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Placita man becomes an author with the release of novel

Kyle Mills
Post Independent
Author Clark Heckert recently published his first novel “Sudden Storm.”
Kyle Mills / Post Independent

For nearly 30 years Clark W. Heckert’s novel “Sudden Storm” lay idle, collecting dust on a bookshelf in his home.

Inspired by authors like James Clavell, Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy back in the late 1980s, Heckert and co-worker Alex Shezifi collaborated to create an action adventure novel.

Shezifi provided details on weaponry, aeronautics and life in Russia where he was born, while Heckert applied his science and engineering background with his naval experience.



He wrote it in 1989, but it sat on the shelf while he and his wife Pamela raised their four children, Heckert said.

The story moves across three continents, as the main character Keith Maddox, a former Navy SEAL, his business partner Marty, retired Admiral Jessel and a band of his father’s World War II Austrian resistance fighters battle to expose the Soviet plot to secretly modify the weather.



When the Russian Politburo realizes they have been discovered they move to release a series of hurricanes with their weather modifying system that would threaten the Earth’s ozone layer.

“It’s a complicated plot, that I think is well-woven,” Heckert said.

With the help of the Carbondale Writers’ Group and Light of the Moon, Inc., Publishing Division in Glenwood Springs, Heckert self-published “Sudden Storm” earlier this year.

“With each chapter featuring a different character’s point of view, “Sudden Storm” keeps you on the edge of your seat as it transitions from one location to the next, revealing conspiracies, deadly secrets, as well as love and friendship in the midst of survival,” according to Kayla Henley, head editor at Light of the Moon.

A graduate of Western Reserve University, Heckert spent two years in the Navy during the Vietnam War as the Electronics Material Officer aboard the Wallace L. Lind (DD-703), an Allen M. Sumner class destroyer.

Originally from Delaware, Heckert now makes his home in Placita, south of Redstone.

Heckert retired from the DuPont Company, where he worked in equipment development for 27 years.

When he isn’t writing, Heckert’s hobbies include working on his two refurbished Jeeps, communicating with amateur radio, hiking and skiing.

Heckert says he is working on his next novel.

“I’m more then halfway through the outline of the sequel,” he said

The 73-year-old author hopes to write one or two more books.

“These things take about three years to write, I’ve been accused of my style being a little like a technical manual. I tend to put a lot of background information in them.” Heckert said.

Heckert says the sequel is going to be as complicated and even better on the adventure side.

kmills@postindependent.com


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