Pamela Morsi's Blog

To Catch a Traitor

What’s my favorite book of the summer? Oh man, so much good stuff to choose from: goofy work relationships, royal intrigues, marriages renewed on the beach. No, I think my favorite is a Russian spy thriller set in the 1980s. Sofia, a scientist whose been demoted to janitorial work because of her politics, is surreptitiously using her toilet cleaning nights to photograph secret documents that she passes to the west. Her husband, Mendel, has been imprisoned on trumped up charges for seven years. The work she does, she does for him. For him and her son and her parents and all the dissidents that suffer under the Kremlin’s oppressive regime.

 

Artur is her secret nemesis. His take on the world is very different. Son-in-law to the Chief of the Second Directorate, Foreign Intelligence known as the “Spymaster”, Artur is anxious to prove himself against this nest of traitors. He’s thinking he can use her devoted cousin against her. Or maybe he can go against her, be against her, himself.

When Mendel is unexpectedly released from prison, Sofia is elated and then worried. Her husband is not the man she married. He is changed. He is distant. He was tortured. Why did they let him go? Are they using him to catch her? Can she trust her own husband with her fate?

If you’re a fan of the FX series The Americans, the story begins in the same era during the intelligence build-up of the Cold War. Thousands of Russian Jews are hoping to leave the discrimination and objectification for immigration. The Soviets, to avoid the optics that anyone would want to leave such a communist paradise, have refused to let them go.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I have to say I just love that this spy story about a woman is no sexy vamp. Sofia is neither Mata Hari nor Red Sparrow, she’s wife and a mom and a scientist and a spy.

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Meet the Author

 

This is the first book I’ve read by D.B. Shuster, so I wanted to ask some questions:

I’m old enough to remember this era, but I’m thinking that you are not. What was it about this last furious gasp of the Cold War that captured your interest?

Growing up, the Russians were our big enemy. I was in middle school in 1985, the year the book is set in. In public school, my classmates and I were taught to worry about nuclear bombs, the evil Commies who threatened our American way of life, and the potential for World War III. In the late 1980s, the famous Jewish dissident and Refusenik, Natan Sharansky, came to speak at my synagogue. His story of what life was like for Jews in the Soviet Union, of his own harsh treatment at the hands of the Soviet authorities, and of his brave survival captured my imagination then and apparently now, too. Soon after, in 1987, when Gorbachev came to the US for a summit with President Reagan, my family joined the march in Washington, DC to free Soviet Jews. Not long after that, the door opened for Soviet Jews to emigrate, my now husband’s family among them. In 1992, President George Bush declared that the Cold War was over and that America had won, but in 2011, there was a big scandal with a number of Russian spies discovered operating under deep cover in the US. That story planted the seed for this family saga, which starts during the Cold War with To Catch a Traitor and then picks up in current-day Brooklyn, NY, in Kings of Brighton Beach.

Did you interview any Refuseniks (is that what they are called?) during your research?

Refuseniks were Jews who had applied to emigrate from the Soviet Union and been refused; it’s an American term, not a Russian one. My husband’s family applied to emigrate during the period when permission was being granted, and so they came, as many families did, as refugees. Over the years, I have spoken to a very large number of Soviet refugees (and the sociologist in me seems to constantly be in interview mode), although it wasn’t until very recently that I knew I was writing a book.

What is it about spies and secrets that we, as readers, find so intriguing?

Are you any good at keeping secrets? It’s uncomfortable. There’s a compulsion to confess. A worry that someone will discover the information you’re trying to keep hidden. Perhaps the need to lie to protect the secret and possibly to lie some more to cover up the original lie.

We’ve all had the unsettling experience of trying to hold onto a secret. Many of us have also at one time or another struggled with impostor syndrome, the sickening fear that someone will discover we don’t belong and expose us as frauds. Spies are the ultimate impostors and secret keepers, and I think we’re intrigued by this “super power” that most of us lack.

Your settings are so visual, have you visited Russia?

 I have not visited Russia. But I spend a lot of time looking at Google satellite images. In researching the series, I also acquired some used travel and photography books from the1980s to give me a sense of the neighborhoods and feel at the time.

Can we pre-order book 2?

Book 2, To Hunt a Spy, comes out in January and is available for pre-order at the major retailers.

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Is there a movie or series in the works?

 I would love to see Artur and Sofia on television or the big screen! If you have any idea how to make that happen, let me know.

