interviews
and host of the critically acclaimed national
public television series, Traveling Lite.
Now, onto our discussion with Brad Thor:
Brad Thor is the #1 New York Times
bestselling author of Foreign Agent, Code of
Conduct, Act of War, Hidden Order, Black List,
Full Black, The Athena Project, Foreign Influence,
The Apostle, The Last Patriot (nominated best
thriller of the year by the International
Thrill er Writers Association and banned in
Saudi Arabia), The First Commandment,
Takedown, Blowback (recognized as one of
the “Top 100 Killer Thrillers of All Time”
by NPR), State of the Union, Path of the
Assassin, and The Lions of Lucerne.
Brad has hosted the Glenn Beck TV and
radio programs and has appeared on FOX
News Channel, CNN, CNN Headline
News, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS
to discuss terrorism, as well as how closely
his novels of international intrigue parallel
the real threats facing the world today.
Brad has served as a member of the
Department of Homeland Security’s
Analytic Red Cell Unit and has lectured to
law enforcement organizations on over-the-
horizon/future threats. He has been a
keynote speaker for the National Tactical
Officers Association annual conference, the
Young America’s Foundation, and the
Ronald Reagan 100 celebration. A supporter
of The Heritage Foundation, Brad has
spoken at their national headquarters on the
need for robust missile defense.
In 2008, Brad shadowed a Black Ops team in
Afghanistan to research his thriller, The Apostle.
Brad graduated cum laude from the
University of Southern California where he
studied creative writing, film, and television
production. Before becoming a novelist, Brad
was the award-winning creator, producer, writer
www.TopShelfMagazine.net
How much research went into learning about
ISIS, how they're organized, and how they might
plan attacks, to make this book so believable?
The whole idea of fundamentalist Islam––
which is what ISIS is at its core and to a
great degree what Al Qaeda is (the ideology
is the same)––I've been following for over
fifteen years, way longer actually as I was
even interested back in college. How can
90% of a population read the same holy
book and have an entirely different view
than the 10% who want to go out and
perform extreme acts in the name of Islam?
So, I always think it's important to stress that
when we talk about terrorists who are using
Islam as a form of justification, these are
fundamentalists. These are people who
believe in the Islam as it was practiced by
the prophet Muhammad way back in the
7th century. So, I spent a lot of time
researching it. One of the fascinating things
about it for me is that Christianity has
undergone a reformation. Judaism has, but
Islam has not. There's no tradition of self-
examination, self-criticism in Islam. That
makes it very difficult for modern Muslims
to combat this ideology when it pops up in
their midst. Because the fundamentalist
Muslims will point to chapter and verse
from the Quran and say you can’t argue
with this, this is our holy book, and we
accept this. It's a complex ideology that’s
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
BRAD THOR, #1 BESTSELLING
AUTHOR OF USE OF FORCE
That's probably one of the biggest challenges
for an author who has a recurring character––
to reveal a little bit more about the character
each time you write them. People talk about
character development a lot––particularly
those who review on Amazon and places
like that. I read somewhere once about
characters––especially protagonists––in
thrillers, that you want James Bond or Indiana
Jones to be the same at the end of the
adventure that they were at the beginning.
You don't necessarily need them to change
who they are or what they believe in, but you
do want to know a little bit more about them.
So, that’s what I try to do, particularly in my
last three books. My wife is my first reader,
and she said about three books ago that I can
tell you're doing something different because
we always knew what Harvath thinks, now
we get to see how he feels. So now, I am
trying to throw real human elements at him
because that’s what unites all of us. We can
all relate to the human condition.
fascinating to me. I'm always reading
articles and books on both sides
regarding ISIS. It's a never ending
process to stay up on what motivates
the bad guys out there. That’s what I’m
putting into a book. If there are
Muslim characters who happen to be
bad guys, I try to balance it out with
good Muslim characters as well. I want
to know what motivates them, the
same way I would do for any bad guy I
put in a book. I want to know what
makes them tick. The more human
you can make them, the more
compelling they are as the character.
That's true even for the bad guy. You
want to make them human to a certain
degree, not necessarily humanize
barbarism, but make it so you
understand how they got to the point
where they felt they should go out and
do what they are doing.
This is your seventeenth book featuring your
character Scot Harvath. Please let us know,
how do you keep him fresh and evolving?
INTERVIEWS
For those not familiar with Burning Man at
Black Rock City in Nevada, describe what it
is and why you chose that as the first attack.
I was looking for something that I hadn’t
seen done in books or movies. Burning Man
is this amazing festival that happens in the
desert a couple of hours outside Reno,
Nevada. People set up a tent city for seven
days, people bring in RVs, there are no
hotels, everything you bring in you have to
bring back out with you, and it has a
modern hippy vibe. Some people run
around wearing nothing more than body
paint. From an artist standpoint, the
imagery is very rush, very real, very bright,
very colorful and exciting. For somebody
who studies terrorism, it's interesting
because people at this temporary city called,
Black Rock City, are packed tighter than
they are in London. It's denser than London
is. The security is probably not as much as
you should have. It seems like a natural
place to have an attack because you could
have a significant impact. So I watched a lot
of videos online and things like this, and I
think maybe if I was single, not married
with kids, it might be fun to go to Burning
Man to “do some research” but that wasn't
in the cards for me last year.
What are some common traps that aspiring
authors can fall into?
Well, I’ll tell ya, I think authors can be too
hard on themselves. I’ve always been. I
came from the television world. Being an
author was some thing I've wanted to do
since I was a little boy, but I had that voice in
the back of my head. I think we all have that
process, you know, why should I even try to
do this? You could embarrass yourself. What
TOPShelf magazine
AUGUST2017 17