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Gayle Lynds
BIO
A former "think tank" editor with Top Secret clearance, Gayle Lynds is the New York Times best-selling author of THE COIL, MASQUERADE, MOSAIC, and MESMERIZED. She is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Operatives and the Military Writers Society of America as well as co-founder and co-president (with David Morrell) of International Thriller Writers, Inc. Lynds also co-created the best-selling Covert-One series with Robert Ludlum and wrote three of the novels – THE HADES FACTOR, THE PARIS OPTION, and THE ALTMAN CODE. She lives in California, where her husband, renowned detective novelist Dennis Lynds, died recently, in August 2005.
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INTERVIEW
 June 2, 2006
Along with co-creating the hugely successful Covert-One series with Robert Ludlum, Gayle Lynds has penned such bestselling international thrillers as THE COIL, MASQUERADE, MOSAIC and MESMERIZED. In this interview with Bookreporter.com's Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight Team (Carol Fitzgerald, Joe Hartlaub and Wiley Saichek), Lynds shows off her "Spy-Q" knowledge and shares what makes Jay Tice --- the protagonist of her latest novel, THE LAST SPYMASTER --- tick. She also explains how she manages to keep her novels genuine and authentic through description and dialogue, and sheds light on the difficult process of writing during personal tragedy.
Bookreporter.com: Jay Tice, the primary protagonist in THE LAST SPYMASTER, is one of the more interesting and complex characters that we've encountered in an espionage thriller. He begins the book as a very enigmatic character --- at once a skilled spy and an obvious traitor --- but as the book progresses we learn that there is far more to him, and his actions, than were at first apparent. Did you model Tice, and his situation, after anyone? How did he evolve as you wrote?
Gayle Lynds: I'm glad you enjoyed Jay. I knew him emotionally from the beginning --- a man of a thousand faces, a thousand wiles --- but it took me many drafts to refine him. I've run into a couple of spies like Jay over the years.
They have tremendous power and charisma, while at the same time they are able to quickly veil those qualities and many others, including the configuration of their features, which might make them noticeable at the wrong time. Most of us have been wallflowers at some point in our lives; the best spies turn that into an art form.
One of my objectives in THE LAST SPYMASTER was to lift the veil and give readers an intimate experience of what this man --- extraordinary in many ways but also deeply flawed --- was like, and what happens to such a person as he seeks redemption and succeeds.
BRC: CIA agent Elaine Cunningham almost steals the book from Tice. Who was your inspiration for her? Have you thought of writing a series around Cunningham?
GL: I was crazy about Elaine, too, and I'd love for her to have her own novel someday. There's something about being very competent --- but at the same time modest yet gutsy --- that has always appealed to me, and those traits seem to be at the heart of Elaine.
BRC: One of our favorite parts of THE LAST SPYMASTER was that of the high-tech products, which were the subject of terrorist purchases. Do these products --- such as the StarDust computers, LandFlyers, and Mirror-Me fabric --- actually exist, as working models or otherwise?
GL: I had a lot of fun with them too. Science is advancing with astonishing speed, and I explored what we know, what we expect, and what's hidden. All of the technology in THE LAST SPYMASTER is either in use or will be, perhaps far sooner than we expect or are told.
For instance, in the book, the StarDust computers are not much larger than grains of sand. Fueled by tiny solar batteries, they can be programmed to record two or three simple jobs like monitoring motion and temperature. Then you scatter them like flower seeds across farms and cities or toss them onto trucks or planes that ship material and people. They network and can send detailed data about scientists in clandestine weapons labs or squads of terrorist guerrillas back to control centers where high-octane computers can collate the information for secret use. They will be a powerful source of intelligence.
One of my favorites is the LandFlyer, which looks like a dune buggy topped by a 50-caliber gun. LandFlyers can blast across a desert at 65 miles an hour, hump over chongo rocks at 30 without going ass over teakettle, and do hairpin turns so sharp they'd topple any other all-terrain vehicle. They're military light-strike vehicles that can even keep running on three wheels if the fourth gets shot off. Several have been invented that are similar to mine.
Some readers tell me the Mirror-Me fabric reminds them of the magical cloak that made wearers invisible in the Harry Potter series. The fabric has already been designed. It makes whatever it covers seem transparent by displaying what's behind, in front. Nanometric video cameras record the images behind and, in real time, send the images to nanometric projectors that display them on the front of the cloth. The Pentagon sees a lot of possibility in this invention, of course, particularly for urban warfare.
