The Three-Sided Fort

BIO FOR LOUIS STANNARD
A love for movies, history and working at a local flying field was a big part of growing up in the mid-south. In college, I tried Aeronautical Engineering, discovered I would rather fly airplanes than build them and was accepted by the Air Force as a pilot.
I was a distinguished graduate from pilot training, received a regular commission, and flew the world ending my military career in the Presidential Support Squadron at Joint Base Andrews.
Leaving the Air Force, I landed a job with Pan Am but didn’t lose my love for history and movies. Reading books on both and more, I took courses and began to write -- a lot.
While with Pan Am, I developed and was awarded a U.S. patent for EasyBid, a software solution for crew bidding. Previously, that monthly nightmare was an expensive manual process that took management and crew thousands of hours to accomplish.
After Lockerbie, and some 23,000 hours of flying came Pan Am’s demise. So, after living in Germany, France, California, New England and visiting every continent except Antarctica, my wife and I decided to sail the world in our 47-foot ketch, Sea Jay.
After about four years of cruising, reading, and writing, the cry of grand babies became louder than the next ports of call, so we settled in North Carolina to be closer to family.
Since I was a boy, I have always had a love for history, especially aviation history, prior to and during World War II.
Although not formally trained, I have gained a formidable knowledge of the actual history of the subjects I write about and have become friends with CNAC pilots still alive portrayed in China Diaries. Looking at my sources to write just China Diaries, I count at least thirty-three books, just in my library, with no regard to the extensive on-line research of the subject matter.
Before her untimely death, I had the pleasure of meeting Iris Chang and discussing her book, the Rape of Nanking and the large part the Nanjing massacre played in the China Diaries plot.
I also had the pleasure of meeting and working with, Dr. Peter Stanek, President of the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia. Peter and his associates were veritable walking history books on the subject.
I flew corporate jets a few years while writing China Diaries, the book, presently on Amazon. I later wrote China Diaries, the screenplay, and a 6x60 mini-series bible by the same name.
I have also written The Three-Sided Fort, No Lights after Sundown, and I am presently working on Familie Mann, also a screenplay and perhaps a book.
I retired from flying and sailing, built a stand-up desk and now write full time.