Hi.
My name is David Allen.

I've been trying to change everything over so that a search for D.P. Allen finds my sites.
There is a business writer with the same name who seems to have a monopoly on the search engine listings market.
I do NOT write "How to succeed in business" books.


Welcome to this, my obligatory author's website.

This is the place where I list the books I have written and where they are available for purchase. It is also where I list each book that is under construction, or not released yet with its expected release date.

Come back often to see what's coming up.

You'll notice that I have an American flag at the top of my page. I am one of those proud veterans who believes in this country and flies the flag. I spent lots of years in the military and federal law enforcement defending the rights of
ALL Americans to believe as they wish. If someone doesn't like my flag, that is THEIR right, but NO ONE can tell me to remove it from my home, nor my website. Flying it and proclaiming my beliefs are MY rights. If anyone objects to me exercising MY rights, they are welcome to go elsewhere. That is THEIR right.

At the end of the site is a link to my email. Feel free to offer constructive criticism, but please don't spam or abuse it.

Biographic data and the like for those who are into that sort of thing is after the email address.



Clicking on any book cover picture leads to that book's website and purchase information.

**********

This is the first book I wrote that was published under my name.

My previous writing was as part of a collaboration team for the U.S. Government and thus un-credited.

A few of the original first edition books in print form are available by clicking on the desert camo (brown cover) book picture.

The second edition is now available by clicking on the forest camo (green cover) book picture.





eBook Edition Amazon/Kindle *********** Print edition Amazon.



This is a manual I wrote, because many people testing at the Commercial DMVs failed the hands on "Practical" test.

The reason was simply that the students weren't being properly trained by friends, family, and in some cases, commercial schools.

Some "CDL Mills" were intentionally under training students because they received extra money from government training grants for additional hours of training required to bring the students to proper proficiency. It was the discovery of their use of that scam which caused me to quit my position as lead instructor at one such school and write this book.

The testing procedures have become much more strict since the introduction of the federally standardized CDL/A compared to the old Chauffer, or Commercial Class 1 state licenses.

Today's truck driver must know and demonstrate proficiency to much higher standards than were acceptable only a short time ago.

There are many good books available that explain the written tests and many good practice written test question sources available. These will enable a person to pass the written tests and obtain their Learner's Permit, after which they can get behind the wheel and learn how to drive.

As of this time, this is the ONLY book available that explains what is involved and how to pass all of the phases of the Hands-On Licensing Tests. These tests are the final steps required to obtain a CDL/A, Commercial Driver's License.



My Fictional releases.

Clicking on any book cover picture leads to that book's website and purchase information.

Once a series is complete, it will be still be available as individual ebooks, or paperbacks, but will also be available as a complete anthology.





This is my first entry into Science Fiction writing.
Released in December 2014 through Amazon/Kindle as an eBook, or paperback.





Book 2 in my "Reality" series is completed and was released on February 2, 2015 through Amazon/Kindle as an eBook, or paperback.

Mike and his friends must cope with some new and solve some old problems in this continuation of the "Reality" series. Will the problems with the Royals finally end or will their greed and contempt for human life lead into war?





Book 3 in my "Reality" series was released in early April 2015 through Amazon/Kindle as an eBook, or paperback.

The further adventures of Mike and his companions involving savage raiders, pirates, plots and intrigue.





Book 4 in my "Reality" series was released in early June 2015 through Amazon/Kindle as an eBook, or paperback.

Mike and his friends are up to their ears in possible violence as a war with Spanish Conquistadors looms ever closer.





Book 5 in my "Reality" series was released in August 2015 through Amazon/Kindle as an eBook, or paperback.

This is the final book in the series and closes the chapters on the Spanish and Royals conflicts. Mike also will get a dose of real reality when he finally discovers the true history of humanity since his time.








A listing of my series to date by the books in each series.







Book 1 of the series, released on March 28, 2020, is available at Kindle (Amazon) for purchase in both ebook and paperback versions.

It covers a completely different aspect of Science Fiction compared to the "Reality" and "Matter" series.
This series is more of a shoot-em-up "space action" story with occasional cross references to human instincts and personality flaws.





Book 2 of the series, released on April 23, 2020 is available at Kindle (Amazon) for purchase in both ebook and paperback versions.

Book 2 continues the P'slan wars.





Book 3 in my "Rites" series, released on May 21, 2020 closes out the P'slan wars and introduces some other areas of trouble for humanity. It closes out the series, but leaves room to return for future expansion if desired.







