Welcome to my homepage!  My book, LOVE UNDER FIRE, is a fictional story in an authentic setting and with some true events well known at the time.  My presentation of those events and characters is concise.  Although nocturnal gunfire, bus burnings, kidnappings, bombings, and murders were frequent realities in the capital city during my tour of duty in Colombia, in the book I have chosen to keep the focus on diplomatic operations and the themes of love and faith.  The “race” factor is an incidental part of the story line.  The reader may notice a few areas that need clarification:  1)  On page 6, the reader will see that the Spanish word for Colombian is not in initial caps, thus “colombiana”.  This comports with the Spanish rule to not capitalize nationalities (or languages) unless they are the first word in a sentence.  2) The last names of the father and son (Fabio and Diego) are slightly different.  It is customary in Spanish to insert a hyphen,  then add the mother’s maiden last name onto the father’s last name.  Basically, Fabio’s mother’s maiden last name was Lopez, but Diego’s mother’s maiden last name was Aragon, thus we have Diego Santos-Aragon and Fabio Santos-Lopez.  The reader will note these differences on pages 10 and 18 of the book.  3. On page 119, “Don” is not a name, but is a title of respect.  4. On page 120, we note that Alicia, the housekeeper, says “Please to let me know.”  This is not a printing error; it comports with the way a native Spanish speaker might sometimes speak in English.   Despite mild effects of post-traumatic stress upon my return to the States, I have no regrets about my assignment.  Today, Colombia is a safer place.  Its population has increased by about two million since I lived there.  Cycling is still one of the favorite sports.  Well worth a visit are the coffee, flowers, crafts, cuisine and the people!