There we were, minding our own business and working on our next book in the Tier One Universe, when this guy calls us up…
Writing Legacy series on behalf of the estates of famous thriller authors is more common now than ever, with names like Ludlum, Clancy, Crichton and others staying on top of the bestseller lists at the hands of talented writers like Cameron, Greaney, Bentley, and Hood, to name just a few. Every book, series, and deal is unique as is every story of how an author found themselves writing in the shadow of these masters. For many of those listed above, there is a common thread, and that is Tom Colgan. And Tom is the driving force behind our first installment in the iconic WEB Griffin’s Presidential Agent Series, ROGUE ASSET, the ninth book in the series. We had known Tom through events at ITW for a while and had spoken on occasion about how fun it would be to work together. Then one night over dinner in New York he pitched the idea of bringing us over to write the next Presidential Agent book. WEB Griffin had passed away the previous year and Penguin was working with the estate on plans to continue the series. Tom told us he thought we’d be a perfect fit.
What does one say when the Tom Colgan asks you to write the next book for the WEB Griffin’s Presidential Agent series? Well, you say yes of course!
And then reality sets in.
We’ve never done a legacy series before, and the weight of writing in the shadow of a master storyteller such as Griffin settles on you pretty quickly. We had both grown up reading Griffin. THE CORPS Series was our first introduction to real military thrillers. To thriller writers, especially writers known for military thrillers, Griffin was an inspiration. How on earth do you measure up? How do you write a book worthy of such a legendary name? How do you honor his characters and universe and tell his stories? How on earth does one write as WEB Griffin?
The best answer (thank goodness) is that you don’t. Early in the process, while nervously brainstorming the project, we got the best advice Tom ever gave us (and he’s given us plenty of great advice as you can imagine). We had re-read the series, outlined the character arcs for both old and new characters, and outlined our story, and the weight of putting words to paper with that giant name in the title was heavy on us. That’s when Tom stepped in with words of wisdom that became liberation.
“Guys,” he said, smiling at us (he’d been here with other authors before). “I’m not asking you to write WEB Griffin. No one can write WEB Griffin, except Griffin himself. I want you to write the best Andrews and Wilson story you can, based on the stories told so far, and write it in a way that honors the characters and universe Griffin created. Do you think you can do that?”
Yes. That we could do. Those words lifted an enormous weight from our shoulders and emboldened us. We dove in, head first, and wrote the best damn thriller we could, based on the world our storytelling hero had created, and we had more fun than we could have imagined doing it. We fell in love with Charley Castillo all over again. We created a new character in Marine Raider P.K. McCoy (grandson of another great Griffin character) and had them get to know each other. We brought back others from past book and introduced other new characters. We picked the story up where Griffin left off, but allowed for the eight year time gap between books, another great opportunity to lift more weight from our shoulders. Time had passed. People had changed. Geoplolitics had most definitely changed. That allowed us to bring the story up to date in a world that changes by the day now.
The result was a relatively stress free creation of the next chapter in the story begun by Master Storyteller WEB Griffin. We had a great time writing it and we hope readers, both old and new, love it as much as we do.
As veterans of the U. S. military, Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson have brought their military expertise to bear in their lauded series Tier One, Sons of Valor, and Dark Intercept, the latter of which New York Times-bestselling author Mark Greaney calls “a masterpiece of a military thriller with remarkable heart and depth.” ROGUE ASSET is no exception, tapping into the pair’s collectively deep well of knowledge about military operations and counterterrorism in the series’ long-awaited ninth installment. Arriving nearly eight years after the last entry, Hazardous Duty (2013) – which spent a month on the Times’ hardcover fiction list, peaking at #3 – this latest sends a reconstituted Presidential Agent team on the tail of Islamic extremists after the Secretary of State is kidnapped. Series devotees will be pleased to find that this revival stays true to the timeliness and over-the-horizon prescience that made this fan-favorite series so compelling, owing thanks to the skilled pacing and masterful plotting that have earned Andrews & Wilson fans amongst genre heavy-hitters like Greaney, Joshua Hood, and Jon Land. With hard-boiled plotting, lightning-fast action, and edge-of-your seat suspense, ROGUE ASSET attests to what New York Times-bestselling author Jack Carr puts simply: “Nobody does action like Andrews & Wilson!”
W. E. B. Griffin was the author of seven bestselling series: The Corps, Brotherhood of War, Badge of Honor, Men at War, Honor Bound, Presidential Agent, and Clandestine Operations. He passed away in February 2019.
Brian Andrews is a U.S. Navy veteran, Park Leadership Fellow, and former submarine officer with a psychology degree from Vanderbilt and a masters in business from Cornell University.
Jeffrey Wilson has worked as an actor, firefighter, paramedic, jet pilot, and diving instructor, as well as a vascular and trauma surgeon. He served in the U.S. Navy for fourteen years and made multiple deployments as a combat surgeon with an East Coast-based SEAL Team. He and his wife, Wendy, live in Southwest Florida with their four children.
