ABOUT JERRY VANCOOK, AUTHORWriter and training expert Jerry VanCook is a 40+-year martial artist and has studied Aikido, Thai Boxing, Kung Fu, Kali, and Spanish Knife Fighting. He holds a black belt instructor rank in Okinawan Karate and a 7th Degree Black Belt in Bei-Koku Aibujutsu. He is a Certified Bowie Knife Instructor, a Blademaster in Knife Defense, and an NRA certified firearms instructor. VanCook is best known in law enforcement circles for his extended deployments as an undercover officer for the Garfield County Oklahoma Sheriff's Department, the Multi-County Intelligence Unit, and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. The lessons learned from these assignments became the basis of his book Going Undercover, which has been regarded as the definitive work on the subject. VanCook has also been featured on the Law Enforcement Training Network, and The Learning Channel's World's Most Dangerous Undercover Stings for his expertise in this area. Undercover experience also provided him with a "real world" forum in which to test the martial arts techniques he had learned, and to separate pragmatic Close Quarters Combat from tactics more suited to art. This resulted in his second non-fiction book, Real World Self-Defense (Paladin Press).Jerry's broad background also includes graduation from the Peruvian Air Force Jungle Operations and Survival School. He is the past writer of the "Street Smarts" self-defense column for Tactical Knives Magazine, has contributed to many other combat-related publications, and has written over 70 action-adventure novels in the Mack Bolan/Executioner, Super Bolan, and Stony Man Farm series under the name Don Pendleton.VanCook also has the unique distinction of being involved in a firefight with a career criminal that was carried live on Oklahoma television. He is currently an adjunct instructor and teaches novel writing at the University of Central Oklahoma.