Bill Thompson

2019 INDEPENDENT BOOK AWARD WINNER FOR POLITICAL THRILLER & RELIGION-FICTION For over two thousand years there have been whispered rumors of a vast treasure hidden somewhere in Israel. Using the prophecies of Isaiah as their basis, many believe there is a cavern where a thousand golden objects - the sacred relics of the Second Temple - lay strewn about in disarray where they were hurriedly tossed the night the Romans burned Jerusalem. Television personality and antiquities dealer Brian Sadler and his wife arrive in Jerusalem and find danger and uncertainty everywhere they go. In a controversial move, the U. S. president has moved the American embassy to West Jerusalem, inciting riots and anger from the Palestinians. Brian's colleague, a Syrian who owns a shop in the Old City, offers to show him a cache of wondrous objects, but everything isn't as it appears. Brian questions if the treasure exists and in a dank underground room, he learns that danger and deceit must be overcome before he can learn the answer. He faces both a ruthless terrorist and someone he once trusted, both of whom want the same things he does. If the words of the Bible are correct and if Isaiah's prophecy is about to be fulfilled, who will find the hidden treasure of Jerusalem's Second Temple? An imminent war and a kidnapping put Brian's mission in peril. It's a race to find the relics before ISIS does, and the sacred icons are lost forever.

The Halloween The Town Will Never Forget The Galvin family has the least normal household in the sleepy beach community of Marston since Uncle Bob came to stay after their mom died. The family's secrets are hard to keep hidden from the people in town who whisper about strange happenings at their house. Life becomes very interesting for Bobby Galvin as his unusual uncle embarks on a quest to prove an ancient legend about nearby Gunners Cove, rumored for centuries to be the place pirates hid their fortunes. A secret mission and an exciting search lead Bobby and his uncle to an astonishing discovery one Halloween night as they learn the true meaning of The Legend of Gunners Cove.

2019 FIRST PLACE EVVY AWARD FOR ACTION/ADVENTURE & THIRD PLACE EVVY AWARD FOR HORROR VOODOONew Orleans is one of America's most unusual and interesting cities. Some of its residents go about their lives just as everyone else does, but there is one startling difference - they are practitioners of the Dark Arts. These people have extraordinary powers. They can cast spells, hex their enemies, compel others to do their bidding and even kill those whom they wish to harm. Many of the city's founders came from Haiti. One brought an ancient relic - a mystical object called the Black Cross that once belonged to Christopher Columbus. There were rumors it was a voodoo artifact, one that could prolong life for centuries. That cross disappeared hundreds of years ago. Brian Sadler hears an intriguing story from an old friend in New Orleans - a tale that could reveal the whereabouts of the cross. His friend enlists Brian to go to Haiti and Guatemala, where he encounters two Americans - an old man and a child - who are conducting a seminar on rejuvenation. Hidden in a cavern, Brian watches a secret ceremony and learns a shocking truth. Desperate people will risk anything to possess the ancient relic and access its powers. Brian soon discovers that neither friends nor enemies are what they seem. His search for the fabled Black Cross of Columbus becomes a race to save his own life in the shadowy world of voodoo.

Seventeen-year-old Nate Dax sometimes asks himself if a person can die who's never been alive. He's an Outcast - he doesn't have a government chip so the authorities don't know he exists. But if they find him he'll be put to death immediately. Today it's 2094 and Nate hides in what used to be called Colorado when the United States was a country. Everything that's wrong now started with the disastrous presidential election of 2016, when most Americans didn't like either candidate. Four years later the people revolted, tossing out the incumbent and voting for a social democracy that lasted for twenty years. That election - the one in 2040 - was the last in America. Two years later came the disasters. Doomsday prophets called them God's wrath, but they were simply natural phenomena on an unthinkable scale. The Pacific earthquakes and tsunamis killed millions and weakened the San Andreas Fault. The Big One struck with fury, obliterating southern California. America floundered as its leaders helplessly wondered how to respond to such destruction. Others watched too, pleased at what was happening. Soon the enemies of the once-mighty nation took advantage of America's weakness and struck. The Great War of 2042 - also called the Twenty-Minute War - was a terrible demonstration of what concentrated nuclear war can do and it brought down America and the world as it had been. Nations were abolished and the World Union assumed control of planet Earth. What the government did regarding population control is one reason why Outcasts exist. But how can Outcasts like Nate live when they can't buy or sell anything, go into a store, attend a football game or go to school? When Nate's mother and father disappear he thinks he knows what's happened. He has to save them in a world where Outcasts like him will be killed if they're captured. Are there others like him out there ... people who can help? Nate Dax must find out.

