Writing VIPER: How It Came to Life

When I first outlined VIPER, I knew it had to feel grounded—an elite UK “black ops” unit whose missions were messy, morally complex, and driven by real tradecraft rather than superpowers.

The world of VIPER is also about secrets. These are black operations, missions designed to vanish without a trace, to be denied, blamed on others, or never spoken of again. That’s the world I want the reader to step into when they open the book—a world where even the smallest mistake can spiral out of control.

The seed for VIPER was planted back in 2001. I found myself scribbling ideas on scraps of paper, filling notepads, then sketching out flowcharts as the stories grew bigger than my own head could contain. The stories were always there but extracting them in the form I wanted was the trouble. I have my own style of writing and sitting down reading other authors’ books, in my mind, could influence your own flair and ideas.

In fact, from that date I avoided reading because I didn’t want other voices shaping my style. VIPER had to be my own—raw, direct, and unfiltered.

My ideas draw heavily from personal experience and from conversations with people who have lived in that shadow world: former military operators, intelligence officers, diplomats, and law enforcement. I cross-check what I can with open-source material, then let imagination do the rest. An incident, a location, or even a newspaper headline can be the spark—but once it’s lit, I expand it, push it, and run with it.

Because while authenticity matters, a novel isn’t a manual. My job is to take the real-world details, compress them, and transform them into something fast, sharp, and believable—a story that feels true without drowning the reader in jargon.

Building the Team

At the heart of VIPER is chemistry. The team isn’t perfect—it’s a clash of strengths, flaws, and egos that create as much tension as trust. When I create a character, I often begin by asking: what would break this person? From there, I design scenarios that apply pressure, pushing them to their limits. It’s when a character makes a tactical choice that costs them something emotionally that the story comes alive.

Realism vs. Readability

Authenticity is the backbone, but pace is the heartbeat. VIPER threads in the small but telling details of real operations—comms blackouts, tech glitches, weather shifts, drop-zone errors, logistical delays—but never at the expense of momentum. Every detail must serve tension, character, or stakes.

The result? A world loaded with intrigue, espionage, elite technology, and plot-twisting action. A thrilling ride that feels both cinematic and uncomfortably close to reality—because some of it is. That’s exactly what readers of this genre crave: not fantasy, but the chilling thought that this could be happening right now.

Locations & Logistics

In VIPER, place is never just background—it’s a weapon. A narrow alleyway, a sudden mistake, or a gap in surveillance can flip an operation on its head. For each book I map out every scene: who’s moving, who’s listening, who’s lying. That framework anchors the chaos, making the action clear while raising the stakes when things inevitably go wrong. Because in real black ops, things do go wrong. The question isn’t if, but how the squad adapts and survives.

What’s Next

The series doesn’t just chase the next firefight. Each book digs deeper into the hidden costs: the burden of secrecy, the weight of loyalty, the scars that don’t show. These are operatives who live on the knife’s edge between duty and survival, and their stories are as much about who they are as what they do.

Welcome to the world of VIPER: a secret, elite black operations squad formed in Margaret Thatcher’s era, forged in the aftermath of the Iranian Embassy siege in London, and continuing to this day. A closely guarded British secret, known only to successive Prime Ministers and commanded at the very highest level. Every operation sanctioned only from the top through the Commander of Viper.

Thanks for reading. If you’re new to the series, the best place to start is at the beginning—book one sets the tone for everything that follows. And if you’ve already joined the ride, hold on tight. The world of VIPER is only getting darker, sharper, and more dangerous.