James Rollins - Arkangel
Joining me for the episode is #1 New York Times bestselling author and master of international thrillers, James Rollins. James and I have a chat about his latest novel (book #18) in the Sigma Force series, Arkangel. The novel takes you on a thrilling search by Sigma Force to find a missing trove of ancient books after the execution of a Vatican archivist. The story leads you through a mystery going back a millennia, uncovering the truth about a lost civilization and an arcane treasure that can save the planet. Join Sigma force, including military dog Kane, on this latest adventure. Also, learn what it takes to become one of the best thriller novelists in the business. Enjoy!
Listen to Episode #215 Now:
BIO:
James Rollins is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers. His writing has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold more than 20 million books. The New York Times says, “Rollins is what you might wind up with if you tossed Michael Crichton and Dan Brown into a particle accelerator together.” NPR calls his work, “Adventurous and enormously engrossing.” Rollins unveils unseen worlds, scientific breakthroughs, and historical secrets matched with stunning suspense. As a veterinarian, he had a practice in Sacramento for over a decade and still volunteers at local shelters. Nowadays, Rollins shares his home up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with his two golden retrievers, Echo and Duncan. He also enjoys scuba diving, spelunking, kayaking, and hiking. Of course, he loves to travel and experience new places around the world, which often inspire his next globe-trotting adventure.
As a boy immersed in the scientific adventures of Doc Savage, the wonders of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and pulps such as The Shadow, The Spider, and The Avenger, James Rollins decided he wanted to be a writer. He honed his storytelling skills early, spinning elaborate tales that were often at the heart of pranks played on his brothers and sisters.
Before he would set heroes and villains on harrowing adventures, Rollins embarked on a career in veterinary medicine, graduating from the University of Missouri and establishing a successful veterinary practice. He continues to volunteer his time and veterinary skills in support of the local SPCA. His hands-on knowledge of medicine and science helps shape the research and scientific speculation that set James Rollins books apart.
Explosive, Page-Turning Adventures
The exotic locales of James Rollins novels have emerged as a hybrid between imagination, research, and his extensive travels throughout the United States and Europe, as well as New Zealand, the South Pacific, China, Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America. Recent jaunts include book tours and stops across the country and several European nations to give talks, seminars, and media interviews.
In recent years, much of James' travel has involved meeting readers in small and large groups, at writing and fan conferences, and even aboard seagoing "seminars." James' mentoring and coaching skills have made him a sought-after writing instructor and guest speaker for workshops, symposia, conventions, and other forums throughout the country.
James Rollins is the #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of the bestselling Sigma Force series Sandstorm, Map of Bones, Black Order, The Judas Strain, The Last Oracle, The Doomsday Key, The Devil Colony, Bloodline, The Eye of God, The 6th Extinction, The Bone Labyrinth, The Seventh Plague, The Demon Crown, Crucible, The Last Odyssey, Kingdom of Bones, Tides of Fire; six individual adventure thrillers; the blockbuster movie novelization, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; the Tucker Wayne Series; the Order of the Sanguines Series; the Jake Ransom middle-grade series, and the Moonfall Saga series, The Starless Crown and The Cradle of Ice and the eighteenth Sigma Force Adventure, Arkangel, debuts August 6th, 2024.
EXPLORE BOOKS
Paying It Forward
James Rollins is the founder of Authors United, a group of bestselling authors dedicated to raising funds and awareness for USA Cares. This nonprofit organization seeks to help soldiers and their families through job placement, housing assistance, and emergency aid. Their mission is simple: restore financial stability and self-sufficiency, while instilling a renewed sense of hope among the brave men and women who have put their lives on the line for our freedom.
Transcript:
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Announcer: This is Pet Life Radio.
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Announcer: Let's talk pets.
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Tim Link: Welcome to Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio.
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Tim Link: This is your host, Tim Link, and I'm so glad you're joining us today.
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Tim Link: Super excited.
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Tim Link: We're gonna have an old friend, of course, one of the best out there.
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Tim Link: He's a New York Times number one bestselling author, James Rollins.
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Tim Link: James is gonna come back on the show here.
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Tim Link: Talked about his latest book, Arkangel, and it's of course a Sigma Force novel.
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Tim Link: So we're gonna talk to James a little bit about the novel, some of the intrigue without giving out all the secrets.
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Tim Link: And then of course, we won't let him get away without telling us about how he can master the craft like he does.
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Tim Link: So it's gonna be fun, exciting, educational, all kinds of good stuff.
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Tim Link: So we're super excited.
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Tim Link: So everybody hang tight.
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Tim Link: We'll come back right after this commercial break.
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Tim Link: You're listening to Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio.
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Tim Link: Let's Talk Pets on petliferadio.com Welcome back to Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio.
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Tim Link: Joining me now is number one New York Times bestselling author, James Rollins.
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Tim Link: James, welcome to the show.
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James Rollins: Thanks, Tim.
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James Rollins: Always happy to be here talking about writing and about animals.
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James Rollins: Two topics I love.
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Tim Link: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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Tim Link: We love it too.
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Tim Link: We'll definitely won't let you get off the hook without telling us about the animals that may or may not be in the book, and those that are in and around your feet right now.
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Tim Link: We'll talk a little bit about that.
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Tim Link: We got the latest book, the latest book, Arkangel.
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Tim Link: It's part of the Sigma Force novel and the International Thriller Series, and super excited to read through the book.
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Tim Link: Tell us a little bit about what can we expect from this particular one.
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James Rollins: Well, all my novels, I love dealing with mythology.
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James Rollins: I love dealing with these undiscovered worlds hidden here on earth.
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James Rollins: So this book deals with lost continents and mysterious lost libraries.
