Thank you for not only picking up this story, the first book in the series, but for reading it all the way to the end, and NOW you are reading this as well. I am very grateful for each and every reader. It’s a great feeling for any author. The next book, The Traitor’s Revenge is up for pre-order on December 1st and will be out for you to read on December 8th, including in KDP. My plan is to have a new book in the series every 22 days and to make sure that happens I’ve already written a few ahead and have run the books through the best readers – Diane and Doreen Velasquez. I’m still hard at work on another book further along in the series, making sure there are must as many plot twists and that the pace keeps your heart racing as the conspiracy grows and grows.
I was set up for the idea of conspiracies from a pretty young age. My very first job was as a fifteen year old teenager selling books to tourists in the East and West portico of the White House during the Ford and Carter administrations. Most favorite memory was helping to set up during Queen Elizabeth’s royal visit in 1976 and getting to stand behind each of the names on the floor in the Blue Room while President Ford welcomed the Queen out on the South Lawn. Eventually the Secret Service ran us out of there. On my way out of the door on the arm of a Marine escort we noticed the Secret Service checking my old jalopy of a car, a blue Ford Galaxy 500, for bombs even though the parking pass for the White House was clearly displayed. While the Marine escort tried not to laugh, I stood up as straight as I could and informed them that was my car, before driving away as quickly as possible. This was all before 9/11 when you could park right by the House.
Second favorite was seeing the Christmas decorations every year. Each of the rooms was redone to match a theme. One year a tourist managed to take a bite out of an apple in a decoration without anyone noticing. The apples were coated in something to make them last, and therefore inedible but we didn’t see anyone collapse.
I could wander through most of the White House and chat with anyone, except the First Family, and learned a lot about the politics inside of politics. The whole town is all about how to get what they want and every deal comes with a lot of conversations no one else ever hears about. Want to really understand why the Secretary of State just made that deal, it helps to wonder what they really wanted in the first place. Then look at what they stand to gain, which is probably what someone wanted all along.
The clues are always there but first you have to believe that nothing is ever what it really seems at first. Otherwise you may end up shaking your fist in exasperation.
The Wallis Jones series is the result of all those years of watching politicians from close range and has been a labor of love and a journey. The inspiration for the series started when I was working in Richmond, Virginia, the setting for all of the books, and I was a stockbroker working inside of the Old Boy Network, marveling that it was something everyone talked about openly and saw as an institution. Sometimes I was even on the inside and was able to use family connections to get ahead. My full name is Martha Randolph Carr and I’m the great-great-great-niece of Thomas Jefferson. It was amazing how that would open doors just as much as a good track record.
Normally, my 200-year-old family history is a fun fact at parties, or has helped in Virginia when trying to get a job but that’s about it.
Sometimes, though I also got to see the Network at work from the outside, watching like a kid with her nose pressed up against a glass window. In either case, it seemed like the way things worked had more to do with the hidden infrastructure rather than the efforts we could all see. The idea of a bigger story started to unfold for me.
I also wanted to bring the whole story down to the level of one pretty average family in Richmond, Virginia – the Wallis Jones family - who don’t see at first how they’re woven into a grand conspiracy, and at first try to run from it. That way, hopefully readers can become a part of the story too, wondering what they would do if they found out the same kinds of things were happening to them.