Sightings

I took advantage of a visit to metro DC this past weekend for a friend's 50th birthday celebration (and many more, Joel!) to scout some locations I'm using for my upcoming novel, Dark Network, the sequel to Faithless Elector.

I'm not from DC, and I have never lived there, but my wife and I have good friends there, and we visit often.  Nevertheless, siting places for clandestine meetings, udon noodles and murder was a problem.


Faithless Elector was situated primarily in Seattle, which I know well, having lived there for over 20 years.  Though I now live in Philadelphia, I have intimate knowledge of the University of Washington campus, the Pike Place Market and the Arboretum.  For the first book, I used Google Streetview to refresh my memory of a place, or to calculate distances.

But for the meetings and mayhem in Dark Network, I was forced to rely almost entirely on Google Streetview to find and establish the locations.  I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked when I was finally able to do research on the ground.

There were six sites I used in and around DC that I found using Streetview.  I was able to get to four of them. While visiting them suggested some tweaks and local color I had not contemplated before, I did not have to abandon them.  The parking lot in Bethesda, MD, (yes, I know--another parking garage!) is as spooky as I thought/hoped it would be.  The 'drops' my conspirators use in Rock Creek and Lansburgh Parks work very well.  At no point, fortunately, did I get to a site and think "Oh, no! There's a security camera right there."  Even better, I was able to confirm that there was a camera right where I wanted it...which I had first seen on Streeview.


In fact, one area near the DC Armory is better than I had hoped.

I'm in the home stretch for Dark Network.  When it's finally out, I will be very interested to hear from DC-area readers about whether the sites I've chosen 'work' for them.

 James McCrone is the author of Faithless Elector, a suspense-thriller, Publishers Weekly calls a “fast-moving topical thriller.”  Its “surprising twists add up to a highly suspenseful read.” The sequel, Dark Network, is coming soon.

Faithless Elector, by James McCrone is available through Amazon.
If you live in Philadelphia, pick up a copy at Head House Books -or- Penn Book Center

Lacking the "consent of the governed"

The Faithless Elector series is a sharp critique of the precarious state of our democracy.

Faithless Elector, which debuted one year ago today, is a taut thriller about stealing the presidential election.  Its central premise is the latent weaknesses and possibility for abuse inherent in the Electoral College system for electing the president.  The precise machinations envisioned in the book have not come to pass (thankfully!), but the larger issues raised by the story remain.  And, those same weaknesses remain latent and prone to mischief...and there are others.

Faithless Elector, and the second book in the series, Dark Network (coming soon!) were never narrowly about political parties or merely the weakness(es) of the Electoral College; but rather, the precarious vulnerability of our democracy and its potential impotency in the face of decisive, ruthless, well-heeled interests.

"Governments are instituted among Men," the Declaration of Independence reads, "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed".  The Faithless Elector series shines a glaring light on how that consent can be thwarted and negated.

I'm gratified that readers (see Amazon reviews) and independent reviewers have picked up on these broader themes of political accountability and personal responsibility, of the necessity for "ordinary" people to participate in the life of their nation.

To take just three examples:

• Book Viral Review: "Taut and well-paced, but for readers reading between the lines it also works on a moral level."

• "The pleasure of Faithless Elector lies not just its smooth evocative prose, but in the author's justified confidence that good writing can make chases through recognizable locales sufficiently exciting without a Navy SEAL or a terrorist plot." Review, Plattsburgh Press-Republican

• Publishers Weekly Review: "A fast-moving topical thriller...Surprising twists...add up to a highly suspenseful read."

The series has never been about the rightness or fitness of one party or another.  Parties are, after all, at least responsible and responsive to their constituents; and ideally, when a party no longer has our consent, they are voted out.  The series is about what can happen when a tiny group seeks extra-democratic means to take control for their own benefit.  In that way, the books may be more prophetic than even I imagined.  You should see for yourself.

 James McCrone is the author of Faithless Elector, a suspense-thriller, Publishers Weekly calls a “fast-moving topical thriller.”  Its “surprising twists add up to a highly suspenseful read.” The sequel, Dark Network, is coming soon.

Faithless Elector, by James McCrone is available through Amazon.
If you live in Philadelphia, pick up a copy at Head House Books -or- Penn Book Center

Faithless Elector penalties upheld...for now

The fines leveled against the four Washington State Faithless Electors issued by the Washington State secretary of state, have been upheld on appeal by a state judge, the Seattle Times reports.

Washington State first put the Faithless Elector laws into place after Mike Padden, a Republican Elector back in 1976, voted for Ronald Reagan instead of his party's candidate Gerald Ford.

Many states have such laws.  Most think they would not stand constitutional scrutiny. Indeed, the judge in the case seems to say as much when he notes that he doesn’t have the authority to rule on the plaintiffs’ argument that the Constitution doesn’t give the state the power to punish electors for contrary votes, but that they could argue the constitutionality of the law on appeal.

