JAMIE FREVELETTI
We had a lively group discussion on Running from the Devil, topped by a terrific time talking with its author, Jamie Freveletti! Members enjoyed not only the fast-paced and complex events of the story, we all came away as big fans of Emma Caldridge. Her background, particularly as an ultra-marathon runner, fascinated folks, and contributed greatly toward making the things she accomplishes fully believable. Many of us were unfamiliar with the setting (Patti volunteered she’d had no idea just how close Caribbean islands like Aruba are to Colombia.)
We asked Jamie about her research for this, and the plant knowledge she needed that was specific to Colombia. She credited Angela Swafford, the person in her acknowledgement and who is Colombian, for sharing key pieces of information that made the setting come to life and verified the existence of plants etc. that were needed for the plot. Jamie will actually be seeing Angela soon and mentioned that she’s been wonderful about helping Jamie with research.
Jamie has also been to Colombia and loved the area and people she met, but found the constant presence of armed soldiers and the casual acceptance of the fact anyone could be kidnapped and held for ransom to be heartbreaking. (She mentioned that natives keep a pair of sneakers in their car trunks in case they are kidnapped, so they’ll have comfortable shoes to where while they are waiting to be ransomed.) If you want to go to both Cartagena and Bogotá safely, you need to fly from one to the other, even though they are only a couple of hours away from each other. (Fun Fact: She has also been to Cartagena, and seen the fort they really filmed for the movie Romancing the Stone!)
As for her other research – we asked about both about ultra-marathons and how she believably portrays the alphabet soup of governmental agencies and players with an insider’s knowledge. While she admitted that a few of the agencies only exist in her imagination or are twists on real agency names, she keeps a chart of the real agencies at hand so she know how they relate to each other. As for the ultra-marathon running – it turns out this really does exist, and Jamie’s husband has done this (!) A situation that came up during one of these events was actually part of the genesis of creating Emma. Her story about the poor runners racing through an unexpected snow storm in Colorado showed how tough and determined the real ultra-marathoners can be. This ability to hyper-focus and create mind games to help endure the physical conditions involved in running such lengthy races, blended well with Emma’s focus on science and logistics, and how strong her survival instincts would be.
When asked about what drew her to thrillers and what the nudge was to take on writing a novel, Jamie told us about how much she’s loved reading Dick Francis and Alistair MacLean, and how her mom got her hooked on the classic suspense movies like North by Northwest. She took a creative writing class in Chicago, and wrote her first book, which didn’t sell when she happened to mention to an agent at a Love is Murder dinner that she had an idea for a story where the heroine survives a plane crash in Bogotá, and the agent’s eyes lit up. That’s when she knew she had her story – and Running with the Devil (first called Bogotá) was born.
Somehow 😉 the romantic relationships in the story came up and Jamie verified that there is indeed a torch for Major Carol Stromeyer being held by the devastatingly handsome Edward Banner. Jamie grinned when we told her how much Joan liked the Major’s offer to type a memo giving credit for thwarting a major terrorist arms purchase when Margate whines about costs to repair the pipeline. She also verified that Boris and Natasha are indeed her tribute to Fractured Fairytales. To the delight of participants, she’s indicated that Boris (and Miguel as well) may be showing up in future stories.
One member mentioned how this story reminded her of Robert Ludlum’s Bourne books – which naturally led us to ask Jamie how the Covert One story she’s just published through the Robert Ludlum estate , Robert Ludlum’s The Janus Reprisal, came to be. She was actually approached through her agent by contacts from the estate, and after submitting her opening chapter and a two page summary, they hired her to do the story. They had been interested in her right from the publication of our discussion book, and started talking to her after she’d won the International Thriller Award for it. Quite the coup for a debut thriller writer! Jamie loved the break from her own characters and the chance to play in another author’s world. She really liked the characters they gave her to work with as well.
We could well have talked with Jamie through the night, but stopped in time to get some of her books (thanks to Sue Peterson from Brain Snacks) which Jamie generously signed for us. We sent her home with some of Traviata’s delicious truffles (with our MAF toe tag on the box!) and our sincere thanks for a great evening.
Pictures from this meeting will be coming up soon. Don’t miss the ones with Jamie and our gracious volunteer Luisa, showing some aikido moves that Jamie — who teaches aikido — demonstrated for us! Special thanks to YS and YS patrons for allowing Murder Among Friends to use their Junior High space for this meeting with Jamie. There’ll be a separate post when Jamie’s “Author Docket” is up on the blog too.
Read Full Post »
Jamie really liked it; she almost seemed reluctant to cut it!
