Hello and welcome to my website.

I'm proud to announce publication of Yvonne's Gift, a sequel to Train Store Diary, my baptismal venture into the Romance Novel genre.  Train Store Diary blossomed out of my discovery of a diary kept by the former, now deceased, owner of my retail business, the Silverton Train Store.  The owner had a crush on an engineer with the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and he reciprocated. When I read the diary I couldn't resist spicing it up and turning it into a Romance Novel.

I self-published Yvonne's Gift and Train Store Diary with Kindle Direct Publishing.  Signed copies of both books are available at the Train Store on Greene Street in Silverton and as a paperbacks on amazon and ebooks on Kindle.  I hope you have as much fun reading them as I did writing them.

My latest Wilson Smith Thai Thriller Series Book Two, The Crocodile's Tail, has won Honorable Mention in the 2018 Eric Hoffer Awards commercial fiction category.  This is my third Hoffer Award following Honorable Mention in general fiction for The Chinese Laundry in 2006 and Finalist for the 2013 Montaigne Medal for Silverton Burning in 2013.

AMAfeed update: I've responded to 59 questions on AMAfeed, most of them related to writing my books and my travels to other countries, two topics that are joined in that my thrillers are set in places where I've lived or visit a lot.  Zambezi River Bridge is set in Central Africa where I lived for nine years and The Crocodile's Tail and Red Star Over Pattaya take place in Thailand where I'm a frequent visitor.  Answering the questions has been fun.  I hope I've made some friends and maybe sold some books.

I've completed a new novel.  It's called The Crocodile's Tail. A Thai Thriller and is a sequel to Red Star Over Pattaya.   The Crocodile's Tail again features private investigator Wilson Smith and his Thai partner, Punya and introduces Wilson's daughter, Alison, who he hasn't seen for twenty-six years.  Alison's a Los Angeles-based celebrity bodyguard and kick boxer.  The Smiths reunite and, with help from Punya, get into a struggle with the ivory smuggling Tiger Swan gang on the southern Thailand resort island of Phuket. Much mayhem ensues.

I submitted The Crocodile's Tail (this is a muay thai technique, also called a spinning heel kick) to the Kindle Scout program, but it wasn't selected  for publication by Kindle Press. I've self-published with createspace and the book is available on amazon and kindle.  Read a short selection on my Books page or check out the first few chapters for free on amazon.  Red Star Over Pattaya and The Crocodile's Tail are the first two books in the Wilson Smith Thai Thriller Series.

I've added two short (around 7000 words), low priced, non-fiction e-stories to my Kindle offerings. The first is Pattaya Journal. The Russians are coming. Or are they? This is the story of the development of the city of Pattaya from a sleepy fishing village on the Gulf of Thailand to the number one sex tourist destination in Southeast Asia to the favorite tropical resort of thousands of Russians from Siberia.  The second is The Curse of the Blue Diamond. A Thai-Saudi Murder Mystery. A quarter century ago the fifty carat Saudi blue diamond along with $20 million worth of precious gems was stolen from the palace of Prince Faisal by a Thai contract worker.  This is the story of that theft which led to seven unsolved murders, revealed massive corruption in the Royal Thai Police force and caused a rupture in diplomatic relations between Thailand and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that still hasn't been resolved.  Hope you enjoy them.

If you're interested in purchasing either or both of these e-stories here's a link to my Kindle and amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/Robert-B.-Boeder/e/B001K7OWNI/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1452534768&sr=1-2-ent.

Here's how I got the idea for Red Star Over Pattaya. A Thriller.  In 2011 my wife and I were chased out of her home in Bangkok by severe flooding.  We moved to Pattaya, a resort town an hour south on the Gulf of Thailand.  Actually, we rented a 12th floor condo across the street from the beach in Jomtien, a suburb of Pattaya.  Jomtien is quieter than Pattaya, which is widely known as a sex tourist destination.   Pattaya has long been a port of call for young single men from Europe, Australia and the U.S.  In the past ten years it has become a top choice for Russian tourists, many of them from Siberia.  Who wouldn't want to leave the frozen north for two weeks of tropical fun in the sun? I was fascinated by this mix of people and the ensuing nightly shenanigans on Walking Street, Pattaya's main red light district.  I had to write about this place, but I needed someone to carry the story.  Then I met Gerry Rasmus, an American who has made a life for himself taking care of stray dogs while cleaning the beaches of Pattaya and Jomtien.  Gerry is an amazing guy and he became the model for Wilson Smith, the main character in Red Star Over Pattaya.  You can take a look at the first few chapters for free on amazon.com and Kindle.  I hope you have as much fun reading this thriller as I did writing it.

  Zambezi River Bridge. A Thriller, was self-published by createspace.  You can read an excerpt on my Books page.  I started ZRB many years ago when I was out of work.  Six months later I got a job with the U.S Army  and put the manuscript in a drawer.  Recently I resurrected ZRB and am happy to make it available through Amazon and Kindle.  The book mixes fact and fiction and tells the story of Vietnam veteran and ex-CIA Paramilitary Operations Officer, Steve Fuller, who is drawn into the Zimbabwe liberation struggle while teaching at the University of Zambia.  Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon make guest appearances as they organize negotiations between the African freedom groups and Rhodesia's white minority government to be held in a railroad car on the Victoria Falls Bridge.  Soviet agents seek to disrupt the talks which Steve Fuller pledges to protect.  Sound like a good read? I was teaching at UNZA in the late 1970s when many of these events were taking place and parts of ZRB are based on personal experience.

Good news about Silverton Burning — It was a finalist for the 2013 Eric Hoffer Award Montaigne Medal for most thought-provoking book.  You can read excerpts from Silverton Burning, The Chinese Laundry and my other books on the Books page.

Welcome news for runners — Beyond the Marathon. The Grand Slam of Trail Ultrarunning is available after being out of print for several years.  You can purchase Beyond the Marathon, Hardrock Fever. Running  100 Miles in Colorado's San Juan Mountains, the award winning The Chinese Laundry, Silverton Burning as well as Zambezi River Bridge and Red Star Over Pattaya from Amazon.com or Kindle or get a signed copy by contacting me directly.  Order copies and  read excerpts on my Books page.  Recently, I discovered that someone in Australia has published an e-book about ultrarunning with the same title as mine — Beyond the Marathon.  Apparently, there is a shortage of imagination down under. I contacted the BTM imposter and asked him to change his title.  I was there first. He agreed and his book is now called Running Beyond the Marathon.  Thanks a lot.  There's no copyright for book titles.  I'll just have to be happy with the knowledge that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

All the best, Bob

*My header, Little Molas Lake Pan, was photographed by Jim Baumgardt formerly of Durango, CO