Every September 11th has a profound effect on me that is undiminished by the passing years. This year, with so many new readers of my series, I decided to tell the story of how it all began.
But first, a bit about myself. I’ve been a writer since standing at the blackboard of my first-grade class at Linn Mar’s Indian Creek Elementary School in Marion, Iowa. It’s a vivid memory. I can feel the firmness of the chalk in my little girl fingers. I stare down the length of the blackboard, inhaling the scent of chalk dust. Endless worlds are literally at my fingertips.
That’s when I started writing stories. I’ve never stopped, from penning childish tales about a whale in our basement to high school creative writing classes, and almost a minor in English in college. (I lacked three credits, because I didn’t want to take report writing. Who would?) While working on several different careers, showing my horses and raising our two sons I wrote numerous freelance articles for horse magazines and human-interest pieces for newspapers. I also spent three years writing resumes professionally.
But it wasn’t until relaxing on an Alaska cruise in 2008, with no distractions for the first time in decades that I realized I wanted to write thrillers. I couldn’t imagine waking up some morning as a much older person, realizing I’d never pursued the dream. When I got home, I discussed my thoughts with my husband, and he asked why I didn’t quit my job and get started. He really is a keeper!
The idea for a series of stories about an Iranian American FBI special agent has its roots in disparate areas. As a young college student at Iowa State University, I met a group of Iranian students that to this day hold an affectionate place in my heart. They were kind, intelligent kids with a special love of life and they fostered a love for the Persian people in me. I’ve wondered on many occasions how each of them fared after the fall of the Shah, the revolution and the institution of strict Islamic Sharia in their beloved country.
During the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, I was working as a customer service rep for the United Express carrier Air Wisconsin, operating United flights from the Sioux Falls airport. This gave me a unique perspective. We spent hours searching flight manifests from the days preceding the attacks, and that day, for “certain names.” And we found some of those names on our flights. Talk about creepy…
My first visit to Ground Zero was during the week before Christmas of 2001. I didn’t get closer than a few blocks away and I wanted to see more. In February of 2002, a fellow airline friend and I went back to New York. We got as close as we could and approached a NYPD officer sitting in a patrol car. We showed him our United ID’s and he gave us instructions for where airline employees could view the wreckage.
We thanked him and turned to leave, then heard someone say, “Ladies, wait.” He’d exited his car and asked if we’d like to see things up close. He took us on a tour of the back side of Ground Zero, explaining where they’d set up a temporary morgue, among other things and showed us what became “The Cross at Ground Zero” that had been pulled from the wreckage. He took us to the private viewing area overlooking the smoldering carnage, reserved for families of the crews and passengers.
In the weeks and months following the attacks, we were required to read daily “Security Circulars,” detailing terror threats and activities not publicized, sent from the government via United’s security department. We attended classes at the Denver airport, teaching us how to be aware of suspicious activities in our airport and on our flights, and how to respond to threats. We had added layers of security around our aircraft, dramatically changing our procedures. We found anti-American, threatening graffiti in some of the aircraft cargo pits. The net effect of all these things was that 9/11 remained current in our minds long after the actual event.
The impact has been profound for me. Not a single day goes by that I don’t think about 9/11 in some capacity. Sometimes it’s as simple as gazing at the flag that flies above the American Legion post, located across from our back yard. I will always remember it flying at half-staff, and how I was looking at it while on the phone talking to my station manager, learning about what happened to the flight attendants on the United jet that hit the towers. Not fun stuff, believe me.
I’ve been to Ground Zero many times since, observing the progress of the Freedom Tower. I saw the site progress from smoldering wreckage in 2002, to construction, to standing at the base of the completed Freedom Tower. Its picture, taken by me from the cemetery behind St John’s Chapel, hangs in my living room.
Now for some fun stuff! By now you’ve seen the image of my protagonist on the cover of all five thrillers in the Rowan Milani Chronicles. When I began writing, I wanted a picture in my mind of what the protagonist would look like. I did a Google search for Iranian American actors and a page popped up that reminded me of a high school yearbook. One image jumped off the page and I clicked on the name Nicholas Guilak.
The link took me to his website, http://nicholasguilak.com/ and I started reading. Based on the stuff on his website, which included a couple of magazine article interviews, he seemed like a nice guy and he had the look I wanted. When the time came to create the actual paperback cover for my first thriller, Consummate Betrayal, I remarked to a friend that it would be amazing to have his image on the cover. Her response – “Why don’t you ask him?” Haha! Right. Nobody me from South Dakota, ask a Hollywood actor if he’d like to be on the cover of my thriller? That would be a great big NO.
She said – “You’ve got nothing to lose. If you don’t want to ask him, I will.” I agreed and she sent him an email. Within a few minutes he replied that he was flattered by the interest, but would like to read the manuscript. I sent the manuscript and waited. He let me know when he received it, and a week later said he was reading and would let me know when he’d finished. A week later I received an email with the words – ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! You can use my image for your thriller.
That’s how it all started. In 2014, while working on the second of the series, titled Unholy Retribution, I flew out to LA to meet personally with Nico. He’d read my partial manuscript and had some ideas. We spent an afternoon talking. Well, he talked, and I listened. He was totally invested in the character of Rowan Milani and encouraged me to take the story to a new, global level. I returned to South Dakota with my head spinning and ditched most of the 40,000+ words I’d written and started again.
I progressed to the third book in the series, A Different Man in 2017 and to Terminal Redemption in 2020. Early in March 2020 I flew to LA again to meet with Nico. We talked about how the stories would continue and how the film industry was changing. We decided to work on creating a series for one of the streaming services, such as Netflix or Amazon. The following week, Covid struck full force, casting a pall on everything almost immediately. But who knows, at some point you may see Consummate Betrayal as the first season in the Rowan Milani Chronicles!
Have fun checking out Nico’s website. He’s had starring roles in several movies and lots of supporting leads, plus guest roles in numerous TV series and even the soap opera General Hospital. Nico is a kind and generous person, a terrifically talented actor and has impacted my writing profoundly. I will always be grateful for his influence and for my friend’s confidence in contacting him.
My fifth thriller in the Rowan Milani Chronicles series – The Man Behind The Shadows has been very well received. It’s a great story and sets Rowan on a new, fun and intriguing trajectory. Feel free to grab a copy either in paperback or Kindle!
The ROWAN MILANI CHRONICLES 