Earl Staggs, novelist and short story author, two-time Derringer award winner, and an all-around good guy, is my guest this week.
The idea came to me shortly after
the tragedy of 9-11 when terrorists left a scar across the world that will
never heal. I was equally heartbroken
and angry. The angry part of me wanted
to go out and find anyone planning to commit such a horrible, unspeakable act and
exterminate them.
The more I thought about it, the
more I thought, “What if a group of people did exactly that?”
What if a group tracked potential
terrorists, and if they planned to take innocent lives, stop them before they
committed their murderous act? Yes, there
are alphabet agencies with that responsibility. There’s the CIA, FBI, NSA and
others, but they have restrictions. They
can only react after the fact and do not arrest and prosecute people for making
threats. They take action only after innocent
people are killed.
The agency taking form in my mind would
be secretive and operate under the radar of scrutiny without restrictions. If they were absolutely certain a terrorist
group would attack and kill, this agency would stop them first – permanently
with great prejudice. Most terrorists
are committed to die for their cause. If
that is their wish, this agency would accommodate them. If they want to meet
Allah and collect their virgins, the agency would put them in the Express Lane
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I created a main character with experience in Special
Forces and named him Tall Chambers. When
Tall retires from the Army at the age of 37, he joins the special agency. The agency has eyes and ears all over the world,
and other operatives with skills and backgrounds similar to Tall’s fill out the
unit. Tall accepts the agency’s mantra
of “Kill one terrorist, save a hundred lives,” even though he doesn’t like
killing under any circumstances. He
learns to concentrate on lives saved, not those taken.
But that’s when a strange thing
happened.
Tall grew as I wrote until the
primary focus of the story shifted from chasing terrorists and centered more to
how the job affected him and those around him.
The agency became only a backdrop for Tall’s personal story.
When Tall loses the person closest
to him, his focus becomes entirely personal.
He uses the agency’s resources and contacts to find the person
responsible for his loss and set things right.
This quest leads him to a decision between exacting personal revenge or
preventing a corrupt power from moving into the most powerful office in the
world – the Presidency of the United
States
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I was pleased with how this story turned
out and feel it could be my best work to date. Now I look forward to seeing
TALL CHAMBERS: JUSTIFIED ACTION in print. That should happen within a few short
months, and I’m excited about it.
ABOUT EARL
Mystery
author Earl Staggs recently received his second
Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year. His novel MEMORY OF A
MURDER earned a long list of Five Star reviews. SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS, a
collection of 16 Mystery tales, is available in print and ebook. He served as
Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine and as President of the Short
Mystery Fiction Society. He is a contributing blog member of Murderous Musings
and Make Mine Mystery and a frequent speaker at
conferences, seminars, writers and readers groups. Email: earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net Website: http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com