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James Rollins: It starts out with this very violent murder of a Vatican archivist who was researching the lost library, the library of the czars.
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James Rollins: It's called the Golden Library.
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James Rollins: It vanished after Ivan the Terrible died.
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James Rollins: His vast archive of books, suppose I went back, all the way back to the lost library of Alexandria.
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James Rollins: Everybody's been searching for this library up until today.
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James Rollins: They're still searching for the location of this last, this hidden library.
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James Rollins: And of course, my Vatican archive has stumbled upon a clue to that library, which of course ends up with his untimely death.
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James Rollins: Before he dies, he's able to get a coded message, warning that there's not just the hint about the library, but there's a terrifying secret about the library, one that can threaten the world.
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James Rollins: Sigma Force, of course, is called in after the murder to try to figure out what happened.
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James Rollins: A, where is this missing trove of ancient books?
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James Rollins: And it leads to basically a trail far into the Arctic in search for a mysterious lost continent that's been rumored to be up in the Arctic going back for centuries.
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James Rollins: And in this book, you're going to discover there actually could be a lost continent in the Arctic.
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James Rollins: And I'm not going to tell you how that comes about.
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James Rollins: You're going to have to read the book.
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Tim Link: There you go.
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Tim Link: I love it.
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Tim Link: I love it.
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Tim Link: And I love all your novels and the fact that I could see there's a ton of research that goes into it.
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Tim Link: And you're applying all these different things.
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Tim Link: You know, you've got a mystery, you've got a thriller, but it's a lot of real life content.
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Tim Link: And it's a lot of historical background behind it.
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Tim Link: And you're sort of running at what I call fast pace.
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Tim Link: Within the novel, to keep up with everything, but also going to all these different places.
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Tim Link: And sort of, you know, you do a great job of the visualization part of it as well.
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Tim Link: So big kudos on another success on that.
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James Rollins: This is my 18th, 18th Sigma Force novel.
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James Rollins: I have to keep track.
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James Rollins: And by the way, for those that are listening and you don't have to, I don't think anybody's read my series in order.
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James Rollins: I think I'm the only one that's read them in order.
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James Rollins: At this point, you could jump in in this book, even though it's book 18 in the series, whatever backstory you need to know for this book, I'm going to tell you in this book, so you're not going to feel lost.
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James Rollins: So if you feel like jumping in this story, feel free to do so.
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Tim Link: Absolutely.
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Tim Link: And I love that.
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Tim Link: I want to talk to you a little bit more about that later on as far as how you keep that all sorted and fresh and the challenges behind that.
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Tim Link: So we'll get to picking your brain about how to do all this stuff a little bit.
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Tim Link: The book itself though, as far as the fans and the audience is concerned, tell us a little bit about who are some of the people and some of the characters that we have known to grow and love, and how are some of the new ones introduced?
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James Rollins: Well, Sigma Force is a group of former special forces soldiers that were drummed out of the service for various reasons, but because of special abilities, special talents, special intelligence, they're secretly recruited by DARPA, the Defense Department's Research and Development Agency, to basically become sort of secretive field operatives for DARPA.
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James Rollins: So they got into the field and they're looking to, you know, any type of technological threats that might impinge upon the US safety or global safety.
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James Rollins: Basically, I don't always describe them that they're scientists with guns for lack of a better term.
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James Rollins: That's their own discipline.
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James Rollins: In this novel, I returned with a couple characters that have helped Sigma in the past.
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James Rollins: That's Tucker Wayne and his military war dog Kane.
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James Rollins: They appeared back a few books ago, and they occasionally helped Sigma out, and they helped Sigma back a couple in Kingdom of Bones, which is a Sigma book number 16, and they're back in number 18.
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James Rollins: And I like returning to those characters.
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James Rollins: I like them.
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James Rollins: People like them.
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James Rollins: I sort of encountered that pair of characters.
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James Rollins: I did a USO tour of authors to Iraq and Kuwait during the end of the Gulf War.
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James Rollins: It was in the winter of 2010.
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James Rollins: And me being a veterinarian, I'm seeing these guys work with their dogs out in the field, so I'm, of course, gonna go talk to them.
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James Rollins: And I'm saying, oh, can I pet your dog?
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James Rollins: And they were like, well, we might lose a hand, but we can do so.
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James Rollins: But I love having that conversation.
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James Rollins: I was curious exactly what their relationship was like with their dogs.
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James Rollins: Did they just consider their dogs like the equivalent of a sidearm?
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James Rollins: But I found out they have a very intense relationship with their dogs.
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James Rollins: And there's a phrase they use called runs down the lead, which means that over time, there's this bonding that occurs across the leash from handler to dog, that over time, they begin to be able to read each other without needing a hand signal or a verbal command.
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James Rollins: They just seem to sense what the other needs.
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James Rollins: And so when I came back, I'm going to try to introduce that pair of characters.
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James Rollins: So I played for a while with short stories with Tucker and Kane, and really, I just could not seem to glom on to the right way of dealing with them.
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James Rollins: And then I realized the problem was, I was only writing from one side, one end of that leash.
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James Rollins: I was always writing from the point of view of Tucker, the handler, and I realized it's not really fair to the military war dog.
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James Rollins: So I thought, I'm gonna write scenes from the dog's point of view.
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James Rollins: So I wanna have scenes to try to capture what it means to be a military war dog and not do a Disney version of the war dog where the war dog breaks out into song halfway through the novel.
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James Rollins: I wanted to make it authentic.
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James Rollins: What senses are they using?
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James Rollins: How are they responding?
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James Rollins: What do they think of what's going on?
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James Rollins: So I love sort of exposing that.
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James Rollins: So it took a while to figure out how to do that.