Readers interested in this topic can drop by my website at www.GayleLynds.com, where they can dip into a section called The World of Espionage. There, visitors can even test their Spy-Q.
BRC: Your writing is laced with authoritative phrasing that gives it authenticity. One of our favorite phrases was calling the younger breed of terrorists "diaper commandos." What can you share with us about the research that you did to get the "talk" as well as the "walk" right? Do you share your manuscripts with your sources so they can vet the factual parts?
GL: Years ago, I worked in a military think tank where I had Top Secret security clearance, and shadowy figures drifted through all of the time. That began my exposure to this "speak," and today I have several friends who are part of the clandestine world who keep me up on the latest verbiage. I have no talent for foreign languages; although I sure wish I did, but I seem to have picked up spook speak with suspicious ease.
I also have a background as a newspaper reporter, which means factual errors give me a nasty rash. Therefore, none of my books go to my publisher without being thoroughly vetted first.
BRC: Another element of THE LAST SPYMASTER that we thoroughly enjoyed was the multiple settings. We often felt as if we were peeking over the shoulder of the narrator, watching the action. Did you visit each of the places in which THE LAST SPYMASTER takes place, or how did you research the writing?
GL: Some I've visited, like England and France; others not. I have an extensive research library that's grown to terrifying proportions over the past 20 years. As in life, though, simple is often best. Two of my most reliable sources are National Geographic and AAA.
I also do a lot of research on the Internet and am heartless about interviewing friends who've just returned from distant climes. Plus I have three secret informers --- my daughter, Julia Stone, who lives in New York, and my son and daughter-in-law, Paul Stone and Katrina Baum, who live in Washington, D.C. I'm afraid I impose on them frequently to answer questions and photograph sites.
BRC: THE LAST SPYMASTER contains a number of twists, turns and surprises, from the beginning until the last page. Did you have a good idea as to where the book would be going before you sat down to write it? Did the finished novel turn out to be the story you thought it would be at the beginning, or were you surprised?
GL: I always knew where I was going, but the final twists ended up differently from what I'd originally envisioned. When writing a novel, I sometimes find I have to move plot points forward or backward because of logic or drama. One of the major revelations I had planned for the ending needed to be moved earlier. My editor came up with a beautiful twist for the ending as he was reading one of the drafts, and that took the place of the one I'd had to move.
Jay Tice, the last spymaster, changed too because of my editor's ideas. Originally the reader had been in Tice's head --- close-third viewpoint, but my editor suggested I make the viewpoint more distant so the reader could grow with Tice, discover him almost as he discovered himself. That made the story far more dramatic.
I worry about people who are so married to their ideas that they have no flexibility, can't see any other vision. I will crawl over glass for a good idea. I am eternally grateful to those who lend me their fertile imaginations.
BRC: What has been the most challenging aspect of writing an international spy thriller in a post-9/11 world?
GL: Actually, for me, it's easier. The malaise of the post-Cold War, pre-9/11 years is over. Americans hunger to understand this new, dangerous world to which we can no longer close our eyes. Certainly we can't escape it. Topics, ideas and characters permeate the dynamic. It's a petri dish, a hothouse --- a novelist's dream come true --- and it's also very important for us to understand.
In our country, people have always turned to books for information, and the lens of political fiction has been a long-favored source of our self-education.
At this point, my one rule has been not to deal directly with terrorism. So many fine authors are jumping onto the subject that it's covered beautifully. Instead, I look for what's not being said, for the nuances that are fascinating and, if done right, entertaining while educating, which is why THE LAST SPYMASTER deals with the dark underbelly of the nearly untouchable weapons trade.
BRC: What, for you, was the most difficult part of writing THE LAST SPYMASTER?
GL: The hardest part was working while my husband Dennis Lynds's health was failing. Oddly, I had no idea my concentration was compromised. I did know it was a struggle to focus, but I kept thinking it was a temporary lull and my brain would snap online again soon.
I'd always been a relatively fast gestator of ideas, fast thinker, and fast writer. I'd turn in a final draft that I'd reworked extensively, my editor would polish and make suggestions, I'd burnish the manuscript once more, and it was finished.
But when Dennis started to go downhill, the writing that had come relatively easily to me became like slogging through quicksand. With THE LAST SPYMASTER and THE COIL before it, my editor had to read and work on several drafts. Plus, I was late in delivering them. I think they're my finest books. During this time I grew as a writer, with a terrific editor shepherding me and advising me.
