Brinn Colenda

I have always been in love with books. When I was a kid, I read everything I could get my hands on--mysteries, histories, biographies, thrillers, Reader's Digest, Boy's Life, it didn't matter. During the summers, I would stay up all night reading. Completely intellectually undisciplined and stuffed full of useless trivia, I read my way into the Air Force Academy by acing multiple-choice standardized tests. I quickly learned that I was not nearly as smart as I thought I was...something that has been repeatedly re-emphasized as I continue to meet amazing people on my life's path-- there are lots of intelligent, talented, and wonderful people on this planet.I had the good fortune to spend two years working in the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, as the Chief of the Air Force Section of the U.S. Military Group-Bolivia. I checked out in the embassy Beechcraft C-12 Super King aircraft and flew all over that gorgeous country, going places that most Bolivians had never visited. Tour completed, I won a Post Graduate Fellowship at the Hoover Institution of War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. Again, I was surrounded by people with enormous intellects-- Nobel Prize winners, former cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, tenured professors, and the like. All seemed fascinated by my stories about Bolivia. Eventually, I got the message-- if these well traveled and educated people did not have a clue about Bolivia, then non-Nobel Prize winners, non-former cabinet secretaries, non-ambassadors, non-tenured professors, etc probably wouldn't either. So, I started writing the stories down. As I am a great fan of thrillers, I decided to write a thriller located in Bolivia, based on my experiences, suitably enhanced of course (I am a pilot, after all!). Then life intervened and my wife and I welcomed three baby boys into our lives within the space of twenty months. Yikes! So, I put the writing on hold for more than a decade. Eventually, I started working with the manuscript at night. With the help of some really good (and extra patient) writing coaches, I finally beat it into shape, even won an award. The result is a political-military thriller, The Cochabamba Conspiracy. Book two of the series is ready to go and book three is on short final.See the book on Amazon.com