 

Want to do your own reconnaissance of D.B. Shuster? Check out her website for other books, news, and more. 

Social Media Gossip

With Mark Zuckerberg testifying before congress and all the uproar about our personal likes and dislikes being sold off faster than mismatched plates at an Estate Sale, people are talking about social media.

Social Media. That’s a pretty recent term. Merriam-Webster describes it as “forms of electronic communication through which users create communities and share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content.”

It sounds pretty benign, really. And it probably is. If you could read all the Facebook postings I’ve ever written, most of you (and me too, I’d imagine) would be bored already half a page in. And I actively try not to post annoying rants, photos of my lunch or comments about cute things my cat does.

I’m not alone: most of us post things that wouldn’t make the cut on a less banal forum. Maybe that’s what we like about it. I do know that I occasionally see the inside of somebody’s heart and I’m a better person for that.

Not all of life online is good. Bullies target people on social media. Scam artists look for the unsuspecting. Predators use the anonymity of fake profiles to befriend young teens. Ugly stuff. We hate that.

Everything however, is not ugly. People have used social media to highlight causes. Find lost pets. Seek bone marrow donors. And organize events. Think about simply the number of ice bucket challenges that raised money for ALS research. If that had been the only thing that social media had ever done, it would have been worth it.

Less dramatically, social media has connected us with those we didn’t even realize we needed. My high school graduating class had 24 people in it. With all of us in the business of getting on with our lives, we didn’t run into each other for decades. Now we are popping into each others news feed on a regular basis.

I think the reason that we have taken to social media so easily and thoroughly is that despite its definition and founding dates, social media is not really new, it’s as old as human communication. In the past however, we called it gossip.

Gossip gets a very bad rap. It can be mean, even evil. It’s been known to actually ruin people’s lives. Writers, including myself, have utilized it in a million stories. I think that might be because it is so very human. A few words taken out of context or spoken in jest, even merely a mad moment of imprudent speech can inexplicably catch fire and decimate friends and family whose character we would have thought unimpeachable. Because it can begin almost innocently and end so horrifically, it is perfect for fiction.

Gossip in real life draws us all in. I may have told this story before, but when I was a young woman, attempting to better myself as a human, I vowed to give up gossip. Within days I realized that was tantamount to taking a vow of silence!

I was back to gossiping by the end of the week, humbled by my own limitations.

As time has gone on, however, I’ve realized, that like it’s modern equivalent, gossip does some very good things.

It’s actually the gentlest barrier on the defenses of civilization. Yes, we should all “do the right thing” just because it is the right thing. But some of us won’t. And all of us have moments of weakness.

If you rob someone or assault someone, our civilization is set up so that a police person will come and take you into custody until a judge and a jury of your peers decide what’s to be done with you.

But many of the lesser “crimes” to the community are handled less formally.

Say, I absolutely had to be at the PTA meeting. But I woke up late and had no time for coffee and didn’t really feel like even washing my face, let alone getting dressed. What keeps me from showing up at PTA with bed-head, wearing jammies?

Simply imagining the gossip that such an act would generate and worrying about how embarrassed my family might be, gets me spick and span and smiling when I show up, even if someone in the second row whispers that “she’s late again.”

Social media is the global version of neighborhood gossip. It won’t stop people from doing unkind things. But understanding what the backlash online could be, will perhaps, make them hesitate; at least long enough to slap an “IMHO” at the end of some stupid declaration.

When we look at social media or at gossip, let us minimize the damage of unfounded rumors and try to accentuate the positives that can be had from each.

-Pam

Before I go:

I just wanted to remind you that, if you liked what you saw in last month’s Front Porch or you’re interested in finding a community around Women’s Fiction, please check us out at The Write House.

Anyone else crushin’ on those Beta Guys?

Last week’s Hollywood Reporter featured the actors from the HBO comedy Silicon Valley, with the heading, “Triumph of the Beta Male”.

When I saw it I fist-bumped the air. At last!

Since the very beginning of my writing career, I’ve self-described my heroes as beta males. I’ve wanted them to contrast the more typical hero. I’ve wanted to celebrate all that I love and trust and am grateful for in the beta male.

Not everybody sees it that way. Immediately upon release of the “Triumph” cover, many alarmists and critics of the entertainment industry were up in arms. They saw the glorification of men who are not demanding to be in charge as a threat to our culture. Somehow, red-blooded American men should all be the boss. They should all play quarterback. They should all shrug off caution and seek danger at every turn.

I could almost roll my eyes.

