After hearing the comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin to the UN in September of 2015 I realized it was time for me to try to write the book others have been telling me I needed to write since 1970, about my experiences in the war.

Putin’s speech said things no American politician would dare discuss. He talked about America’s disastrous policies in the Middle East.

“But how did it actually turn out? Rather than bringing about reforms, an aggressive foreign interference has resulted in a brazen destruction of national institutions and the lifestyle itself. Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster. Nobody cares a bit about human right, including the right to life. I cannot help asking those who have caused the situation; do you realize what you‘ve done? But I am afraid no one is going to answer that. Indeed, policies based on self-conceit and belief in one‘s exceptionality and impunity have never been abandoned.“

I did the book in three weeks. After all, I have been writing it in my head for 47 years. All I accomplished in three weeks was to finish typing it. I surprised myself; it was better than I thought it would be. The Art of Peace Moriarty, Robert Best Price: $19.47 (as of 11:36 UTC - Details)

Then I tried to figure out how to get it into print. The natural publisher seemed to be the Naval Institute Press. After all, I was the youngest Naval Aviator in the Vietnam era and flew some 832 missions in combat. I sent them the first twenty pages and a cover letter detailing my background at the first of November. I figured it would take them a week or so to get back to me and by then I’d be about finished. I completed the book and I’m still waiting to hear from them. Time passes at the speed of molasses in winter in the publishing business it seems.

A 321gold reader, who is also an editor, emailed me from Japan, and we polished the book and I figured I should self-publish, at least on iTunes and Kindle format. While I’ve been an Apple aficionado since Christ was a corporal, I found working with Apple to be far more work than it was worth. On the other hand, working with Amazon to put a book into Kindle format was about as hard as falling off a bike. Once the Kindle version was up, I thought I would give CreateSpace a shot at making a paperback version.

Much to my astonishment, Amazon can print one paperback book at a time through CreateSpace. There is no minimum order for books to be printed. That’s handy. If you go to one of the many self-publishing houses and have to place an order for 1000-3000 books in order to get the price down for a hardback, you will find yourself waltzing around stacked boxes of books to get to your bed.

You can have the greatest book in the world and post it on Kindle and CreateSpace but before you do you need a cover. For the first printing of my book, we used a picture of an F-4B with some napalm canisters in front of it. I put the book up, got some sales and a few people didn’t like the cover.

1st cover

Today you can make a major change to a book or its cover in a day. It took me longer. I went to a site that offers custom designs from hundreds of artists from all over the world. I wanted something that showed not only the tools of war but the cost as well. It was handy but the entire process took about two weeks to get and judge the potential cover.

The design I chose showed F-4 dropping bombs over a jungle at the top and a military cemetery at the bottom. Neither the government nor the actual military ever wants to show their citizens what the real costs of war are not only in gold but also in blood. So you never see a heroic war film set in a cemetery when they all should be. I was quite happy with the 2^nd cover. The $399 I paid for the design was well spent.

2nd cover

In November, I needed some peace and quiet to type the book so I called in a marker from a friend who had offered the use of his retreat in The Alps. I stayed in the snowy mountains for almost a month working. Somehow I managed to capture not only the end of fall but also the beginning of winter. It was pretty nice.

In early March, I took a vehicle from England to my mountain hideaway. The trip was about 600 miles and even with the great roads in Europe it was too far for a one-day drive. So in advance, I made up my mind to stop for the night near Reims east of Paris. I went to booking.com and fed in my location and asked for a nearby B&B. It found one, highly rated, near my location at a good price. I was driving down this tiny country road west of Reims when I came across a giant military cemetery.

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The Best of Bob Moriarty

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