Author: Avanti Centrae

Avanti Centrae is the author of the Van Ops thriller series. You can find out more about her book Solistice Shadows on her website www.avanticentrae.com, or more about her by clicking here, read her last post here, and buy her books here. While researching novels, I learn all kinds of interesting things. For example, the Puritan ban on Christmas is a fascinating chapter in history, reflecting religious, cultural, and political belief systems of the 17th century. Historically, they were right. Christmas and winter solstice celebrations are indeed intricately linked. Ancient civilizations meticulously observed winter solstice, constructing monuments like the Temple…

Avanti Centrae is the author of the Van Ops series and other thrillers. You can find out more about her on her website, www.avanticentrae.com, or by clicking here, see her last post here, and buy her books here. 1987. Glen Stewart Godwin is incarcerated inside Folsom State Prison. With the facility’s imposing granite walls and high guard towers, escape seems unlikely.  But as I learned while researching my latest thriller, The Picasso Job, not only did Godwin escape, but he remains at large to this day.  Folsom State Prison was built along the American River, not far from downtown Sacramento.…

Avanti Centrae is the author of the VanOps thriller series. You can find out more about her by visiting her website here, or by clicking here, read her last post here, and buy her books here. "What if a terrorist uses my thriller’s plotline to attack the United States?" I had that stop-you-in-your-tracks thought after a mock interview with my media coach. He'd been prepping me for upcoming radio shows and asked, "Is the truth in your novel scarier than the fiction?" I answered, “Yes.” My debut thriller, VANOPS: THE LOST POWER, deals with Russians who want to get their…

Avanti Centrae is the author of the VanOps thriller series. You can find out more about her on her website: www.avanticentrae.com, or by clicking here, read her last post here, and see her books here. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to know what’s going to happen? Whether your love interest will call, if you’ll get that raise, or ---- what the United States would do after you invade one of Taiwan’s outlying islands? Avanti Centrae After penning the first two books in the VanOps series, The Lost Power and Solstice Shadows, I wanted to tell a…

Avanti Centrae is the author of the VanOps thrillers. You can find out more about her at her website, www.avanticentrae.com, or by clicking here, read her last post here, and buy her books here. Did you know archeologists still haven’t found Cleopatra’s tomb? While researching my latest thriller, Cleopatra’s Vendetta, I learned much about the ancient queen. She had sparkling eyes, a commanding presence, and a rich voice. Her beauty has been debated, but it’s clear she had a host of responsibilities as empress of Egypt, including commanding the army and navy, dispensing justice, setting prices, distributing grain, collecting taxes, dealing with…

Avanti Centrae is the author of the VanOps thriller series. You can read a sample from the series at her website, VanOps.net. You can also find out more about her here, see her books here, and read her last post here. Do you ever feel stuck at work? Can’t find the answer to a thorny problem? Where do you turn? What do you do? In this post, with Earth Day 2022 still visible in the rear-view mirror, I want to celebrate nature as muse and problem solver. What? Wait? “You don’t sit inside on a keyboard all day, every day,…

Avanti Centrae is the author of the VanOps series of thrillers. You can find out more about her here, see her books here, and read her last post here. Beginning with my debut novel, VanOps: The Lost Power, I’ve included an author’s note at the end of each story where I parse fact from fiction, drawing the line between reality and imagination. There are three standalone novels in the VanOps series, and each combines intrigue, history, science, and mystery into a pulse-pounding action thriller. As you can imagine, including history and science into a work of fiction involves a fair…

Avanti Centrae is a former Silicon Valley IT executive turned thriller author. Before becoming a writer, she worked for ALCOA, Texas Instruments, Hughes Aircraft, IBM, and Hewlett Packard. You can find out more about her here, see her books here, and read her latest post here. Avanti Centrae Have you ever thought about reinventing yourself? Changing careers? Working for yourself? Like many others who have changed careers later in life, I took on a new challenge several years ago, right before I hit fifty. In this post, I share my background, hurdles, successes so far, and a few tips and…

Avanti Centrae is the author of the VanOps thriller series, and is working on the third one now. You can find out more about her here, see her books here, and read her latest post here I’m currently six chapters into my next action-packed VanOps thriller and thought it would be fun to share a behind-the-scenes look into my writing process and some background on my current research subject. From what I can tell, every author has their own method, whether it’s flying by the seat of their pants until the very last words hit the page, or the other…