In the beginning....

"Eternal Blue Series: Unraveling the Intrigues of a Russian Spy in a Climate Activism Thriller"

“How in Christ’s name were you ever crazy enough to write a new novel with a Russian spy as its leading protagonist?”

Asked my long term friend, who shall remain nameless, after reading the first few chapters of the first book of my Eternal Blue series.

It wasn’t the first time I’d got that reaction.

So I was prepared for it and replied.

“Can we leave Christ out if it please? I can assure you that he’d nothing to do with that choice.

But I think he might’ve come to understand it a little better than you do. But let me explain a little further.

Perhaps with some more background you’ll see that Nastya, the Russian spy, rather

crept up on me. As spies have a habit of doing...”

“Go on then, fast talk your way out of that. I'm listening, old boy,

but with a healthy dose of skepticism, so don’t try and pull the proverbial wool over...” My friend riposted.

“Would never dream of trying anything of the sort, old boy. Just give me a chance to explain. I

started writing Eternal Blue shortly after Covid hit us.

Long before the mad cossacks decided to continue their invasion

of their unruly neighbour, Ukraine.

As they start a new land grab on a grander scale than they had tried before.

So the Russkies were not back then, quite the baddies they were to become very quickly,

as their land grab quickly became ten times worse,

with all manner of what can only be described as

war crimes.

Not my words, by the way, but hard to argue they don’t apply.”

“OK, I get that... but you could have changed things around, once that beastliness started.

I mean we’re coming up to two years, since

The Russians kicked off again with their ‘special military operation’

as they call the war in Ukraine.”

“Yes, I could. But if I’d done so, then I would have to admit that my character descriptions were crap.

In other words, so unreal that they could not pass the test of time, being part of our current

history.

That they were nothing more than comic book caricatures, nothing much more than

tropes and cliches.

So I took the risk of making them all too real, warts and all.

That means often politically incorrect, not only in what they say, but sometimes in what you would gather their thinking.

But if you sanitise it, make it all lovey dovey, for the Thought Police,

as Orwell would have called them... well then you lose the whole point.

"That’s not real life and that's not real people.”

“Isn’t that a real danger then, readers might find your characters to not be very nice, if they

express views that are for example, racist, prejudiced, intolerant, macho...and that could make your readers uncomfortable,

don’t you worry about that?”

“Yes, it’s always a worry and while I would not wish to make folks uncomfortable as a deliberate provocation.

But readers should realise that they get pretty much what it says on the cover.

As realistic as I can make it.

And I think there’s a kind of inevitability that however carefully you approach this,

There’s always someone, somewhere, that is going to be offended

So you either, dumb down what you write, so that it has no relation to reality or; you take it on board, you will upset a few folks that may object to sex, violence, prejudice and other stuff that’s certainly not intended for shrinking violets.”

“So you’re telling me,

You sacrifice political correctness, to make your characters more real?

Is that the bottom line?”

“Yes, I want to make my characters as real as they can be, moulded by the environments and

societies they grew up in. And how that’s affected them.

So they’re not intrinsically good, or bad people, but like us, tossed about in the ocean of life, and to some degree free spirits not always in control of their own destinies.

More difficult was putting words in the mouths of real people that actually exist.

Take Putin for example.

Certainly not our cup of tea in the west right now, but for many Russians, like a Tsar that can do whatever he wants for ‘Mother Russia’.

So in making up the things he’ll say, I don’t make any excuses for him, but he is what he is, as a product of his time.

Different forces are pulling him this way and that way, and I would guess, he’s pretty

worried about his own future.”

“Going back to another Russian in Eternal Blue, the main protagonist, Nastya Popova - a glamorous but deadly Russian spy, how typical is she of Russians today.

She’s from a younger generation, that have grown up much closer to the west.

Surely she would have taken on at least some of our values and want to see Russia move politically towards western Europe?

But she’s often acting more like some

Cold war spy, bent on destroying the west by any means possible.

“Yes and no. There’s no doubt we come to the conclusion early on that she’s been indoctrinated by her mentor, General Arkady Melnikov, the FSB General that took her under his wing at the start of her FSB spy career.

Melnikov is old school KGB, morphing now into modern day FSB, the new look KGB.

Supposedly Putin’s main confidante in my plot.

So yeah... his influence on what Nastya does, says and thinks,

it's pretty much what rules her life and her loyalty to Russia that we must wonder why it's so unquestioning.”

“Yes exactly, I was struggling with that.

You paint a picture of a clever, streetwise young lady that’s traveled the world and should be smart enough to see through obvious propaganda.

However, she dances to General Melnikov’s tune and seems to swallow their propaganda, hook, line and sinker.”

You will see,

A seed of doubt planted in her mind

As the series progresses, that seed takes root and starts to grow.

How that plays out... well you have to keep reading to find out.”

Discover the complexities of espionage and climate activism in the pages of Eternal Blue Series. Grab your copy of Eternal Blue Series today!