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James Rollins: I went to Lackland Air Force Base where they train these dogs.
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James Rollins: Talked to many, many different handlers.
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James Rollins: So I tried to be as authentic as I could.
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James Rollins: When I first introduced them, I wrote a story with Tucker and Kane, and I got a lot of feedback from readers saying, hey, what Kane is doing seems unbelievable.
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James Rollins: It sounds like you're over dramatizing what these dogs could do.
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James Rollins: Whereas I was getting feedback from the handlers that I was talking to and said, hey, Jim, we like what you did with Kane, but you're pulling the reins on them.
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James Rollins: They could actually do more than what you're describing.
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James Rollins: So as Tucker and Kane appeared in various novels, in their own novels, solo novels too, I began to explore exactly, try to show exactly the true extent of what these dogs could do because they're pretty amazing.
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James Rollins: In Arkangel, I introduced a newcomer.
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James Rollins: At this point, it's always been Tucker and Kane.
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James Rollins: Initially, Tucker had two military working dogs, two brothers, Kane and Abel.
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James Rollins: Abel died during an attack in Afghanistan, so he was left with Kane.
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James Rollins: But now he's introduced with a young new dog that he's training, named Marco.
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James Rollins: So it's fun being able to now write from two dogs' point of view in this novel.
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James Rollins: And I got the name Marco from military war dog handlers who said, this is Marco, he's done these incredible things, he saved so many lives.
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James Rollins: And I was looking for a name, so I put a contest out there saying, hey, help me figure out a name for Tucker's new companion.
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James Rollins: because he's introduced as a pup in the last book, I didn't name him in that last book.
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James Rollins: So between now and next, send me names.
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James Rollins: And so the handler sent me Marco and told me Marco's history.
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James Rollins: So of course, I had to honor Marco by having Marco appear in this novel.
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James Rollins: So they are integral to helping Sigma solve this mystery of lost continents and lost libraries.
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Tim Link: I love that.
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Tim Link: I love that.
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Tim Link: I love that you got the interaction of your fans.
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Tim Link: And it'll be real curious to see about what they think about the connection now.
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Tim Link: You know, you mentioned that you're overdoing it a little bit because they haven't experienced that.
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Tim Link: They haven't been the handlers.
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Tim Link: They haven't been in those situations.
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Tim Link: But now that they actually get a chance to name the new pup, the new dog, I wonder if they're more connected with that.
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James Rollins: Well, I got 3000 entries, a little over 3000 entries of people submitting names.
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James Rollins: I have 3000 different names for this dog.
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James Rollins: So I had to pick, you know, which out of the 3000, who am I going to pick?
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James Rollins: Of course, I picked Marco because I had to honor Marco's efforts to keep everybody safe out there.
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Tim Link: Yeah, absolutely.
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Tim Link: So I had to ask you then when Abel made the transition in the novel and made the transition, did you get 3000 more letters asking you why this happened?
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James Rollins: Well, that happened before we meet Tucker because I mean, that was hard because it's a brutal scene.
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James Rollins: Even my editor, when I first wrote the Abel death scene, which is, in the past, sends a backstory to Tucker.
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James Rollins: We meet Tucker, he's on the run, he's fled with his dog.
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James Rollins: He was so traumatized by the loss of Abel that he takes his dog and runs.
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James Rollins: So he's AWOL basically.
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James Rollins: So the course of the novel, he has to sort of come back to deal with all that.
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James Rollins: So I was traumatized by writing it, so that I wrote a novella that you can read in an anthology collection called Unrestricted Access, where there is some resolution to what happened with Abel.
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James Rollins: I'm not going to tell you what happened there, but this has been a major traumatic moment for Tucker.
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James Rollins: And so this is coming to terms with his death of his dog in that novella, because I had to go through that.
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James Rollins: So I had to get on paper and put it out there just so that I can feel better about the resolution with Tucker, Kane and Abel.
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Tim Link: That's a great way to do it.
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Tim Link: I mean, that's fantastic.
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Tim Link: And so, as a writer, I know that you mentioned the characters and going back and bringing some new characters in, but keeping the existing ones.
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Tim Link: I mean, you become intimate with these characters.
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Tim Link: They're just not names on a paper that you type in.
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Tim Link: You know these characters.
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Tim Link: They become part of who you are.
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James Rollins: It's, you know, and I always tell people that I didn't want to do a series.
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James Rollins: If you look at my biography of books, all my early books are standalone thrillers.
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James Rollins: I resisted doing the series because I had a problem with what I call the Jessica Fletcher syndrome.
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James Rollins: Here's this woman from Murder, she wrote, that's from Cabot Cove, that's always stumbling over dead bodies.
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James Rollins: I've never stumbled over a dead body.
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James Rollins: So you begin to question, what is her problem?
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James Rollins: It's also hard to maintain jeopardy in a series character like that.
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James Rollins: because if, let's say somebody puts a gun against Jessica's head in an episode, you know the trigger is never going to be pulled.
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James Rollins: because I just read the TV guide and found out that there's going to be another episode.
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James Rollins: So when I created the Sigma Force universe, it was because I wanted to base it on a group of characters.
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James Rollins: So there's been, I've done horrible things to my characters over the course of this guy.
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James Rollins: I want everybody at Jeopardy, I want anybody to feel that any character is safe.
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James Rollins: There's been major deaths during the course of the series, because I want it to be realistic that, I don't want my characters to be superhuman.
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James Rollins: But at the same time, there's a core group that's been there from the beginning, obviously.
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James Rollins: And it's fun to grow with them.
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James Rollins: That's one of the joys of the series, is that it's hard to really encompass the full extent and breadth of a life within a single novel.
