Molly Best Tinsley and Karetta Hubbard - Satan's Chamber - Author Interview

About the Book

He was a crack CIA operative, who vanished from the streets of Khartoum, Sudan.

And he was her father.

She followed him into the Agency’s National Clandestine Service, and now despite her junior status, she gets the assignment she covets: Khartoum.

From the minute Victoria Pierce arrives in-country, nothing is what it seems.

The one-eyed Kendacke, descendant of the first female black pharaohs, is a fugitive in her own land. Bart Wilkins, the buff but bumbling supply officer at the Embassy, keeps turning up one step ahead. The super-rich Adam Marshall has information, but it comes with strings attached.

Whom can she trust as she begins to uncover the pieces of a horrific plan? Thus the mystery begins.

Author Interview

1. Who is the plot based around?
Our protagonist, Victoria “Tory” Pierce, a recent graduate of the CIA training program is inexplicably posted to Khartoum, Sudan without the appropriate seniority. She is more than happy with the assignment as it gives her the change to investigate her father’s disappearance there five years before. Tory is idealistic, independent yet insecure, extremely analytical and physically fit. In over her head when she arrives in the Sudan, thrust into situations that are beyond her control, she plays catch-up as the world around her spirals out of control. Tory begins the story as a naïve, inexperienced agent and by the end she has grown into a seasoned, emotionally mature operative able to hold her own.

2. What is the main idea of the plot?
Tory wants to find out what happened to her father, even if it means sacrificing her job, and possibly her life. Meanwhile a succession of odd events and crises points to a larger, more malevolent agenda underlying her own.

3. When does the plot take place?
Beside the prologue, five years before, it takes place over the course of four weeks, between August 25, 2008 to the fall equinox.

4. Where does the plot take place?
The story shuttles between Washington, DC and Sudan. In Sudan, the discovery of oil under much of the land has provoked an international stampede of greed and systematic genocide. The sacred mountain Jebel Barkal, secretly inhabited by the female spiritual leader, Kendacke, has become the last outpost of humanity and hope for the people. Against this backdrop, Tory Pierce seeks information about her father. Meanwhile in the corridors of the CIA, there are signs of internal treachery. Within the opulent walls of the Metropolitan Club, the outline of a horrific plot is taking shape. With the help of her mentor, Maud Olson, Director of Intelligence at the Agency, Pierce finds a way to connect all the dots.

5. Why did the plot develop the way it did?
Satan’s Chamber is a story about a young woman’s quest to find and come to terms with her heroic father. The deeper Tory Pierce delves into her father’s disappearance, the more she is confronted with competing choices yielding their own set of consequences and circumstances. Tory has to figure out whether each person she encounters is friend or foe? Which path to take, follow her instincts or other’s advice? Suffice to say, her early choices are not the most astute, and one pitfall leads to another.

6. How did you come up with the idea for the plot?
The plot evolved from a vague idea about terrorism and Sudan. Research into that African country, however, turned up a much more complex picture of the politics of oil, tribalism and national identity, and ancient theology. Blending in our personal knowledge of Washington, D.C. and the CIA, we crafted a plot that shuttled between the two countries. There were false starts and dead ends in the process, which we can’t explain in detail without giving some of the crucial plot points away.

The title Satan’s Chamber was with us from the beginning and became a sort of metaphor for what we wanted our story to be about. While it describes the horrific circumstances under which the people of Sudan must live, it is also a metaphor for the hell people create for themselves when they turn to greed to fulfill themselves. Satan’s Chamber is ultimately opposed by the sacred chambers inside the mountain of Jebel Barkal, where the female leader Kendacke, who finds fulfillment through love and generosity, is hatching her counter plan to bring peace and unity to her people.

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Satan's Chamber can be purchased at:
Amazon
Fuze Publishing
Kindle
Nook

Price: $19.95 hardcover, $14.95 paperback, $5.99 ebook
ISBN: 9780984141203
Pages: 294
Release: August 2009


About the Authors

Air Force brat Molly Best Tinsley taught on the civilian faculty at the United States Naval Academy for twenty years and is the institution’s first professor emerita. Author of My Life with Darwin (Houghton Mifflin) and Throwing Knives (Ohio State University Press), she also co-authored Satan’s Chamber (Fuze Publishing) and the textbook, The Creative Process (St. Martin’s). Her fiction has earned two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sandstone Prize, and the Oregon Book Award. Her plays have been read and produced nationwide. She lives in Oregon, where she divides her time between Ashland and Portland.

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As a businesswoman and entrepreneur, Karetta Hubbard has more than twenty-five years of experience in consulting, strategic management, and organizational change for companies throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan. Having recently turned to literary endeavors, Ms. Hubbard credits her five grandchildren as her inspiration and encouragement to put pen to paper.

As an active member of the Washington, DC community, Ms. Hubbard has held appointments at the Small Business Advisory Council (SBA), the Tyson Business and Professional Women Foundation (BPW), and the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. Ms. Hubbard attended the University of Virginia and received her B.A. degree from George Mason University. She also attended Catholic University’s Graduate School in Social Work.

Connect with Molly and Karetta:
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