Featured Interview With Barry L. Becker
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. I graduated from San Francisco State University and I’m a military vet. My wife and I live in Portland, Oregon. From 1984-1991 I was vice-president of marketing for EyeDentify, a biometrics company that used the eye-retinal scanning technology to positively ID a person by their unique blood vessel patterns in their retina. Our customers were government agencies (Intelligence, Interior, Defense, etc.), Aerospace and Defense contractors, Nuclear Power Plants, Banks and Financial Institutions. After 1991, I became a marketing consultant within the biometrics industry.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I wrote a short story and a three-act play when I was in college. Later in life, I wrote a security article for the Journal of Defense & Diplomacy (1987) that pertained to biometrics. Eight years ago I felt the urge to write a powerful espionage thriller.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Vince Flynn, David Baldacci, Robert Dugoni, Christopher Reich, Daniel Silva, Lauren Hildenbrand, Andrew Kaplan and Nelson DeMille. My favorite genre is fiction: mystery/suspense/thriller.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The essential thread that surfaced over the past thirteen years is how unfortunate the United States invasion of Iraq threw the Middle East region into a disastrous quagmire. Thousands of American men and women in uniform killed, hundreds of thousands physically and mentally wounded, trillions of taxpayer monies going down the drain (not to mention hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens killed and millions displaced), and sadly an enormous lack of foreign policy leadership from the Executive Branch. This is the backdrop of THE ERICKSEN CONNECTION. The Ericksen Connection is a military/CIA Thriller about betrayal, corruption, conspiracy, and terrorism. The protagonist is Mark Ericksen, a former Navy SEAL Team Six platoon leader and successful Oregon businessman.
In 2001, America had every right to invade Afghanistan, remove Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, because of Osama Bin Laden’s involvement in 9/11. However, when the US took their eye off the ball there and focused on the invasion of Iraq- all hell broke out. We’re still bogged down in the Middle East, and probably will be for the next ten years or more.
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