Are all your stories based on your own experiences?
David Stone: If they were I'd be dead now, although I've had my times. But not even I can drink like Micah Dalton. He's kind of like me, only younger, smarter, meaner, better-looking, and he has the liver of a Norse god. I'll tell you, I do love the stories that are in the world. Tom Wolfe was right; the best stories are out there in the streets and towns. A writer is at his best when he allows the world to show itself to him, pays close attention, and then uses all his skill to describe what he saw accurately, with grace; when he can; even with affection, if he can.
The Echelon Vendetta has a rather terrible man at its center. Is he drawn from real life?
David Stone: Yes. He is. He's extremely dead now, and the world's a far better place.
Is Micah Dalton based on a real person? Other than being taller than you, I mean.
David Stone: And better looking. Yes, to a degree.
Is he alive?
David Stone: I sincerely hope he is.
And the man called Deacon Cather?
David Stone: Those who knew him may see traces of James Jesus Angleton.
Did you ever meet Angleton?
David Stone: No. I know people who knew him.
Will you ever reveal your true identity?
David Stone: Not a chance.
Why not?
I like being unknown. I like my privacy, my life just as it is.
Will there be other Micah Dalton books?
David Stone: I'm writing one right now, called The Orpheus Deception. Whether or not there'll be more after that is up to the reading public.
Are you an 'author' or a 'writer'?
David Stone: Good question. If by 'author' you mean someone who thinks he's grappling with the Big Ideas, the 'Triple S' issues – Steaming with Social Significance – then I'm just a simple writer. I take my work seriously but I see myself as vaguely ridiculous. I set out to write well and I think I'm succeeding. When good writers thrive, I feel quite happy. When bad writers get indecently rich, it depresses the living hell out of me. I do admire talent.
Who's a good writer?
David Stone: John Sandford. Len Deighton. E.L. Doctorow. Patrick O'Brian. Le Carre in his early years, before he got poisoned by causes. Hemingway, of course. Chandler. KC Constantine.
And the bad ones?
DS: Well, not me, I hope. Okay, let's face it; James Fennimore Cooper absolutely sucked. And so did Charles Dickens. And anybody who can tell you they actually liked William Faulkner should not be walking around without a keeper.
Any living ones?
David Stone: Not a chance, my friend.
What? No point naming them because they know who they are?
David Stone: Like hell; if they did, they'd STOP.
The Echelon Vendetta is an interesting title. Where does the name come from?
David Stone: Although the CIA 'officially denies' the existence of a technology transfer surveillance program called ECHELON, the existence of such a program by any other name is a strategic certainty; not to maintain a vigilant watch over the transfer of vital industrial and technological processes to the enemies of The West – or to their complacent 'neutral' allies – would be a dereliction of the duties central to any agency charged with national security.
The book is called "The Echelon Vendetta" because the central narrative thrust of the book arises from an Echelon operation that went horribly wrong, resulting in the deaths of several innocent bystanders. The desire to avenge these deaths became the animating principle of the killer I have created in this book, a killer whose nature and actions are based on a couple of real-life killers I have actually seen at work and who are now thoroughly and deservedly dead.
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