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BIO
Greg Rucka resides with his wife and two children in Portland, Oregon, where he is at work on his next thriller, which Bantam will publish in 2010. He is the author of nine previous novels as well as numerous graphic novels, including the Eisner Award-winning Whiteout series, soon to be a motion picture starring Kate Beckinsale.
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INTERVIEW
 October 28, 2005
Bookreporter.com's Suspense/Thriller's' Joe Hartlaub and Wiley Saichek interviewed Greg Rucka about PRIVATE WARS, the sequel to his 2004 spy thriller A GENTLEMAN'S GAME. Rucka compares and contrasts the function of novels with that of comics, and explains how he utilizes the two to create one large and multifaceted story. Read on to learn more about the initial inspiration behind PRIVATE WARS, the thought that goes into creating literary villains, and what the future has in store for protagonist Tara Chace.
Bookreporter.com: For readers who are new to your work, what is the Queen & Country series? And what are the differences and similarities between the graphic titles and the Queen & Country novels?
Greg Rucka: Queen & Country started life as an ongoing comic book series published by Oni Press. The series follows a woman, Tara Chace, who is a Special Operations Officer for the SIS, the British equivalent of the CIA. It's set in the "real world," and deals with topical politics, and an honest look at the costs of espionage in the modern world.
In the main, the two "versions" are identical, at least in feel. Novels allow for a deeper examination of issues, and a more involved story, but the feel and the mood of the series remains the same. I view it all as a continuum of a sort --- the Q&C comics and the Q&C novels are all part of the same larger story. Each of the novels can be read alone, of course, but at the heart there's a larger body of work to support the stories.
BRC: There are several villains in PRIVATE WARS and you do a great job of keeping these characters believable. How do you create these menacing, violent characters without going overboard?
GR: Mostly by not creating anyone out of whole cloth, but rather by looking around at the world, and at the truly evil things that are happening every day, and then asking how it is that one person can do such violence to another. In PRIVATE WARS, it was the issue of torture that got me. I read a lot of reports on the use of torture in Uzbekistan, how its employed by the government, and I found myself wondering what kind of person would commit such acts. Where did they come from? How did they get that way?
So there's that. There's another thing, too, which is that no matter how vile the Bad Guys are, I try to remember that they are, on some level, still human…as much as we might wish it were otherwise. It's that balance, I think, that makes the characters real.
BRC: Much of PRIVATE WARS is set in Uzbekistan, which provides an interesting backdrop for the novel. It is one of the areas of the world that gets few headlines, yet it is of utmost strategic importance for several countries, including the United States. How did you come to choose Uzbekistan as a setting for PRIVATE WARS? Have you traveled to the locations featured in the novel?
GR: PRIVATE WARS actually started with a photograph I saw of the current Uzbeki president's daughter, Gulnara Karimov. There's not a whole lot of information out there about her, but what little I managed to read got the wheels spinning, and the novel spilled forth from there. She's a fascinating character, and frankly, more than a little terrifying.
That, in turn, led to more reading about Uzbekistan in general, and then to interviews, and then to more reading, and suddenly I was looking at a country that most people had never heard of, and yet was absolutely central to the current Global War on Terror. It was the perfect place to set the next Chace story.
Where I can, I take research trips wherever possible. In the case of Uzbekistan and Tashkent, it simply wasn't an option, and for a variety of reasons. So I spent a lot of time in the library, and online, and talking to the people I could find who had firsthand knowledge of the country.
BRC: We were intrigued by the protection/sanctuary offered by the Pashtunwali as discussed in PRIVATE WARS. Is the Pashtunwali still in effect, or was this practice fictional?
GR: No, it's the real deal, and practiced even today. It's certainly been one of the major contributing factors to the absolute failure of NATO and U.S. forces in finding bin Laden. Pashtunwali has been practiced in Central Asia --- Afghanistan and the NWFP on the border with Pakistan, certainly --- for centuries, even millennia. It's a necessity to survival living in such a harsh and unforgiving environment, and it's got a peculiar honor to it that, I think, is vexing to most Western thought. But the concept of hospitality that it embodies is timeless, and inexorably biblical, as well. In the Bible, Abraham was renowned for his own hospitality, and the protection and aid he offered to strangers in need.
BRC: Almost from the first page, PRIVATE WARS contains plot surprises. Alliances and mission end-goals are constantly in flux; some of them you can see coming early on, while others sneak up on you. Do you have these plotted out before you begin writing?
