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Old Snowmass author paints a grim picture

Christine Ina Casillas
Snowmass Sun
Aspen, CO Colorado
Mark Langford
ALL |

SNOWMASS – The premise of Old Snowmass resident Mark Langford’s book, “Persia Rising, Long War Series,” is simple: It’s a worst-case scenario on terrorism. It is also a warning.

“Persia Rising” charts the life of what could happen to the United States during the next major terrorist attack, outlining four scenarios with chilling results.

“Tombstones glisten with the names of those who heard but did not listen,” the book reads. For Langford, the book hits close to home because it touches on his fears and his memories of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks upon which the story is based.



Langford is a retired law enforcement agent who worked with the police departments in Grand Junction, Trinidad and Basalt for 17 years.

To Langford, he’s just “a simple man, a retired cop who had a fairly uneventful career,” who walked away from his life in law enforcement and discovered his hand at writing.




The novel touches on the fear he experienced on Sept. 11, and the realization of the vulnerabilities of the average citizen when it comes to terrorism, he said.

The book is a work of fiction but touches on pieces of Langford’s history as a policeman in Trinidad.

The story sparked shortly after he read the book “Columbine,” discovering the eerie relationship between the teen attackers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.

“There are two main characters in the book,” Langford said of “Persia Rising.” “One of them is based on Eric Harris, on how all it takes is one psychopath to make this [a terrorist attack] happen.”

Langford’s Eric Harris comes in the form of character Ajay Majumbar, a psychopath born to a moderate Muslim family living in rural Texas, who walks a terrible path toward murder and destruction as he facilitates the most horrendous terror attack to occur on American soil.

The American and NATO enemies in Iran, China and Russia conspire to eradicate Western powers by seizing Ajay’s hatred and sadistic ways. Langford asks questions such as: Can our nation survive? Will our culture survive? Will you survive? And what would your choice be if faced with an inevitable decision?

Mostly, Langford said, through this story – his story – he hopes to give whatever personal homage he can to those who faced the worst and fought to the end against all odds, yet still died because of it.

“The story was easy to write,” Langford said. “It was the copy editing that took a long time.

“It was 18 months of hell, according to my wife,” Langford said, laughing. “She had to copy edit the book for me.”

The book can be found on Langford’s website at http://www.persiarising.com or on amazon.com.

CCasillas@snowmasssun.com