NOT SINCE 9/11 . . . One evening in the midst of prime-time programming, networks worldwide interrupt to announce that Air Force Two, a Boeing 747 carrying the Vice President and Secretary of State of the USA, has disappeared after leaving Honolulu, Hawaii on a flight to Hong Kong. An extensive search and rescue effort will soon be underway. President William Henry Harrison IV hears the news aboard Air Force One as he flies with his wife and children from the Caribbean to Dallas. The president's plane changes course, heading now to a secure military installation in Florida. Then the unthinkable happens. Twenty minutes after the first plane disappeared, Air Force One vanishes too. Its last reported location was over the deepest part of the Caribbean Sea, an area known as the Cayman Trench. These two incidents, now unmistakably part of a single plan, harken back to that terrible morning on 9/11 when one tragic crash became two, then three, and the world realized it was all part of a massive terrorism plot. In Washington, Speaker of the House Chambliss T. Parkes, a greedy, vulgar buffoon, is rushed to a secret location as the nation goes to DEFCON 1, the highest threat level, for the first time in history. If the planes are truly gone, Parkes will become President of the United States. As financial markets crash, rioters take to the streets and mass hysteria threatens to destroy the framework of free-world government, the CIA must find answers. Were the two most secure aircraft in the world sabotaged? How could it have been anything else? But how could it have happened? Who is behind it and why? Brian Sadler, a wealthy adventurer and the missing President's closest friend, becomes part of the mission to uncover a plot with worldwide implications. What could possibly get worse?

HAS A NAZI GOLD TRAIN BEEN HIDDEN IN A MOUNTAIN TUNNEL SINCE WORLD WAR II? Paul Silver, an international businessman and amateur adventurer, arrives in Berlin looking for information about a fabled Nazi train full of priceless objects and gold. Along with answers he finds a deranged man who hated him in the past, a man who wants revenge more than life itself. There have been rumors for decades about a train filled with so much wealth it could fund Hitler's dream of a Fourth Reich. A Romanian family believes its patriarch, one of Hitler's trusted officers, possesses a coded diary - a book that will lead to vast treasure hidden somewhere in Europe at the end of the war. Paul soon learns nothing is as it should be. A hundred-year-old murderer, a gypsy fortune-teller, a trio of greedy relatives and a search for the mysterious Nazi train lead Paul Silver on the most exciting adventure of his life.

This study provides a comprehensive critique - forensic, historical, and theoretical - of the moral panic paradigm, using empirically grounded ethnographic research to argue that the panic paradigm suffers from fundamental flaws that make it a myth rather than a viable academic perspective.

A BUSLOAD OF AMERICAN TOURISTS IS KIDNAPPED AND HELD FOR RANSOM IN GUATEMALAAs a sadistic killer holds a group of archaeology buffs hostage deep in the jungle, one of the tourists escapes. Paul Silver came on this trip to learn about the ancient ruins at Piedras Negras, a site that may hold secrets from twelve thousand years ago. For now his objectives are set aside. He has to plan a rescue. The captives - his friends - are so far from civilization that their release could put them in more peril than before. The Guatemalan jungle is a dangerous place, full of predators as frightening as the rebels themselves. Paul can't act quickly enough to save everyone from the rogue guerilla and his men but as the murderer announces his next victims, Paul must move, regardless of the dangers. He rescues Hailey Knox, a beautiful archaeology student who discovers a connection at Piedras Negras linking two ancient civilizations to this part of the Americas - the same mysterious connection that Paul Silver came here to find. After Paul deals with the rebels, Hailey shows him a cave where an astonishing wall and a secret chamber will reveal how and why an Egyptian pharaoh was doomed to eternity in hell.