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James Rollins: But over the course of 18 novels, we do get to see the journey of these characters, who they were from the beginning to who they are 18 books later.
00:13:24.060 --> 00:13:32.880
James Rollins: There's arcs within the series of their personal lives that sort of mesh with what's going on from the thriller standpoint.
00:13:32.880 --> 00:13:36.780
James Rollins: So it's fun to be able to explore their life over the course of so many books.
00:13:36.780 --> 00:13:37.020
Tim Link: Yeah.
00:13:37.020 --> 00:13:40.780
Tim Link: And when one meets their demise, I mean, what's the pressure?
00:13:40.780 --> 00:13:42.640
Tim Link: I mean, I know you have to go with the flow.
00:13:42.640 --> 00:13:44.100
Tim Link: It's not like, okay, I'm tired of him.
00:13:44.100 --> 00:13:44.880
Tim Link: Let me get rid of him.
00:13:44.880 --> 00:13:48.960
Tim Link: It's with the flow of what you're trying to get through with the novel.
00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:55.440
James Rollins: I've done fake outs where I pretended to kill a character at the end of a book, and oh, the hate mail that followed.
00:13:57.520 --> 00:13:59.100
James Rollins: Read the next book.
00:13:59.100 --> 00:13:59.700
Tim Link: There you go.
00:13:59.700 --> 00:14:02.720
Tim Link: I was wondering, is it like, no, it's like Michael Myers.
00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:04.020
Tim Link: You can't kill him off.
00:14:04.020 --> 00:14:05.920
Tim Link: It's Freddy Krueger.
00:14:05.920 --> 00:14:06.980
Tim Link: You can't kill him off.
00:14:06.980 --> 00:14:08.160
Tim Link: He'll always come back.
00:14:08.160 --> 00:14:09.720
Tim Link: So that's fantastic.
00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:20.040
Tim Link: Well, then you mentioned just a moment ago about you never had any plans writing a series, and obviously, it's been a hugely successful series, and we continue to look forward to the next one and the next one.
00:14:20.040 --> 00:14:25.880
Tim Link: And I saw through your publicist that the series is in process of being developed into a TV series.
00:14:25.880 --> 00:14:28.200
James Rollins: Well, let's knock on wood if there's wood somewhere around here.
00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:29.720
James Rollins: There's wood.
00:14:29.720 --> 00:14:39.020
James Rollins: Amazon, MGM Studios picked up the, not just the one, but the entire Sigma Force universe, every story, every short story, every novel.
00:14:39.020 --> 00:14:41.140
James Rollins: So they seem invested at this point.
00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:46.500
James Rollins: Of course, entertainment, Leonardo DiCaprio's, Apian Way is involved in the project.
00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:48.720
James Rollins: So hopefully, we'll see it get green light.
00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:50.140
James Rollins: But of course, Hollywood's fickle.
00:14:50.140 --> 00:14:51.820
James Rollins: We'll see if that actually makes it to the air.
00:14:51.820 --> 00:14:55.480
James Rollins: But it's flattering to get this close to that finish line.
00:14:55.480 --> 00:14:57.000
James Rollins: So hopefully, we'll see that happen.
00:14:57.000 --> 00:14:57.840
Tim Link: Yeah.
00:14:57.840 --> 00:14:58.880
Tim Link: Well, hopefully, we will.
00:14:58.880 --> 00:15:02.460
Tim Link: I can see it because when I read through your novels, I see that.
00:15:02.460 --> 00:15:04.260
Tim Link: I mentioned earlier about the visualization.
00:15:04.260 --> 00:15:09.160
Tim Link: In my minds, I can see the process and where we're going and all the places we're visiting.
00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:11.960
Tim Link: And I think you do a fantastic job on the visualization.
00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:18.140
Tim Link: So seeing it come to the small screen, big screen, the streaming screen, whatever it is.
00:15:18.140 --> 00:15:20.160
Tim Link: Yeah, whatever it is, it would work out just fine.
00:15:20.160 --> 00:15:22.560
Tim Link: So I think that's fantastic and good luck with that.
00:15:22.560 --> 00:15:23.820
Tim Link: That's for sure.
00:15:23.820 --> 00:15:25.480
Tim Link: So we'll take a quick commercial break.
00:15:25.480 --> 00:15:30.220
Tim Link: We'll come back and continue our conversation with James Rollins about the book, Arkangel.
00:15:30.220 --> 00:15:35.100
Tim Link: And we'll talk to him a little bit about writing in general and even more detail.
00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:36.080
Tim Link: So everybody hang tight.
00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:37.640
Tim Link: We'll come back right after this commercial break.
00:15:37.900 --> 00:15:40.580
Tim Link: You're listening to Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio.
00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:49.640
Tim Link: Hi, this is Tim Link, animal communicator and pet expert, and host of Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio.
00:15:49.640 --> 00:15:52.420
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00:15:52.420 --> 00:15:55.600
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00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:59.240
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00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:33.300
Tim Link: You'll be glad you did.
00:16:42.680 --> 00:16:50.320
Tim Link: PetLifeRadio.com Welcome back to Animal Writes on PetLife Radio.
00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:57.560
Tim Link: To our conversation with number one New York Times bestselling author, James Rollins and his latest book, Arkangel.
00:16:57.560 --> 00:16:59.460
Tim Link: We briefly talked about animals in the book.
00:16:59.460 --> 00:17:04.180
Tim Link: So before I even forget here, we got to talk about animals in your life.
00:17:04.180 --> 00:17:11.540
Tim Link: Are there some at your footsteps keeping you straight in line, not talking nonsense, and are any of them your muse?
00:17:11.540 --> 00:17:14.540
Tim Link: So who do we have in the menagerie?
