Imagine billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates with an attitude and an obsessive sense of justice, throw in enough Delta Force expertise to make things interesting, and you have a pretty good idea of how Rail Black might deal with a problem. Add a drop-dead gorgeous woman or two and a dash of international conspiracy and you have Neil Russell's City of War, due out this month from Harper Paperbacks. Heir to a media empire, Black moves among a circle of friends with wealth and power to burn, those people who can pick up a telephone and accomplish things that others cannot get done. In some respects, the character is a lot like the author.
The novel is Russell's first thriller, but his roots in the genre are solid. Readers might not know his name, but they will be familiar with Russell's work--at least if they go to the movies.
President of Site 85 Productions, Russell was a senior executive with Paramount, Columbia, MGM/UA, and Carolco Pictures, studios that produced the Rambo movies, Terminator 2, and Total Recall. It's an impressive track record, and if City of War reads like a motion picture, the author's extensive background in film might be why.
"In every good movie," Russell explained, "there will be five to seven good scenes, and one really great scene that makes you go home and tell you friends. That's what you try for when you write a screenplay, and that's the way I wrote City of War. I don't write in sequence. I write the major scenes, then go back and merge them."
Wildcase, the second Rail Black novel, is in the works, and HarperCollins has an option on a third installment in the series. Russell already has a movie deal for City of War, with producers Mace Neufeld and Stephanie Austin signed on to the project. Neufeld brought several Tom Clancy novels to the screen and Austin worked on Terminator 2 and True Lies. Russell said that it was difficult to turn City of War over to someone else.
"Producing the movie is usually what I'm doing," he said. "But when the book becomes just another 'piece of business' it takes on a life of its own. I'll be involved in the production of the movie, and I hope to write the screenplay."
The genesis for City of War was a meeting Russell had with a group of power brokers in Washington DC a few years earlier, and the story "had been brewing for a while" before he actually started writing.
"I thought the idea would make an interesting movie," he said, "but I couldn't sell it. One of the friends I'd been talking to finally said, 'you know the story so well, why don't you tell it yourself?' " Author of Can I Still Kiss You?: Answering Your Children's Questions About Cancer, a successful memoir based on his own successful battles with the disease, Russell initially kept his work on City of War a secret.
"I didn't tell anyone about it at the time," Russell said. "I wasn't even sure I'd ever finish."
Completing a manuscript is one thing, getting the book into print is another matter entirely. Sending a manuscript out is a great equalizer, with no guarantee of success. Despite professional contacts and a level of access that many writers would kill for, those things that "get you through some of the clutter" with agents and editors, Russell nevertheless was nervous about how his first novel would be received. Veterans and first-time authors know the feeling: "It's just so difficult to face that blank page," he said. "Then when you're finished, you send it out and all you can do is hope."
It is hard to judge your own work objectively, Russell said, which makes it important for authors to get feedback from others.
"You want to have other people, especially professionals in the business, read the manuscript," he added. "But even if you're dedicated and talented it can be very difficult to get people to read what you write. The front door often is the worst place to try and get in.
"My advice: find the circuitous route. You can get it done. If the material is good, you can find someone to read it. Everybody knows somebody, who knows somebody who can help you.
"And you have to treat every meeting like it's your first meeting. The agent or editor you're meeting today doesn't know about the 27 other agents and editors who've already turned you down. It's hard to maintain your enthusiasm, but you've got to be 'infectiously interesting.' You never know what a publisher will like. Sometimes what makes a book 'commercial' is just a tiny bit of the entire book. Rejection doesn't mean the manuscript isn't any good. It might just mean that the book doesn't fit into the publisher's plan right now."
Milton Toby is an author and attorney who writes from his home in Georgetown, Kentucky. His long-standing involvement with Thoroughbred racing and the horse business, his representation of Death Row inmates, and years spent in the Third World combine to produce fiction crammed with unique twists and turns. His short stories have won national awards and he recently completed his first novel. Milton's essay on Lionel Davidson's THE ROSE OF TIBET will appear in the upcoming THRILLERS: 100 MUST READS.