GR: For the most part, yes, though there are always surprises in the writing, moments when the story turns, or a character speaks, or something happens in a way that I hadn't foreseen. I live for those moments, because that's when I know that the story has come truly to life, that it's vibrant and moving. I have to work with a certain amount of structure at the start, but I find that the structure is actually very liberating, because it --- somewhat paradoxically --- allows the story to go wherever it may need to. If I know where I'm heading, I can take any number of routes to get there, so to speak.
BRC: Once again we are impressed with your ability to flesh out your supporting characters, such as Lankford. Is there a possibility of seeing Lankford the focus of an upcoming novel?
GR: Both Lankford and Poole will actually be figuring very prominently in the next Q&C novel, which --- God willing! --- will be out in 2007. As I have it plotted right now --- it's fairly loose --- both Minder Three and Minder Two (their SIS designated "codenames" will have to move to the fore of the action in the next novel.
I don't imagine actually writing a Q&C novel that doesn't put Chace, and by extension, her boss, Paul Crocker, at the center of the action. But I definitely plan to use Lankford much more, both in the comics and in the upcoming novels.
BRC: With the ongoing war on terrorism, have you found it more difficult or easier to pick experts' brains while conducting research for the Tara Chace novels?
GR: Both. There are so many possibilities for stories given the state of the world today, and all one has to do is spend five minutes listening to, for instance, someone from the State Department, to come up with a dozen ideas. It's the details that are murderous to pin down these days because of the veil of secrecy, some of it warranted, that's descended since 9/11. It used to be that, when I did research, I could expect answers to roughly 90% of my questions. These days, it's closer to 40%, but there's normally enough given that, with a little thought, I can puzzle out plausible pieces with which to fill in the blanks.
BRC: Your Queen & Country novels --- A GENTLEMAN'S GAME and now PRIVATE WARS --- are quite different from your Atticus Kodiak novels. How do you approach each of these series when you begin writing one of their novels? And do you have any future plans to perhaps bring them together?
GR: As of now, there are no plans to bring Kodiak and Chace together in the same story, and I think that's as it should be. They inhabit very different worlds; Chace lives deep in the gray areas, and very much in the shadows, and she's comfortable --- one might even argue that she's happy --- being there. Atticus is far more comfortable in the light, even if what he does and where his adventures take him is more often than not into darkness. And at the end of the day, perhaps it comes down to this: Chace's morality, her sense of honor and ethic, is far more fluid than Atticus's. Atticus is a knight; Chace is a spy. They can follow similar stories, but they're going to reach their goals in very different fashions…and with far different costs.
BRC: We have read that while the Queen & Country comic series remains ongoing, you do have an ending planned at some indeterminate point. Will that ending impact upon your Queen & Country series of novels?
GR: It's very fluid. I try to envision an end for every character I write about, just so I have some idea of where they are headed. Very rarely is that ending set in stone, however. Right now, I like Chace far too much to stop telling stories about her, and there are a lot more stories to tell!
BRC: What are your plans for future novels in the Queen & Country series?
GR: The next one I have planned is a little different. Whereas in the first two books, the narrative split between Chace and her antagonists, the next one will have a narrower focus. I don't want to give anything away yet, but as it's planned now, something happens very early on in the novel to Chace that places her in great jeopardy, alone, and in grave danger. While she's struggling to survive, we follow both her pursuers and her allies as each group tries to either capture her, or rescue her.
After that, I think Our Lady of the Endless Cigarettes and Bullets may be visiting the U.S., and potentially be discovering a new man in her life. One who will, perhaps, be even more than she can handle.
BRC: The author bio in PRIVATE WARS indicates your 2006 novel will be a return to your Atticus Kodiak series. Why have you decided to wait until now to continue with this series?
GR: After CRITICAL SPACE, I felt it was necessary to let Atticus take a rest. He was thoroughly put through the wringer in the last novel, and I wanted to let that sit for a while, to let him catch up, so to speak. The new book is set three years after the last, and it's been three long years in the wilderness for Atticus, and that was something I felt I wouldn't be able to conjure properly if I'd simply jumped right in to another Kodiak novel after CRITICAL SPACE.
BRC: What writers, of any genre or media, have had the greatest influence upon your work? And what authors do you read primarily for pleasure?