It’s not that I don’t like and appreciate alpha males. I enjoy a great story about the famed Olympic medalist, the unflappable flame jumper or the sexy Billionaire CEO as much as the next reader. Those stories should always be out there. But all the stories don’t have to be like that. All the heroes don’t need to be that type.

I’ve always had a real soft spot for the beta hero. I deem the beta hero as the regular guy.

With a quick caveat to say, there’s a lot of difference between a character in a book and a real live person. The absolutely most well-written character can’t hold a candle to the complexity of the most ordinary human. No actual humans were used in the creation of these generalized characters. Okay, maybe a few actual humans, but they’ll remain nameless.

The thing about alphas, in my humble opinion, is that a lot of it is about posturing. Like the gorilla that finds it necessary to beat his chest, alphas see constant threats to their power. In order to stay on top, they’ve got to always be on top. Therefore weakness is the enemy. They see the story of Achilles as a warning. They must struggle to be tough all over and writers milk this drama into a million stories a year. Poor alpha and his forever need not to feel.

Feeling is not the only weakness alphas avoid. They have to KNOW everything about everything (sometimes abbreviated as know-it-all). And they can’t ever be mistaken, certainly never just plain wrong. Therefore the universe, which includes the book’s heroine, revolves around them.

Say what?

Romance novels are supposed to be about women. Women’s Fiction even says it’s about women. So why would a writer choose to write about an alpha male?

I don’t. As a novelist, I’ve been writing about beta males my entire career.

I started with a guy who gets pushed into marrying a woman he hardly knows (Heaven Sent). She chose him. He had to live with it. In my second book, the heroine is the farm owner and he’s her employee (Courting Miss Hattie)

None of my heroes have ever controlled events, laid down the law or even rescued a damsel in distress. Because I like stories that feel more authentic to me. Stories that feel more like the life I know.

I’ve taken some hits for that. I’ve had people work-splain-me that fiction is about fantasy and a woman’s fantasy is the alpha male. Always has been. Always will be.

Honestly, I’m not so sure about that.

I was not quite a teen when the question at school was, “Who’s your favorite Beatle?” The rebel wannabees chose alpha male, John. The more romantically inclined chose alpha-challenger, Paul.

But you know, I liked George. And I wasn’t alone.

By the time I got to college, I was convinced of my grandmother’s axiom of there being “a lid for every pot”. And I was simply not a young woman who found any interest in the well-muscled jock or student government president. Both of my serious college boyfriends, Ding and Mountain Goat (yes, those were their actual nicknames) were pretty chill, laidback beta guys.

The thing I like about betas is that they’ve got guts.

What?

No, the beta might not be the first guy you’d turn to in a bar fight. But if a bar fight is happening, they’ll be doing whatever it takes to protect themselves and you; and that may involve dragging you under a table rather than throwing a punch.

However, most of life is not a bar fight. A lot of it is folding laundry and drying tears and combing the tangles out of somebody’s hair. The alpha male finds those needs threatening. He’s got so much to lose.

Many years ago my husband and I were on a little vacation in Guadalajara, Mexico. In the evening, when we returned to our hotel, we had to walk by a bar downstairs. The dark, slightly seedy place was full of American ex-pats. I caught the eye of an older gentleman who looked me up and down and then said, “What a dog!”

I was so shocked that I kept walking. By the time we got on the elevator, I was tearing up. For all that sticks & stones don’t break your bones, when one gets unexpectedly insulted, having a reaction is natural. My husband hadn’t heard the man say it and he seemed very concerned that I get up to our room and get a nice relaxing bath.

That’s what a sweet husband will do, understand that a hot bath soothes a lot of hurts.

While I was soaking, my mild-mannered congenial husband went down to the seedy, Guadalajara bar and confronted the man who’d done me wrong.

He tells it so much better than me that I’m not going to even try, but the punch line is that the gentleman assured him that he’d said, “What a doll!” He’d meant it as a compliment.

They ended up having a beer together. Do you think an alpha male could have pulled that off?

I want to write the kind of hero who is secure enough in his own masculinity that being considered a beta male doesn’t feel like a threat.

You go, guys!

 

Before I go…

I’m so excited to be gifting you with the first edition of Front Porch, a new magazine from The Write House, your favorite Women’s Fiction authors under one roof. I had basically zero to do with how great this turned out, but I’m so proud of the group and so eager to share. It seems to me the perfect mix of interviews, personal stories, writing advice and new fiction. Check it out and if it’s your cup of tea, be sure to visit us online.

