with Sharon Linnéa
We are delighted to welcome novelist Sharon Linnéa to Omnimystery News today.
Sharon's fourth "Eden Thriller" — co-written with B.K. Sherer — is Plagues of Eden (Arundel Publishing; September 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to spend some time with her to talk about the new book and the series in general.
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to the principal characters of the Eden Thrillers.
Photo provided courtesy of
Sharon Linnéa
Sharon Linnéa: Army Chaplain Jaime Richards and the mysterious Sword 23, also known as Yani, adventure together through the Eden Thrillers. I love Jaime because, while she is an Army chaplain, and very good at what she does, she is also a flesh-and-blood woman who has a sense of humor, a temper, screws up sometimes and is sometimes deeply wounded by what goes on in the process of saving the world. But, like the rest of us, she has to challenge herself, and her beliefs, and get on with it. I write the Eden Thrillers with my best friend from childhood, B.K. Sherer, who happens to be an active duty Army chaplain. I love getting to play around inside that world.
We also love the character of Yani. First, he sexy as hell. He also gives us a chance to send an altruistic person who is highly trained into situations where writers usually send James Bond-type people with guns. Yani goes in with nothing but his wits (and, well, okay, he can incapacitate or kill you with his hands if he has to). But it gives us a chance to ask if there might not be another way to handle life-threatening situations that is more effective and equally sexy.
OMN: How have these characters changed from the first book in the series, Chasing Eden?
SL: The fun and challenge of the series is to have our characters evolve over time. The plot exists to pierce the character where s/he is wounded and make her decide to either fight or die. It's fun, too, having Jaime and Yani in a relationship, so that can evolve over time, also. They're two very different and very interesting folks to journey with.
OMN: How difficult is it as a female author to find the right voice for the male characters?
SL: It's an interesting question. We have two main characters, and it was very important to us that the primary protagonist was a woman. However, the other main character is a man. I do believe that men and women think differently, which gives their interactions and partnerships spice and verve. But honestly, it does seem rather humorous to think about the challenge of finding the right voice for an opposite-sex character when we're also writing in the voice of psychopaths, megalomaniacs and (in Plagues) a young boy with autism. Finding and respecting the voice of every character is an author's duty and privilege. For me, it's also where the greatest expenditure of emotional energy goes.
OMN: If you were asked to select a fiction genre (or subgenre) into which to place this series, what would it be?
SL: Plagues of Eden is definitely a thriller. But then, we're often asked to "pick one" and given a list that includes: international thriller, contemporary thriller, action/adventure thriller, military thriller, religious thriller, romantic thriller … and the answer to all of those is "yes." So, how do you pick?
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the books?
SL: The Eden Thrillers follow the adventures of Army Chaplain Jaime Richards, and my co-author is an active duty military chaplain. So yes, a lot of Jaime's background and experiences are supplied by B.K. — although Jaime is certainly not based on B.K.! But Chasing Eden, the first of the Eden thrillers, takes place in Iraq during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and B.K. happened to have been in many of those same places during that same time. Truth is, there's no way I could write these books without B.K. Many, many things can be researched and brought to fiction, but military people can spot a civilian doing her best about a million miles away. One tiny error in uniform or speech or command, and you've lost them. B.K. brings that authenticity and authority.
OMN: How do you manage the writing process with two authors?
SL: Writing thrillers with a co-author that have so many characters, things have to be pretty well mapped out. It's crucial to know who knows what when. Plagues of Eden was especially challenging because the characters were also in different time zones all over the world — sometimes things that were happening concurrently were happening on different days. It was a challenge!
But then, once you get through a first draft, you quickly realize which characters have much more blossoming to do to make the story what it needs to be. So yes, many characters take off on their own — within the confines of the story.
OMN: Did you and B.K. work in separate locations while writing Plagues of Eden?
SL: A fun thing about this book is that a lot of it is set at West Point, and we were able to write a lot of it at B.K.'s quarters at West Point.
OMN: You mentioned how important it is to get the details right. How did you go about researching the plot points of the series?
SL: We're very picky about the Eden Thrillers being exhaustively researched. We create the characters, but the planes they fly in, the places they visit, the things they know and talk about, are all real. We now know the architectural requirements of building in Paris, how many stories the Eiffel Tower is (and how many steps to come down), inheritance laws in France, and wine making in China. Often we do change the names of things, such as the winery in China, but we are describing a real place. Sometimes we do take liberties with a real place — but only in ways people can't disprove. Although I doubt there's a nefarious command center beneath the Castel Del Monte in Italy, but you never know.
We usually start with locations we love and know well — which is why it's often handy to have B.K. around. Everything we describe about the secret places in West Point's Cadet Chapel actually exist. Of course.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a thriller writer and thus I am also …".
SL: … someone who acknowledges her dark side and insatiable curiosity about the world!
OMN: You used a pen name early in the series. Why was that?
SL: The first Eden Thrillers were published by St. Martin's Press, and their marketing folks insisted we only use one author name instead of two — AND use initials so that "men would buy the book," so they were published under S.L. Linnea.
When Arundel took over the series, we insisted that they use both our names, which they were happy to do.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
SL: Top 5 Sexiest Male Characters in Modern Fiction (A Thinking Woman's Guide):
• Jaime Fraser (Outlander)
• Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
• Ambrosius (The Crystal Cave)
• Ari Ben Canaan (Exodus)
• Sergeant Mike Flannigan (Mrs. Mike)
(For more information on each of these characters, see Sharon's post on her super-secret Eden blog.)
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Sharon has been a staff writer for five national magazines and a ghostwriter for dozens of celebrities. She lives with her family outside of New York City.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at SharonLinnea.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Plagues of Eden
Sharon Linnéa and B.K. Sherer
An Eden Thriller
The wheel spins. Chaos is unleashed. Death of the firstborn. 72 hours and counting … The race is on to stop a madman bent on unleashing the ancient plagues of Egypt against the modern world.
Tel-Al-Balamum, Egypt. The dig of an ancient temple is decimated by fiery hail from the heavens. And that's only the beginning.
Buenos Aires. Paris. West Point. The countdown has begun.
Only Army Chaplain Jaime Richards, along with rock star Mark Shepard, can stop the catastrophe and save the mysterious Sword 23 from the clutches of a psychopath … if they can find the true mastermind in time.
