Jim Burkett
Jim Burkett was born in a small coal mining town of West Virginia while his father was serving in Korea. Once his father returned, the family was transferred to Hawaii where they spent the next five years stationed at Hickum Air Force Base. While stationed in Hawaii, Jim spent as much time touring the submarines while they were in port as he was allowed.
Their next tour took them to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. For six years, he spent his weekends going with his father to the different base facilities, often allowed permission to spend time with the airmen and officers listening to and watching as they went about their assignments, working on the planes and transports mechanics. At the age of 13, he lost his father who by this time was serving overseas once again.
Years later, while pursuing a Computer Science degree, he met his future wife Cathy and they were married a year and a half later. Still married after 35 years, they have two sons and have been blessed with two grandchildren.
In addition to his current Senior Systems Analyst position, he also serves as a senior staff photographer for a local magazine in the Tampa Bay area. Previously, he wrote a column for the SouthWinds Sailing magazine and worked on several projects including spending a week photographing the Canadian Olympic Team prior to the Beijing Olympics and the “Earthrace” boat which would later set a world speed record circumnavigating the globe. In 2006, he received the “Volunteer of the Year” award for his work with the Pediatric Cancer Foundation.
Through his photography and writing, he feels privileged to have met and spent time with such men as General Tommy Franks, George Steinbrenner, Pete Bethune and Steve Yerrid to name only a few. One of his closest friends is a retired Secret Service agent who once served on Presidential detail under six presidents.
Holding close to his military roots, he has continued to study military history and high-tech science and blends these into his first book Declaration of Surrender. Holding close to his two grandchildren, he has also developed a series of picture books for pre-readers and early readers called the Read With Me, Pops series.
Follow his adventures in writing and photography here.
Their next tour took them to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. For six years, he spent his weekends going with his father to the different base facilities, often allowed permission to spend time with the airmen and officers listening to and watching as they went about their assignments, working on the planes and transports mechanics. At the age of 13, he lost his father who by this time was serving overseas once again.
Years later, while pursuing a Computer Science degree, he met his future wife Cathy and they were married a year and a half later. Still married after 35 years, they have two sons and have been blessed with two grandchildren.
In addition to his current Senior Systems Analyst position, he also serves as a senior staff photographer for a local magazine in the Tampa Bay area. Previously, he wrote a column for the SouthWinds Sailing magazine and worked on several projects including spending a week photographing the Canadian Olympic Team prior to the Beijing Olympics and the “Earthrace” boat which would later set a world speed record circumnavigating the globe. In 2006, he received the “Volunteer of the Year” award for his work with the Pediatric Cancer Foundation.
Through his photography and writing, he feels privileged to have met and spent time with such men as General Tommy Franks, George Steinbrenner, Pete Bethune and Steve Yerrid to name only a few. One of his closest friends is a retired Secret Service agent who once served on Presidential detail under six presidents.
Holding close to his military roots, he has continued to study military history and high-tech science and blends these into his first book Declaration of Surrender. Holding close to his two grandchildren, he has also developed a series of picture books for pre-readers and early readers called the Read With Me, Pops series.
Follow his adventures in writing and photography here.
Declaration of Surrender
Believing either Germany or Japan are about to win the war against the United States in early 1945, several members of Congress conspire to protect their own wealth by secretly creating a document that would give the rights of ownership of all U.S. properties and land over to the leading country before the end of the war is actually declared.
Signed by the President, the document is passed along underground to the Germans but is eventually confiscated back by U.S. Treasury agents along with account ledgers worth millions of dollars sitting in hidden Swiss bank accounts. Days later the agents are found murdered and the documents gone.
DHS agent Nick West is thrust into the world of government assassins and sought after for treason by his own country when he discovers the location of the missing sixty-five year old document but refuses to disclose its whereabouts in order to protect his own men.
When a leading government systems analyst is found tortured and beaten to death and Nick’s wife is taken hostage, he must form an alliance with an injured enemy Russian assassin in order to find and protect the document from ‘what’s coming’ before time runs out for them and his country.
Declaration of Surrender is an edge of your seat thriller from beginning to end.
Believing either Germany or Japan are about to win the war against the United States in early 1945, several members of Congress conspire to protect their own wealth by secretly creating a document that would give the rights of ownership of all U.S. properties and land over to the leading country before the end of the war is actually declared.
Signed by the President, the document is passed along underground to the Germans but is eventually confiscated back by U.S. Treasury agents along with account ledgers worth millions of dollars sitting in hidden Swiss bank accounts. Days later the agents are found murdered and the documents gone.
