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QUESTIONS FROM READERS

ABamaBecky@aol.com: Are the characters in BLOWN based on actual people you met while working for the CIA? This book seems to be #2 in a series. Will there be another?

Francine Mathews: BLOWN, and its prequel THE CUTOUT, are probably the most autobiographical books I've yet written. Caroline Carmichael is drawn heavily from my own personality and experiences as a CIA analyst. Her husband Eric is based on a charming former Green Beret/adrenalin-junkie/case officer I once knew who was supposed to board Pan Am 103 --- and was left behind to handle some administrative work while his colleagues died in the bombing of that plane. I found his near-miss fascinating and always intended to use it in fiction one day. I could probably offer prototypes for Cuddy Wilmot and Scottie Sorensen as well. Daniel Becker is happily someone I've never encountered --- but he portrays a number of chilling qualities quite common among adherents of the extreme right-wing fringe in this country.

There is always a possibility I'd write another book with these characters. I have a lot of affection for them.

ameliarand@yahoo.com: I have recently taken a writing workshop and joined a local writers group. I now read with an eye for the way an author writes. There are so many characters in this story. I had no problem keeping them all straight. I think it could have been the way you took us back and forth the different locations. Do you use people you know as models for your characters?

Francine Mathews: I'm glad to hear you weren't confused! Plotting a thriller is nine-parts choreography --- knowing when certain people must enter and exit a scene, how long they remain on stage without wearing out their welcome, and what moves or personality tics distinguish one from another. Managing all of that without losing the thread of the story (or the reader) is subtle work. To me, it's the most challenging part of writing.

I think every writer composes a character from a lifetime of observing herself and the people around her. Human interactions --- the subtlety of emotion, insecurity, need, bravado, exuberance --- are things most writers comprehend before they speak. To that extent, every character is drawn from someone we've met or known or observed. But are any of my characters specifically a carbon copy of a living person? No.

Paul1G@aol.com: What made you decide to quit your career and start writing? I am always curious about the writing process. How long does it take you to write a novel? Does it come easily? How do you go about plotting something this complex?

Francine Mathews: All good questions. Working for the CIA can be a fascinating job. But I had spent most of my life writing in some fashion --- even intelligence analysis is writing of a sort --- and always intended to attempt fiction at some point. At the age of twenty-nine, I figured it was time. I wrote my first book my last year at the Agency, sold it, and quit. That was thirteen years ago and sixteen books ago. I've never regretted the decision.

Each story I attempt, however, demands its own time frame. The manuscript I just completed required about eight months of steady work. BLOWN took me two years. The Jane Austen novels I write in a series are usually done in two to three months. The demands of plot, timing, pace, structure and characterization are unique to each book, and the time required to get the balance right always varies.

I think BLOWN took as long as it did because I was struggling with two things: How to make terrorism relevant for a readership that had witnessed the fall of the World Trade Center; and how to handle my own anger at the politics played around counterterrorism over the past several years. Angry books are far less interesting or effective than bleak and restrained ones.

As for complex plots: they're a gift. Nothing is more boring to the writer or reader than a one-dimensional story.

Funkarella5@aol.com: Do you think that a ricin attack is possible, especially on the staggering level as written in BLOWN?

Francine Mathews: Absolutely. BLOWN's attack was modest; most ricin scenarios posited by counterterrorism officials involve crop-dusting attacks over entire cities. And there's no treatment or antidote for the toxin.

ebyerly@epix.net: Is there any chance that this book will become a movie? It has the potential to be a great movie!

Francine Mathews: By all means, tell Tom Cruise. No, seriously --- Warner Bros. bought the film rights to BLOWN's prequel, THE CUTOUT, but the events of 9/11 intervened and cast a chill over terrorism movies. I have no idea whether this book might prove attractive to Hollywood at a later date. But if it does, Kathy Bates has to portray Josie the Hitwoman.

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