For me, it was a humbling experience, one that I treasure because I learned a great deal about myself, plus I was able to be with my husband to the end. After a valiant fight, he died last August.
I finished the final 50 pages of THE LAST SPYMASTER a month later. It was good therapy, and I needed it.
BRC: What was the major influence that led you to begin writing thriller novels? Do you read novels in any other genres? Are there any authors who have influenced your writing, if not your choice of genres?
GL: I was one of those dreadful children who read widely and indiscriminately and obsessively anything that had words on it --- from soup cans and toilet rolls to GONE WITH THE WIND and WAR AND PEACE. I had no idea a kid from Council Bluffs, Iowa, could grow up to be a novelist. It was my dream --- and very secret.
While I was in denial, I got married, had children, earned a degree in journalism, and became addicted to politics --- first local, then national, and finally international. For personal reading, I dove into Helen MacInnes, Robert Ludlum, John le Carre, and Mary Stewart. But I was also reading a great deal of nonfiction as well as novels by Gail Godwin, John Gardner and Tim O'Brien.
Ultimately, my interests finally coalesced. It became obvious even to bonehead me that what I hungered to do was explore global politics --- ever-changing but ultimately timeless and critical to our daily lives --- without boring people. I wanted to entertain so readers could learn while having a lot of fun along the way.
There was only one form for that in my humble opinion --- international thrillers. They look like an elephant, must run like a gazelle, and when done well, are impossible to put down. I like that combination.
BRC: What is your writing schedule like? How long does it take you, all other things being equal, to write a novel, from concept to completion? Do you have a "bank," if you will, of novel ideas that you draw upon?
GL: I'm going back to writing a book a year. I've missed being able to do that. I pretty much work all the time. Life interrupts work. When I'm not actually writing, I'm cogitating, turning over ideas, struggling with plot, immersing myself in my characters. My personal opinion is that the foundation of good writing is good thinking. Often it's the hardest part, too.
I love your question about concept. I usually conceptualize several years ahead before I actually sit down to write the book. I looked back in my notes, and my first ideas for THE LAST SPYMASTER occurred in 2000 --- that's when I had the title, too. I know basically what my next three books are as well. I start open boxes for each new book, and toss in notes and clippings. It's fun to think ahead. For me, those future books are glittering carrots dangling in front of me, my reward for finishing one book so I can immerse myself in the next.
BRC: You are the Queen of the International Spy Thriller with a solid battery of work in this genre behind you in what's become a "guy's game." Why do you think there are not more women writing international spy thrillers?
GL: Thank you for that wonderful compliment.
As for why more women aren't in the field…I'm the one who didn't know I wasn't supposed to. I just jumped in feet first, because the stories I wanted to tell compelled me to. I should've known it was going to be tough when the president of a publishing house wanted to buy my first thriller, MASQUERADE, back in 1995, but then decided against it because "no woman could've written this book." The president was a woman!
But the next person my agent went to was Steve Rubin (a man, I emphasize), the president of Doubleday, who bought it without a single query. His faith was rewarded: MASQUERADE ended up being a New York Times extended list bestseller in paperback. As you can imagine, that made me smile a lot.
Still, it hasn't been easy. After Steve, other publishers had a hard time believing my books should just be treated like everyone else's --- the covers should look like spy thriller covers, the books should be sent to thriller reviewers, and so forth. Instead, I was positioned as a slightly romance, slightly James Bondian author --- which obviously I was not. I have a lot of respect for both fields, but putting my books in them was a disservice to them and to me. The result was that during that period buyers found they weren't getting what they expected, and my natural audience wasn't easily attracted.
However, that's completely reversed now, and I seem to have many readers who claim to love my books. I can't believe how devoted they are. They say they've "found" me.
My experience is that both men and women buy thrillers in vast quantities, and generally they don't care whether the author is a man or a woman. A good book is a good book is a good book --- and that's what they're looking for.
Still, our industry is uncertain. I'd hoped that whatever success I'm having would make it easier for women to find homes for their novels. When I look around, I see more and more being published, as well as more men, and I cheer all. Soon there will be a tipping point, and everyone will look around surprised at how many women there are, and how good they are. Prejudice is just silly and such a waste.
BRC: You are the co-founder of International Thriller Writers organization. How and why did you decide to help develop this organization?