Book 1 of the "Matter"series, released on June 17, 2020 is available at Kindle (Amazon) for purchase in both ebook and paperback versions.

This book is a break from my usual "space opera" format.

It delves into an alternate form of space exploration where artificial gravity and mass neutralization have not been discovered. If humans want to accelerate and decelerate at only a few "G's" in order to reach the stars, they would be in transit for centuries. Using a slightly different method, they can reach the stars in more reasonable times and have the added bonus of not needing gigantic ships to carry the needed life support and supplies required for extended stays in space. It also shows how mankind can make itself relatively immortal in the process.





Book 2 of the "Matter"series, released on March 1, 2024 is available at Kindle (Amazon) for purchase in both ebook and paperback versions.

After an extended, unintentional break from writing, my life has settled back to relative calm for at least a little while. Having to deal with too much reality detracts from a person's ability to follow imagination and my poor muse went into hiding. It's "baaack" and allowed me to finish book 2 and begin book 3 of this series. I am slipping back closer to my space opera venue from the almost pure exploratory works of "Minding Matter" where my muse feels more at home and creative.

Mankind can make part of itself relatively immortal, but still needs to defend itself and the flesh and blood humans who depend on it for their very lives in a very deadly universe.

Time may not affect immortality, but violence can!



In the works!









I have found that if I do the cover artwork for my books, it sometimes gives me something for my muse to target.

This is my tentative book 3 of the "Matter" series and book 1 of the "Colors" series. The links will be established after release.





I was once asked who I tried to emulate in my life.

I thought about that for quite a while.

I wanted someone who was not pretentious, totally honorable and selfless, but personable enough to make and keep friends easily.

Well here he is.

The Jedi Master, Yoda.



My personal philosophy in life is simple. I am too old to fight, too fat to run, but I'm still a great shot!







More personal info than anyone would ever care to know. This is my bio for those overly curious people.

A little about myself:

I was born as so many others were.

My birth date is not important, although I was eligible to join AARP more than 20 years ago.

My parents lived in Laconia, NH, so I was born there in order to be near them. At a young age, we moved south to the outskirts of Boston, MA.

I attended early schooling in the city of Somerville and later after we moved to the “burbs”, at the age of 10, I entered the Reading public school system. I graduated from high school there and attended college at Boston State College, in (duh!) Boston. (Or as it is pronounced there, Bahstin. And no, I don't "pahk the cah") I was educated in spite of my best attempts to prevent it and it being the 60s.

While in school, I had the usual jobs, from paperboy to McDonalds to the women’s shoe department in the basement store of Jordan Marsh, to supervising quality control on the night shift at an electronics factory. Supervising meant I got .25/hr more than the little old ladies I supervised. Their job was to plug the brand new technology ICs into a socket on a test console. Then they would program a mainframe computer via a paper tape and push a button to test the samples, If they passed the test sequence, the factory would begin manufacturing that model as a production product. Most, incidentally, failed as the technology was brand new and the manufacturing processes were experimental.

After college, I enlisted in the army to avoid the draft. I planned to stay for my single enlistment, but between active duty and reserve units, ended up with a good portion of my life spent in the “pickle suit” and later “cammies”. They even convinced me to take a commission, so that I became what the army calls a "Mustang". That's someone who reached the rank of NCO (sergeant) before becoming a commissioned officer. (Luckily they dropped “gentleman” from the requirements.)

I took courses under the GI Bill for things I liked, such as electronic tech courses to learn how to repair the new home computer technologies, to gunsmithing, because I was involved in match shooting and hunting, and wanted to do my own gun modifications. I might note that I am a lifetime member of the N.R.A., even if my magazine subscription disappeared sometime during my many changes of address around the country.

I always use the term gun rather than weapon. Weapons are for killing people and include everything from knives and clubs to nuclear devices. Guns are for sport and hunting. I know how and have used both weapons and guns in my life and much prefer the latter!

I also learned keyboards and guitar as a teen and played in several local rock bands and a couple of folk groups in the 60's. I still, on occasion, pull out my electronic keyboard, or a six or 12 string guitar and torture the ears of anyone close by.

I have given up my long time "need for speed" racing habit. I have trouble getting into the low slung seats of sports cars and can’t afford the upkeep anymore. I raced S.C.C.A. events for many years from New Hampshire to Florida, originally in an RX-3 and later an RX-2. My last cars were RX-7s. To give some idea of how into the rotary engines I was, I pulled my cars to the track with a REPU. (Rotary engined pick up truck) I never got interested in Nascar, because I learned how to race where you actually had to know how to turn in both directions and when to slow down or speed up because of turns.

