CTP (S3EMaySpecial4) Inside The Jackson MacKenzie Chronicles With Author Angel Giacomo

CTP (S3EMaySpecial4) BooksAuthorsWeekMay2026 Inside The Jackson MacKenzie Chronicles With Author Angel Giacomo
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond   
We sit down with author Angel Giacomo to trace the real-life roots of her military fiction and how a trauma-shaped lead character turns into a full universe of connected standalones. Along the way we geek out on Theodore Roosevelt history, West Point details, book awards, and the strange way a simple joke can unlock a real lesson.
• Angel’s Oklahoma background and the online author connection 
• The Jackson MacKenzie Chronicles trilogy and the larger character web 
• Using POW and Vietnam-era inspiration to write trauma with respect 
• Golden Feather and the meaning behind the eagle feather tradition 
• Book awards, nominations, and what they signal in a massive market 
• The Shadowlands series and a Roosevelt descendant as main character 
• A neighbor’s ghost question that sparks a new story direction 
• Dual Convergence: Witness To History and blending memory with history 
• The Kettle Hill origin story and why names matter in research 
• Publishing skepticism, query letters, and being “too close” to a subject 
• Total books published and the unexpected family cookbook project 
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A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Transcript

Meeting Angel Giacomo And The Premise

Oklahoma Roots And Writing Influences

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hello, welcome to another episode of First Two Shorts Podcast. I am your host, Joseph L. Wonder. That's L-E-N-A-R-T and Francis Now that's wonderful about the go. Thank you for tuning in as Gram no used to stay on his show. Let's get on with the show. Welcome to Deja Vu Week. No, that's not what it is. But kinda sorta. Welcome to Bookslash Authors Week. May 2026. Just coming out of April 2026, bookslash authors week, and October Bookslash Authors Weeks of October 2025. So yes, you guessed it. It's all about cucumbers and tomatoes and deli shopping. Books. Let's get on a guest. Joining me today will be Angel Giacomo. I good thing I cleared it up before we started because I would have pronounced it Giacomo because G-I-A-C-O-M-O, but Giacomo, you said, is the pronunciation. And some full disclosure, she's a fellow author. She left a nice review for my terror strikes coming soon to a city near you book. And further full disclosure, I used part of that review as well as somebody else's in my how to write a book and get it published. You can check that out for the wise and the whereforce that I did that. But at anyway, uh I enjoy one of her series, left her uh good reviews in the I'm gonna screw up my own joke. It's joked, right? All right, yeah. What was I gonna oh I just I can either go with Jack Ass or Jack Off, the Jack Off McKenzie Chronicles. That would be the X-rated version, right? Jackoff McKenzie. It's the Jackson McKenzie Chronicles. Welcome to the show, Angel. All righty, thank you. Yeah, and for the record, for the benefit of the transcript, she's laughing. We gotta lighten up and we gotta just a joke, just some fun. But indeed, at any rate, uh we've never met IRL, but I I kind of feel like I know you since I've read some of your books and we've Instagrammed a bit together and whatnot. So we've come each well, always happens. I hit record and I can't talk. But we've come across each other online uh several times, and when I saw you pop up again the other day, I thought to myself, well, why haven't I had you on my show yet? I like your stuff. So before we get into the genesis of that series or anything like that, where were you born and raised? Where are you now? Significant places you've been between.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

I am a native Oklahoma. I was born in a small town in McAllister, Oklahoma, which is about 90 miles south of McAllister. In fact, there's a large Italian enclave down in McAllister. Uh so if you want good Italian restaurants, unpaid some good. Go to Krebs.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah. Is that Chico Barkin?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

No, that would be Charlie.

