The Hadrian Memorandum
By Allan Folsom
Published October 13, 2009 (Hardcover) Forge
I have the brand new hardcover in hand — a couple of weeks before its pub date. A delicious feeling.
Allan Folsom and I did our interview this afternoon about his newest book The Hadrian Memorandum. I love the book, I already mentioned that. But, boy was it tough getting Allan to a landline — he’s temporarily in a rental home, because smoke and fire damaged his real home. His phone wasn’t ready at his rental, so he had to use the phone in his regular house. He was actually in a closet today when we talked, because otherwise the sound bounced all over the bare walls. While he was trying to figure out where he could phone from, I was trying to chase down a book that was supposed to be delivered this morning for a 9am Saturday interview. It’s out there somewhere. So the author of that book emailed me her manuscript. There was more, but that was the gist of my day. One of my friends said “Oh, Mercury is in retrograde again — till the end of the month.” That made me feel like it wasn’t personal. I love that I have friends who can tell me that it’s the planets at fault — and I have other friends who think this is total crap!
When we finally got plugged in, with Allan in the closet, he was a dream. He’s used to interviewers not reading his book, so his answers are long and sweeping. I always read the book — even if it means I have to beg the author for a PDF of their manuscript.
I’m not going to say that the story is ripped from today’s headlines. But it was. And, actually, the spark for the book occurred a few years ago when Allan caught wind of the CIA’s clandestine international involvement to protect the interest of the United States and US companies, like Blackwater. Allan says Congress wants to know what the CIA is doing, and the CIA is not telling — which is the blueprint for his book. He is thankful, he says, for information from the retired CIA guy who had “boots on the ground.”
I asked about surprises that popped as he wrote. Allan said, “These are adventures, and adventures are sometimes as much an adventure for the author as they are for the characters.” He’s referring, in part to the deeper personal relationship that evolved between the female lead, Anne, and his former LAPD homicide detective, Nicholas, who is now a landscape architect in England, and keeps getting sucked back into violent scenarios. I love that he calls Nicholas a “reluctant hero.”
Nearly every author will say that all the characters are parts of them. I ask Allan how he is like Nicholas, and he says Nicholas is “a man trying to live a peaceful life, and determined to find his own way through it. No matter how much we’re involved with other people, our life always boil down to how we choose to live our own life. And that doesn’t mean that life isn’t going to get in the way and you’re going to have some curve-balls and bean-balls thrown at you. But, as much as we’re all in this together, we’re all in this by ourselves. And that’s how he lives. In his own way, he’s looking for an answer. He’s looking for peace. And, that’s what I’m doing.”