00:17:14.540 --> 00:17:18.900
James Rollins: I've got Charlie, who took off, he was here a second ago.
00:17:18.900 --> 00:17:21.300
James Rollins: He's a rescue out of Las Vegas.
00:17:21.300 --> 00:17:23.400
James Rollins: It was a point of purchase.
00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:29.500
James Rollins: I was getting dog food for my other dog, Echo, and had a no-kill shelter.
00:17:30.760 --> 00:17:32.900
James Rollins: That didn't be exactly.
00:17:33.080 --> 00:17:35.600
James Rollins: Come on with me, Charlie.
00:17:35.600 --> 00:17:39.380
James Rollins: And then I have Echo, she's an almost 13-year-old Golden Retriever.
00:17:39.380 --> 00:17:42.320
James Rollins: So she's getting up there in age, but she's still tough.
00:17:42.320 --> 00:17:45.220
James Rollins: I just got him back from swimming in the lake just a moment ago.
00:17:45.220 --> 00:17:52.720
James Rollins: So she loves to throw the ball in the lake, and she just trucks along, keeps up with Charlie, who's only three, but she doesn't let up.
00:17:52.760 --> 00:17:53.600
Tim Link: Fantastic.
00:17:53.600 --> 00:17:54.260
Tim Link: I love that.
00:17:54.660 --> 00:17:57.820
Tim Link: And I talk just sort of tongue in cheek there about them being your muse and everything.
00:17:57.820 --> 00:18:02.940
Tim Link: But as a writer, I have found, obviously, I love animals, always have animals around me as well.
00:18:02.940 --> 00:18:05.920
Tim Link: And I always find that they know when to come in.
00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:14.660
Tim Link: When I'm writing a piece, a short story, writing about whatever it is, they come in and help me maintain focus without me even knowing it.
00:18:14.660 --> 00:18:18.280
Tim Link: And then when it's time to go, sometimes I don't know it's time to go.
00:18:18.280 --> 00:18:19.520
Tim Link: And they're like, okay, it's time to go.
00:18:21.060 --> 00:18:25.760
Tim Link: And sometimes it's because, yeah, they got to go to the lake and fetch the ball or run the backyard.
00:18:25.760 --> 00:18:35.080
Tim Link: But sometimes I think they do actually work as your muse and also you're like, okay, you've been at this thing too long, get up and stretch your legs.
00:18:35.080 --> 00:18:42.380
James Rollins: There's been a lot of studies on the human-animal bond that if you pet a dog, your blood pressure goes down or pet a cat, your blood pressure goes down.
00:18:42.500 --> 00:18:47.400
James Rollins: There, I think just having your animal in your life, it just makes your life richer.
00:18:47.400 --> 00:18:48.940
James Rollins: It makes me get and move around.
00:18:49.100 --> 00:18:54.200
James Rollins: I would not have climbed those 42 steps down to the lake without the dogs being there.
00:18:54.200 --> 00:18:55.940
James Rollins: I thought, ah, skip it.
00:18:55.940 --> 00:18:59.900
James Rollins: So, they insist that I go hiking.
00:18:59.900 --> 00:19:03.220
James Rollins: So, they keep me moving, they keep me motivated.
00:19:03.220 --> 00:19:04.500
James Rollins: I can't imagine life without.
00:19:04.580 --> 00:19:07.720
Tim Link: Absolutely, yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly there.
00:19:07.720 --> 00:19:17.700
Tim Link: It reminded me when you were talking about the handlers, going overseas and talking about the handlers and the war dogs and learning from that and then put it in into your book, that special bond that they have.
00:19:18.080 --> 00:19:26.400
Tim Link: It really goes, I do believe it's a heart connection, it's a telepathic connection that they have, knowing what to do without even mentioning any words or commands.
00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:29.680
Tim Link: And then that tends to carry over, hopefully, later on.
00:19:30.980 --> 00:19:39.800
Tim Link: When the military life is over and they come back, hopefully the military dogs will be able to come back with them when we see all kinds of great stories about when they get reunited again.
00:19:39.800 --> 00:19:43.820
James Rollins: Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine having that type of a deep bond when you're out in the field.
00:19:43.820 --> 00:19:47.340
James Rollins: because these guys, they sleep with the dogs, they live with the dogs, they eat with the dogs.
00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:50.200
James Rollins: I mean, that dog is at their side all the time.
00:19:51.220 --> 00:20:04.420
James Rollins: I can't imagine, and this is one of the things I bring up when I deal with why Tucker had to take off with Kane, is that he was basically just about to end his career, but Kane still had years to work.
00:20:04.860 --> 00:20:09.120
James Rollins: After losing Abel, he was not going to put Kane at that risk, so he took off with Kane.
00:20:09.120 --> 00:20:18.380
James Rollins: because I can't imagine what it's like to break that bond after you had that type of connection over so many years or so many tours of duty.
00:20:18.380 --> 00:20:20.180
Tim Link: Yeah, I don't know how they would do it either.
00:20:20.540 --> 00:20:22.480
Tim Link: It's amazing because you do.
00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:30.600
Tim Link: You go into it knowing it's a partnership, you've got a job to do, so you have to take that seriously, but that heart connection is still there.
00:20:30.600 --> 00:20:36.880
Tim Link: When you do have to deploy elsewhere, come back to say the States and you ended your tour.
00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:42.460
Tim Link: To me though, I'd have to get a large duffel bag and put my pal in it.
00:20:42.460 --> 00:20:44.080
Tim Link: I don't think I could come back otherwise.
00:20:44.600 --> 00:20:53.480
Tim Link: So, James, when everybody picks up a copy of the book, Arkangel, is there, with this book and the series, is there something, the main theme, you're hoping they walk away with?
