Goodreads asked Natylie Baldwin:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Natylie Baldwin I actually was in the middle of writing a novel when the Ukraine crisis erupted. I had always been interested in international relations, war and peace issues, and U.S. foreign policy. I minored in Political Science in college and had written quite a bit on these kinds of issues for the college newspaper and later on for the alternative/indie media between 2003 and 2007.

Then I started to pursue a long-time dream of trying to write novels. I have one unpublished novel and was working on the second when I started paying close attention to the events in Ukraine and the larger US-Russia tensions. I was, of course, alarmed by what I was finding – the phone call with Victoria Nuland and its implications as well as independent reporting from well-connected and respected people like Robert Parry.

I had an email exchange with Kermit (my co-author) about the issue and we realized we were on the same wavelength – both alarmed at the insanity of those controlling US foreign policy as well as the dangerously distorted reporting in the mainstream media. He proposed that we write a book on what was happening. At first, I was a little taken aback. Writing articles was one thing but a whole non-fiction book seemed a bit overwhelming, even a little cocky. But it didn't take long for me to formulate ideas in my mind about what I wanted to focus on, which was the background of post-Soviet US-Russia relations, since so much of the media was leaving out this crucial context and, of course, the politicians aren't interested in truly educating people – only getting them to accept their policies, which requires a distorted and simplistic narrative. Unfortunately, the corporate media is only too happy to provide that kind of narrative.

Before long, we had an outline for the book with me covering the background and Kermit covering the blow-by-blow of the Maidan protests and subsequent events up to the present. I just threw myself into the research, I read about 15-20 books whole or in part, thousands of articles (judging by my Gmail folder where I saved them), and talked to some interesting people.

flag