“Aeroflot announces the arrival of Flight 116 from Moscow.”“American Airlines Flight 909 to Port au Prince is now ready for boarding.”Arrivals and departures were my background music when I used to write in airport terminals. After 9/11, I moved my occasional “office” to train stations; I recommend Union Station in Los Angeles for its vibe and people watching. I love doing location research for my novels, but if I’m not going anywhere, being around travelers gives me a buzz of inspiration.Before selling my first novel, I had various travel related jobs. I worked on a Swiss railroad – I was the guy who pushes the drinks cart down the aisle. I escorted 28 Los Angeles psychiatrists on a tour of Eastern Europe before the Wall came down. I only lost one, who was arrested at the Czech-Austrian border because his visa was not in order. I got him back. {PS: My Iron Curtain adventures will soon be a novel]My first novel was “Black Plume: the Suppressed Memoirs of Edgar Allan Poe”. I followed it with “U.S.S.A.”, an alternative history detective story set in the American-occupied Soviet Union. My third novel “Vodoun” mixes Haitian politics, voodoo and D.C. journalism. I am also the co-author, with Elisa Makunga, of "L.A.Adventures", a guide to touring Los Angeles by rail.My new novel "Under a Secret Sky is out now! It's a family suspense story set during the Cold War in the San Francisco Bay Area and a mysterious town in the Mojave desert. I am produced screenwriter, with credits that include “Copycat”, the Warner Brothers thriller starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. When I’m not writing or worrying that I’m not writing, I’m reading -- novels, history, narrative non-fiction. I’m an amateur cold case sleuth, still trying to identify the Zodiac killer. On my research visits to the San Francisco library, I stop by a glass case in Special Collections to pay my respects to Dashiell Hammett’s typewriter.@MrdavemadRead more about this authorRead less about this author