The Jackson McKenzie Origin Story

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Oh, that's Charlie. Okay. She's got a couple fur babies there. Chico was trying to get in the video shot before we started record. So uh yeah, the way my OCD brain works. Now I'm gonna have the stupid Oklahoma song. However, that goes from the play. There's Chico. For those viewing behind the scenes video, there's Chico. Anyway, so indeed, what was the genesis of the Jackson McKenzie Chronicles? And I feel I know a little because we've conversed a little back and forth after I started reading them and gave the reviews, and we come to know we're fellow authors, but for the benefit of the audience.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Hold on a second. Come on, over here.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

So now we got Chico and Charlie on the couch.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Chico and Cass, Charlie's in the cage, and and they're not gonna be quiet.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Oh, that's okay. That's all right. We'll be all right.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

I I wrote a character that had uh, you know, a lot of trauma, and I mean you know, he's a in the United States Army West Point graduate, and he was a POW at one time and and had a lot of trauma, and it that basically the trilogy that I wrote followed him through uh that and then through all the way through to when he finally gets married, and and he did he did a lot of covert operations and things like that for the government so and which added to his trauma. So it just it it was a it was a I based it on several people that I know. Um my um step uncle was a POW in in Vietnam. He was uh in the Air Force at the time, but he was a POW. I have uh and then I have a number of friends that served in Vietnam, including a neighbor across the street. So that's kind of where my inspiration came from.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

So you said trilogy. I thought there were more. Does he also appear in other books that maybe?

SPEAKER_00 6:30

What I did is I wrote a trilogy series, which is which is him, and then I went and took all the characters around him and wrote how they met him. How he came into contact with them through through through the series, is so I did standalone books about about each character as they came into play.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

That makes sense, and that's why I was thinking it was much larger than a trillion.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

It's a much larger series. That series is a much larger series. I've kind of finished that series um and started a new one. I don't know if you saw that one or not yet. Um, but yeah, those are all standalone books based on on separate characters.

Standalones Around The Core Trilogy

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Interesting. Uh kind of like yeah, kind of like my life and living series, uh the terror strikes book that you read. I I had been on a million interviews saying it's not about death and destruction, it's about life and living. And one day while I'm sitting on the couch, the light bulb goes on. Duh, let's do a life and living series. So, yeah, I've got the fifth one in that series going to come out in May of 2026 now. All indeed, like you're saying, the other books, different standalone books, different primary characters. Although I do name drop names from the other books, but you don't have to read them in order, you don't have to read them collectively. Any one alone tells its own story. So it sounds like you did the same there.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

So yeah, I did. In fact, the one of those standalone books, it was called uh the Jackson McKinsey Chronicles Golden Feather. I entered it into the uh uh that sounds like another X-rated one. No, it's based on the uh the Native American tradition of giving an eagle feather. Oh that's where the title came from. Comes from that makes perfect sense now. That's where the title comes from because the the character is called his name is Dakota Blackwater. He's Osage Indian, and and and and I live in an area where the the Osage Nation is, and uh that uh he joins the army. His father starts to give him a an eagle feather for his high school graduation. He wants him to join his little oil company, and and and Dakota says, No, I don't want to be, you know, uh, you know, uh work on an oil rig. I and so he goes off and joins the army and it's because his father takes the feather back. That's how the that's how the show the book opens. And then it follows him through his army career, and in the very end, when he meets Jackson in the very last chapter, he gets a box back from the he he Jackson hands him a box from his father, he gets Mrs. Mail call, and it's that feather.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

So well, the way my OCD brain works, I made the ex joke, so now I'm like now the tick has nothing to do with tickle videos. But my audience knows my brain just goes stupid places and I can't pass on the jokes.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

So, but it wound up as a semifinalist in the Historical Fiction Book Awards, Book of the Year Award. It was a semifinalist in December. That was a book. So I was fairly happy with it. I wish it would have got finalist or actually one book of the year, but being a semifinalist was good. You know, they gave it a five five rating and highly recommended and and all that good. So it did real good. So I was I was really happy with that.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah, some of your other books also were up for awards, too. Were they? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Go ahead and talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Um well they uh both uh In the Eye of the Storm, Peace of a Cost, and uh I think I read both those Duty, Honor and Courage all wound up in third getting third places in the Book Fest Awards.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Um they've all been awarded, you know, all several books have have received awards in different books and I know like actors and actresses always say, well, it's an honor to be used to be nominated. But I mean, the number of books that come out in a year, I mean, compared to the number of movies that show up in a theater in a year, so the pool of movies to be nominated from is a much smaller pond than the the lake or the ocean uh body of books. So indeed, it to just be nominated is truly a feat out of that large pool.

