Let's start with the basics. Where did you get the idea for a book like RESURRECTION DAY?	I've always enjoyed reading suspense-thriller novels, as well as novels of alternative history. Books of alternative history that I've enjoyed include Philip K. Dick's THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, Len Deighton's SS-GB, and of course, FATHERLAND, by Robert Harris. The interesting thing about these three books is that they all explore the possibilities of what a Nazi victory in World War II might have been like, and they all explore it from different vantage points. So while the interest was there on my part to write a novel of alternative history, I really didn't want to explore areas that many other authors have done, including World War II and the Civil War. But one day in 1992 I was reading an article mentioning that we were approaching the thirtieth anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and click, there it was. What if the Cuban Missile Crisis had erupted into World War III?
Did you start writing the book in 1992?	Except for a few minor scenes, no, I didn't. At the time I was working on the first of my traditional, first-person detective novels, called DEAD SAND. I had earlier published numerous short stories in mystery magazines like Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and I had also written two novels that did not get published. With DEAD SAND, I had a sense that things were coming together, that this was a book that I could get published. I didn't want to abandon that project just as I started it, and I also knew I didn't have the time to devote to a project like RESURRECTION DAY.
And what happened with DEAD SAND?	My very first published novel, DEAD SAND, was published in hardback by Otto Penzler Books in 1994, and its sequel, BLACK TIDE, was published in 1995. Both books are available -- in some locations! -- in paperback from Pocket Books. They feature Lewis Cole, a former Department of Defense research analyst who gets involved in things mysterious in and around the New Hampshire seacoast. The third Lewis Cole novel, SHATTERED SHELL, was published in March of this year by St. Martin's Press.
During this time, what was going on with your Cuban Missile Crisis book?	Through the years of writing other books and short stories, I always kept the idea of the Cuban Missile Crisis book in the back of my mind. I clipped out articles, I taped all of the anniversary programs that ran on television in October 1992, and every now and then, I would dip into my computer file marked CUBAN BOOK and play "what if" and do some plotting.
What do you mean, "what if?"	Those two words are the basic tools for most writers. You start with "What if?" and work it out from there. The big question of course was, "What if the Cuban Missile Crisis had erupted into World War III? What would be different? What would the world be like? How would things have changed?" And from here you have the basics of the imaginary world that exists in RESURRECTION DAY.
So what's this imaginary world like?	RESURRECTION DAY takes place in 1972, ten years after the missile crisis became the Cuban War. It would be familiar in lots of ways -- one of the popular television programs in this 1972 is "Gunsmoke" -- but there are many, many important differences. For example, in RESURRECTION DAY, there had never been a Vietnam War: a wounded United States wouldn't have the interest or the resources to defend South Vietnam during the 1960's. In RESURRECTION DAY, there had never been a trip to the moon: both the American and Soviet Union space programs died with the onset of war. And more importantly -- at least to the plot of the book -- President John F. Kennedy is not the revered, martyred president that many people think of him today. In RESURRECTION DAY, it's believed that he stumbled the United States into a nuclear war that severely damaged our nation, utterly destroyed the Soviet Union, and tossed the world into chaos. His memory is reviled, except for those few true believers who think the war wasn't his fault.
When and why did you start writing RESURRECTION DAY?	I started writing RESURRECTION DAY in early 1996, and for no other reason than because my writing career had stalled -- temporarily, thankfully -- when I had finished my third Lewis Cole novel, SHATTERED SHELL. Soon after my second book, BLACK TIDE, was published, the wonderful hardcover publishing house that bought my first two books no longer existed due to one of those huge corporate media takeovers. I had the naive confidence that with two published books under my belt, it would be easy to find a publisher for the third. Surprise: it wasn't. I had finished SHATTERED SHELL and after more than a year's worth of rejections, I knew it was time to face facts: it didn't make sense to write the fourth Lewis Cole mystery if I couldn't get the third Lewis Cole mystery published. Deciding what to do next, I had a choice: either start a new mystery series, or take a big leap and try to write the Cuban book. So I wrote the Cuban book.
What was that like?	Very challenging. The amount of research was tremendous, starting with the foundation: what were things like back in 1972? I had been a young boy in 1972 but I didn't trust my memories, so that meant a lot of reading through old newspapers and magazines. Then I had to pick and choose what would exist in the 1972 world of my novel compared to the real 1972: for example, gasoline was relatively cheap in 1972; in RESURRECTION DAY, not only is gasoline expensive, it's rationed. Then I had to take the research one step further: what would the United States be like ten years after a nuclear war that saw the nation suffer millions of dead, and the loss of some major cities like Omaha, San Diego, Washington D.C. and most of New York City? Would there have been a civil rights movement? A women's movement? Environmentalism? Then all of these strings of research had to come together as one. Then there was other research as well: what were things like back in 1962? How close did we come to war with the Soviet Union? What was the balance of forces like between the United States and the Soviet Union? With this research also came the plotting and planning that led to the book itself: a story about a newspaper reporter, Carl Landry, who while reporting on a story about a forgotten, murdered veteran, begins to unravel some dark secrets of how the 1962 Cuban War actually began.
How long did it take you to finish the book?	Close to a year and a half. The first draft was completed about June 1997. I re-wrote and edited it for a few more months, and then sent it to my agent in September. By early November, 1997, the book had been purchased by Putnam. And the real work was then to begin. From January to October, 1998, RESURRECTION DAY went through three more drafts, with a lot of scenes added and other scenes cut. Thanks to my editors at Putnam -- Liza Dawson and then David Highfill -- I believe it's now a much stronger book.
What are you working on now?	Not an alternative history book, that's for sure. That was a lot of work! I'm currently working on another suspense-thriller with political and military overtones.
What kind of readers do you think would like RESURRECTION DAY?	Anyone who enjoys a good mystery, a suspenseful novel that takes a look at what might have happened during a terrifying event like the Cuban Missile Crisis, and anyone -- who, like myself -- grew up during the Cold War. I remember hearing air raid sirens and listening to Air Force bombers going overhead on alert and knowing where the nearest fallout shelter was located. We were lucky then; with today's problems of nuclear proliferation (like Pakistan and India) and with questions of who's in control in present-day Russia (with its political and economic instability), I hope we continue to be as lucky in the future.

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