Dana Cameron on SO MANY SPIES

HALLIE EPHRON: The ebullient and talented Dana Cameron was one of the first mystery authors I met when we were both newbies, publishing our first books awhile back, and taking over adjacent terms as president of the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime. Her debut featured Emma Fielding, a kick-ass archaeologist. It's been turned into a mystery series on the Hallmark Movie Mystery channel.

Now she's venturing into new territory with EXIT INTERVIEW, a spy thriller. It plays to all of Dana's strengths. Meg Gardiner said “EXIT INTERVIEW takes off like an express train and never slows down. Grab this book, buckle up and hold on for a terrific ride."

Today we're happy to welcome Dana to Jungle Red, where we're wondering what is it about spies that inspires her?

DANA CAMERON: A long time ago (the 1980s), in a faraway land (Boston University’s Archaeology Department), someone had posted a flier from the spring job recruitment fair in the students lounge. It said (and I’m paraphrasing here):

“Do you like travel? Are you interested in languages and meeting new people? Do you have a mind for analysis?”

It was a recruitment flier for the CIA.

That same someone scribbled in the margins of the flier: “If archaeology doesn’t work out...they have a pension plan!” Broke-student humor.

Suddenly, a lifetime obsession started to make sense to me: I’ve always loved spy fiction and I realized then that the idea of observing clues and the way people behave ties in with my first career, in archaeology.

When I was a kid, I devoured Harriet the Spy and Snow Treasure (a fictional account about moving gold out of Norway under the eyes of the occupying Nazis) was one of my favorite books. Later, there would be Milady DeWinter, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Jason Bourne, and even Robert Heinlein’s Friday. On TV, there were reruns of “Get Smart” (forget Max—Agent 99 was smart and gorgeous!), “Mission: Impossible,” and “The Avengers.”

I mean, Mrs. Peel? No one is cooler.

My first Bond was Roger Moore, but my favorite is Daniel Craig (if only Timothy Dalton’s movies had been better written—he’d have tied, IMHO). The gadgets, the adventure, the clothes—I was hooked.

But even after these pop culture responses to the Cold War, my fascination kept up, and reading about covert operatives in history, I learned how very unglamorous, and how very dangerous it was to act under the noses of the enemy.

During some recent domestic archaeology (clearing out long-neglected corners of the house), I uncovered a copy of a paper I wrote for a high school history class, on the Special Operations, Executive in World War II. The group was informally called “The Baker Street Irregulars” (which ties in with another part of my life now, Sherlockian studies), and were Churchill’s “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” –a new sort of intelligence branch.

As you can see, I had something to learn about editing (the comment is “Interesting paper, choppy in some places A-”), but later, my grade was raised to an “A” when the paper took an honorable mention in a state high school history contest. But I digress.

I would take advantage of attending Malice Domestic to visit the International Spy Museum and loot the bookshop there. I completely swooned when I found out that Valerie Plame would be writing an essay for Shattering Glass (which featured one of my “a.k.a. Jayne” stories). Thrillers are some of my favorite reads to this day.

The ingenuity, the courage, and the fast-thinking keep me fascinated with covert operatives to this day. Perhaps it was inevitable that I would eventually write an espionage thriller, and in the course of researching my latest book, Exit Interview, I had a chance to reconnect with my once and future interest.

So Reds and Readers: Do you share my fascination? What are some of your favorite tales about spies, in fiction or fact?

Dana Cameron writes across many genres, but especially crime and speculative fiction (including the Fangborn novels). Her work, inspired by her career in archaeology, has won multiple Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity Awards, and has been nominated for the Edgar Award. Several of Dana's Emma Fielding archaeology mysteries appear on the Hallmark Movie & Mystery Channel. When she isn’t traveling, she's weaving, spinning, or yelling at the TV about historical inaccuracies. Exit Interview (an a.k.a. Jayne Novel) is available now.