GL: David Morrell and I are co-founders and co-presidents. Neither of us ever intended to do anything more than assemble a meeting of thriller writers who had been telling both of us for years that they wanted their own organization. Then we were going to bow out gracefully. Ah, the best-laid plans....
Somehow we ended up being voted in charge, and it has been a great deal of work but so much fun and so very rewarding that neither of us regrets it. ITW is a terrific organization, moving and growing very fast. We have our first conference, Thriller Fest (ThrillerFest.com), coming up later this month, and our first anthology of short stories written by more than 30 thriller writers, appropriately called THRILLER, comes out this month as well. Sometimes it seems as if we have a tiger by the tail, but I wouldn't have missed this for anything.
BRC: What are you working on now and when can readers expect to see it?
GL: The book I am working on now comes from the premise that all governments lie. All spies lie. It's imperative they keep critical secrets. But there's a line between necessity and hubris, between security and self-importance. I'm fascinated about exploring that lightning-bolt area. Readers can expect it in 2007.
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AUTHOR TALK
 April 2004
In this interview Gayle Lynds talks about THE COIL, the sequel to her bestselling thriller MASQUERADE. A former magazine editor and newspaper reporter, Lynds had a first-hand taste of the world about which she writes when she was an editor at a private-industry think tank where she held top-secret security clearance. She worked on defense projects that ranged from new hardware designs for weapons of mass destruction to test trial results of cutting-edge military software and new methodologies in counterterrorism. Scientists, engineers and operatives passed quietly through the doors.
Q: The Chicago Sun-Times calls THE COIL "spellbinding," which is what a great thriller is supposed to be. One of the most unusual aspects of it is that it's also the story of a family of spies and assassins. In some ways, I'm reminded of the enormously popular TV series, The Sopranos. Are you doing for espionage what The Sopranos did for the Mafia?
GL: I hadn't looked at it that way, but I like the description. I have an affliction: I'm easily bored. So I counteract it by looking for what's unsaid or hidden or simply missed. In this case, I'd noticed that for years --- from Eric Ambler to Frederick Forsyth today --- authors were portraying their spies as lone wolves, idiosyncratic men (and a few women) who were mavericks and independent thinkers. That's generally true in real life, too.
The problem was that they were also routinely giving their main characters histories of divorce, murdered spouse(s) and/or endlessly failing love affairs.
Most people don't realize there are families of spies, just as there are families of teachers and lawyers and plumbers. For instance, it'd be difficult to find many people in the United States who haven't heard of the notorious traitor Aldrich ("Rick") Ames. What few realize is that both he and his father were CIA case officers.
When Ames's treachery was unmasked, I'd already written MASQUERADE, which features the notorious Cold War assassin known only as the Carnivore, his daughter, who's CIA and the widow of a CIA man, and his niece, who soon will be involved with the CIA, too. Eventually she also marries a CIA man. That book went on to be a New York Times bestseller and People magazine "Page-Turner of the Week."
In its sequel, THE COIL, the saga continues, this time bringing in the English branch, which includes the Carnivore's nephew, MI6 operative Simon Childs.
Every family has secrets. Imagine the secrets and stresses and unspoken guilt that infuse families of spies and assassins. Plus, of course, there are the very real responsibilities that intelligence officers carry. These are not small responsibilities. Operatives work in a world where the individual is always less important than the greater good. That's fertile ground for a novelist. THE COIL takes the family to the next level, just as it seems as if they've slipped back into being stable, even somewhat normal.
Q: At the end of MASQUERADE, your heroine, Liz Sansborough, wanted to return to her work in the CIA, but Langley wouldn't take her back because they had discovered her father was the Carnivore and believed the relationship made her high risk, even unreliable. So when THE COIL opens, it's several years later and she's a university professor who's done a complete reversal: Her specialty is the psychology of violence. I can remember reading no other action-adventure novel recently where the leading character wouldn't carry a gun. Why did you make that choice?
GL: From my viewpoint, a novelist's first job is to entertain and, even better, to enthrall. But that doesn't happen in a vacuum. There must be substance. And of course substance can come from many arenas. For instance, I'm captivated by politics, culture, history --- and psychology. In today's world, the subject of violence seemed important to investigate. For instance, what exactly IS violence? And what does it mean? Do you --- does anyone --- know?
