Welcome to DouglasDeBono.Com, the Cyberspace Home of author Douglas De Bono. De Bono spins his thrilling tale of intrigue and again out CLANCIES the master spinner of military thrillers, Tom Clancy. It's about time De Bono receives the recognition his brilliant writing deserves. His novels rate a FIVE STAR PLUS. --Bonnie Toews, Author Of Treason An Triumph De Bono is highly recommended, a gripping author that leaves the reader lunging from page to page in a frantic effort to keep up with the action and survive the building tension. --Midwest Book Review

Biographical Information

Ah, there you are. Why don’t you get comfortable, kick off your shoes and settle down in your chair. I’ll tell you a story, for that’s what I am—a tale spinner, a storyteller. But beware; the tales I tell are a mix of fact and fancy, and it is up to you to know the line between truth and fiction.

Once upon a time, there was a boy who wanted to write. He filled his imagination with stories by Ray Bradbury, Issac Asimov and Arthur Clark. Downstairs was an old, black L.C. Smith typewriter. It had white, round button keys and visible linkage. The boy settled down to hammer out his stories armed with nothing more than the notions buzzing around in his head.

Along the way, he discovered Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley and Robert Ludlum. His parents indulged his musings and read his scribbling—none of which were very good. He wrote about space ships and spies, soldiers and heroes. Eventually he garnered an electric typewriter and the old, black Smith was relegated to the closet.

Time went on and the boy grew to a man and went to college. Along the way, he lost the magic. The daily toil of term papers, pop quizzes and written comps stifled his creative spark. During those years, he met the most important people in his life. The first was the song of his heart—Cathy, his life mate, and the other, the savior of his soul—Jesus the Son of God.

Graduation, marriage and settling down to build a home all came in quick succession. The author without a story worked as a technical writer at the dawn of the PC era. It was a soulless, drab job describing terminal emulators and detailing software systems. But it was work, and he had rent to pay. Eventually, Jimmy Carter faded away and Ronald Reagan rode in from the west.

They bought a house, raised a family and started a business. Technology was changing rapidly so he decided to master one of the new wonder tools— relational databases. It turned out he was a natural. The idea of bits and bytes, SQL and C, LANs, WANs and broadbands never stymied him. Times and seasons changed, the kids grew and the Soviet Empire collapsed.

Every so often he would bring up a file on his word processor. A story glimmered just beyond his vision. Desperately, he set to write it down before it fled back to the ether. Sometimes he made it as far as ten or twenty pages only to see the words unravel. He dabbled with short stories and vignettes, but the boy inside the man knew he only wanted to write novels.

The dark season came that every child must ultimately face—the death of a parent. Cancer galloped hard and fast. In less than seven months, the man’s father succumbed to disease. But a curious thing happened (we might miss it if we don’t pay attention). The father believed in Biblical blessings, and in those waning days he gave his to the boy who wanted to write.

Weeks later a story beckoned again. The man sought to turn away from the summons. He thought he had put his dreams away, but this yarn demanded his attention. Reluctantly he settled before a blank page on his computer screen and started to write. The first twenty pages went by and he still had a story to write. Twenty pages became one hundred and ultimately Point of Honor.

Was it a fluke? Could he do it again? Blood Covenant came next, followed by Reap the Whirlwind and Rogue State. There was the minor detail about getting published, and some bad decisions along the way, but the boy who needed to write has stories to tell.

So there’s my story. I’m a writer, data base administrator, businessman, shooter and blackbelt. Cathy and I have three kids, one of whom is newly married, one in college and one in high school.

Besides running a consulting business, I try to work on my writing projects every day. As I write these words, Firewall waits at my elbow for a final read, and Scorched Earth is partially written on my laptop. My goal is to go shooting twice a month, and I shoot everything from FN FAL rifles to Lugers to Glocks. If I write about a personal weapon, chances are I have used it.

I am a third degree blackbelt. I do two skills workouts, two cardio workouts and one full contact sparring session each week. My sparring partner, Brian, has helped me figure out more than one fight sequence.

My number one goal in writing is to entertain you—the reader. My second goal is to make you think. The things I write about could be tomorrow’s CNN headline: chemical weapons in Iraq; backpack nukes in New York; Chinese missiles in Panama; Chechen assassins in Washington. My final goal is to do the very best research I can, regarding the history, technology and politics.

Give one of the books a try. You won’t be disappointed and I hope you will come back for more.

Doug De Bono
Minneapolis, MN
January 2003

Brian St. George and me during one of our regular Friday sparring sessions. I'm the one with the flag T-Shirt.

VIDEO Self Defence from 4th Degree Test. This section is for all of you who think I might be a paper tiger. I generally spar once or twice a week. These photos are from a regularly scheduled sparring session on Friday afternoons. This is full contact sparring (while we try not to kill each other, we do hit with authority). I’m the one with the flag T-shirt. My sparring partner for the last ten years is Brian St. George. I’m currently a 3rd Degree Black Belt, and Brian is a 2nd. That doesn’t count for much on Friday afternoons; because we have sparred so many times it is hard to come up with surprises. Having said that, Brian is one of the best fighters I face on a regular basis.

Photo credit: Lukasz Jarzyna. By the way, Luc was out there with us and he nearly got clobbered a couple times.

Brand new Fourth Degree.

Sometimes I get the upper hand.

Sometimes Brian does

I'm glad that's done!

Douglas De Bono / DouglasDeBono.Com Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota E-Mail readermail@DouglasDeBono.Com