DHS agent Nick West is thrust into the world of government assassins and sought after for treason by his own country when he discovers the location of the missing sixty-five year old document but refuses to disclose its whereabouts in order to protect his own men.
When a leading government systems analyst is found tortured and beaten to death and Nick’s wife is taken hostage, he must form an alliance with an injured enemy Russian assassin in order to find and protect the document from ‘what’s coming’ before time runs out for them and his country.
Declaration of Surrender is an edge of your seat thriller from beginning to end.
Declaration of Surrender (Book One of the Nick West Series)
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American Sanction (Book Two of the Nick West Series)
DHS Agent Nick West just wanted to keep a promise to a dead man and found himself on a collision course with insanity, revenge and the most deadly biochemical weapon in history.
The sequel to Declaration of Surrender is even more terrifying because this isn't 'what if?' but 'when?'
DHS Agent Nick West just wanted to keep a promise to a dead man and found himself on a collision course with insanity, revenge and the most deadly biochemical weapon in history.
The sequel to Declaration of Surrender is even more terrifying because this isn't 'what if?' but 'when?'
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Reprisal (Book Three of the Nick West Series)
The CIA taught them the worlds’ greatest government secrets, then told them to hide, to disappear forever. Years later as those secrets begin to leak, they became hunted and executed by their own country for all of the wrong reasons. Betrayed at the highest level, one woman seeks the truth, along the way dispensing her own justice to those responsible.
The CIA taught them the worlds’ greatest government secrets, then told them to hide, to disappear forever. Years later as those secrets begin to leak, they became hunted and executed by their own country for all of the wrong reasons. Betrayed at the highest level, one woman seeks the truth, along the way dispensing her own justice to those responsible.
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The Nick West Trilogy
A collection of excitement, terror, heroes, villains, betrayal, revenge, government duplicity, madmen, chemical weapons, old scores, new vengeance, and lies exposed all under one cover. Former DHS agent Nick West uses his skills with reasoning, and weaponry to stop an international cartel from selling United States to the highest bidder in Declaration of Surrender, a madman from selling a weapon of mass destruction so cruel and so indiscriminate even the governments vying to purchase it have second thoughts in American Sanction, and a killer out to avenge the death of someone who didn't deserve to die, and doesn't care who gets killed in the process in Reprisal.
A collection of excitement, terror, heroes, villains, betrayal, revenge, government duplicity, madmen, chemical weapons, old scores, new vengeance, and lies exposed all under one cover. Former DHS agent Nick West uses his skills with reasoning, and weaponry to stop an international cartel from selling United States to the highest bidder in Declaration of Surrender, a madman from selling a weapon of mass destruction so cruel and so indiscriminate even the governments vying to purchase it have second thoughts in American Sanction, and a killer out to avenge the death of someone who didn't deserve to die, and doesn't care who gets killed in the process in Reprisal.
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Shadows of Bataan
On April 10, 1942, Captain Benjamin F. Stakes was taken prisoner on Bataan. For the next three and a half years, he would serve as a POW detained within five different camps and treated, along with thousands of others, to the most horrific and inhumane conditions imaginable. Before his liberation in September of 1945, over forty thousand prisoners of war would perish at the hands of the Japanese.
This is a true story of survival. From his forced participation in what would later become known as the ‘Bataan Death March’ to the reuniting with family in 1946, the author secretly documented the most deplorable conditions of the camps, from the many diseases afflicting the men, to starvation, executions, and decapitation by the Japanese soldiers, along with the torture of American, Filipino, British and Australian prisoners that many were ultimately not able to endure. Knowing these recordings were done at great risk not only to himself but for his fellow officers and enlisted men as well, the documents were hidden in a jar by three American officers, with its location known only by memorizing the coordinates. Of the three, only Captain Benjamin F. Stakes would survive and return to retrieve the contents. He would later forward the personal notes of one of the officers to his widow.
During his capture and transfer to the different POW camps, two of the ships transporting the men would be bombed and sunk by American planes. Describing a scene from one of the attacks where American medical officers tried helping the Japanese wounded, Mr. Stakes wrote: “As they went hurriedly about the task of rendering first aid, they were accompanied by a Jap officer who proceeded to shoot in the head any of his countrymen whose wounds appeared to be mortal, rather than let them suffer.”