Some people think suspense thrillers are supposed to be thoughtlessly brutal, doused in blood. From my viewpoint, "supposed to be" is not terribly interesting. So as THE COIL opens, Liz has reexamined her life. After all, she's a scholar in violence now. At the same time, she was raised by assassins, became a field operative who carried a gun and killed, her husband was liquidated by the Islamic jihad, and her mother died in an "accidental" explosion. What a heavy-duty history.
Considering the circumstances, her turning against deadly violence made a lot of sense. As she explains, "The problem is, violence isn't some kind of impartial raw material like butter or steel. It's not ethically and politically neutral. Just because someone thinks a cause is worthy, that doesn't mean the violence that's 'necessary' for the cause is worthy."
When Liz's cousin is kidnapped in Chapter One, and the ransom demanded is the Carnivore's files, Liz must make tough choices. At first she uses her wits and karate to defend herself and others. Then the stakes soar. How she handles her moral questions and whether her insights about violence remain unchanged seemed to me to be timely and, well, fascinating --- the sort of thriller that makes my pulse race.
Q: The Coil is a secret group of international moguls with staggering power. According to your Author's Note, they're based on a real one. Tell us how that happened.
GL: About nine years ago during other research, I stumbled upon one of those paragraphs that are the lifeblood of a novelist. It mentioned a yearly meeting of powerful world leaders that called itself the Bilderberg Group. I was instantly intrigued. Unlike the World Economic Forum, with its hundreds of government and business VIPs who usually gather in Davos, Switzerland, and Allen & Co., which is legendary for its smaller but even more elite summits in Sun Valley, Idaho, I had never heard of the Bilderbergers.
For good reason. As it turned out, the organization not only shuns publicity, it requires attendees to keep their invitations secret and to divulge nothing about the weekend itself. I spent months confirming the Bilderbergers even existed, although it had been founded decades before, in the early 1950s, and half its membership includes famous Americans like Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, James D. Wolfensohn (the World Bank) and Donald Graham (The Washington Post).
Today, the Bilderbergers are quietly but publicly acknowledged in Europe and Canada, but not here in the United States, not yet, which of course intrigues me even more. By the way, they named themselves for the venue in the Netherlands where they first met --- the Bilderberg Hotel.
We novelists tend to base our tales on actual events, and then we turn to our imaginations. I theorized that since such an exclusive congregation existed, it was logical at least one small cabal based upon mutual interests had formed within. So I took bits and pieces of what I knew about the real Bilderbergers and created a similar group I called the Nautilus (named for a fictitious hotel on the north coast of France where I imagined they first met in the early 1950s). Then I called the cabal the Coil, for the hidden spiral within a Nautilus shell.
Q: Then are the Bilderbergers what led you to write about globalization in THE COIL?
GL: Yes. In real life, the Bilderbergers initiated the European Common Market, which of course grew into the enormously powerful and, at least in my opinion, useful European Union. Unlike Adolf Hitler and Kaiser Wilhelm II, the EU is successfully uniting Europe without devastating war.
The Bilderbergers are also credited (or discredited) with fueling the formation of NAFTA. I suspect we'll eventually see a similar trade association in Asia, because the Bilderbergers want it. But it's not going to happen for quite a few years; the economic problems associated with NAFTA --- particularly the loss of jobs to other countries because of globalization --- will slow the formation of other large trade associations.
In any case, globalization is now a hot topic, and it should be, because it's impacting all of us. However, when I first began writing THE COIL, I'd mention it and people would say, "How do you spell that?" It's amazing how quickly events have caught up with THE COIL.
Q: What's next for you? More spy stories? What about terrorism? That seems to be the focus of the clandestine services these days.
GL: I like what Robert Gates, former DCI, once said: "When a spy smells flowers, he looks around for a coffin." Secrets of all sorts --- from the offices of heads of state to the safe houses of the clandestine services, from Afghani caves to the hot and dusty training camps of the next generation of fedayeen --- are my literary meat. Right now, the flowers are being carried mostly by terrorists of all sorts, and the stink is pervasive.
In THE PARIS OPTION, I wrote about the ETA (Basque nationalist movement) being secretly backed by a branch of al-Qaeda. The recent bombing attacks on trains in Madrid, in which hundreds were killed and injured, may be a tragic affirmation of that link, since the bombings appear to be the work of al-Qaeda, perhaps via the Basques.
