Do you write full-time?
Writing is my job as well as my calling. In addition to my novels, I write freelance magazine features on a wide variety of issues. I’ve sort of come full circle since my days as a broadcast journalist. In just the last couple of years, I’ve reported on illegal immigration, environmentalists battling with real estate developers, even the sexual habits of New York suburbanites.
If you could trade places with one author who you have admired over the years, who would it be and why?
I am a fan of so many writers, some great and some perhaps not, but I really admire John Steinbeck for his versatility. He wrote everything from huge sweeping epics like Grapes of Wrath to young adult classics like The Red Pony plus novellas, travel, memoir, even comedy. In a thirty-year career, he left a huge legacy.
Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
Heart of Diamonds is a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo. The high-concept plot features an American televangelist, the President of the Congo, and the White House in a diamond smuggling scheme that leads to U.S. military involvement in the Congo’s civil war. When TV reporter Valerie Grey (the heroine) uncovers the conspiracy, an array of powerful forces — a ruthless mercenary, the Congolese army, and cold-blooded agents sent by the White House — try to stop her before she can expose it to the world. Heart of Diamonds also has a big romantic love triangle that feeds an important subplot.
What was the inspiration behind your book? Why did you feel a need to write it?
Heart of Diamonds is fiction but it was inspired by a true story. The idea for the book came from a Time Magazine article I read about Pat Robertson — the famous televangelist — and his close relationship with Mobutu Sese-Seko, the dictator who raped the Congo for thirty years. Robertson was his buddy and actually owned diamond mines, timber concessions, and other big businesses in the Congo at one time. When I read about it, I couldn’t get over the irony of this American religious icon profiting from slave labor in Africa. I had to write a book about that.
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