00:20:53.480 --> 00:21:00.480
Tim Link: Is there something that at the end of the day, when your fans come back, say, hey, love the story, but here's what I really got out of it that makes you happy?
00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:05.520
James Rollins: Yeah, I mean, this story deals a lot with mythology and the mythology of this lost continent.
00:21:05.540 --> 00:21:12.560
James Rollins: And at one point, a character in my book says, myths can move mountains and mythology still controls our lives today.
00:21:13.500 --> 00:21:25.580
James Rollins: Where's the inspiration to start this book was I read that the mythology of a lost continent in the Arctic is a major driving force for russian expansionist philosophy.
00:21:25.580 --> 00:21:29.540
James Rollins: There's a russian philosopher called Alexander Dugin, very influential.
00:21:29.540 --> 00:21:33.000
James Rollins: He's taught in all the universities, all the war colleges.
00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:38.240
James Rollins: He's also described as Putin's Rasputin or Putin's brain sometimes.
00:21:38.540 --> 00:21:39.540
James Rollins: He's influential.
00:21:39.540 --> 00:21:42.200
James Rollins: He wrote a book called the Hyperborea Theory.
00:21:42.200 --> 00:21:47.000
James Rollins: Hyperborea is the name of the continent that supposedly is somewhere lost in the Arctic.
00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:53.180
James Rollins: He firmly believes that the russian people are descendants of that lost continent.
00:21:53.180 --> 00:21:59.340
James Rollins: As a consequence, they have full rights to the extent of the Arctic because that is their homeland.
00:21:59.800 --> 00:22:03.420
James Rollins: It feeds into this expansionist philosophy of russia.
00:22:03.420 --> 00:22:12.720
James Rollins: I just like to expose things like that about how mythology still sort of influences us today and how that's for better or worse.
00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:16.540
James Rollins: But ultimately, of course, my goal is to, I want to entertain you.
00:22:16.820 --> 00:22:17.960
James Rollins: It's a popcorn story.
00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:25.740
James Rollins: It's full adventure, full of crazy action set pieces that would require very large FX budget.
00:22:25.740 --> 00:22:28.860
James Rollins: So good luck Amazon in trying to get that on the screen.
00:22:28.860 --> 00:22:34.420
James Rollins: One thing I love about writing is I have an unlimited special effects budget in my stories.
00:22:35.020 --> 00:22:40.180
James Rollins: So there's huge action set pieces, a lot of shocking things that are going to be revealed in the story.
00:22:40.180 --> 00:22:53.260
James Rollins: But ultimately, at the end of the book, I have a sort of a what's true, what's not section where I lay out exactly what's true in my story, what's not because a lot of the times what sounds fantastical in my story is actually is reality.
00:22:53.260 --> 00:22:55.980
James Rollins: As they say, truth often is stranger than fiction.
00:22:55.980 --> 00:23:01.200
James Rollins: And so I hope that when they close that book, that they're left a little bit with something to think about.
00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:05.460
James Rollins: And one of the greatest compliments I get from a reader or someone who says, Hey, I love that book.
00:23:05.460 --> 00:23:07.020
James Rollins: It's really entertaining.
00:23:07.020 --> 00:23:10.980
James Rollins: But this aspect of that story that you brought up at the end, really intrigued me.
00:23:10.980 --> 00:23:13.500
James Rollins: I like the references you left.
00:23:13.500 --> 00:23:14.980
James Rollins: I follow up with my own.
00:23:14.980 --> 00:23:17.560
James Rollins: I like the fact that I've intrigued somebody enough.
00:23:17.560 --> 00:23:24.600
James Rollins: I've piqued their curiosity enough for them to continue their own research into whatever aspect, whether it's science or history that are raised in a novel.
00:23:24.600 --> 00:23:24.960
Tim Link: Yeah.
00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:27.940
Tim Link: And that leads to the sort of the research part of it.
00:23:27.940 --> 00:23:38.620
Tim Link: Going into writing the next novel, is there a certain scene, certain bits that you have uncovered, or you personally have thought, hey, I don't know anything about that.
00:23:38.800 --> 00:23:41.220
Tim Link: I've heard about this, but I don't really know anything about it.
00:23:41.220 --> 00:23:52.740
Tim Link: And you do the research inside, that needs to go into the book, or is it something that flows along, along the way that you think, okay, I got to have a piece, some mysterious piece in here or something?
00:23:52.740 --> 00:23:53.900
James Rollins: It's a combination of both.
00:23:54.200 --> 00:23:56.620
James Rollins: I front load a lot of my research, about 90 days.
00:23:56.780 --> 00:24:01.740
James Rollins: I commit to writing, to do my research on a novel, on the science, the history, the locations.
00:24:01.740 --> 00:24:04.140
James Rollins: By the 91st day, I have to start writing.
00:24:04.140 --> 00:24:06.680
James Rollins: If I don't, otherwise, I just keep researching.
00:24:06.680 --> 00:24:08.700
James Rollins: I think I'm working by that point, I'm just playing.
00:24:08.700 --> 00:24:11.860
James Rollins: But of course, every single page I write, there's details.
00:24:11.860 --> 00:24:18.700
James Rollins: When you're dealing with the modern world, people are going to call you if you get that detail wrong, but that city or that place, you want to make sure you're factual.
00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:31.120
James Rollins: Even if I can't physically travel there, I want to make sure whether I go on Google Earth and look at it visually, whether I can find somebody that's willing to talk to me that's locally, that can give me some worst of illi-tude or some details I can add to the novel.
00:24:31.120 --> 00:24:32.000
James Rollins: I'll do that.
