www.jackriston.com, copyright © 2010. No part of this site or the contents herein may be reproduced without the express written consent of Jack Riston or the publishers of LePilot Publications.
People often ask me where the stories come from. The truth is...I dream them up, but with the help of the news media. It seems that every day is full of stories that make great ideas for novels...stuff you just can't make up. I'll be thinking about something totally unrelated, when the complete book idea will hit me like a flash.
It was that way with "For All The Marbles". I can clearly remember the moment when that story idea came. The complete story appeared in an instant. And, although the story had its genesis in 9/11, the complete framework of "For All The Marbles" just came to me one afternoon about a year after the event.
Sept 11, 2001 was a devastating day for me and for our country. I even felt some personal guilt for the event. Why? Because many of my 20 years in the Air Force were spent looking at classified information about various terrorist groups before Al Qaeda ever hit the US radar screens. I felt like I should have figured it out years earlier.
More importantly though, I wondered about the families of the fallen and the anguish they must have suffered and are still suffering. Can the heartache of that day ever be overcome?
From there, it was only a short step to wondering just what would have happened if the attack had been bigger. What if the planes had hit the White House and possibly killed the leadership? How would America react to a significant and major attack that decapitated the United States Government. How would America reconstitute itself in the face of such violence?
Over the next few weeks, the story began to take shape. But to deal with the tragedy that brought us together for that day and the weeks afterward, I had to deal with subjects that have nearly torn us apart in the past, and which still haunt us today: the questions of slavery and how America dealt with native Americans.
This was a time of both introspection and inspection of an imperfect country, born out of violence and rebellion, formed out of the fires of war; brother against brother, and nation against nation.
Then I found a character who was also imperfect, who had suffered great loss, but who was determined that the America that was born out of what we consider evil today would not perish from the face of the earth.
The story telling journey has just begun. Enjoy!
Welcome to the Home Page of Jack Riston, writer
Where Do Jack Riston's Stories Come From?