Basil Sands Audio Books

I wanted to thank you for creating & sharing "65 below".
An original plot in an unusual location, combined with clever humor at well chosen places made for an engaging & interesting story.
All in all I found it delightful.

I quite enjoyed it as it was, however there are a few things that could make your next novel a bit more polished and well rounded

The technical details first:

1) AK-47 not AK-74
2) It's usually referred to as either "HK" or "Heckler & Koch" . "H & K" just doesn't roll off the tongue
3) Not possible to silence a Barrett-50 due to muzzle velocity plus the bullet breaking the sound barrier
4) A silenced weapon still sounds as loud as slapping 2x4's together, only in Hollywood does it make a small puff of a noise. While it might go unnoticed on a busy city street,
it would most certainly raise alarm in the silent wilderness.
5) A full moon on a snow covered landscape is bright enough to read in. Night vision (though cool) would be more of a hindrance than help. Under that much light more than white suits would be requited for acceptable concealment.

Suggestions:

1) incorporate more silent/hand to hand combat when stealth is required. A knife is preferred over a gun unless unless a running gun battle is already under way.

2) incorporate hand signals when voices would give away their position as voices carry a long way in the snow & silence.

3) Need to use more contractions.
while the vast majority of people who use English (US) as a second language are prone to use them less, most natives or long time residence unconsciously pepper their speech with more than they realize. By not using contractions you're left with a stilted & stiff feeling speech pattern. Naturally his is predicated on the nationality of the character your writing.

4) Need to take a second look at your naming scheme.
Mark would reach the readers as being more masculine whereas Marcus comes across as emasculating.
With a strong enough story line the main character in each novel could be named "Bob", the reader could care less. Just be careful not to detract from the more masculine
characters by using softer or formal names. While it's perfectly acceptable to call a geek or clerk Francis, Franklin or Steven, you would diminish the rougher characters by doing so.

5) Allow the characters a few flaws.
They don't have to be the best in the world at what they do, just good enough for the task at hand. The more flawed, the more the readers will relate to them. A character that's to perfect will often come across as 2 dimensional, like something out of a DC comic, while holding them slightly above the ordinary will add depth.
More people are saved from a sticky situation by doing the wrong thing at the right time, than the other way around.

6) If you treat character development like a slowly unfolding mystery, you not only spare yourself the drudgery of the first few chapters but can often engage the readers by the second or third page. This allows you to build a 3 dimensional character without the reader realizing their taking in details and makes for a polished story line.

7) Often time it's possible to avoid overusing names or pronouns by assuming the reader can follow who said what, by the content. This takes more writing creativity and effort but the results are more of a polished story line and less of a sense of reading a script.

I was impressed with your powers of description, you had a way of adding the smaller details in just the right amount and at the appropriate places to paint a visual landscape without detracting from the story line. Once you introduced the characters and hit your stride the story didn't get bogged down with nor does the reader realize their being fed
details. The fine line between to much and not enough, you walked with seemingly ease.

As this is the first of your podcasts I've come across, I'm eager to enjoy the next one as I enjoyed this.

Again, thank you for sharing your creation with us
LeadFingers