Warning. Spoiler Alert. Please Do Not Read The Following Unless You Have Already Read State of the union
Stephen King once said that a writer is someone who has trained his or her mind to misbehave. In my case, that statement couldn’t be truer. People always ask me where my ideas come from and I give them the Stephen King line and then explain that I have an obsessive habit of looking at things and saying, “What if?” What if this happened, or what if that? I do it a lot with stories I see in the news. I war-game certain scenarios to see what kind of alternative outcomes I can come up with and that’s how my idea for State of the Union was born.
I’ve always been fascinated by how the Cold War seemingly ended overnight and one day said, “What if it didn’t really end? What if the Russians just rolled over, just rolled over, played dead, and let us think we won? What if they were biding their time until they were ready to reemerge stronger than the U.S. and take over as the world’s only superpower?” It was an interesting concept that I then worked on fleshing out. How would they knock the U.S. off the world stage? What could possibly force the hand of the United States’ Government in such a way? And so on.
The title had been sitting in a folder in my office for a few years. I knew I wanted the timeline in the novel to be tied to the president’s State of the Union address and the fact that the title could also play on the “state” of the Soviet Union was a nice added bonus.
Researching this novel was a lot of fun, as I have many friends who were active special operations and intelligence operatives at the end of the Cold War. Their input allowed me to include real-life scenarios and locations like snipping barbed wire from atop the Berlin Wall, the King George brothel, ops in the Baltic, and tit-for-tat jockeying with Russian intelligence and Special Forces units.
The time I spent in Washington, D.C. and Berlin researching this novel was especially enjoyable and I was allowed to see many things which unfortunately I was prohibited from putting in the book – though I did manage to squeeze a couple of them in by changing them just enough to put certain people at ease.
Bringing back Rick Morrell and Company, as well as Herman Toffle was a lot of fun, especially as Morrell and Toffle are loosely based on friends of mine in D.C. and Europe.
A lot of women read thrillers and I have been pleased to receive so many emails complimenting me on my female characters. Just like with my books, I have been asked which one is my favorite, and it’s like being asked which one of my children I like the best. My female characters have included Claudia Mueller from Lions, Meg Cassidy and Adara Nidal from Path, and now Alexandra Ivanova in State. Each one is actually a great pleasure to write because they are new and I can imbue them with different motivations and backgrounds. Essentially, I get to start from scratch with them, something readers (and my publisher) would have my head for if I did with more established characters like Scot Harvath.
Like many of my characters, each of my female characters is loosely based upon someone I know – often my wife, Trish, with bits and pieces of other people I respect thrown in. I try to make them human and integral to the plot. They are not there as window dressing for Harvath to ooh and ah and tell him how brilliant he is. In fact, I develop my plots so that Harvath wouldn’t be successful without their help.
The ending of State was originally very different. Because of all the complaining I had been hearing from two friends whom I had based characters on in Lions and Path, I was going to have Secret Service agents Longo and Hollenbeck save the day at a hotel across from the White House. My editor had other thoughts and I think the ending we crafted for State is much better for it. (My apologies to my aforementioned friends).
With each book I write, I strive to stretch myself as a writer. Sometimes Trish and my editor have to stretch me back down, but nevertheless my goal is to make each book better than the last. While readers will undoubtedly have their favorites, my hope is that they enjoy each ride and look forward with great anticipation to the next.
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