Q&A Maggie Christopher Maggie Christopher is the wife of Lou Christopher the lead character in A Bridge to Treachery.
1. What treasure would you most like to find at the auctions you go to?
For me, auctions are endlessly interesting because there’s always the chance that you’ll find something there that you just can’t do without. Not big things, little things. It’s an adventure that puts a little pizzaz into days that at times get pretty drab. Everybody’s heard stories of rare finds and all that, but I don’t really think that’s ever going to happen to me. I wouldn’t recognize a Picasso if I saw one. Well, maybe one of the well known ones, but that wouldn’t be a find then, would it?
2. Did you have any qualms about putting your friends in harm’s way by involving them?
I didn’t have a lot of time to think about that, and now that you bring it up, I have to admit it
wasn’t the most thoughtful thing to do. When bad things start cascading down on you, you just have to reach out for a life line. You can’t very well go to perfect strangers. It’s your friends who will make a sacrifice for you. Of course, I’m hoping that nobody will ever know who stepped up for us. They didn’t hesitate a second, either. I hope and pray that nothing comes down on them.
3. Is it ethical to have your three star general father pulling strings for you in the Army?
As an Army brat, you get used to the fact that wherever you go you’re father is going to be
known to everyone as a pretty big cheese. Daddy wanted our lives to be as normal as possible, but he also wanted to do whatever he could to make our lives pleasant. It isn’t like you had to corner Daddy and ask him directly to do something, like in The Heartbreak Kid, Cybil Shepherd batting her eyes at Daddy Eddie Albert and he melts or something. You just mentioned it at the dinner table, casually, an aside really, and you knew Daddy was going to look into it. Well, at least for me, he was.
5. What are your favorite scenes in A Bridge to Treachery: the action, the dialog or the romance?
I had some pretty funny sex scenes—silly ones, not steamy. Lou and I were steamy sometimes, everybody is, but thankfully, Larry left those out. As for dialogue, I like the scenes where things get pretty urgent and I have to really talk turkey to people and show off my strong side. You know, now that I think about it, the scene in the honeymoon suite of the Blueball Inn was pretty steamy.
6. Did you have a hard time convincing Larry to write any particular scenes for you?
My participation in the story just kept growing from the time Larry first put me in a real scene. I even got my own POV eventually. In the beginning, point of view was handled strictly by Lou. Shifting the point of view helped a lot in keeping up the pace once things got going fast and furious. And if you want to get some sense of the emotions that are raging at this point, it helps to have someone on the scene who’s a tad more demonstrative than Lou is. I begged Larry to include the scene where I hide something from the coppers in the Grasshopper Pie ice cream container. It’s a doozy.
7. Do you infiltrate Larry’s dreams?
Are you kidding? He definitely infiltrates mine. I assume I return the favor. Oh. Larry’s dreams, not Lou’s. Yes. I infiltrate Larry’s dreams too, I’m sure. Who could forget the night I rushed into the boudoir of our frosty German apartment dressed in a Navy watch cap, two squirts of whipped cream and a Chocolate Chiparoo cookie on a string? Well, it was unforgettable for me. And he’s the guy who dreamed it up, so…
8. Why do you carry a bird book around with you everywhere?
That was eons ago. I had a real interest in birds that came from my mother. You never know
when you’re going to spot what turns out to be a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. Having your Roger Torrey Peterson at the ready is essential. The book also reeled in some pretty interesting guys who wanted to know what I was so intently reading.
9. Are you happy with the genre Larry has placed you in?
Sure. I get to be a strong and resourceful adult female. What else could I want? Besides, the thriller genre takes in an awful lot of ground. A Bridge to Treachery really walks the thin line between action/suspense and general literary fiction at times.
10. If you could rewrite anything in A Bridge to Treachery, what would it be?
Somewhere in the book in a moment of weakness, I reveal that I love Lou the most when he’s at his lowest points and most needy. It’s because at these points my role in our lives grows. That translates into a secret desire on my part to see Lou stumble presenting me an opportunity to step in and save the day. Is that not greed worse than any of Lou’s?
