PageOneLit.com: Where did you grow up and was
reading and writing a part of your life?
TN Rivers: I grew up in rural
Alabama and learned to love visiting the lives that I could envision
from the branches of my treehouse with the assistance of a great book
from the local library. My earliest reading memories were the classic
tales of Travis McGee written by John D. MacDonald, and after forty
years, I still value the protagonist's straighforward ability to see
deeply, act directly and smile in the process. Although my academic and
military lives take up more time than I sometimes choose to give, I
enjoy boating, scuba diving, travel, and quiet afternoons with my wife
and 10 year-old Bichon Frise. I'm currently enjoying reading James
Rollins (a veterinarian who writes great scientific thrillers), and
continuing reads of Michael Crichton, Clive Cussler, Tom Clancey,
Michael Palmer and Jeffrey Anderson.
PageOneLit.com: Why do you write?
TN Rivers: I write to
broaden my own understanding of the world around me, and really enjoy
attempting to educate myself in multiple areas of interest. The fun of
writing fiction is the research for the work and the first draft, while
the many re-writes become just plain suffering.
PageOneLit.com: In your new book, "The Jihad Germ", you tackle
the subject of America's vulnerability against bio-terrorism from an
insiders point of view. Please explain your experience in the Middle
East and how your experience prepared you to write this book. How
vulnerable do you feel America's national security is at the moment? How
much of the book is fiction?
TN Rivers: "The Jihad Germ" deals
with bioterrorism, but I am very concerned about our vulnerability to
chemical and nuclear agents as well. The U.S. (since the book was
written in 2005) has made progress in areas of port security, with the
development of agreements with twenty foreign ports in an attempt to
increase our security intelligence on a shipment's source. Additional
funds have been alloted for new radiographic screening tools to look
into shipping containers, but we still only review a third of the
containers entering the U.S. (and physically inspect the inside of only
8 percent). The containers are in general checked only as they exit an
American storage yard facility, much too late for stopping an explosive
event. My greatest fear is that groups that mean us harm will float an
old rusty freighter into one of our smaller ports and explode one of the
67 missing Soviet "suitcase nukes" or a simple "dirty bomb" made with
conventional explosives and radioactive medical waste. Our best tool to
avoid such a catastophe is aggressive and accurate human intelligence
obtained in high risk foreign countries.
Although this novel is fictional, the risks of a serious biologic or
chemical attack are real and the motivations of terrorist groups are
even more real. Biologic (and to a lesser degree chemical weapons) are
cheap ways for our enemies to approach the kill rate of small nuclear
weapons. The problems with dispersion/delivery of chemical agents make
them less likely to be used in the U.S., but bioweapons are readily
available, easy to deliver, and already in the hands of multiple
countries that we cannot trust.
My experiences in the Middle East just confirm that although only a
small percentage of individuals of Islamic faith have desire to topple
the governments of the United States and Israel, the believers who do
are committed to converting the infidel or ending his/her life. Yes,
portions of the Koran advocate peace and acceptance of others, and in
general, these portions were written by Mohammed during his period of
peaceful life in Mecca. Mohammed's writings during his later life as a
warlord in Medina are the sources of the surahs that command to "put to
the sword" those who fail to convert to Islam.
PageOneLit.com: Did you do any research for "The Jihad
Germ"? Explain
TN Rivers: The research for the Jihad Germ
included the water systems of New Orleans (the initial setting of the
book before Katrina and the real presence of the Superdome as a crisis
center), the streets and buildings of Philadelphia, the current
techniques of DNA harvest and gene splicing, plus the format of auto
tags in Texas. I give particular thanks to an editor who spotted an
error in my presentation of the latter. I have had the opportunities to
know military people, law enforcement officers, and helicopter aviation
in detail. Very little of "The Jihad Germ's" military operations and
intelligence techniques are fictional, however, care has been taken to
avoid classified material that would not be available from typical
Internet sources.
PageOneLit.com: What's next?
TN Rivers: The next project is a novel of
Mayan history and quantum physics entitled "The Tolzkin Prophecy"
hopefully to be completed this year. Cross your fingers for me and stand
by for a work which will hopefully meet our reading goals: to entertain
and to cause us to question.
time medical school faculty member. He serves as a
Reserve Colonel/Flight Surgeon, and has experience
in both civilian and military combat. He has a
background which includes Army special operations
and a year in the Middle East. He lives on Mobile
Bay with his wife and nine-year-old Bichon Frise.
Visit Terry online at