By Karna Small Bodman
As I heard the first news reports of the tragic attacks on Mumbai, India I had this eerie "déjà vu all over again" feeling. It was positively weird because when I had the idea for my debut thriller, CHECKMATE, which came out in hardback in early 2007 and is now out in paperback, I researched a (then) obscure terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba and "created" a militant cell that stages attacks on Indian targets in an attempt to foment more trouble between India and Pakistan - two nuclear armed nations that have already fought three wars. In my novel, the White House gets involved in diplomatic efforts to forestall retaliation against Pakistan and there are more twists as all sides race to find the perpetrators and protect against further attacks.
Now, of course, we learn that this very group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, is responsible for the Mumbai attacks, as well as many others, and their training camps have been the breeding ground for militant operating throughout the region. As soon as the story hit the airwaves, I started getting emails and dozens of requests to do radio interviews about how CHECKMATE predicted the actions of this terrorist group.
In the interviews, talk show hosts all seem fascinated with the idea that some novelists are writing stories based on current events -- as many ITW authors are right doing right now. Then again, there are many fine authors who have taken a real event and done a "what if" to create a story. I'm reminded of Nelson DeMille's thriller, The Lion's Game, which was based on our country's bombing of Libya back in the mid-80's. In that story, DeMille imagined a young Libyan character who was so incensed that we bombed his country that he comes over here and tries to systematically track down and kill every member of the bombing squad. And when I met DeMille at Book Expo, I told him I had been in the Situation Room of The White House the night we bombed Libya and so his great story brought it all back to me. That was a "look back." Now many of our authors are "looking ahead" with prescient accuracy. In fact, many have been invited to The White House to share their ideas with national security planners to try and anticipate various chilling scenarios.
Perhaps instead of calling our books "fiction" they should now be called "faction."
For more information on CHECKMATE, please visit Karna's website.
As I heard the first news reports of the tragic attacks on Mumbai, India I had this eerie "déjà vu all over again" feeling. It was positively weird because when I had the idea for my debut thriller, CHECKMATE, which came out in hardback in early 2007 and is now out in paperback, I researched a (then) obscure terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba and "created" a militant cell that stages attacks on Indian targets in an attempt to foment more trouble between India and Pakistan - two nuclear armed nations that have already fought three wars. In my novel, the White House gets involved in diplomatic efforts to forestall retaliation against Pakistan and there are more twists as all sides race to find the perpetrators and protect against further attacks.Now, of course, we learn that this very group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, is responsible for the Mumbai attacks, as well as many others, and their training camps have been the breeding ground for militant operating throughout the region. As soon as the story hit the airwaves, I started getting emails and dozens of requests to do radio interviews about how CHECKMATE predicted the actions of this terrorist group.
In the interviews, talk show hosts all seem fascinated with the idea that some novelists are writing stories based on current events -- as many ITW authors are right doing right now. Then again, there are many fine authors who have taken a real event and done a "what if" to create a story. I'm reminded of Nelson DeMille's thriller, The Lion's Game, which was based on our country's bombing of Libya back in the mid-80's. In that story, DeMille imagined a young Libyan character who was so incensed that we bombed his country that he comes over here and tries to systematically track down and kill every member of the bombing squad. And when I met DeMille at Book Expo, I told him I had been in the Situation Room of The White House the night we bombed Libya and so his great story brought it all back to me. That was a "look back." Now many of our authors are "looking ahead" with prescient accuracy. In fact, many have been invited to The White House to share their ideas with national security planners to try and anticipate various chilling scenarios.
Perhaps instead of calling our books "fiction" they should now be called "faction."
For more information on CHECKMATE, please visit Karna's website.
