COLUMBIA is based on Joe's experience as a US Army intelligence officer and interrogator working on counter-terrorism between 2001 and 2006.
COLUMBIA is a crackling story that draws its inspiration from inside the mind of an intel officer who is familiar with the most grave threats to our country and the nefarious ways in which divisive groups plot to exploit weaknesses in our nation and its security infrastructure.
The story has its genesis in Joe's desire to tell an espionage story that moves like the genre's best page-turners but challenges the trope that the spy hero is always a ruggedly handsome man who can kill ten bad guys with a toothpick.
Sami Lakhani is a different kind of spy hero. The decision to make the protagonist of the story a Muslim-American and part of the LGBT community arose from three choices.
First, the artistic choice to do everything possible to represent historically underrepresented groups in mainstream fiction.
Second, Sami's sexual identity plays and important part in shaping the early plot as the presumed driver of the estrangement between him and his conservative grandfather. As readers soon discover, there is a dark family secret that Sami has long suspected that truly lies at the heart of their separation.
Third, in spite of every movie and book portrayal, the people of the IC are not all square-jawed muscle men or women with cunning to match their knockout looks. Sami represents the cerebral and immensely talented people who serve in our IC, many of whom are newly-arrived Americans with strong cultural, linguistic and family ties throughout the world.
A first-time novelist, Joe holds undergraduate degrees from Boston University (BA, English) and the Defense Language Institute (AA, Russian), and a JD from Suffolk University Law School. As a lawyer, he was writing assistant on one of the definitive legal reference manuals for energy and environmental law. Joe's freelance writing has featured in the Wall Street Journal and been syndicated by Reuters.
COLUMBIA is Joe's first novel. If it is wildly successful and publishers are willing to let him write anything he wants next, he has already prepared a nonfiction proposal for SOCCER, SAVE MY SOUL, a soccer travelogue and guide to the beautiful game for Americans.
View profile |
Pre-orders
452
Funded
Days left
0
$20 FIRST EDITION
38 readers
One First Edition copy of Columbia.
1 copy + ebook included
Free shipping
462 of 500 left
$25 SIGNED FIRST EDITION
52 readers
One First Edition copy of Columbia, hand signed by the author.
1 copy + ebook included
Free shipping
48 of 100 left
$45 SIGNED FIRST EDITION BUNDLE
26 readers
Two First Edition copies of Columbia, hand signed by the author, and recognition in the acknowledgments.
2 copies + ebook included
Free shipping
24 of 50 left
$125 COLUMBIA BOOK CLUB PACKAGE
2 readers
5 copies of the autographed first edition of the book "Columbia" + book club discussion materials package custom-designed for your club by the author.
5 copies + ebook included
Free shipping
13 of 15 left
$250 BOOK STORE AND HOUSE PARTY PACKAGE Sold out
15 readers
Twenty First Edition copies of Columbia + author appearance at your party or book store event for a reading and signing of the book.
20 copies + ebook included
Free shipping
0 of 15 left
Columbia Readers:
I lied. I told you the next time that you would hear from me would be to announce the publishing contract and release date. News on that yet to come, but I am compelled to write to you today by the events in Christchurch, New Zealand.
I suspect that like the rest of the world, you are standing in the same tragic awe as I am today. And yet, somehow the whole world feels too big. To post comments on a news site seems inadequate, one salty tear dropped into the sea.
As you know, COLUMBIA is a story about a White Nationalist group targeting Muslims with acts of terror. As people who bought this book and believe in this project, I feel that in you I have a unique community with whom to share my overwhelming grief at the murder of 49 people because of some twisted expression of hatred. I don't know what more to say, but I reach out to you as part of that community.
If you have a moment, please read the essay that I wrote the after the murder of eleven people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Another city's name is added to the grim roster. Another bloody day. I can't close my eyes and make it go away.
Sincerely,
Joe Walsh