00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:34.820
James Rollins: I love researching, but I'm also a bit of a lazy researcher.
00:24:34.820 --> 00:24:38.340
James Rollins: I would rather people tell me things and have me look it up.
00:24:38.360 --> 00:24:53.040
James Rollins: When it comes to the science, a lot of times people have noted that, gosh, you write this book and then three or four months later or a year later, there's all these articles coming out on that exact topic you raised in that novel that I thought was fantastical and you were making it up, but now it looks like it's real.
00:24:53.040 --> 00:24:54.680
James Rollins: Jim, are you clairvoyant?
00:24:54.680 --> 00:24:55.340
James Rollins: No, I'm not.
00:24:55.460 --> 00:25:10.020
James Rollins: I just talked to that scientist a year before I was writing that novel and I was like, I'm interested in this topic and trust me, if you talk to a scientist and you say you're interested in their topic, they are glad to tell you anything because their wives or their husbands do not want to hear about it.
00:25:10.020 --> 00:25:14.060
James Rollins: They found an avid interest in the party, they're going to answer almost anything.
00:25:14.060 --> 00:25:19.360
James Rollins: But the question I like to ask is, don't tell me what's in your next research article or the book you're working on.
00:25:19.360 --> 00:25:27.780
James Rollins: Look over your shoulder, tell me what's on your lab table right now, because I know that it's going to take me a while for this book to get published.
00:25:27.780 --> 00:25:31.180
James Rollins: And science changes over the, you know, rather rapidly.
00:25:31.180 --> 00:25:32.880
James Rollins: Stuff becomes old or wrong.
00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:34.960
James Rollins: So I need to have that immediacy.
00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:39.260
James Rollins: I need to find out, you know, what's cutting edge was just beyond the horizon.
00:25:39.260 --> 00:25:43.100
James Rollins: So when it appears in my novel, it doesn't feel like, oh, that's old news.
00:25:43.100 --> 00:25:45.100
James Rollins: I remember that from last year.
00:25:45.100 --> 00:25:49.440
James Rollins: I want to feel like this is, I'm giving you information that you don't have access to.
00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:56.580
James Rollins: I'm opening that door into that lab that, you know, maybe you're not allowed to go into, but I'm going to take you through that door.
00:25:56.580 --> 00:25:56.880
Tim Link: Right.
00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:02.140
Tim Link: So it's starting, it's fresh, but sort of like, I guess I view it as like pre-fresh.
00:26:02.340 --> 00:26:10.140
Tim Link: It's been there, not most people know about it, but soon enough everybody's going to know about it and you're going to be on the cutting edge by having it in the book.
00:26:10.140 --> 00:26:11.640
Tim Link: So very cool.
00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:25.740
Tim Link: I love that listening about the research parts of it because, you know, I deal with a lot of authors that write novels of various types, whether they're thrillers or whether they're probably not Disney ones that often, though I think I have interviewed a lot of those.
00:26:25.740 --> 00:26:30.120
Tim Link: But the ones that really get into the research, they get into it.
00:26:30.120 --> 00:26:33.660
Tim Link: You know, they love that aspect of it and digging through things.
00:26:33.660 --> 00:26:44.940
Tim Link: Some will spend hours and days on in at a library because the only research that's available are still stacks of books at the local or regional or national library.
00:26:44.940 --> 00:26:46.520
Tim Link: Some want to be where it is.
00:26:46.620 --> 00:26:54.160
Tim Link: If I'm writing about a particular location or a particular topic that maybe I know a little bit about, but not a lot, I'm going to go there.
00:26:54.160 --> 00:26:58.560
Tim Link: I'm going to talk to the people and spend some time with them, so I get to really know their heartbeat.
00:26:58.560 --> 00:27:04.180
Tim Link: It sounds like you do a little bit of that, but picking lazy spots first.
00:27:04.180 --> 00:27:05.000
James Rollins: I always find that.
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:07.100
James Rollins: I love hearing the firsthand account.
00:27:07.160 --> 00:27:15.340
James Rollins: I wrote a book called Sandstorm, actually the very first, it was a prequel to the Sigma Force series where Sigma was introduced, but takes place in the country of Oman.
00:27:15.340 --> 00:27:22.940
James Rollins: I never been to Oman, couldn't afford to go because at that point, I wasn't making enough money to afford to go to fly out to Oman and run around and do research.
00:27:23.260 --> 00:27:26.520
James Rollins: I found somebody that was selling Omani products online.
00:27:26.520 --> 00:27:34.080
James Rollins: I contacted him and said, hey, I'm interested in writing a fictional book about your country but I need boots on the ground.
00:27:34.080 --> 00:27:37.940
James Rollins: I need somebody that will tell me details I'm not going to find anywhere else.
00:27:37.940 --> 00:27:39.080
James Rollins: Will you be willing to help me?
00:27:39.620 --> 00:27:44.420
James Rollins: He said, sure, but I need to ask you first, are you going to be derogatorier of our country?
00:27:44.420 --> 00:27:45.600
James Rollins: I said, no.
00:27:45.600 --> 00:27:48.040
James Rollins: My books are generally travelogues.
00:27:48.040 --> 00:27:54.020
James Rollins: Even though this book takes place in russia, you're going to find that there's both good and bad people in russia.
00:27:54.020 --> 00:27:56.440
James Rollins: In Arkangel, you're going to see both of that.
00:27:56.440 --> 00:27:58.400
James Rollins: I'd like to make my books more of a travelogue.
00:27:58.400 --> 00:27:59.640
James Rollins: Someone told me, I said, that's cool.
00:27:59.640 --> 00:28:00.940
James Rollins: Yeah, I'll help you out.