The threat is escalating of terrorist groups finding common ground not only because of their various shared money-washing fronts and banks, but because their youngest members are training together right now in such diverse places as Pakistan and Algeria and Idaho. These brainwashed youths are the next generation of terrorist leaders. On a very small scale, if Chechnya separatists sweat with al-Qaeda commandos learning hand-to-hand combat in the Philippines, and November 17 trains with the Shining Path in Iran, they have laid foundations for future cooperation that could have devastating consequences.
By the way, that sort of cooperation is addressed also in THE COIL. So, yes, my next novel deals with a specialized aspect of terrorism, and that's all I'm going to say about it. As J. Edgar Hoover once explained, "There's something about a secret that's addicting." This one, I'm keeping.
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INTERVIEW July 13, 2001
Move over gentlemen, there's a lady joining the head table of master espionage writers. Gayle Lynds had already established herself as an author-to-watch in what has traditionally been a male-dominated genre. Her novels, MASQUERADE and MOSAIC, along with her collaboration on THE HADES FACTOR with Robert Ludlum won critical acclaim with fans and peers alike. Now, the publication of her newest thriller, MESMERIZED, leaves little doubt that she will be seated at that table for a long time to come. In an interview with Bookreporter.com's Ann Bruns, Gayle reveals some fascinating background about the influx of Russian KGB in the US, the scary state of our counterintelligence agencies, and some insight into a little known medical phenomena called cellular memory.
TBR: In researching for your latest thriller, MESMERIZED, you obviously tapped into numerous resources within the intelligence community. Can you give us any statistics on how many known ex-KGB agents are living in the United States today?
GL: Alas, I've never been able to find out the specific number of KGB, GRU, Stasi, and other spies from the Eastern Bloc we took in. I've been told, however, that outside Moscow, the largest group of retired KGB lives in the Washington, D.C. area, a piece of information that riveted me and propelled me into writing MESMERIZED.
As the Soviet Union was crumbling --- particularly from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 --- the trickle of spies defecting to the West turned into a flood, and their preferred destination was the United States. As a side note, it cost us about $1 million to debrief each defector. In the end, we took in so many, were starting to receive so much repetitive information, and the cost to debrief and resettle was piling so high that Milton A. Bearden, chief of the CIA's Soviet Division at the time, sent word to CIA stations around the world that the Company had little interest in recruiting more KGB. The unimaginable had happened. One of our top priorities --- turning Communist agents --- had become our last. There was a certain amount of grinding of teeth within Langley about that. Some thought we missed out on discovering some important details by turning back would-be defectors.
TBR: Is there any expressed concern that they might, in fact, be secretly manipulating funds, etc., to reestablish the former USSR as they were in your novel?
GL: To put it simply, the amount of wealth --- cash, diamonds, artwork --- that's left the country is larger than most nation's budgets. And it was sent out by both Soviet and Russian officials and oligarchs. It's one reason Russia remains poor and weak today, a staggering giant.
Being practical, I doubt the Soviet Union can be resurrected. From an ideological viewpoint ... my, my that's an interesting question. People will do all sorts of thing for love that they wouldn't bother with for money. So I'd be nervous, considering how well funded some Russian ex patriots are today.
TBR: In a recent interview, you indicated that your fictional mole was based on actual rumors that eventually culminated in the arrest of the real life FBI mole, Robert Phillip Hanssen. And you also stated that your whole premise of the KGB defector revealing the identity of a low-level mole to protect a more deeply infiltrated mole is not purely your writer's imagination at work either. Do you have the sense that we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg in the FBI's investigation of counterintelligence corruption?
GL: Because of the demanding nature of their work, intelligence agents have a tight esprit de corps. Their sense of comradeship, of being all in this together, of knowing one has to trust one's fellows are important traits to being successful in intelligence. But those same characteristics also provide cover, making it easier for a traitor to be almost invisible.
Yes, I think we're going to see more revelations. Much will depend on how enthusiastic the Bush administration is in pursuing Americans who spy against their own.
TBR: I had to laugh when Jeff Hammond finally ridiculed those who believed the Cold War was truly over --- the same sarcastic thought crossed my mind very early in the book. Despite the fact that the "Cold War" is usually defined as a fairly specific political period when both the US and the USSR were deeply involved in the spy game, wouldn't it be naive to think it will ever become nonexistent?
GL: Thank you for noticing. Oh, if it were only true that the Cold War were over. Remember our high hopes when we celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall? Of course, reality set in with the unmasking of Aldrich Ames in the mid 1990s and then Robert Philip Hanssen this past spring. Both men continued to spy for Russia long after the old KGB had been broken into bits and reassembled into new abbreviations.