GR: I'm all across the board these days. I love Lawrence Block's work. Each of his novels is a delight, and I learn so much from simply reading him --- how he handles not just plot and narrative, but also language. I've become very passionate about both Lee Child and Michael Connelly, who, sadly, I've come to late. Most of my reading these days is in nonfiction, honestly, and mostly for research purposes, so I find I have little time to simply read for pleasure.
Of influences, oh, there are far too many to name and number. Hemingway, Crane, Chandler, Lehane, O'Brien, Ozick, Oates...the list goes on and on.
And for pure pleasure, it's still Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novels. Honestly, very few things make me happier than reading about Archie and Nero.
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INTERVIEW
 October 1, 2004
Joe Hartlaub, Wiley Saichek and Sean Doorly interview Greg Rucka, whose latest book A GENTLEMAN'S GAME is based on his graphic novel series QUEEN & COUNTRY. Rucka talks about his inspiration for the creation of female assassin Tara Chace and his decision to use the British intelligence service as a basis for the story. He also shares his thoughts on writing graphic novels vs. conventional novels and how it feels to be associated with such iconic characters as Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman.
Bookreporter.com: A GENTLEMAN'S GAME is based upon your ongoing graphic novel series, QUEEN & COUNTRY. What are some of the similarities and differences between writing a graphic novel --- a story told through the medium of sequential art --- and a conventional novel, where you are relying entirely upon the printed word to tell your story? Do you have a preference for writing one or the other?
Greg Rucka: I get asked this question all the time. The differences are huge, as are the similarities.
I'm not a visual artist in the strictest sense; I'm a writer, though I'm a very visual writer. Working in comics, I have to rely on my artist to bring to the page those images I'm imagining, but that's the extent of it --- I can't control how or what he or she draws. And comics, as a result, are a far more collaborative medium; it takes, in most instances, more than just a single creative force to make a comic come to life.
In a novel, it's pretty much all mine, and lives or dies on that fact, as a result. If the images aren't clear, if the story isn't clear, if the characters are muddy, I have to own that. That's both empowering and humbling, because there's no one to take the credit if it succeeds and no one to hide behind if it fails.
At this point, I actually have no preference for one over the other simply because they're vastly different art forms to me. If I had a gun held to my head and had to choose, I'd say the novels are ultimately more rewarding, for the reasons given, as well as for the fact that nothing but nothing can replace the sheer joy of writing for me, of disappearing for hours at a time into the world I'm crafting, only to surface again to find a couple thousand words written. That's unique to novel writing for me, and not something comics come close to replicating.
BRC: What inspired you to do a QUEEN & COUNTRY novel? And do you plan to do any further Tara Chace novels?
GR: I'm working on the next Chace novel now, which is pretty much a direct sequel to A GENTLEMAN'S GAME, and will resolve several of the unanswered questions from the first book, while plunging Tara headfirst into another espionage nightmare.
From the moment I started writing about Tara in comics, I knew I wanted to write a novel about her. There was just so much that I couldn't adequately explore in the comics that I knew had to wait for a prose work, and that was the major impetus behind writing the first novel. Well, that and my agent and editor both encouraged me to do so.
BRC: Could you share some background on QUEEN & COUNTRY for readers who may be unfamiliar with the storylines?
GR: Well, one of the things about A GENTLEMAN'S GAME that I tried very hard to maintain was that a reader could come to it blind, knowing nothing about the comics --- even unaware that there were comics, for that matter --- and still find a compelling narrative that was easy to embrace. The novel is meant to be read by everyone, not only those with prior familiarity with the characters.
QUEEN & COUNTRY is an ongoing comic series, published by Oni Press. This isn't a superhero comic or a four-color punch-fest, but rather, in tone and delivery, much like the novel in many ways. The series follows Tara Chace, a Special Operations Officer for Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. There are a maximum of three of these officers at any given time, code-named "Minders." For much of the series, Chace was Minder Two, but just before the events of the novel she's promoted to Head of Section, Minder One.
The Minders handle those missions that are considered high-risk and politically sensitive, those missions that require a quick and decisive response by HMG. These are the people who stage the kidnappings, who steal the documents, who nab the defector. Most of them don't last very long.
BRC: Tara Chace, the protagonist of A GENTLEMAN'S GAME, seems a contemporary incarnation of characters like Emma Peel, Nikita, and James Bond, with a bit of Mac Bolan thrown in as well. Yet her total persona is unlike any of them. Who was your original inspiration for Chace?
