I don’t know about you, but I enjoy hearing other authors talk about the genesis of their work. Below is Ed Griffin’s raison d’etre for the writing of his latest novel Veto, available now from Amazon at:
Ed Griffin: What’s the matter with me? I know that action adventure stories sell best. Then why do I go and write a story about a woman who becomes Secretary General of the United Nations?
I remember sitting down with my brother-in-law after dinner at his house. I told him about my idea. He clearly thought I was nuts.
But the story wouldn’t let me go. What if the UN really lived up to its promise? What if it could really help people? What if it was more democratic? Why should the winners of World War II have a veto over the actions of everyone else? France, England, the United States, Russia and China? What about India, Germany, Indonesia, Japan? The recent trouble with Syria – how would it be different if the UN was different?
So a woman, a UN bureaucrat, gets herself chosen as the Secretary General. She tries to help people and is stopped by moneyed interests and eventually by the veto. Does she throw up her hands and say, “Well, I tried.” No, she goes after the problem at the heart of UN failures, the veto.
And of course, the closer she gets to succeeding, the more the opposition tries to get her out of the way. And that is the action-adventure part.
Where did I get this interest in the UN? I’m almost reluctant to name the first mentor who put me on the UN path. I don’t want to be seen as some sort of religious nut. But it was Pope John the 23rd, the one who opened the windows in the church and called the Vatican Council.
He wrote a letter (encyclical) called Pacem In Terris (Peace on Earth). This pope was well-loved, but conservative commentators did not like this letter. Four important paragraphs are dedicated to the UN. He wanted every human being to “find in this organization an effective safeguard of his personal rights; those rights, that is, which derive directly from his dignity as a human person, and which are therefore universal, inviolable and inalienable.”
He praises the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed by the United Nations General Assembly, because “it is a solemn recognition of the personal dignity of every human being; an assertion of everyone’s right to be free to seek out the truth, to follow moral principles, discharge the duties imposed by justice, and lead a fully human life. It also recognized other rights connected with these.”
I wish the Catholic Church of today followed the ideas of this pope.
I also was amazed at the European Union. How could these countries which had fought each other for centuries, come together in a political and economic union? I read a history of the European Union and learned that it IS possible to set up structures that can help the world become a better place.
Where did I get all this information about other countries? From the Internet. There is a world of information out there. I spent hours on line. For example, where does the Secretary General live? What kind of home is it? The answers are all on the Internet, but it does take some careful work.
Why so much attention on Somalia? When I was at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, my roommate was a man from Somalia, Abdul Elmi. He taught me a lot about Somalia and gave me a feel for the country and the people. I read more and more about Somalia. Abdul was an architecture student and he had to learn all about building below the frost line, even though there is no frost line in Somalia. He returned to his country, but the leader then was Sid Bare, a cruel dictator. Abdul was able to get out of Somalia and return to America, where I sponsored him to enter the country. He still lives and works in Milwaukee. So Somalia is almost in my blood. Most of us white people cannot tell one African from another, and no doubt I could not tell a Sudanese from a person from Zambia, but I can spot Somalis. I was waiting in line at McDonalds recently and I walked up to a guy and asked “Somalia?” He smiled and said yes and we had a great conversation.
What did I learn from writing VETO? I learned that it is possible for institutions to change. First the world tried the League of Nations and then the UN. Maybe someday a Pilar Marti will come along and make the UN an effective tool to help people.
Danielle de Valera 
I started reading Veto and got sidetracked. I’ll get back to it because what little I read was well done and interesting. At the rate things are going, it might not be till the end of the year.
Exactly the same thing has happened to me, Catana. Now I’m back trying to read the unpublished copy of his next work, with particular attention to the 1st 6 or so chapters, but not having a lot of luck as I can’t read online for very long at the moment.
Delaney’s Hope? So you’re another of his betas. He said he has four. Interested in discussing it? Privately. Not necessary, of course, but I’m a bit curious about some things. But not if your eyes are bothering you.
Catana, I won’t get past the 1st 7 chapters, I’m afraid – and I’m only doing only those because Ed said he’d originally planned to start the novel at Chapter 5, and I wanted to at least give him some feedback on that decision. At present, I can only handle an hour a day online and I need that just to keep up with my mail, clients, etc. (Fell over an antique rocking chair 2 weeks ago, and have concussion, Getting better every day, but still can’t handle online for long.) A propos of nothing, I’ve got another homonym for you: to and throwing. Not great, but worth collecting, I think.
Can the UN change? The Catholic Church changed. The second Vatican Council ushered in change that was miraculous to be part of. Did the change last? In isolated enclaves, yes. But not in Rome. I don’t know whether or not this predicts the fate of change at the UN.
Paul, can’t get Ed to come over and answer you personally, which is unfortunate as he knows far more about this type of thing than I do. He is currently snowed with revisions of his next novel. BTW, I think that collection of true experiences by priests who left the priesthood that i was tellng you about, will be out early in 2014.
Ouch! Rocking chairs can be deadly. Take care of yourself, please. “To and throwing.” That’s a pretty good one.
I have the whole novel. It took him a while to get organized, finally rearranged the chapters to be in proper order. Will be finishing up the first read-through tonight, then go back to make notes. The only other “writing” I’m doing is thinking through another short story I’ve started, and making notes for New Serfdom and trying to figure out the main focus and how to write it. I’ve never had this much trouble planning a novel. Needless to say, it’s coming out very different from my original concept. Need to get back to blogging one of these days.