Art and Craft presents the hand-picked fruit of Bill Thompson’s three decades covering writers and writing as book review editor of Charleston, South Carolina’s Post and Courier. Beginning with a foreword by Charleston novelist Josephine Humphreys, this collection is a compendium of interviews featuring some of the most distinguished novelists and nonfiction writers in America and abroad, including Tom Wolfe, Pat Conroy, Joyce Carol Oates, Rick Bragg, and Anthony Bourdain, as well as many South Carolinians. With ten thematic chapters ranging from the Southern Renaissance, literature, biography, and travel writing to crime fiction and Civil War history, Art and Craft also includes a sampling of Thompson’s reviews. Featuring: Jack Bass, Rick Bragg, Roy Blount, Jr., Robin Cook, Pat Conroy, Patricia Cornwell, Dorothea Benton Frank, Herb Frazier, Sue Grafton, Carl Hiaasen, Sue Monk Kidd, Brian Lamb, Bret Lott, Jill McCorkle, James McPherson, Mary Alice Monroe, Joyce Carol Oates, Carl Reiner, Dori Sanders, Charles Seabrook, Anne Rivers Siddons, Lee Smith, Mickey Spillane, Paul Theroux, Tom Wolfe.

FIRST PLACE EVVY AWARD WINNER FOR FICTION Three artifacts from the Dead Sea caves. An eyewitness account of a night of wonders, written on an ancient scroll. Men who would kill to keep everything secret. Get your copy today Stockbroker-turned-amateur archaeologist Brian Sadler learns about a mysterious parchment written by a child. Knowing it would make him an instant success, Brian turns to a mobster for help to get it. Dealing with the mob means things must go exactly right - or you may lose your life. You'll keep turning pages as Brian jets from Dallas to New York, London and Egypt, trying to get the world's most important document before others can snatch it. Buy this book now

oThe Pope hears the confession of a senior official of the Vatican Bank. What he learns could shake the foundations of the Christian faith.oA suicide bomber destroys a Fifth Avenue antiquities gallery. A dozen people die and an eighteenth-century manuscript is whisked away. Who went to such lengths to obtain an old Knights Templars diary, and why?oA Mafia godfather with a deadly agenda escapes from a Guatemalan prison and plots revenge on those who put him there.oA Cardinal decodes pages of ancient symbols to learn the secret of Oak Island and its enigmatic Money Pit. In 1795 three teenage boys dug in an old pit on Oak Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. They wanted to find out whose engineering expertise created a shaft nearly two hundred feet deep and if it contained treasure as the local people believed. The boys eventually gave up but syndicate after syndicate was formed over the next two hundred years to find the answer to its secrets. Millions of dollars were spent and several lives were lost in the treasure hunt. None of the searchers found riches. A mysterious rock inscribed with a symbolic clue turned up. It said, "Forty feet below two million pounds are buried." But as excavations in the pit went deeper and deeper those backing the project faced bitter frustration. A set of elaborate traps caused the Money Pit to flood each time someone neared the prize at the bottom. Brian Sadler and a devious Cardinal of the church are pitted against each other in a race to learn secrets protected by the Knights Templars for a thousand years. A former kingpin of the New York mob, dethroned and disgraced, plans a systematic elimination of his enemies. Sadler and his girlfriend Nicole Farber become targets of the ruthless killer as this story careens to its incredible conclusion. Does the Money Pit contain relics that could shake the very foundations of Christianity? The Pope himself becomes involved as Brian Sadler discovers the startling answer to the secret of Oak Island.

