Jonathan Maas
asked
Andrew Kaplan:
Hello! Scorpion is incredible. I feel it is the ‘foundation’ for the Homeland novels and series in a sense. Two questions: 1) Do you consider it foundational in any way to Homeland? 2) What lessons, if any did you learn writing it that you applied to Homeland?
Andrew Kaplan
Hi Jonathan,
So glad you feel that way about my Scorpion series. I agree that it is foundational for Homeland, in that it creates a realistic world of intelligence with fully dimensional characters, including villains, particularly in the Middle East. With regard to your second question, I brought the inside CIA knowledge, experiences in the Middle East, my pacing, plotting and descriptive abilities from Scorpion to Homeland. I also wanted to present a perspective of the Iraq War in a way that hadn't been done before. For me, the most fascinating challenge in writing Homeland was as a male writer to write from the POV of a female CIA operative with a bi-polar mental disorder. Pulling that off was a great satisfaction.
So glad you feel that way about my Scorpion series. I agree that it is foundational for Homeland, in that it creates a realistic world of intelligence with fully dimensional characters, including villains, particularly in the Middle East. With regard to your second question, I brought the inside CIA knowledge, experiences in the Middle East, my pacing, plotting and descriptive abilities from Scorpion to Homeland. I also wanted to present a perspective of the Iraq War in a way that hadn't been done before. For me, the most fascinating challenge in writing Homeland was as a male writer to write from the POV of a female CIA operative with a bi-polar mental disorder. Pulling that off was a great satisfaction.
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