Thunderbird Conspiracy - Book Tour - Author Interview

Thunderbird Conspiracy

Virtual Book Tour

Author Interview

It is a great pleasure to occupy early slots of this Virtual Book Tour, as I said yesterday, begun by Teddy Rose of "So Many Precious Books, So Little Time," on Friday. Yesterday, you got to see my review. Today, I get to share my interview with R.K. Price. I really enjoyed his answers to my 'off-the-wall' questions. This is a very special book we should all read, regardless of your point view on the issues at hand, as well as a very special author. Thanks for stopping by! ;-)

Let's learn a little more about R.K. Price:

R.K. Price is a Colorado native. He lived in Pueblo for a number of years, earning his way through college as a radio/television and newspaper reporter. He moved north to Denver in the mid 70s, joining a major advertising/public relations firm as a writer, producer and press agent. Later, he formed his own media relations and political consulting firm. He spent the early 1980s in Washington D.C. actively involved in national politics, and returned to Denver in the mid 80s to become an investment and mortgage banker — a profession he remains in today. He now lives in the Washington D.C. area with his wife Janet and daughter Sara in Alexandria, Va.

R.K. Price Website: http://rkprice.com/
R.K. Price Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rkpriceauthor
R.K. Price Twitter: https://twitter.com/RK_Price

-->Here are questions and the responses from R.K.:

Please tell us one or two early incidents or events in the story that readers should pay special attention to early in the story that will be most helpful in understanding later events?

In Thunderbird Conspiracy, reading the Preface followed by the Epilogue will provide you a clear perspective on the characters, incidents and events which bind the story together.  The Book is really about two men, Bud Carlson and Robert Kaye, and how their totally divergent lives came together, interwoven, one by choice, the other an unwitting victim of the most notorious crime of the twentieth century. Betrayal plays key throughout.  With Bud, Connie was the first.  And then Robert in a very profound way.  With Robert it was his father, then Deborah, and then, of course, Lee Harvey Oswald, all of whom in their own way deceived and destroyed him.  All events lead up to the assassination and beyond, and my effort here was to tell a tale, true in many respects, of two compelling characters who played tangential roles in Kennedy’s murder.       

I'm fascinated by names. Robert Kaye is one of your main characters and you go by the initials R.K. Not coincidence, I'm sure. Please talk to us about how you approach naming your characters.

Wow.  Never thought of that.  No, R. K. are my initials, not a pen name.  Robert Kaye was one of many aliases that he used throughout his life as part of his effort to hide, I believe, from himself and those he encountered.  I too love naming characters, and besides those in real life, like Bud, Hank, Connie, Oswald, Garrison, Shaw, etc., I look at naming people by the physical mind’s-eye vision I have of them.  Clarence, for instance, in his wheelchair; Boudreaux, the wise and devoted Cajun companion;  Deborah, sultry, sly and shameless, Miss Hattie, the demure damsel living in the past, and Miss Claire, haunted and haunting.

I've recently read Jeff Greenfield's books fictionalizing "what if" on earlier and later JFK assassinations.  Can you share your thoughts on other assassination investigations, based on the research you have done?

Like I said in the Epilogue, I didn’t set out to prove another assassination theory. I’ve read dozens over the years, some plausible, others totally far-fetched.   What I intended to do was present a true-to-life personality, Robert Kaye, as someone who may have conspired with Oswald and others in their plot to kill the President.  I fervently believe he was, indeed, part of the plot, based upon my Uncle’s telling, and how Kaye’s name, after nearly 50 years, was finally exposed in the official Kennedy assassination files kept by the National Archives.  Despite the fact that after his arrest the FBI disregarded all that Kaye told them, labeling him a crackpot, I will forever remain convinced he was deliberately cast aside (and possibly eliminated) as part of  the cover-up and rush to judgement. No one will ever explain the binoculars found in Oswald’s room and linked to Kaye, nor why my Uncle was detained and harassed for months by the FBI unless his connection to Kaye was not significant.  In any case, 50 years have passed and the mystery remains.  Two-hundred years from now our country may still not know the truth.

I really appreciate R.K. taking the time to respond to my questions! THANKS! ;-)


Happy Reading,

Dr. Bill  ;-)