by Mike Ryan
Q: I was wondering how you view the relationship between Cain and Heather because I think she’s his rock and I’m not too happy about them splitting up at the end of Directive. Hopefully it’s just a bump in the road and they’ll have a happy ending in Redemption.
A: You should love Redemption by this point! But I really do agree with your point. Without her, without her love, I really think Redemption would have a different ending. If they had never met, if she wasn’t in his life, I think the events he’s gone through would’ve taken such a toll that he would not have recovered. And even with her, at the beginning of Redemption, he’d sent her away so she could find someone else and live a happy life without him. He was planning on dying. He’d given up. It was really because of her that he kept on living and fighting.
Q: I really love the series! I read your blog and subscribe to your newsletter but I’ve never heard you discussing whether there are more books in the series planned? Is this it or are you planning on doing more?”
A: As of right now, I have no plans for more books in this series. I have no thoughts, no ideas, nothing written down on paper about anything else. If that ever changes I do have an idea for an opening scene from a 5th book, but that’s just in my head, something I’ve thought about, but nothing written. That being said, if I get deluged with emails from thousands of people asking for more books in the series than I’ll give the fans what they want. But even if that were to ever happen there’s a few other things I’m working on before that. I have several other projects in the works: a new series called The Lazarus Series, which will again involve a secret CIA black ops group. Task Force 88 will be a military sci-fi series. Within the next year I’ll also finish the last book in the CIA Ghost series called Ghost Fall. There’s also a couple individual titles I have some thoughts on.
Q: I saw you said that you wrote The Cain Redemption a while ago but didn’t like it and then rewrote it. What happened and why didn’t you like it?
A: Well, I didn’t rewrite the whole thing, just part of it. Everything was the same in both up until Cain gets the surgery. In the first draft, Cain was sidelined for about six weeks. That meant other people had to step up and do the things that Cain was meant to do. In doing that, that took Cain out of the book essentially for most of it. He wouldn’t have come back until going after Sanders. After reading it, I thought the book became less about Cain, and I didn’t think that was the right direction to go. I mean, he’s the series. Everything’s about him and what happened to him. I thought taking him out of a big chunk of the book was a disservice to readers and followers of the series. I think most people are reading for him. So I rewrote it that he only missed a week and was basically only out of the book for a chapter while Raines went to Italy.
Q: All the major characters basically made it through the book (Cain, Heather, Lawson, Raines), did you ever consider killing any of them off?
A: Loaded question there! Actually, the only one of that bunch I never considered killing off was Lawson. The others I always had a few questions about. I’ll take them one at a time. With Raines, I almost killed him off in Conspiracy. Then I wanted to include him in Deception. I almost killed him in Deception, but wanted to bring him back for Directive. I had no plans of killing him in the last two books as he was vital to the cause. Heather almost got killed and I did have some serious thoughts about her not making it through those gunshot wounds she received. It would’ve drove Cain to an ever darker place than he was. As I said earlier though, I don’t think Cain could make it through the series without her support, so I just couldn’t do it. As for Cain, I had a few thoughts about him going out in a blaze of glory but it was just a fleeting thought. I didn’t really think too hard about it. In the end, I wanted to leave things on a good note. This will go for most of my books in that I really want to end on a positive. Now if it makes sense for the main character to go, then I would, but only if it was really necessary. Now, if I had decided to kill Heather a book or two before, then I think it would’ve made a lot of sense for Cain to die at the end of Redemption because he would’ve felt he had nothing to come back to. Once his mission was over, that would’ve been it for him.
Other Books
The Cain Conspiracy
The Cain Deception
The Cain Directive
The Cain Redemption
Rogue Ghost
Ghost Pursuit
About the author:
Mike Ryan lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, three kids, and three dogs. He is currently working on another book. He loves country music, 80s hair bands, superhero movies, cop shows, and classic TV.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Author Notes
Other Books
About the author: