7/23/2009: R.J.: You’re very welcome. It’s my pleasure to be here.
Marty: These questions have been sent in by fans who wanted to know about your upcoming new series you call Parallel Ops.
Marty: Im talking with R.J. Archer, author of the three novels in the Seeds Of Civilization seriesTRACTRIX, TSUBUTE and TRIANGLE,
published between 2004 and 2008. R.J., thanks for taking time to answer a few questions posed by your fans.
R.J.: NWIDI was dissolved as a result of events that occurred in the closing pages of the Seeds trilogy, so the short answer is No.
However, the three missions that NWIDI undertook in Seeds will haunt its four members throughout the Parallel Ops series.
R.J.: Quite the opposite! Three of the main characters from Seeds get to be the lead in their very own book in the Ops series. And they each get their own, unique supporting cast of characters.
R.J.: The first three books in the series all take place during the same period of time, or in parallel, hence the name Parallel Ops.
Book 1 is titled The Scientists and stars NWIDIs soft-spoken anthropologist, Jim Barnes.
Book 2, The Informants, is led by former investigative reporter turned NWIDI researcher Linda McBride and her new husband, Javier Reyes.
Book 3, The Guardians, features NWIDI’s muscle Tony Nicoletti.
Book 1 is set in the Bahamas and western Europe;
Book 2 takes place on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula; and
Book 3 begins in Belize and quickly shifts to the British Virgin Islands.
R.J.: Ah, yes. The Teachers. Not much is known about Book 4 yetnot even by me!
R.J.: Yes, but like Seeds, the science fiction in Ops is pretty subtle.
If I say any more, Ill give away the Seeds series to those who havent yet read it.
R.J.: Partly as a result of interests cultivated while writing Seeds, my non-fiction writing has turned more to scuba diving and underwater archaeology topics. In May of 2009 I retired from my IT career and except for a little moonlighting Ive pretty much left that part of my life behind. It was a good 35-year run, but now its time for something new.
R.J.: Graham Hancock, to be sure, but I was also inspired by several of Clive Cusslers novels.
Thats to say I didnt like the fact that Dirk Pitt was this super-human macho guy who always seemed to be pulling rabbits out of thin air.
My goal with Seeds, and again with Ops, was to create believable characters that we could all identify withfolks who used common sense and a little luck to get the job done. One of the reasons Seeds had four main characters was because each brought his or her own unique skills to the table.
R.J.: Well, as I mentioned, Books 1, 2 and 3 are being written simultaneously and we hope to release them all at the same time, shortly after the first of the year (2010). Once they are in stores, Ill begin writing the fourth and final book in the series with the goal of having it in readers hands about a year later.