National bestselling author Keith Raffel has published his latest thriller as an ebook original. Raffel, a former counsel to the Senate Intelligence Commitee, draws on his four years as counsel to the Senate Intelligence Commitee in a novel fraught with political intrigue and covert activities.
Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) June 02, 2011
In his latest thriller, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and bestselling novelist Keith Raffel draws on his four years with top secret clearance as counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Raffel’s third novel, Drop by Drop, is an ebook original available for download on Amazon.com and Smashwords. As the story opens, Stanford Professor Sam Rockman loses his wife in a shattering terrorist incident. He leaves Palo Alto for a job on the intelligence committee staff and finds himself in classified briefings at CIA headquarters, high-level negotiations with the Russians on terrorism, a clandestine visit to the world’s largest nuclear reprocessing plant, and an on-the-ground survey of a disaster much worse than at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant.
“It’s been years since I worked in Washington,” Raffel said. “I was worried about being able to call up memories of what it was like, but once I started writing, I was back there again, looking at that byzantine world through the eyes of Professor Rockman.”
“The more things change, the more things stay the same,” Raffel continued. “When I was on Capitol Hill, the CIA was focused on a war in Afghanistan. In those days though, it was the Soviet Union supporting a regime in Kabul against insurgents in the countryside.”
Raffel’s first two mystery-thrillers, Dot Dead and the national bestseller Smasher, are still available in trade paper format. Drop by Drop is being published as an ebook original for $2.99 and, for a limited time, Smasher will be downloadable for 99￠.
“I’m a Silicon Valley guy and wanted to give this new model of ebook originals a try with Drop by Drop,” Raffel said. “I’m hoping it will encourage a much broader audience to read my novels. But I’m not giving up on traditional publishing. I’m just doing a little literary portfolio diversification. My agent has a manuscript of mine he’s circulating in New York for publication in a paper-and-ink book.”
Raffel visited over 50 bookstores in tours for his earlier books. Since Drop by Drop is an ebook original, no signings are scheduled.
“I love bookstore signings,” Raffel said. “Unfortunately, no one yet has come up with a viable way to inscribe a download.”
After his stint on the Intelligence Committee, Raffel spent over twenty years working for high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. His high tech career culminated in the founding of UpShot Corporation, the pioneer in cloud-computing whose example Salesforce.com and other companies emulated. UpShot was ultimately acquired by Siebel Systems and is now a core part of Oracle Corporation’s cloud computing strategy.
Raffel has deep roots in Silicon Valley. His father was an engineer at Ampex Corporation in Redwood City who worked on the first videotape recorders half a century ago. While Raffel serves as a board member and advisor to a number of companies and non-profits, his primary focus since leaving Oracle in 2008 has been writing mysteries and thrillers. His first novel, the best-selling Dot Dead, was deemed “[W]ithout question the most impressive mystery debut of the year” by Bookreporter.com.
For additional information, email this address: dropbydrop2011-pr(at)yahoo.com
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Keith Raffel
kraffel@yahoo.com
6505208465
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