From the editor of the nation's premier birding magazine, a no-nonsense, no-fluff quick guide to the birds you see every day. Of all the classic American pastimes, perhaps none is as widely accessible as watching birds. Our unusually vast, diverse environmental landscape supports fascinating species and variations exclusive to each region of the country. But while birders often spend their efforts in search of the rarest creatures, some of the most beautiful and intriguing birds are the ones that frequent our backyards (or nearby) daily. For that reason, where other, larger volumes focus on bird types that the casual observer is never likely to encounter, "Midwestern Birds" concisely celebrates those species living under our very noses. Written by Bill Thompson III, the editor and co-publisher of "Bird Watcher's Digest," this portable 5"x8" book contains the same variety of entertaining and informative entries that make "Bird Watcher's Digest" the nation's most popular birding magazine. Inside, you'll find profiles of the 55 most common birds in the Midwest, complete with large color photos, gender-specific physical descriptions, nesting and feeding information, bird call particulars, and interesting stories about each species. Thompson also introduces the reader to the basics of bird watching: essential gear, bird-friendly food and plantings, housing tips, and observational techniques. This guide covers Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. Look for our other backyard bird guides covering the Mid-Atlantic, South, Northeast, and West regions of the United States.

From the editor of the nation's premier birding magazine, a no-nonsense, no-fluff quick guide to the birds you see every day. Of all the classic American pastimes, perhaps none is as widely accessible as watching birds. Our unusually vast, diverse environmental landscape supports fascinating species and variations exclusive to each region of the country. But while birders often spend their efforts in search of the rarest creatures, some of the most beautiful and intriguing birds are the ones that frequent our backyards (or nearby) daily. For that reason, where other, larger volumes focus on bird types that the casual observer is never likely to encounter, "Southern Birds" concisely celebrates those species living under our very noses. Written by Bill Thompson III, the editor and co-publisher of "Bird Watcher's Digest," this portable 5"x8" book contains the same variety of entertaining and informative entries that make "Bird Watcher's Digest" the nation's most popular birding magazine. Inside, you'll find profiles of the 55 most common birds in the South, complete with large color photos, gender-specific physical descriptions, nesting and feeding information, bird call particulars, and interesting stories about each species. Thompson also introduces the reader to the basics of bird watching: essential gear, bird-friendly food and plantings, housing tips, and observational techniques. This guide covers North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, and eastern Texas. Look for our other backyard bird guides covering the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Northeast, and West regions of the United States.

This study provides a comprehensive critique - forensic, historical, and theoretical - of the moral panic paradigm, using empirically grounded ethnographic research to argue that the panic paradigm suffers from fundamental flaws that make it a myth rather than a viable academic perspective.

Our motivation for writing this book was a dissatisfaction with the many books with titles hke Foundations of Statistics. These books provide a needed description of the subject with examples of various statistical methods; but they do not satisfy the discerning reader because they do not explain why certain conclusions may be drawn from certain data and they do not discuss how statistics, the subject, meshes with the scientific process. We naively set out to fill in these gaps, but the situation is not so simple. What is desired is a tool—the one true statistics—which can be applied to data with certainty to justify conclusions, but what is available, in fact, are various competing theories of statistics. The careful reader may correctly point out the relation of this manuscript to po- modem epistemology, a philosophy which emphasizes that all human knowing—in fields as diverse as religion and science—is culture dependent and that therefore "truth" is not absolute. Take, for example, the "truths" of Christianity and Islam— wars have been fought over their differences. In the field of statistics there are, for example, Bayesians and sampling theorists. Carson (2003) states, "Surely it is better, postmodems tell us, to encourage insights that flow from many different perspectives. . . " In statistics, postmodernism is manifest at two levels. First, the findings of statistical applications are not about the true state of nature but about models of experiments on nature.