On April 10, 1942, Captain Benjamin F. Stakes was taken prisoner on Bataan. For the next three and a half years, he would serve as a POW detained within five different camps and treated, along with thousands of others, to the most horrific and inhumane conditions imaginable. Before his liberation in September of 1945, over forty thousand prisoners of war would perish at the hands of the Japanese.
This is a true story of survival. From his forced participation in what would later become known as the ‘Bataan Death March’ to the reuniting with family in 1946, the author secretly documented the most deplorable conditions of the camps, from the many diseases afflicting the men, to starvation, executions, and decapitation by the Japanese soldiers, along with the torture of American, Filipino, British and Australian prisoners that many were ultimately not able to endure. Knowing these recordings were done at great risk not only to himself but for his fellow officers and enlisted men as well, the documents were hidden in a jar by three American officers, with its location known only by memorizing the coordinates. Of the three, only Captain Benjamin F. Stakes would survive and return to retrieve the contents. He would later forward the personal notes of one of the officers to his widow.
During his capture and transfer to the different POW camps, two of the ships transporting the men would be bombed and sunk by American planes. Describing a scene from one of the attacks where American medical officers tried helping the Japanese wounded, Mr. Stakes wrote: “As they went hurriedly about the task of rendering first aid, they were accompanied by a Jap officer who proceeded to shoot in the head any of his countrymen whose wounds appeared to be mortal, rather than let them suffer.”
My New Friends at the Zoo
Jim Burkett, author, photographer and grandfather, put his considerable talents together to create these wonderful Read With Me, Pops books. Great for early readers on their own or to share at bedtime, these stories are filled with big adventures for little imaginations.
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Jim Burkett, author, photographer and grandfather, put his considerable talents together to create these wonderful Read With Me, Pops books. Great for early readers on their own or to share at bedtime, these stories are filled with big adventures for little imaginations.
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Let's Go Exploring in the Backyard
The second volume of the Read With Me, Pops series takes little imaginations into the wilds of their own backyard. Be prepared to encounter beautiful, odd and intriguing characters dwelling right under your nose.
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The second volume of the Read With Me, Pops series takes little imaginations into the wilds of their own backyard. Be prepared to encounter beautiful, odd and intriguing characters dwelling right under your nose.
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Let's Go See Who Lives In the Sea
The third volume in the Read With Me, Pops series takes us on adventure to the deep blue sea. Visit with starfish and sharks, meet some new and mysterious creatures and find some old friends. Take a deep breath and dive in!
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The third volume in the Read With Me, Pops series takes us on adventure to the deep blue sea. Visit with starfish and sharks, meet some new and mysterious creatures and find some old friends. Take a deep breath and dive in!
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Lions, Tigers, Bears and More!
There are lots of animals in this book,
Wild and beautiful, come take a look.
With wing and fang and antler and claw
Some live alone and some with Ma and Paw,
Some are big and some are small,
Some can fly and some must crawl,
Some will hiss and some will roar,
Lions, Tigers, Bears And More!
Book Four in the Read With Me, Pops Series
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There are lots of animals in this book,
Wild and beautiful, come take a look.
With wing and fang and antler and claw
Some live alone and some with Ma and Paw,
Some are big and some are small,
Some can fly and some must crawl,
Some will hiss and some will roar,
Lions, Tigers, Bears And More!
Book Four in the Read With Me, Pops Series
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Fins, Fur and Feathers, the Read With Me, Pops Omnibus
Jim Burkett, author, photographer and grandfather, put his considerable talents together to create these wonderful Read With Me, Pops books. Now the first four adventures (My New Friends At the Zoo, Let's Go Exploring In the Backyard, Let's Go See Who Lives In the Sea and Lions, Tigers, Bears and More) are offered together as Fins, Fur & Feathers, a Read With Me, Pops omnibus. Over one hundred pages of photographs from wriggly caterpillars to the King of Beasts, and wonderful, engaging narrative just right for those moments when your little book lover says "Read with me, Pops."
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Jim Burkett, author, photographer and grandfather, put his considerable talents together to create these wonderful Read With Me, Pops books. Now the first four adventures (My New Friends At the Zoo, Let's Go Exploring In the Backyard, Let's Go See Who Lives In the Sea and Lions, Tigers, Bears and More) are offered together as Fins, Fur & Feathers, a Read With Me, Pops omnibus. Over one hundred pages of photographs from wriggly caterpillars to the King of Beasts, and wonderful, engaging narrative just right for those moments when your little book lover says "Read with me, Pops."
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