Fact and Fiction

I was interested to read this story in the Telegraph this morning, about how well-financed the Taliban is from the opium trade in Afghanistan, because it touches on the plot of my thriller Death Force, which is about the attempt by some Army officers and mercenaries to make the Taliban a bit poorer by robbing their money.

But it also started me thinking about the lines between fact and fiction and how thriller writers should handle them.

One of the things that I've also liked about the genre is the way it draws on real-life, taking stories from the military, from science, from finance or from politics. Of all the fictional genres, it is the most 'newsy'. Indeed, the best thrillers give you the same sense of immediacy and being close to the action that you get from reading a newspaper.

But, of course, it also creates problems.

A newspaper or website is real-time. A book is on a two to four year time cycle. If I start thinking about a plot right now, it will take a year for me to write it, and another year for it to come out, then a few more months before it comes out in paperback. Then you hope it survives on the shelves for at least two or three years. So someone could be reading it five years after you thought about it, and it has to still seem bang up to date and relevant.

Right now, I'm writing the third in the 'Death Force' series. It's called 'Shadow Force' and involves the unit of mercenaries taking on the pirates in Somalia. I had a discussion with my editor at Headline about whether pirates would still be in the news in 2011 when the book comes out. I reckon they will be, and I talked to a few experts to find out. The pirates, I reckon, will be in and out of the news for years to come (and it would be great if they could take a really big boat the month the book comes out).

But, of course, I can't be sure of that. People might have lost interest by then.

It's really a matter of guesswork - and also trying to figure out what conflicts or stories will be topical for several years, and which are just transitory.

James Bond In Afghanistan

From Helmand With Love. No, that probably doesn't quite work as a title. Still, fascinating news that the producers of the latest Bond movue are thinking about setting the film in Afghanistan. My own book 'Death Force' is of course set in Helmand, and I suspect it is only a matter of time before we start seeing a lot more war fiction coming out the country. All the elements are there: a vicious war, a terrifying enemy, great power politics, terrorists, drug dealers and their fortunes. Indeed, the only surprising thing is that it has taken writers so long to catch onto it.

The Taliban's Money

Accoridng to reports in the FT and elsewhere, NATO has now decided it has to directly target the Taliban's drugs trading operations in Afghanistan. It is, they've concluded, the only way they are going to defeat then - a rich enemy is a powerful enemy, and the drugs trade is funnelling millions into the hands of the Taliban. It is, of course, precisely the plot of Death Force, my book which is coming out in January. Who knows, they might even be hiring mercenaries to do the job for them.

The Taliban's Finances

It's surprising given that Britain is fighting a vicious war in Afghanistan that so little attention is paid to the Taliban, the enemy it is taking on, and where it gets its money from. There is an excellent piece in the Telegraph today discussing precisely that. The opium trade is keeping the Taiban rich, and that means they have plenty of weapons and plenty of troops. At some stage, the British are going to have to try to deal with that. Which is where the plot of Death Force starts...the attempt by the British to cut off the flow of money to the Taliban.

Herlmand's Opium Crop

According to this report, there is likely to be a record opium crop in Afghanistan's Helmand province this year. The central premise of 'Death Force', my upcoming thriller from Headline, is that the opium money is being used to finance the war against the British Army there. They won't start winning the war until they cut off the suppply of money. It is a pretty simple point, and one that makes a good basis for a story. But if it has occured to me, it must have occured to someone in the Army as well? Surely some raids on the drugs lords are taking place - and if not, why not?

The Wierdness of Gordon Brown Part 458

The Times reports this morning that Gordon Brown is hitting yet more all-time lows in the polls: 25% for Labour, 20 points behind the Conservatives, which is as bad as it has ever been for Labour on ICM figures. But you just don't have to look far to see why it is so bad. A day earlier, the 100th British soldiers died in Afghanistan (where, incidentally, my upcoming book Death Force is set). You might expect the PM to come up with a clear statement of what the mission was and what they died for. After all, there was plenty of time to prepared for that milestone. All Brown could manage was a bland statement about their 'sacrifice' that has been delivered a hundred times already. That isn't even beginning to show leadership. It gets more dismal by the day, and Labour can go a lot lower still. The next interesting point, I suspect, is when the Lib Dems overtake Labour in the polls.