“It’s like a leaking dam,” Vince said. “You stick your finger in one hole, and it begins leaking somewhere else.”
“Sadly, there’s a lot of truth to that. We’re doing what we can. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the president’s going to recommend a substantial increase in funding to my intelligence community to combat terror. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to realize how close we came to an event bigger than September eleventh. I had the FBI run a couple of worst-case scenarios, and just one well-placed grenade at someplace like Penn Station during rush hour would’ve killed three or four hundred and wounded several hundred more. Multiply that by twenty-four . . . Well, you get the picture.”
“Now what?” Nathan asked.
Benson smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”
“Uh-oh . . . ,” said Harv.
“You’re going to the White House. President Trump wants to thank you in person.”
He exchanged a glance with Harv. “When? Right now?”
“Yes.”
Benson answered his unasked question. “And, yes, Charlene and Candace are invited as well. Holly too.”
“I’d like to bring my sister and niece.”
“I’ll have to clear it. Hang on . . .” Benson pulled out his cell phone. After a minute of being on hold, he said, “Mr. President . . . Yes, they’re coming . . . Nathan wants to bring his sister . . . That’s the one . . . Yes, I’ll personally vouch for her. His niece also wants to meet you . . . She’s Stone’s granddaughter . . . Yes, she was in the diner during the attack . . . Thank you, Mr. President. We’ll see you in about twenty minutes.” Benson ended the call and smiled.
“Lauren’s going to be unstoppable after this,” Harv said. “Maybe she’ll become a politician, not an Osprey pilot.”
“I think my father would’ve liked that career choice.”
“What about you?” Harv asked.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I’m okay with it.”
Walking back to his father’s grave, the sky seemed less threatening. Less ominous.
Rest in peace, Dad.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
When writing a manuscript, I often leave my comfort zone. The last thing I want to be is a cookie-cutter novelist who cranks out material without caring about its quality or content.
Having said that, there are certain elements of Nathan’s stories that, for realism’s sake, need to be present. For example, Nathan and Harv regularly use radios, night vision equipment, and thermal imagers. Their preferred pistols are Sig Sauer P226s chambered in nine millimeter, and they like Predator knives. I once received an email from a reader who claimed a nine-millimeter round was too small for adequate “stopping power.” I didn’t have the heart to ask him if he’d ever taken one to the chest. I could only assume he hadn’t. It would be artificial to take those elements out of a Nathan McBride adventure just because I’ve used them in past novels. Having said that, each situation in which Nathan and Harv face danger is unique.
The climactic scene in Hired to Kill definitely propelled my writing ability to the edge. The challenge was to keep the action intense and quick but also convey the inner turmoil and emotions Nathan and Harv felt. It’s possible to do both, but it’s a fine line. I sincerely hope you weren’t disappointed with how our two heroes dealt with a harrowing no-win situation. In Star Trek terms, they took the Kobayashi Maru test.
Thriller heroes by pure definition have to be bigger than life and be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. They wouldn’t be worthy of the title otherwise. Readers of the Nathan McBride series want to see Nathan and Harv take on the tough assignments. How our two characters deal with stress defines who they are at their cores. Heroes have to step up. Talk is cheap. Action isn’t.
Writing a thriller series, or any series for that matter, is a double-edged sword. It’s easier than writing a stand-alone because I don’t have to invent new protagonists for each story. But conversely, it’s difficult because I have to describe Nathan and Harv (and their extremely close relationship) in every book. People who are reading Hired to Kill might be seeing them for the first time.
I wish I could say writing novels is all roses, but it’s not. Truth be told, it’s just plain hard work. It takes me about a year to produce a novel that readers will—hopefully—consume in a few days—or even hours. Please accept my apology for the longer interval between Right to Kill and Hired to Kill. Life got in the way, and I had to resolve some personal issues. Jessica Tribble, my editor, and Gracie Doyle, Thomas & Mercer’s editorial director, were kind and understanding about my delay in delivering the manuscript. For that, I owe them heartfelt gratitude.
I’ve received many email inquiries from people who are curious about my writing process. They’re basically asking, “How do you do it? How do you write 100,000-word novels? Where on earth do you get your ideas?” For me, the answer’s roots are found within a theoretical principle: Occam’s razor. Without getting too deep (over my head), Occam’s razor basically states that the simplest answer to explain a phenomenon tends to be correct one. It’s not absolute, hence the word tends. Think about it. For each accepted explanation of a phenomenon, there’s an endless number of other possible explanations that are more complex, but they’re also incorrect.