But then, to be realistic, nations have always spied not only on enemies but on friends, the theory being that one never knows when one's friend will become one's enemy. That attitude hasn't changed, and as long as any nation uses an enemy to help justify its existence, we will have war, hot or cold. Plus, there's the very real addiction to Big Toys That Kill. Alas, we don't yet seem able to evolve past all that. But I have hope we'll grow up someday.
TBR: Although Beth Convey is initially the heroine of MESMERIZED, Jeff Hammond, the Washington Post reporter and ex-FBI agent, quickly becomes equally important in the scheme of things. Did your story just evolve in that direction or do you prefer a balance of both male and female protagonists to provide a broader canvas to draw upon?
GL: No one's ever asked me that. In fact, I'm not sure I was consciously doing it. But now you've made me realize that I did the same balancing act in MOSAIC and MASQUERADE, too. I love what Flannery O'Connor once said, something like: "I don't always know what I think until I write it."
I like to tell big, sweeping stories, and to do that I need characters who can express a divergence. So you're right. Plus, isn't it nice if a couple of them fall in love?
TBR: One of the most appealing facets of your novel were the characterizations of the individual Russians who comprised the enemy, in particular General Alexei Berianov. Did you have any models for these characters or were they purely fictional?
GL: Oh, my. Found out. Yes, as a matter of fact, I did base Berianov and others loosely on several Russian oligarchs and politicians. They're such fascinating people. They started out squeezing rubles and became billionaires in less than a decade. What writer could pass that up?
TBR: How valuable was your background as both a reporter and a think-tank editor with top security clearance in formulating your storylines as an espionage thriller writer?
GL: Very valuable. As a journalist, I learned to love research. One of my professors, a colorful character who would shout his lectures, had great advice: "Ask! Ask! Ask!" So I learned that it's better to look like an idiot than to not ask the question. Now I'm willing to look like an idiot at the drop of a hat or a fact.
As for being a think-tank editor, that gave me a real dose of what it's like to work in a secure environment. We had to use codes to enter various parts of the building, and everything was kept under lock and key. Security people went around after us, making certain we behaved. I worked on projects that ranged from making deserts bloom to developing weaponry that could wipe life from entire continents. Schizophrenic but never dull. While I was there, I heard whispers about brain-washing programs the government was conducting. Those whispers were the beginning of MASQUERADE.
TBR: MESMERIZED also contains another intriguing aspect --- the young Washington lawyer, Beth Convey, becoming the recipient of a heart transplant from an ex-KGB agent who had defected to the United States. She experiences violent dreams, strange sensations, odd food cravings --- all purportedly reflecting cellular memories that have carried over from her donor. What first sparked your interest in this controversial medical theory?
GL: My daughter, Julia Stone, sent me a clipping from New York about a strange result some heart-transplant recipients were describing called cellular memory. Some 300 people told anecdotal stories about changes in tastes, feelings, even attitudes. They weren't particularly complaining, mind you. Most found it fascinating.
Well, I was fascinated, too. I remember when anyone who wrote about cloning was thought to be indulging in science fiction. Novelists have always taken what's new in science, math, and the arts and woven them into stories. Where fact intersects with the imagination is an exciting --- and useful --- place to be.
TBR: You have referenced Claire Sylvia's memoir, A CHANGE OF HEART, as an excellent example of the anecdotal evidence supporting the belief that memories and characteristics can be transferred from donor to recipient. Were you able to talk with any of the people who believe they've had such experiences?
GL: No, alas, I wasn't. However, I did extensive research in articles, books, and online. I was amazed at how much information I found.
TBR: In MESMERIZED, your character's donor was male as was the real-life donor for Claire Sylvia. Does the gender of the donor have any impact on the recipient? Are Beth's aggressive tendencies after the surgery more of a plot device or is there evidence to suggest that significant changes in behavior are a possibility?
GL: According to my research, some recipients felt that they were indeed impacted by the sex of their donor. For instance, Claire Sylvia reported finding a different kind of woman attractive. However, having a man's heart didn't turn her into a homosexual. As much as anything, I suspect that if cellular memory is real, then it's the attitudes of the donor --- the preferences and dislikes that we all have --- that impact the recipient, and that can include aggressiveness or passivity.
TBR: Without giving anything away, MESMERIZED ends with the line that "it's not over yet." Were you making general reference to the ongoing unrest in Russia? Or is it possible we will see more of Beth Convey and Jeff Hammond in the future?