Awards And What They Really Mean

Building The Shadowlands Series

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yeah. I started a second series, and it's called the Shadowlands series. Different character set, completely different deal. Uh, you ought to take a look at it, um, where I use I make a um the great nephew of Theodore Roosevelt is the main character. Bully by T. Bully, yeah, bully. I have I have a quite a T I I I've learned quite a bit about TR. Um, but he's the great nephew and Army graduate uh West Point graduate. You should see a theme here with what I write about, but um but special forces and goes through all through his career until he wants and he goes into covert operations, I mean, and goes into Europe and goes spends a decade in Europe with his his two his two teammates and the and and where they're stopping nuclear you know fission materials from crossing borders, where they're stopping, you know, um hostage doing hostage rescue, doing all kinds of things.

A Ghost Question Sparks A New Book

SPEAKER_04 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

The book I just published in February and I sent it to the the fiction book company is uh a little different. It's not a military thriller. It uh and it came from an idea. The idea came from a neighbor. She asked me something that kind of tripped me, thought, why don't I go this route? And what it was is she asked me if anybody had ever died in that house because she had seen a ghost. And I I just I said no right off the bat. I didn't even think, and then later I come home and I remembered because I've been living in my house almost 30 years. And there was a couple there when I moved in, and he was a truck driver, and he died of cancer about 2006. And I didn't even remember it until later. So when she said that, I'm like, wait a minute. There really there really was somebody that died now. So I what I did was Teddy's now teaching at West Point. He is um uh got a son, he's married, um and his mother had just died, and he gets he finally is where his he's quiet enough to listen, and TR comes to him. His great uncle comes and starts talking to him, and he doesn't believe it at first. He's a big skeptic. He's a big skeptic. You know, he's because his thought was, I need to go C C the doctor, I'm having a brain tumor or something. My PSD is my PTSD from Vietnam is getting me. Eventually he gets convinced and it goes all the way through. It starts well, the way it starts out is in 2001, Clinton presented the Medal of Honor to um Roosevelt's family because he was nominated in at the Battle of San Juan Heights, or people know it as San Juan Hill, uh in 1898. Well, he it wasn't given out until 2001. So I changed the person that did it. I know exactly who actually received it. It was a grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, Tweed Roosevelt, but I had Teddy get it because he's got the Medal of Honor, so it's a symmetry kind of thing. So and then it goes through and it what this is is not is it's not a thriller, it's a father-son growing up book. And it's dual. It's Teddy and TR and Teddy and his own son. And it goes all the way through the book, and the last scene, the last chapter is Teddy donating his medal of honor to sit beside his his great uncle. So I gave that to the historical fiction book company. They wrote a four-page editorial review on it and gave it a four and a half out of five. So they were they were really they did a really nice review of it. So so it tells me it's it's actually probably pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Yeah, well, as you're saying, notice a theme here. So if the time comes, you need help and me to send in the Rangers and Delta Force to extract you, write it, write a romance novel. So when I hear wink, wink, nah, nah, Angel's got a romance novel. I'll know it's time to send in the extraction team. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Yes, yes, yes, because I like historic military mil that's what I write, military fiction. So even though I kind of dove off a little bit into the uh if you want to call paranormal or fantasy or whatever it is, the theme is still there because it's still the same character, Teddy, and it's based out of West Point where he's teaching at West Point. So the main the main emphasis of the it is there's three places in the book: West Point, Sagamore Hill, and the Birthplace Museum in New York City.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

There's still all that interconnectivity there, interconnectivity with the military, yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yes, with the military because he's an instructor, a military history instructor. So that it's still it's still there, and people still call him Colonel.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

So how many books total do you have out now? Do you know offhand? I know I'm I'm like I'm releasing in May a short story on Kindle ebook exclusive. Um, I know it's my fifth in my life and living series, and somebody asked me, and I'm like, uh it's either my 12th or my third 13th. I've kind of lost track. You have more than I do.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Uh 19, I think.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Nineteen?