An assignment I enjoyed was teaching driving at the U.S. Border Patrol Academy. I got to keep in practice on the high speed "pursuit" courses at tax payer expense, because "Maintenance of our abilities" was a requirement of the position. On F.L.E.T.C. they are called courses because when called tracks, the funding was refused. Resubmitting the same proposal, but calling them courses, got their construction funded. (welcome to the world of government!) Some bureaucrat decided that a track was for racing and a course was a training tool. I taught exactly the same line of travel and driving techniques to law enforcement at the Academy, S.C.C.A. drivers at S.C.C.A events and truck driver students in the commercial schools. The only differences were in the handling abilities of the different types of vehicles.

I demonstrated that to my fellow instructors while we were running a temporary Academy in Alabama one year. I had one "pursue" me around the course. He was in a full size Chevy with a big V-8 engine and full police package and I was in my little Mazda RX-7. If we had gone more than the 2 laps, I would have caught back up to him, even though he was trying to catch me. I could take the tight turns on the course at 2 to 4 times his maximum cornering speeds, even though we were evenly matched in acceleration on the straight stretches of road. His time per lap was 1 minute and 25 seconds, averaging a little over 65 mph. Mine was less than 55 seconds, averaging a little over 110 mph. I might note that his time was 30 seconds faster than the student qualification time and 10 seconds faster than the instructor qualification time. My time was a new course record, which was never beaten. Our driving skill levels were fairly comparable. If I had been in a comparable police sedan to what he was driving, our times would have been close to even, but he was driving heavy American steel and I was driving an exotic car designed to corner.

I got to show off one year to an Egyptian anti-terrorist team being trained at the facility. I took their commanding general for a lap around the high speed circuit to show him what his people would be learning. At the end of the lap, we had to help him remove his grip from the dashboard and out of the car. At least it didn't turn into an international incident, having him die of a heart attack in the car! I really enjoyed training the Marshals Advanced Class as they got to learn the neat stuff like "J" turns, Bootleg turns (Dukes of Hazard stunts) and even how to ram another vehicle, disabling it, while still keeping their own driveable.

The Training Center made the best use of cars possible. The new cars ran the high speed courses. When they were worn out to the point they could no longer handle high speeds, they went to the Defensive Driving course. When they weren't really usable for that anymore, they went to the skid pan. After that they were used as ramming cars, then when no longer driveable, as the cars to be rammed. Their next assignment was when they were used as training for bomb specialists and blown up. Their final stop was when a scrap metal truck arrived and picked up the wreckage for recycling of the materials. I must admit that that was the most efficient use of resources I've ever see done by the U.S. Government. Two of us taught during the week and raced our own cars on the weekends. I raced on the S.C.C.A. Road Courses In Georgia, Florida and Alabama and the other instructor raced Sprint Cars on the Nascar tracks.

After active duty, I did a little bit of whatever I found interesting. I worked in the family sign business, but really wasn’t interested in sales. Making signs was fun, but I found walking the streets looking for new customers not my “cup of tea”. I tried my hand as an electronics tech in quality control of a start up company that failed in its start up. I was always interested in traveling, so learned how to drive 18 wheelers, bought my own and went to work in cross country trucking. That was during the days of the national 55 mph speed limit, so the number of miles you could drive were severely limited under law and thus so was the income. The expenses of owning a truck however remained constant and high. The definition of an 18 wheeler is “A hole in the pavement into which you pour money”.

I had taken the written tests and attended the hiring boards for Federal Law Enforcement before entering trucking. Two years later, the federal hiring freeze was lifted and I was invited to attend the U.S. Border Patrol Academy. I went and in the most mentally brutal training course I had ever seen, became a Border Patrol Agent. Anyone considering the job should be aware that it requires 100% concentration and many hours of study to keep up. In 17 weeks they present you with a two year college Spanish course, 2 year college Criminal and Immigration law courses and all law enforcement courses from pursuit, off road and defensive driving to firearms to physical training to self defense and so on ad nauseum. Get a day behind and you might as well quit and go home. More than one half did in my class alone. I then spent many years as an agent including spending several years on details as an instructor at the Border Patrol Academy. During that time I would spend six months chasing groups of illegals, drug smugglers and border bandits through the hills and river bottoms near my station in Southern California and six months teaching in coastal Georgia. The detail was fantastic. Our per diem housing allowance allowed us to rent beachfront condos in Georgia, where prices were nothing compared to Southern California and live quite well away from the stress and dangers of working on the border.