It has long been held by those who study US elections (see Professor Robert Alexander's response, right) that electors were free agents.

People on either side of the issues concerning the Electoral College concede that as conceived--and written--in Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution, electors are independent actors.  It remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court will agree.

This is the first election where fines have been leveled against electors.  Thus far, no one has had to appeal a fine levied by a state against a faithless elector, so no one had "standing" to bring a case, and the question has never come before the Supreme Court.  It may now.

Will the Supreme Court side with the states?
What will the result mean for future presidential elections?

The premise of my novel, Faithless Elector, is based on the weaknesses and possible abuses latent in the Electoral College.   If the Supreme Court sides with these faithless electors in Washington State, it will potentially invalidate every such Elector law in those states that have them.  And if that happens, how much longer will the Electoral College remain viable as an instrument for electing the president.

And on a personal note:  how much longer will my thriller be relevant?  :)

 James McCrone is the author of Faithless Elector, a suspense-thriller, Publishers Weekly calls a “fast-moving topical thriller.”  Its “surprising twists add up to a highly suspenseful read.” The sequel, Dark Network, is coming soon.

Faithless Elector, by James McCrone is available through Amazon.
If you live in Philadelphia, pick up a copy at Head House Books -or- Penn Book Center

Faithless Elector celebrates one year!

March 14, 2017

The interaction and dialogue with readers has been the greatest reward.

One year ago today I received the final proof copy of Faithless Elector from the printer.  Thank you to everyone who has supported and taken part in a wonderful journey!  It's one I hope will continue with Dark Network (coming soon!), and the third book in the series, working title "Consent of the Governed."

Somehow it seems longer than only a year ago. In early March of 2016, I had already spent the past four months revising and re-revising a years-old draft I had put away because I couldn't interest any agents or publishers.  That also seems to be changing.

Since its publication on March 23, 2016, Faithless Elector has found a readership, for which I am deeply grateful.  I've had correspondence from all over the country, most of it very positive (some of it alarmingly CAPS LOCK hostile, but those folks were never actual readers). I've had two readers who identified themselves as real Electors. One, himself a professor, felt events in the book were a little too close for his comfort: one night, he, like the fictional Professor Calder, was working late at the university.  The sudden sounds of slamming doors and footsteps echoing through his building, he told me, unnerved him.  He decided to finish his work at home that night.

I have heard from other readers that the book has ruined parking garages for them.  They can no longer view them as just an ugly part of the landscape, but as fraught with danger.  Graduate students and academics have told me they enjoyed the portrayals of Calder and Matthew and university life. I've loved meeting readers--in person and online--and I've had wonderful questions at the readings and book talks I've done, as well as passionate appeals to bring back certain relatively minor characters. (I'll do what I can!)

Though I was setting the story in the very near future--the 2016 presidential election--March was too early to say who the candidates would be.  I decided to use fictional candidates on purpose.  While I hoped the book's topicality in the run-up to the election would help it stand apart from the thousand other political thrillers out there, I didn't want it to be a broadside--about one party or one candidate trying to steal the 2016 election.  I wanted to make sure readers wouldn't automatically view the events through the divisive prism of the primaries.  The story would suffer under the weight of pre-existing views.  I wanted the book to express a broader dilemma.  Again, I'm gratified that readers have seemed to embrace this part of the book.  The story appeals to conservatives and liberals alike.

The key to Faithless Elector was that in a close Electoral College race, it would not take much to tip the scales. A disciplined, well-funded group could undermine and hijack the parties--and the will of the people.  It was a danger then, and the danger remains latent now.  Moreover, the novel's plot hinges on the actions of ordinary citizens thrust into extraordinary circumstances, forced to act, forced to risk everything for their belief in democracy.

Amazon reviews and independent reviewers have picked up the broader themes:

• Book Viral Review: "Taut and well-paced, but for readers reading between the lines it also works on a moral level."

• "The pleasure of Faithless Elector lies not just its smooth evocative prose, but in the author's justified confidence that good writing can make chases through recognizable locales sufficiently exciting without a Navy SEAL or a terrorist plot." Review, Plattsburgh Press-Republican

• Publishers Weekly Review: "A fast-moving topical thriller...Surprising twists...add up to a highly suspenseful read."

From October 2015 to July 2016, my wife and I were living in Oxford, UK, where she was a visiting fellow at the university.  I had no work permit and decided to use my time to "make a good fist of it," as the English say, finish the book and get it out there.  I worked with an extraordinary editor suggested by a friend, who pushed, challenged, corrected and cajoled, and he helped make the book much better than it had been. (Thank you, Jim!)

I have enjoyed the work of writing every day far more than I could have anticipated.  Even when the work does not go well I realize that whatever problems I'm having, where I am today is exactly where I've wanted to be since I was 15 or 16 years old.  In fact, today is better than what I hoped for. Typing away in my room, I couldn't have guessed at what it would be like to have readers respond.  The interaction and dialogue with readers has been the greatest reward.

James McCrone

Philadelphia, PA