So how does Occam’s razor apply to novelists? We create if/then scenarios. If this happens, then this happens as a result. Let’s examine a simple example: a car broadsides another car in a four-way-stop intersection.
So what are the possible explanations for why it happened? If you apply the theory of Occam’s razor, there’s a pretty good chance the offending driver was distracted and not paying attention at the moment of truth. How many other explanations are there? An infinite number, growing in complexity and unlikeliness the further from the truth they go. Make sense?
Here’s a possible explanation: the offending driver may not be at fault at all. The other driver may be attempting an insurance scam. He might’ve purposely raced in front of the offending car in order to collect “pain and suffering” money. Not very likely, but possible. Another explanation: the offending driver might have dissociative identity disorder (DID) and a reckless alter took over and purposely rammed the victim’s car. Again, it’s possible, but highly unlikely. A third possible explanation—and even more unlikely—is that the offending car’s brakes temporarily malfunctioned. The driver could claim he pressed the brake, but the car didn’t slow down. The odds of that happening? Millions to one. But it’s still possible. Maybe the offending driver had an overturned bag of groceries on the floor, and a large can of lima beans accidentally lodged itself behind the brake pedal. That’s far more likely than a pure brake malfunction, but it still has pretty remote odds. At the extreme end of the scale, little green men from Mars may have taken control of the vehicle and forced it into the intersection. The explanations are quite literally endless.
What’s the most likely cause? The offending driver was distracted at the instant of the collision. He wasn’t paying attention and didn’t see the other car. The simplest answer tends to be the correct one.
You can see how a simple phenomenon has generated all kinds of ideas as to why it happened. As a novelist, I’m constantly facing tangents and forks in my plotlines. One idea spawns many, but few of them will end up in the story. It’s all too easy to get distracted and pursue irrelevant or frivolous subplots. If you’re trying to climb a tree in an efficient and timely manner, then it’s best to stay close to its trunk and not venture out onto all its branches.
To keep me on track and focused, there’s a sticky note on my computer reminding me of my nine writing tips:
POV: Whose, and why?
VOICE: What is the tone? Lighthearted, serious, angry, contemplative . . .
SCENE: Can the reader see it? Sights, sounds, smells, textures . . .
STORY: Does the scene move the story forward?
Stay mostly in Nathan’s POV.
Show, don’t te
ll.
Less is more.
Keep it simple.
Is there tension in every scene?
I also have a sticky note reading: Try to minimize uses of the words that, had, and was. I firmly believe keeping these tips in mind when I write makes the product stronger. In a good movie, you don’t notice the directing. The same concept is true in novels: in a good book, you don’t notice the writing. If you suddenly look at the clock and several hours have passed, I’ve done my job.
Complex sentence structures or big, fancy words aren’t necessary. Indeed, I’d argue they’re inappropriate in the vast majority of novels. As far as sentence structure and prose are concerned, I write at a junior high level. Most novelists do.
Seriously? you might ask. You really write at a junior high level?
Absolutely, and here’s why. It’s not because I think my readers aren’t sophisticated—just the opposite. I write at a basic level for a very simple reason: it’s easier to read. We’ve all slogged through legal jargon at one point or another. How many of you read the purchase contract for your car or all the fine print at your doctor’s office? Technical or legal documents are rife with run-on sentences, abstract words, and meanings we can’t understand without re-reading the material several times. In novels, it’s the kiss of death. People read novels to be entertained, and having to reread something over and over dulls the experience.
The Nathan McBride books aren’t intricate mysteries, whodunit stories with lots of subterfuge and misdirection. Don’t get me wrong, I love those kinds of stories, they’re fun to read, but my novels are mainstream thrillers. Yes, they’ll have an element of mystery in them, but it’s not the driving force. The McBride series is fueled by action and fast-paced scenes.
You learn who Nathan is by the way he views and reacts to the world around him. (Tip #6 above.)
Look at any James Bond movie. Generally speaking, mystery and subterfuge aren’t key elements. People watch James Bond movies for the action. They want to see Bond foil the bad guy’s plot, kill all the vermin, and—let’s be honest—have a romantic encounter at the end. Boiled down to basics, Bond kills the bad guys and rides into the sunset with the girl. It’s what people want to see in a Bond movie, and they’d be disappointed with any other outcome.
