

I know a lot of people haven’t been able to start traveling again, so I thought I’d whet your appetite by sharing some photos and thoughts from a couple of road trips I’ve done this year. Up first is Portugal—an affordable, interesting, and delicious destination. If you haven’t visited yet, consider it for your first post-COVID international outing.

I will admit that traveling during the pandemic required a lot of flexibility and tolerance for complexity and the unknown. On the other hand, the chance to experience a destination in prime season without the crowds has been an opportunity that likely won’t be repeated. It reminded me a little of a trip I did years ago to Egypt after a major terrorist attack. Standing alone in King Tut’s tomb is something I’ll never forget.

Why Portugal?

To be fair, one reason is that it’s only a few hours’ drive from my home in southern Spain. Having said that, Portugal has become one of my favorite places and I plan to continue exploring until I’ve covered it all. Most people start with Lisbon or a sun-drenched beach. Either is a great place to jump in and get your feet wet (pun intended.) But there’s a lot more to experience if you really want to begin to understand this ancient place.

Lagos, which is in the Algarve on the southern coast of Portugal, is laid back and inviting. 1980s American music was always blasting at cocktail hour and the town’s gleaming white buildings and terracotta tiles couldn’t be more appealing in the setting sun. Depending on where you go in the Algarve and what type of environment you’re looking for, you can find party towns, traditional fishing villages, spectacular beaches, and wild landscapes.

The food scene in Portugal is worth the visit alone. Along the coast as well as elsewhere in the country, you’ll see lots of traditional restaurants like this one. There are meat dishes, stews, and loads of seafood that’s preserved in salt, conserved in tins, and, of course, just off the boat. And while they might not be on Mitch’s training diet, you shouldn’t miss the pastéis de nata: Portugal’s famous custard tart.

I wouldn’t say that I seek out sardines, but in Portugal they’re impossible to avoid. These fat little fish are typical lunch fare and when they’re in season, they’re delicious (according to my wife, anyway) when salted and just off the grill. In addition to finding them on practically every menu, you’ll see them featured on street art, ceramics, and preserved in colorful tins—really anywhere you look.

Another element that immediately signals Portugal is the country’s incredible mosaic stone sidewalks. They are predominantly black and white, hand shaped, and arranged both with or without patterns. And an interesting detail—they’re kind of slick. Something I’ll consider if Mitch ever needs to chase someone through the winding streets.

One of the things that sets Portugal apart from most other places in the world is its rich tradition of tiles. Porto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the best spots to see examples of this style of artwork. Some of the buildings have repeating patterns on their facades, while others depict scenes. The city is experiencing a revival of many of its historical buildings. How to prevent the loss of these treasured tiles in the renovation process is an ongoing problem that some preservation groups are trying to solve.

Porto is also revered because it is the center of the country’s port industry. At tasting rooms around the city, you can try a range of this fortified wine from internationally known brands like Sandeman and Graham’s as well as from the smaller producers. I’m having a hard time picturing Mitch whiling away his time with a tawny in the harbor, but I like it.

Are you up for a death-defying adventure and want to see where port originates? Drive around the Douro Valley. The secondary roads that weave through the rugged countryside are ridiculously narrow and bordered by terrifying cliffs. Worse, I’m pretty sure there isn’t even a Portuguese word for guardrail. Full disclosure: At times, Google Maps had a loose definition of “road.”

If you have the luxury of time, get off the beaten path. Part of the appeal of Portugal is that there are so many intriguing towns to explore. I’ve walked along the tops of castles with tiny towns tumbling down the hills around me, through ancient churches, and along rocky coasts. It never gets old.

Missed the start of my trip and our journey back to Granada, Spain last spring. You can find it here.

In the last few years, my crystal ball has been working overtime. Lethal Agent, a story about a weaponized coronavirus, was released shortly before the COVID-19 outbreak. A year later, Total Power’s warnings about the vulnerability of America’s power infrastructure were confirmed by the Texas blackout. Enemy at the Gates was intended to begin a three-book arc about the collapse of America’s democracy, but all the talk of stolen elections and the Capitol insurrection were so close to my story line that I had to change it. And now, a few years after the publication of Red War, the Russian aggression that I wrote about has come to pass.

I’ve been getting a lot of email from fans asking how I’ve been so successful with my predictions lately. It’s an interesting topic.

Be Curious. Be Skeptical.

Psychologists have done research into people’s ability to predict the future and found that a select few—dubbed superforecasters—are surprisingly good at it. These people tend not to be experts in any particular field and aren’t even necessarily abnormally intelligent. The main things they have in common are an endless curiosity about the world and a kernel of doubt about everything they believe.

I was struck by that research because those are a couple of my defining personality traits. From a young age, I felt compelled to know how things work. Why do tortoises live so long? Where does that dirt road lead? How do you rebuild a car engine? The subject matter has never made all that much difference. I just want to understand.

Further, I’m always questioning my positions. Mark Twain once said “It’s not what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” I live by that adage and have an odd (some would say disconcerting) ability to change my beliefs when presented with credible evidence that they’re wrong.

Get Out Of The Bubble

The second—and just as important—component to accurate predictions is simple but increasingly rare: Get your information from a wide variety of sources. The Internet has turned out to be a two-edged sword. It puts the entire world at our fingertips, but also allows us to filter information that doesn’t confirm our existing biases. Of course, my news feeds include such mainstays as Fox and the New York Times, but also Al Jazeera, Spanish Euronews, and even the Russian propaganda reported by RT. And then there are the more specialized outlets that cover economics, science, and the emerging technologies that increasingly propel our society.

Keep An Open Mind (But Not So Open That Your Brain Falls Out)

I take all those perspectives and let them percolate in the back of my mind. After a few weeks, months, and sometimes even years, I’m able to make my model of the world just a little more accurate.

Admittedly, it’s not for everyone. Sacred cows have to be slaughtered, facts have to be meticulously checked, and people you admire have to be met with the same skepticism as ones you despise. Done correctly, this will eventually compel you to discard one of your core beliefs. I can tell you from experience that it’s a pretty harrowing moment. But also, a strangely liberating one.

Have you read 2022’s Stranger Than Fiction predictions posts? If not, find Part 1 and Part 2 here.