Richard Snyder is a new author and a writer of spy fiction. It’s a good fit for him since he is a former intelligence officer who uses his background and experience to feature the unpredictability and moral chaos of intelligence operations. He is currently working on a trilogy that follows the professional life of a young spy—Owen Roberts—from the beginning of his career to its end. Two of his three novels have been published and the third is being written as we speak.
In his debut novel, The Clandestine Education of Owen Roberts, the Iraq War is a raging storm of blood and violence, the Service is fighting for its survival on and off the battlefield, and an Iranian diplomat in Paris reaches out to a retired spy. What follows is a tale of self-discovery in the ruthless world of espionage as Owen operates in a sphere of deceit and self-delusion, all while trying to come up with a moral code that he can live by.
The second novel in the Owen Roberts’ trilogy, Defector in Paradise, is a political/spy thriller that takes place during an election year. Tragic circumstances force Owen to team up with a cagey Soviet defector to expose one of the Cold War’s last and biggest secrets: the identity of a high-level mole operating within the US government who has his sights set on the White House.
At its heart, Defector in Paradise is a novel about the unimaginable manipulation of American politics and the actions of those who refuse to believe truths they cannot accept.
Richard Snyder stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing and researching his novels:
Being a new author, one of the first things I had to figure out was the right balance between the use of factual or historical research and just plain old storytelling. Which was more important to me in telling spy stories that merge the past with the present in a believable and dramatic manner? And, believe it or not, two quotes from vastly different personalities helped guide me along the way. One was from Albert Einstein, who once said “that imagination was more important than knowledge.” And the other was from Elmore Leonard, one of America’s best crime fiction writers, who said when asked about the reason for his success: “I just leave out the parts that no one reads.”
In my first novel, The Clandestine Education of Owen Roberts, I needed to understand the complexity of life in Baghdad during the war, and I mean every aspect of life in that war-torn city. It was part of the backdrop and the narrative of one of the key characters. I needed an insider’s perspective so I read multiple books written by those with boots on the ground that gave me the authenticity I needed, the kind of stuff where truth is stranger than fiction, where people saw things with their own eyeballs. I didn’t use online resources very much, but I did use online mapping tools to validate physical locations as well as the time and distance traveled by characters in the book. What I learned most about the value of research in writing my first novel was that it helped me connect the dots of my storyline between the past and the present, and that I wanted to use my research in a way where I didn’t lose my reader’s attention. I didn’t want my research to become ‘one of the parts’ that no one reads.
In my sequel, Defector in Paradise, I used mostly online resources and my own personal knowledge and experience because of the esoteric origins of some of the key plot lines. I wasn’t going to find the kind of information I needed in libraries or elsewhere for this novel. I came to appreciate how research can be a two-edged sword: too much reliance on research can constrain how your story evolves, but research can also open doors to new storytelling possibilities that you were not aware of previously. I came away with the understanding that your ‘research’ should fit the story and not the other way around. I don’t know if it is that way with everyone, but that is what works for me.
In bringing my comments to a close, I would say that how you use your research is more important than where you get it from as long as you are dealing with trusted sources of information. For the most part, I like folding my historical research into a character’s dialogue when possible because it seems more natural that way and reads less like a history lesson. There are parts of my novels, however, where I strayed from this preference, but only because I thought the reader would find the historical detail of interest.
I know there are many more research sources available to writers that I have not discussed in my post, but I know other writers posting In Reference to Murder have done a good job of doing that. As I said at the beginning, I am a new author, so every time I pick up the pen or type on the computer I am learning something new about myself, my craft, the research that goes into writing a novel, and the difficult but rewarding art of writing fiction.
You can learn more about Richard Snyder and his writing via his website. The Clandestine Education of Owen Roberts and Defector in Paradise are available via all major booksellers.
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