GR: I suppose one could argue that all of those sources are inspirations in their own way, though when I look back, she seems very much grown from whole cloth to my eyes. She's a character --- or a type of character --- that I've returned to again and again in my fiction over the years, and in many ways represents a variation on a theme. There's some Bridgett Logan in her (the character from SHOOTING AT MIDNIGHT), and some Alena Cizkova aka Drama (from CRITICAL SPACE). I also like to think there's a touch of Alec Lemas from le Carre's THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD there, as well. The James Bond characterization is the only one I might take issue with, because for all the surface similarities, they are vastly different creatures. And Tara would kick Bond's ass.
The name of the character, though, comes from a lovely young lady named Tara Chace, who I went to high school with and who, throughout those years of hormonal torment, was one of my dearest friends. It was with Tara that I discovered a love for espionage --- not the over-the-top James Bond variety, but rather the le Carre subtlety found in the George Smiley stories. So when the time came to name the character, Tara Chace seemed the obvious choice.
BRC: Given your American origins, why did you choose to use the British intelligence service as a basis for A GENTLEMAN'S GAME?
GR: Several reasons, not the least of which being that the true inspiration for QUEEN & COUNTRY was a British television show from the late '70s called "The Sandbaggers," created by a man named Ian Mackintosh. I've made no bones about the inspiration Mackintosh has been to me, both as a writer and as a creative force. I worked, essentially, from his model in creating QUEEN & COUNTRY, and that was a British model. That's one.
Another reason is that, like mysteries, espionage stories are stories of social commentary, albeit on a larger scale. To be an American writing about America from the inside slanted the view; to write about America's place and influence in the world from an outside perspective provides a better observation post, in many ways.
Additionally, the CIA, to me, just doesn't have the sex appeal of SIS. I like the sense of history, as well as the literary pedigree, that comes with writing a British Spy.
BRC: A GENTLEMAN'S GAME has a strong ring of truth to it, with branches of the intelligence services often fighting among themselves and with agencies of allied nations, while ostensibly working toward the same goals. What sources do you rely on for your information about the way in which that world operates?
GR: I'm a voracious reader, first and foremost, and I do a lot of research for works such as this. All it takes is reading a couple of newspapers to see the depth and breadth of inter-departmental infighting that takes place in Government. Just take a look at the 9-11 Commission testimony from the FBI and the CIA, from the State Department and the Pentagon, and you'll see what I mean.
And I use primary sources whenever I can. I interview those people who are willing to talk --- and a lot of them are, surprisingly. And they all assert the same basic fact: government work is just like any other job, with the same petty people and petty squabbles surviving alongside the loftier goals and aspirations to the greater good.
BRC: You've written about some iconic characters --- Batman, Wonder Woman and Elektra, to name a few. How does it feel to write about characters you didn't create?
GR: It's odd, at times, not so much because I didn't create them as much as because I can't control their destinies. These are corporately owned characters and are commodities to their publishers, so they have to be protected as investments. In cases such as Elektra, that can be very limiting.
With characters like Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman, though, there's an incredible sense of pride in just being able to be associated with them. These are characters that are truly iconic, that have survived for decades, and will likely survive for decades after I'm long gone. To just touch that legacy is humbling. As a result, I try to bring as much respect to my work with those creations as I can, while still trying to offer my own interpretation and voice in their stories.
BRC: The film rights to A GENTLEMAN'S GAME were sold even before the novel was published. Who would you like to see cast in the roles of the primary characters?
GR: Haven't got a clue. The people I see in my mind's eye aren't actors who no one has ever seen but me, and then only in my dreams. I wouldn't even know where to start.
BRC: You've had a variety of jobs in your life (house painter, busboy, emergency medical technician, security guard, fight choreographer), which we're sure had an impact on your writing. Is there any other job that you wish you had done in your past that would be useful in your writing today?
GR: If there's one job I wish I'd had, it would be as a chef. I'd like to know more about cooking, honestly.
I wish I'd been a better student of languages and that I'd traveled more when I had the opportunity to do so. That's my greatest regret now that my life and career has become as busy as it is --- I wish I'd worked harder acquiring more languages, and I wish I'd seen more of the world. Now I'll have to wait until the kids are in college.
I'd like to go back to school, actually. Take some night courses in Physics and the like.
BRC: What are you working on now and when can readers expect to see it?
GR: I'm working on the next novel as we speak, actually. Hopefully it'll see print in fall/winter of 2005, if all goes well and the world doesn't radically change on me in the next sixty days. And I'll be continuing my work in comics, on the QUEEN & COUNTRY series, as well as with Wonder Woman and others.
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