00:28:01.980 --> 00:28:07.020
James Rollins: I began to have this exchange with him and about a month later, I get this note in the mail.
00:28:07.980 --> 00:28:10.240
James Rollins: It's a beautifully calligraphy.
00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:11.240
James Rollins: It's all stylized.
00:28:11.880 --> 00:28:18.240
James Rollins: It's an invitation from the Sultanate of Oman to come to his country for a personal tour, all expenses paid.
00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:19.240
Tim Link: Oh, my.
00:28:19.240 --> 00:28:20.540
James Rollins: I think, well, this is fantastic.
00:28:20.540 --> 00:28:23.740
James Rollins: I'll get all my boots on the ground myself when I go there.
00:28:23.740 --> 00:28:30.500
James Rollins: But unfortunately, that was just before a certain date, 9-11, then about two weeks after that.
00:28:30.500 --> 00:28:33.360
James Rollins: Maybe not the best time to come right now.
00:28:33.460 --> 00:28:35.460
James Rollins: Again, I had to lean on this gentleman that was willing to help.
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:39.580
James Rollins: People that have read Sandstorms said, hey, when were you in Oman?
00:28:39.580 --> 00:28:42.220
James Rollins: I was in Oman, I was working for an oil company.
00:28:42.220 --> 00:28:43.500
James Rollins: What years were you there?
00:28:43.500 --> 00:28:44.680
James Rollins: I was never there.
00:28:45.280 --> 00:28:47.420
James Rollins: You don't necessarily have to travel to be a writer.
00:28:47.560 --> 00:28:51.560
James Rollins: You can get enough details if you're diligent enough with your research.
00:28:51.560 --> 00:28:55.240
James Rollins: One of the details I thought was really interesting that I don't think I would ever find online.
00:28:55.240 --> 00:29:01.940
James Rollins: This guy told me that every day at noon, the Sultanate was raised in, was schooled in Britain.
00:29:01.940 --> 00:29:07.160
James Rollins: So at noon every day, every radio station has to play classical music.
00:29:07.160 --> 00:29:13.060
James Rollins: No matter if it's a talk radio station, whether it's rock radio station, at noon, you have to play classical music.
00:29:13.060 --> 00:29:15.120
James Rollins: I would never found that unless I was talking to this gentleman.
00:29:15.120 --> 00:29:19.720
James Rollins: I mean, that's not something you'd see in the newspaper somewhere from looking online.
00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:28.560
James Rollins: So it's just details like that that I think made that person think, oh, he actually was from there because he knew that classical music was played on every radio station at noon.
00:29:28.980 --> 00:29:32.360
James Rollins: So it's great being able to go on the Internet and look stuff up.
00:29:32.360 --> 00:29:45.500
James Rollins: It's great going to libraries, but I still firmly believe that sometimes just having a living experience of that person, whether that's a scientist, historian, a local living in that town, to bring that level of authenticity to your story.
00:29:45.500 --> 00:29:46.180
Tim Link: Yeah, absolutely.
00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:49.600
Tim Link: They're living it or they have the background of it.
00:29:49.600 --> 00:29:53.300
Tim Link: I'm sure there's tidbits that they know, like you said, that nobody would know about you.
00:29:53.300 --> 00:30:00.060
Tim Link: Even if you went there, if you happen to stumble across the radio station at 12 noon, maybe you'd ask, what's this?
00:30:00.060 --> 00:30:04.200
Tim Link: Otherwise, you probably wouldn't even know if you were even in the country.
00:30:04.200 --> 00:30:08.440
Tim Link: I think more stories are based in the Seychelles and Fiji and-
00:30:10.600 --> 00:30:12.620
Tim Link: Ready to do some research.
00:30:12.640 --> 00:30:14.340
Tim Link: Yeah, there we go.
00:30:14.340 --> 00:30:15.920
Tim Link: Well, everybody pick up a copy of the book.
00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:19.940
Tim Link: It's the latest in the Sigma Force novel series by James Rollins.
00:30:19.940 --> 00:30:21.380
Tim Link: It's Arkangel.
00:30:21.380 --> 00:30:26.060
Tim Link: You're going to love it as always, love the characters, love the action, love the animals in there as well.
00:30:26.280 --> 00:30:36.960
Tim Link: And it's just a constant thrill ride of places you're going to go and things you're going to learn and things you're going to research based on the research of the book.
00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:40.060
Tim Link: So James, fantastic job on the book again.
00:30:40.060 --> 00:30:42.800
Tim Link: And I'm so glad to have you back on the show.
00:30:42.800 --> 00:30:45.700
Tim Link: And I'm looking forward to getting you back on here a little sooner next time.
00:30:45.700 --> 00:30:46.120
James Rollins: Excellent.
00:30:46.120 --> 00:30:46.780
James Rollins: Thanks, Tim.
00:30:46.780 --> 00:30:48.700
Tim Link: All right, we're coming to end the show today.
00:30:48.700 --> 00:30:51.900
Tim Link: I want to thank everyone for listening to Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio.
00:30:51.900 --> 00:30:55.140
Tim Link: I want to thank the producers and sponsors for making this show possible.
00:30:55.360 --> 00:31:00.920
Tim Link: If you have any questions, comments, ideas for the show, you can drop us a line at petliferadio.com.
00:31:00.920 --> 00:31:04.240
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00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:07.220
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00:31:07.220 --> 00:31:08.960
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00:31:08.960 --> 00:31:11.960
Tim Link: So until next time, write a great story about the animals in your life.
00:31:11.960 --> 00:31:16.280
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00:31:16.280 --> 00:31:17.500
Tim Link: Have a great day.
00:31:17.500 --> 00:31:20.880
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