Ward Larsen
Assassin’s Mark
The first book in a blockbuster new series from USA Today bestseller, Ward Larsen!
The Writer’s Dossier 8/8/2023 – The Ward Larsen interview
DOSSIER: ASSASSIN’S GAME, THE PERFECT ASSASSIN, ASSASSIN’S CODE … the impressive list goes on and on. Um, what’s with your obsession with assassins, Ward? Should I be worried?
LARSEN: I narrowed it down to either assassins or Victorian-era romance. Guess a man’s got to know his limitations. I think the Jason Bourne series had stuck in my mind, and I always liked the “one man against the world” angle. And no, don’t be worried, my marksmanship is nothing special.
DOSSIER: With all the locations you research and set in your books like Malta, Capri, and places in the Pacific, which locale would you choose to live in if someone twisted your arm?
LARSEN: I like Europe in general, but more to visit. For all its troubles, there’s just no place like the good ol’ U.S. of A.
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Music/silence/closet?)
LARSEN: I have an office and a door, and that’s all I need . . . Although the bulletproof door at my other office, the cockpit of a Boeing 737, has its charms.
DOSSIER: When you wrote DEEP FAKE as a standalone without David Slayton, were you worried about whether people would think you were talking about actual current events?
LARSEN: Deep Fake is a political thriller, but I tried very hard not to side with either the left or right. The premise behind the story is, in the age of social media and short attention spans, how well do we really know the people who want to lead our nation?
DOSSIER: In Desert Storm, you flew A-10s with the Flying Tigers, right? First, thanks for “plowing the road for us,” (I was on the ground with the Tiger Brigade) and second, if you couldn’t fly the Warthog, what would you have wanted to fly instead?
LARSEN: Thank you for driving down the “plowed road.” I always thought the SR-71 was an awesome airplane—would love to have flown it and gotten my astronaut wings!