There’s one more tip to which I strictly adhere, and it might be the most important. All the Nathan McBride books are available in audiobook format from Audible.com with Dick Hill as the narrator. So whenever I’m writing, I’m thinking about how it will sound with Dick Hill reading it. He’s my barometer. If I don’t think it will sound right with Dick’s narration, I edit it until it will. Dick Hill is not only an award-winning audiobook narrator, he’s a trusted friend.
So there you have it—a behind-the-scenes look at my writing process. As you can imagine, it’s a little more complicated than writing a grocery list!
In closing, I’d like to share a quick story with you I once heard from Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author and friend. I don’t remember the exact specifics of what she told me, but in a nutshell, she was seated at a dinner table at some kind of a fund-raiser with various professionals, and they were introducing themselves and saying what they did for a living. When it was Gayle’s turn, she said she was a novelist. Well, at hearing that, a man sitting across from her said, “You know, that’s something I’ve always wanted to do when I retire.” As the introductions worked their way around the table, the man who’d expressed interest in being a novelist said his name was “Dr. So and So,” the head of the neurosurgery department at a university medical center. Gayle then very politely said, “Wow, you know, that’s something I’ve always wanted to do when I retire.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are many people who positively influence my life, and they deserve praise here. I can’t list all of them because it would literally go on for pages.
First and foremost, a special thank-you is owed to Carla, my beloved wife of twenty-nine years. Here’s to you, babe! I couldn’t have done it without you.
Whatever success I’ve achieved as an author is also due in large part to my loving parents. My father, Paul Peterson, taught me the value of hard work and determination. In my world, there’s just no substitute for them. As I mentioned in the author’s note, writing novels is tedious, grueling, and time-consuming. My mother, Cindy Peterson, taught me creativity and patience, two vital traits in a novelist’s personality. She encouraged me to pursue artistic projects during my childhood. Thanks, Mom and Dad; I owe you more than I can ever repay!
The team at Thomas & Mercer does an amazing job. A big thank-you to
Jessica Tribble, my editor
Gracie Doyle, editorial director
Laura Barrett, production manager
Gabrielle Guarnero, Adria Martin, and Laura Costantino, Marketing
Oisin O’Malley, art director, who helps the team work with the cover designer
Sarah Shaw, author relations manager
Mikyla Bruder, publisher, Amazon Publishing, Inc.
Galen Maynard, associate publisher, Amazon Publishing, Inc.
Clint Singley, senior product manager
Jeff Belle, vice president, Amazon Publishing, Inc.
All of these people are dedicated professionals who work behind the scenes to make Thomas & Mercer the best publisher in the literary industry. I’m honored to be in its family of authors!
A huge thank-you to Dick Hill, the voice of Nathan McBride. What can I say? Dick’s narration is the driving force behind my writing style. I hear his voice when I’m crafting a manuscript.
My brother, Matthew, is an inspiration. A guy couldn’t ask for a better sibling! I can always count on him for advice and guidance. Thank you for being who you are.
I can’t leave out my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’m a Christian, and I’m not afraid to say so! In Option to Kill, Lauren asks Nathan if it’s hard to be a Christian. Well, to get the answer, you’ll just have to read Option to Kill! For those of you who’ve read it, you know the answer.
And finally, to you, the reader. Thank you for trusting your valuable time to me. Reading or listening to the Nathan McBride books takes many, many hours, and I appreciate your spending them with Nathan and Harvey. Cheers!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2011 Mike Theiler
Andrew Peterson is the #1 Amazon international bestselling author of the Nathan McBride thriller series. An avid marksman who has won numerous high-powered rifle competitions, Peterson enjoys flying helicopters, camping, hiking, scuba diving, and questionable rounds of golf. He has donated more than three thousand books to troops serving overseas and to veterans recovering in military hospitals. A native of San Diego, California, he lives in Monterey County with his wife, Carla, and their three dogs: a giant schnauzer, an Irish wolfhound, and a Spinone Italiano. For more information about Peterson, visit him at www.andrewpeterson.com, on Facebook at andrew.peterson.author, on Twitter at @apetersonnovels, or on Instagram at andrewpetersonauthor.
Andrew Peterson, Hired to Kill
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