On Writing Decoy

Cal’s new novel, Decoy, is a thriller by a writer on the move:
Decoy was not written at one desk in one location, but became part of my life wherever I happened to be. I began the early drafts while vacationing on Mt. Desert Island in Maine.

​There, between walks along the rocky coast, I worked out my main character’s relationship with an American kid who had become radicalized and had volunteered to be a suicide bomber.
I fleshed out key parts of the book during a month-long home exchange in Paris, close to the where a crucial bombing took place in Decoy. I created the Caribinieri helicopter chase and action scenes at San Donato, Italy, while staying at the home of friends––in San Donato; and I outlined the scenes set in Turkey and Greece during a three-week stay with friends near Vasilitsi, Greece, another key location in the novel. 

A major portion of my writing was at my desk on the east coast of Florida, and I actually mailed the final manuscript to my agent, Donna Eastman, from Topsham, Maine.

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