 

 

 

 

 

-Pam

What Lies Beneath

If you’ve been reading my posts for a while, you’ll know that I live in an adorable craftsman bungalow that’s almost a hundred years old. Bill and I work on the house a lot. Our joke is that we’re on year 17 of the 5-year renovation plan.

Our most recent efforts involved refinishing the kitchen floor and bringing back the hardwoods in the family room and guest bedroom. Basically that ate up our January, but you should see them. Totally beautiful. Quarter-sawn longleaf pine.

Incredibly worth the effort, but not easy.

We pulled up yards of worn gray carpeting and it’s dusty, eco-unfriendly padding. Below that there was red patterned linoleum tile. Whoever glued that down wanted to make sure it never came up. Of course, it did…slowly…one 9×9 square at a time. The residual glue could be sanded off. The tile-layer’s measure marks, not so much.

Finally it was just a floor, to be stained and buffed and lived on for another hundred years.

I guess what struck me in this was the fact that we didn’t have to put the floors in. They were there all the time. They had simply been hidden by fashionable alternatives of the era. Their strength and beauty disguised by layers of extras that were unworthy of them.

Sound familiar?

Sometimes it might be good for us to remind ourselves that who we are at our core has zero to do with the car that we drive, the clothes that we wear, the place where we live or how much we do, or do not, have in the bank.

I’m not sure where we got the axiom, “what you see is what you get” (I say this as a women whose eyes literally hurt in the evening because I’ve spent so much of my day looking) but while it’s appropriate for the times we live, it’s not really accurate when it comes to people. When it comes to the human species, it’s what you don’t see that’s important. It’s what you don’t see that has the potential to last.

I’m not saying don’t glam it up. If you want to hide your light under gray carpeting, or even red linoleum, go for it. As long as you remember and cherish who you are underneath.

We came into the world naked. And we go out in a shroud (or maybe a nice suit if you’re a Protestant).

It’s what we do while we’re here that matters. Some will do great things with that time. Some will do smaller things. But we can all do some things, even if it’s merely being kind to a stranger or honest with a friend.

Miss you, my friends.

~Pam

Wild Oats is now in Audio!

Shunned by the citizens of Dead Dog, Oklahoma, Cora Briggs is shocked when she finds a fine young man like Jedwin Sparrow, eager to sow his wild oats, standing on her doorstep.

Get WILD OATS in audio now: Audible | iTunes

Also available in eBook:
Kindle | Nook | iBooks | Kobo

Birthday Weekend Sale!

Sow some WILD OATS this month! To celebrate my birthday weekend with my readers, I’ve made WILD OATS just $0.99 in eBook March 11-12 (Saturday & Sunday).

Get WILD OATS on sale today:
Kindle | Nook | iBooks | Kobo

Coming soon in audio!

Newly Re-Covered & Now Wide!

Exciting news! WILD OATS and RUNABOUT have brand new covers and are now available wide on Kindle, Nook, iBooks and Kobo! If you missed these stories before, now’s your chance to grab a copy!

WILD OATS:

Shunned by the citizens of Dead Dog, Oklahoma, Cora Briggs is shocked when she finds a fine young man like Jedwin Sparrow, eager to sow his wild oats, standing on her doorstep.

 

RUNABOUT:

After her first and only suitor leaves her at their engagement party, Tulsa May Bruder, the town wallflower, gives the town gossips something to talk about when she begins a very public courtship with childhood friend Luther Briggs.

Win an iPad Mini 4!

Enter to win an iPad Mini 4 in this contest I’m participating in through November 30th with 9 other authors! Enter here to find more info: http://weheartreaders.com

$.99 Fall Book Deals!

“Fall” back in love with my historical romances this month with some .99 cent book deals! The following novels will be on Kindle Countdown for a limited time only, starting on the dates listed below…

Sep. 7-9       NO ORDINARY PRINCESS

Sep 13-15    SOMETHING SHADY

Sep 22-24     GARTERS

Sep 28-30   THE LOVE CHARM

Wild Oats is on Kindle Countdown!

On Kindle Countdown July 12-18!

WILD OATS

Shunned by the citizens of Dead Dog, Oklahoma, Cora Briggs is shocked when she finds a fine young man like Jedwin Sparrow, eager to sow his wild oats, standing on her doorstep.

Get it at a discounted rate on Kindle for a limited time only!

Also available at regular price in print on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.