GL: "Yes" to the ongoing unrest in Russia. "I don't know" to whether Beth and Jeff will appear in a new adventure. I must say I'm fond of them and miss them. I'll just have to wait to see whether they knock on my writing door someday to say they'd like to come in for a chat. They're friendly sorts, and they don't like boredom, so perhaps they will.
TBR: Political philosophies aside, there was some logic to the desires of these Russian agents in wanting to see Russia's government returned to it's former Soviet Union. Has the US exacerbated the current instability in Russia by attempting to encourage democratic ideology in a country that hasn't the infrastructure to support it?
GL: Absolutely. We are so enthusiastic and optimistic that it's difficult for us to comprehend the differences in culture and philosophy between the United States and Russia. Having said that, we made one enormous mistake that's cost Russia, us, and the world greatly. And it's not about democracy; it's about economics.
To have a viable Capitalist system, a nation must have working banks and a respected judiciary. That's bottom line. Absolutely necessary. But as part of the high cost of communism, Russia had neither. We were naive to think that by encouraging democracy, which the Russians want and are capable of having, their economy would work. Russia's terrible financial freefall was and is so vast that no amount of money we, or any other nation, throw at it is going to solve it in a mere decade. Democracy cannot thrive where gangsterism rules.
However, there's still the future. And the Russian people are not only warm and big-hearted, they're survivors. They don't trust their government, but they do trust themselves and the Russian soul, and well they should.
TBR: Robert Ludlum was one of the all-time masters of the espionage thriller and you recently collaborated with him on the Covert One novel, THE HADES FACTOR. Are there other novels in the Covert One series that you've collaborated on that are yet to be published? Will the series be continued through yourself and/or other writers now that he's gone?
GL: I thoroughly enjoyed working on THE HADES FACTOR with Bob. I grew up on his work, and it's obviously had a big impact on me, since I've chosen to till the same fields. Yes, my second collaboration with Bob, THE PARIS OPTION, will be out next spring. I hope you like it.
TBR: It must be immensely satisfying to be the first female to receive such high recognition among the formerly all-male masters of the espionage thriller. Do you feel some burden of responsibility now to pave the way for other women writers in this field?
GL: I love the field so much that I keep forgetting I'm something of a pioneer. One of my favorite fan letters is from a fellow who said he looked around his library, which is apparently frightening because he has so many books, and realized I was the first female author he'd bought. And he loves my novels. I'm very proud that bookstores report that half my readers are women and half men. Very nice. That tells me I'm telling stories that appeal to a wide variety of people, which is, simply, what I want to do. I'm just a storyteller.
I'm terribly excited that Francine Matthews has landed with a big splash with her first espionage novel, THE CUT OUT. She's got a great background in intelligence work, and her writing is terrific. I'm hoping more women writers enter the field, too. Many of us have read spy thrillers for years, introducing them to our husbands, boyfriends, and fathers, as well as vice versa. May the word continue to go out.
TBR: What authors of this genre or any other have inspired you as a writer?
GL: I read everything. When I was growing up, I even read Campbell soup cans. In fact, when I was a little girl I saw words inside the cardboard cylinder around which toilet paper is wrapped. So I tore apart the cardboard, and that's how I learned that Crown Zellerbach was the largest paper producer in the world, in those days. Ah, sweet words!
Besides Bob, I'm fond of the classics --- Helen MacInnes, Frederick Forsyth, Ken Follett, and now I'm a big fan of Nelson DeMille. I should also tell you my husband's books have had an enormous impact on me. He's the best writer I know --- Dennis Lynds, aka Michael Collins.
TBR: Both John Le Carre and Robert Ludlum's espionage novels have been adapted into successful movies, although "purists" objected to the way the plots were altered. Would you be receptive to having your work adapted for a film version? Would you want to write the screenplay?
GL: I'd love to see all of my books made into movies. It's such an interesting, vital medium, and I'm a big popcorn freak. However, I doubt I'd ever want to write the screenplays. I have too much respect for films; I'd be a rank amateur. Besides, writing my behemoth tomes seems to take all the brain power I can muster.
TBR: Have you formulated any ideas for your next project that you can share with us?
GL: All I can say is that I'm working on my next suspense story, and I'm in the early throes of it, when I'm convinced I'll never quite get a grip. At the same time, oh, such excitement! Can't wait to find out what I don't know!
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