Show Notes

ALPHA by Greg Rucka

Delta Force operative Jonathan “Jad” Bell is sort of grossly overqualified for his new gig as security chief for WilsonVille, California’s other happiest place on Earth.

Or so you might think.

Thing is, amusement parks aren’t so amusing when your ex-wife and teen daughter turn up at the gates for a school field trip…on the same day a sleeper agent embarks on a murderous takeover.

Just such a nightmare is chronicled in Mulholland Book’s Alpha, the first in a series of Jad Bell novels by master tactician Greg Rucka.

Paul joins Greg Rucka on a free-wheeling tour of WilsonVille, the fictitious theme park at the center of this tremendous thriller. Who is Jad Bell and what brand of men and women inspired his character? How did the author organize a vast Disney-like multimedia empire and design an extravagant park suitable for a terrorist siege? While others were enjoying funnel cake and roller coasters, what kind of details has Rucka been scoping out in America’s great theme parks?

All this and more in an extensive discussion of writing with authenticity (even about those outside one’s personal experience), getting plastered with real-life spies, and the tawdry inner lives of the anthropomorphic chipmunks in your warmest childhood memories.

Running Time: 01:20:00

Grab your copy of Alpha by Greg Rucka on Amazon.

Read Rucka’s essay “Why I Write ‘Strong Female Characters'” on io9.

Check out Rucka and Rick Burchett’s webcomic Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether.

Music:
“Roller Coaster”
The Partridge Family