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Nineteen.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

In that area, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

One's a cookbook. Actually, one's a cookbook. Oh, and they didn't send the military extraction team over that one.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

It's a family cookbook. What it was was we had a family reunion about 20 years ago, and they put out this little PDF book of family recipes. And it had the and it had the and it was copies of the actual written represent recipes of my Italian um you know great-grandparents and great-grandmothers and great-grandmothers. So what I did was I just took that, put some of my own recipes in it, and and put it all together in a cookbook. So, you know, Oklahoma meets Italy, you know, thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

I I like that. I mean, normally uh people think cookbooks are frivolous in a way, but uh, you know, I might have thought that 30, 40 years ago, but today I like, you know, preserving culture and the hand and how those recipes changed or not changed over the years and whatnot. So I I'd like to see all kinds of people releasing cookbooks. I I I like that, and it gives people a chance at variety. All right, let me try somebody else's recipe so I could change this up a bit. So this isn't this isn't recipes from the mess hall. No, no, no, no. They would have made the Italian grandmother recipes. It would have been more fun than all potato recipes from the mess hall. These are Italian grandmother recipes, these are not so for the benefit of the transcript. We're laughing, we're having fun. These are jokes, these are jokes. You know, uh most hosts don't think to do that, but I always try to remember that. You know, someone might look read it in a transcript, and you gotta describe things, right? We've lost that skill in a way. But you and I haven't, of course, because we're writing books. We understand we have to spell it all out to shape the scene and uh what's going on and the mood, whatnot. But someone who's been in radio their whole life and never written a book might not still grasp, although if they're from radio, they may TV personalities, let me say, right? Because TV, you're showing videos, you're on camera, people see you. But if they're reading something, if you've never written something, they may not think to know. Well, someone could be reading this in a transcript. Maybe I should give you the title of that book since I didn't do it. Sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

It's called Dual Convergence, a witness to history. Hang on just a second.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Okay, well, we can mostly see it, as usually happens when someone holds a book on screen. A lot of time there's glare, and we are getting some glare. We can mostly make it out. And again, for the 40-ish audio-only platforms of the transcript, eh, she showed her book. Yeah, that's why you should watch my show on the video. And of course, I'll cut out all the dead air parts. So that's something else you don't want either on video or audio dead air.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

It's called Witness to History because he does get some of TR. TR gives him the gift and the burden of some of his memories, so he sees San Juan Hill. Or actually, it's not San Juan Hill. People think San Juan Hill, it's Kettle Hill. Kettle Hill. Near there. Yeah. It was the Battle of San Juan Heights because it was a series of elevations. People think San Juan Hill. Uh uh. San Juan Heights is there's a series of elevations in the hill that the charge, the famous charge, was on Kettle Hill. And then they moved up to Settlement Hill.

Kettle Hill And A Name Explained

SPEAKER_01 21:14

So um again, my OCD brain and jokes. There's a pot calling the kettle black there somewhere. Joke. Well, would you like to know why it's called Kettle Hill? Okay, sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Did I stumble onto something? Stumbled onto something here. The primary export for Cuba was sugar. And they what they did was they took sugarcane, they took sugarcane juice, boiled it down in large cast iron kettles. At the top, and it kettle hill did not have a name when that happened. At the top of that hill was a cast iron kettle, and every time one of our rounds, the crag rounds, hit it, it rang like a bell. That is how Kettle Hill got its name. So, yes, you did hit upon something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

That's just the way this weird shit. You never know. An odd ball joke can lead to something uh educational. Educational. Have you got any other weird name stories of battles?