I finally left the “Patrol” because things were beginning to get too political and the permanent teaching assignment I wanted kept going to others, or being cancelled. My attempt for a transfer from the rat race in Southern California to a small, more personal station in New Mexico, which also would have included a promotion, fell through. I spent a year waiting for the orders and not applying for any other positions after I was congratulated by friends who saw my name on the transfer list. Unfortunately, the Sector Chief died and his replacement cancelled all of his predecessor’s approved transfers, without bothering to notify those awaiting their transfer orders. The new Chief was a political appointee, who only allowed his lackeys transfer, or promotion. Being quite anti-politician and anti-brown nosing, I never became a member of the lackey corps.

I remember that at my own station of assignment that the Deputy Patrol Agent In Charge at the station would call each agent into his office as they finished their year of probationary duty and ask them questions. One was what the new agent thought of the supervisors in the station. I answered honestly that some were good, but others shouldn't be supervisors. He took offense and showed me that he expected politicians rather than honest law enforcement personnel. He got a little red in the face when he asked me what qualified me to make any form of assessment about supervisory qualifications. He ended the meeting when I answered him that on the weekends, I commanded a U.S. Army Reserve unit with more personnel than were employed in the entire six station sector under which our station was only one. I also said that if some of the station supervisory personnel were in my unit, they would not be supervisors long.

He didn't speak to me unless required by duty after that and I enjoyed it when he had to publicly read a merit award I received while teaching at the "Academy". I enjoyed messing with him psychologically. He walked into the muster room one day before muster had started and heard a few of us discussing the recent postal worker who had gone on a killing rampage at his post office. I noticed him, but pretended to have not when I announced to my fellow agents that if I ever went over the edge, I'd start my rampage in the front offices and I owned and was very proficient with automatic weapons! I watched him reverse direction and duck back into his office. He didn't come out during the entire muster meeting. My fellow agents thought it was hilarious, but Border Patrol Agents have to be slightly strange to handle the unique requirements of their job.

After leaving the “Patrol”, I reentered the trucking industry and added more miles and years to my experience. I bought my own rig, obviously not learning from my first experiences in the industry and drove for way too many more years. It stopped being fun after about the second millionth mile, so the next two and a half million were increasingly more like work. The roads and drivers on them got constantly worse and the laws that were supposed to make the job safer became progressively more slanted towards making money for the states and favoring minor power groups than safety. Some states, with California as the primary culprit passed repeatedly more stupid laws. One required no idling of a truck’s engine. On a sub-freezing night, a driver, who must sleep in the truck while on the road had the choice of freezing to death, violating the law, or staying in a motel, which was money right out of the driver and his family’s pocket.

The sleeper on a truck is there to avoid the problem of finding a motel with truck and trailer parking and security for the equipment while the driver slept during often odd hours. Diesel fuel also can “gel” in cold weather. That means it will thicken to the point where it will not flow from the tanks to the engine. An idling truck draws more fuel from the tanks than is needed to operate the engine and returns the excess warm fuel back to the tanks to keep them warm. Once gelled, the fuel must be warmed enough to flow to the engine. This can only be done by waiting until temperatures get above freezing and stay there for days, or tow the truck into a heated garage. In the summer, the gelling problem doesn’t exist, but summer heat can make it impossible to sleep without air conditioning. A truck’s air conditioning, just like that of a car, operates only when the engine is running.

Think about it! Would you rather have a well rested driver in the 18 wheeler passing you, or one who hasn’t had any rest in several days? In some areas, such as the desert, temperatures inside a vehicle can reach 150 plus degrees, with no air conditioning. That is life threatening, but I have witnessed some highway patrolmen cruising through truck stop parking lots looking for idling trucks. When found, they will wake the driver and tell the driver to shut off the truck. They will ticket him and then give him or her the choice to either shut the truck off or leave. Would you believe that California posted a law that allowed the truck to idle if the driver had a pet on board, but not if the driver didn’t!

When trucks started adding external diesel generators like those used by RVs, California passed a law requiring them to be approved by the state. Only those few generator companies willing to pay the ridiculous “certification” fees were authorized, even though many companies marketed identical generators under different names. A gasoline, or diesel powered RV is allowed to idle the main engine, or run a generator without needing state “certification” all day and night under the California laws.

