sunday, october 12, and i'm delighted to welcome barrett tillman who has written over 40 books and i know that you have been here. were you kind of the expert? >> with steve i contributed to two original fiction anthologies at his request and steve has just been marvelous as a friend and colleague and in 1984 our mutual publisher sent me a manuscript written by an aviator called for each other. in the publisher asked my opinion and i said that this book is no bed if you don't publish it, i will, and the next year it was published. so steve and i have kept in touch ever since among the village he was published and he came up with the concept for a military contractor that does work for the u.s. government all around the world. and that was the trilogy that was a fun change of pace for me because i had not done anything in that realm at that time. so that was an education. >> your wonderful writer. and so you grew up flying airplanes, and where does all this aviation background come from? >> i'm in eastern oregon kid that grew up next to a cropdusting strip in my little bitty hometown