Publishing Pushback And Query Letter Trouble

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Not right now. I have a look at a follow-up book to that one. So and it's Teddy watches The Rough Riders. The movie The Rough Riders with Tom Barringer came out in 97. Okay. Let's just say it's not very historically accurate. So that's the book is based on that. Um so uh because that's the first chapter is Teddy watching the movie and critiquing the critiquing littly crack.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yeah, it's almost like a Bill and Ted's excellent adventure. Uh they bring Abraham Lincoln into the future, so Teddy, Teddy sees a movie about the past, and she gets to uh address the uh inconsistencies. Historical inaccuracies. There you go, that's the better term. That's interesting. So we've got a ghost in one, and we kind of got a time traveler in another, so he's watching the movie.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

The ghost is actually in the in the book. The ghost is in the manuscript, hanging around a little bit. Not as much as in the other one. But it's him that he decides to write a book about the battle. A real the real battle. And not any of the instructions that happen in his head. Like his name. I guess I have him in one chapter where he writes a query letter to tell the people to get a publisher. His name is Theodore Roosevelt IV. So and he sends in the query letter. Can you guess what happens to him? They close the door in his face thinking he's trying to play off the name, or he's like a uh a um unfortunate pin name or his unfortunate nom de guerre. So he has to do a little covert operations trade craft to get him to foot in the door.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Yeah. Almost a bit of stolen valor with the name potentially, yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

And he tells them exactly who he is. He writes it on there, he tells him he's a tenured military professor of military history at West Point, and they don't even make the phone call.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

I mean, it should be it should be easily verified and confirmable, but yeah, a lot of times they see the name and they go, so it shows a few of his misadventures, and then when he finally writes the book, he winds up with the historians telling he's too close to the subject, you know, and it can be true at times. Why is why is he why is he, you know, uh where do you get your information and and and and where he starts he gets pushed back? So that's that's the that's what the manuscript is that I'm working on right now.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

Alright. Have you got a candidate relief time frame for that one? Probably May. Probably May Probably May. So around the corner, then we may both be dropping books at the same time, then.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

And then I've got another manuscript working that goes back in time for him, back to his overall. Like it goes back to the fact that to the time where he I tell where he tells his class and that book where he walked kittle. He walked to the same one heights, he walked kittle hill. And this is actually where he actually does it on a mission. So is it I've got two manuscripts working. That one's called um roster.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Okay, the OCD brain again and the joke. But that's a whole different kettle of fish. I just can't resist. No matter how stupid the fun. Oh anyway, it was fun and time's flown by already pretty quick. I try to do shorter shows on today's Twitter, TikTok attention span, you know, yeah. And and the old adage, leave them wanting more. Reel them in a bit, and then if you got the foot the fish on the hook, then they'll go and and look for more. So thank you, Angel Guacamo.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

G-I-A-C-O-M-O. Right. Well, my like my mom, my mom, they used to slaughter that for my mother. It was geron, they would call her Geronimo.

Website Plug And Farewell

SPEAKER_01 28:12

You know, that came into my head too, and I didn't make the joke. I didn't I didn't have it makes perfect sense. You you do you have a website?

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Uh yeah, it's uh it's the Jackson McKenzie Chronicles. It's on GoDaddy.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Okay, Jackson McKenzie Chronic Mackenzie Chronicles.com let me send it to you.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Uh it would be uh, I might be able to get it out here. Okay, it's the Jackson McKenzie Chronicles. Jackson McKenzie Chronicles, all one dot go daddys.com.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Oh wow, that's a long name. GoDaddy Sides. Okay. That'll be a long one. All right, thanks for stopping by. It was a lot of fun having you.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

And give our love to the fur babies.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Okay, well, he's talking to you. Yeah, oh, I don't hear him. I don't hear him, but he's that one I heard.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

I heard I heard that, yep. Have a good one. Take care.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

All right, bye-bye.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

Sunrise pays the bear of screen the dawn of the day. Some ground miles away, we just open, we just pray. Better stand and not receive. I don't sleep, truly believe. Where the rest of the night alone, to let the real command everyway, we won't be boy, we all know.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

I can't lift your roofstep, but I can't lift your name.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

I can't walk your footsteps, but I can't believe I'll tell you in scholars, I'll tell you what come on. You are not forgotten.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

We wear red every Friday for you. It keeps us strong. We remember everyone. Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned in to another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the constitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.