I gave up driving on a couple of occasions and began teaching at commercial truck driving schools. That was enjoyable, but grossly underpaid compared to what a driver earns behind the steering wheel. In 2000 I left teaching for a while and wrote my book about learning how to pass the commercial driver tests. I had seen the schools taking advantage of state and federal funding loop holes and intentionally not training the students to pass the test the first time. When I attempted to discuss the problem, school owners told me to either keep quiet or leave. I left!

Shortly after my book was published, I was offered a job, became the lead instructor and taught the classroom portion of the CDL course in a federally accredited school. I had the students in the classroom for 10 weeks before they got into a truck. The graduates from that school were trained truck drivers, not merely licensed steering wheel holders. They could be given the keys to a truck, told when and where to load and deliver and handle every aspect of the job in between safely, professionally and legally. Most schools sent half trained people to companies for them to finish training. Many of our students, who returned to show off their new trucks to the new students, told me they were more knowledgeable about the industry before they went "Over The Road" than their company "trainers". My students had an almost 100% first time pass rate at the Commercial DMV.

In 2004, I went to Iraq as a civilian contract truck driver. I wanted to support our troops. I was told I was too old to go over in uniform, so I went as a truck driver. Some of us really do
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! Upon my return, I went back over the road again for a while until my age and health started catching up with me. Trucking is a very stressful and strenuous occupation.

I now am semi-retired and can devote much more of my time to writing. I also do the odd job, teaching and troubleshooting computers, proof reading and editing and even a little technical writing as needed. I am always involved in learning something and most recently finished the courses from Apple to become an Apple Certified Technician.

My wife, (They say the 3rd time's the charm and it was for both of us, starting in the late 80's!) who has somehow put up with me for all of these years, and I live in our monolithic dome house. It is a work in progress that we had an architect custom design years ago. We chose the shape and construction technique because it is unique, (There is only one other dome in Vegas.) extremely strong, (We live in an earthquake area between 3 fault lines.) extremely energy efficient, (A single heat pump, of less than one fifth the size of a standard stick home’s requirements, cools it in our desert 120 plus temperatures and keeps it warm on the few freezing days we see per year.) almost completely sound proof (we are under the landing pattern for Nellis Air Force Base and you "ain't heard nothin" til you've been under B-1s as they take off with all of those engines on afterburner. Every vibraton sensing car alarm in the neighborhood goes off and the windows rattle in their frames, but we hear no more than a normal jet's take off volume.) and completely fireproof. (We lost our original house on this lot to a fire started in the roof by an interface of aluminum and copper wiring having a reaction that caused heat and finally fire.) The new house is aptly named "FenixDome", as it arose from the ashes of the old house. We used the Spanish spelling of Fenix so that people wouldn't think we lived in Phoenix, AZ.


We borrowed the logo from the Native American version of the Phoenix myth.



Our little parcel is an older “horse property”, which in the valley means we can have animals other than house pets. Most new construction "house lots" are California style. That means that if you trip in the side yard you land in a neighbor's yard, or if you put a pool in your back yard, you no longer have a back yard. We raise chickens, ducks and peacocks, as well as running a registered feral cat colony. In the house, live our domesticated dogs and cats, who have us well trained!

The kids are all grown and living in other parts of the country. Some have kids of their own and although I fought the concept, I have finally accepted that I am a grandfather.


The author.
To Quote a line from a Sam Elliot movie: " Those ain't wrinkles, they're war maps!"


Where I work and play.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I am quite electronics in general and computers specifically literate. Almost geeky I suppose, although most computer geeks aren't proficient in the use of firearms, or the martial arts.


Looking north at the dome.

Looking east at the dome.

Looking south at the dome.

Looking west at the dome.

Looking straight down. North is towards the top of the picture.
Our "lot" is about 1/2 acre and fills this last picture. The small "house" at the bottom is our storage building and work shop that we converted to a "guest house" and the trees cover the bird pens and even a small duck pond.
.

Satellite views of the house and lot taken from Google Earth. To get a perspective of scale, the dome is 50' in diameter.
Some of the pictures make things appear blocky, but the dome is very round. It is only Google Earth's computer enhancement that distorts some of the details.


Our house from the street. A work in progress that may someday actually be finished.
Some might notice my last tractor parked behind the pick up. A big, old, "large car" Western Star that I finally sold when I found that I could no longer pass the physical exams required for a commercial license.