Barbara Nickless’ interests in Greek mythology, geopolitics connected in mystery

Barbara Nickless is a Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of eight novels, a three-time recipient of the Colorado Book Award and five-time recipient of Colorado Authors League awards. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, the FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association, the World Affairs Council, and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Her most recent travels—while conducting research for a novel—involved taking cover from rocket fire and being grilled at military checkpoints. 

SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?

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Each week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & Center For The Book feature an excerpt from a Colorado book and an interview with the author. Explore the SunLit archives at coloradosun.com/sunlit.

Barbara Nickless: Any novel is woven out of multiple threads, each jangling for the author’s attention. Big themes, personal interests, current events, and the odd bits that surface from a large and murky subconscious. “Play of Shadow” was born out of my interest in Greek mythology coupled with recent observations of the power plays taking place in regimes around the globe. 

These struggles put me in mind of King Minos of Crete, whose hubris in defying the gods is mind-boggling. The result of his pride—the monster known as the Minotaur—ultimately led to his downfall. But what of the monster himself? What pain did he feel when his father shut him into an underground labyrinth? Was the monster then responsible for the evil he perpetrated? 

SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it?

Nickless: I selected the first two chapters of the book because I want to provide a glimpse inside the mind of my killer and then introduce my protagonist. Every monster deserves a worthy opponent. And vice versa. 

The Minotaur had the Greek hero Theseus. My killer must face Dr. Evan Wilding, a specialist in dissecting the narratives killers create around themselves. Which will prove to be cleverer? More willing to push acceptable limits?

SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write? 

Nickless: My mother introduced me early to the Greek myths. I followed that trail to James George Frazer’s “The Golden Bough,” the works of Joseph Campbell, and the mythology of other cultures. 

Since I’d already been studying the psychology of killers for my earlier books, it was a marriage made in hell (in a manner of speaking) to wed these interests.

SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?

Nickless: It was pure pleasure to work with a Ph.D. mythologist during the writing of this novel. Before meeting Dr. Francesca Ferrentelli, I had no idea such a position existed. Francesca offered her wisdom and insight and turned me toward works I’d once loved but hadn’t revisited—those of Dr. Carl Jung.

“Play of Shadows”

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SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?

Nickless: Craft wise, with every novel I write, I deliberately choose some technical aspect I haven’t tackled before or one I want to improve on. With “Play of Shadows,” I set out to learn how to write multiple points of view, or POVs. 

Previously, the most POVs I’d worked with had been three. With this novel, I almost doubled that. It really opened the playing field and was a blast to write.

SunLit: What’s the most important thing — a theme, lesson, emotion or realization — that readers should take from this book? 

Nickless: Questions of nature versus nurture. How to treat mental illness. Why we should look at someone’s backstory to help determine how they got from A to B. We’re really bad at that in America. 

Our mental health system isn’t keeping up with the problems undermining our society. Depression. Loneliness. Teen suicide. Veterans’ issues. I have no answers. It’s the novelist’s job to raise the questions. Politicians must figure out how to find answers and make strategies work in the real world.

SunLit: Your protagonist, Dr. Evan Wilding, is a 4-foot, five-inch forensic semiotician. What is a forensic semiotician? 

Nickless: A semiotician studies the signs and symbols created by and used across human cultures. A forensic semiotician seeks to understand the sign, symbols, writing, and other clues left by a killer at a crime scene. Or, perhaps, in manifestos posted on YouTube or in missives sent to newspapers (think of the Zodiac Killer’s encrypted letters mailed to the Bay Area press). 

SunLit: Tell us about your next project.

Nickless: “The Drowning Game,” which was released in January, is a combination of family drama and high-stakes espionage. What happens when an ordinary woman is pulled into the hidden world of international conflict? Where does courage come from? How do you choose to do the right thing when your life — and the lives of your family — are on the line?

 A few more quick questions

SunLit: Which do you enjoy more as you work on a book – writing or editing? 

Nickless: Editing! The blank page terrifies me, but the process of editing is soothing. Editing is when you get to conduct the orchestra rather than build the instrument. 

SunLit: What’s the first piece of writing – at any age – that you remember being proud of? 

Nickless: My first completed novel — “Blackie a Wolf.” Inspired by my love of tales by Jack London and Albert Payson Terhune, “Blackie” is the tale of a young wolf pup who sets out to avenge the death of his family. I wrote it when I was a pre-teen. 

SunLit: What three writers, from any era, would you invite over for a great discussion about literature and writing? 

Nickless: How to choose? I’ll confine myself to writers from earlier centuries. Dante, to understand what’s at stake when our lives go astray and what it means to love chastely and from afar; Shakespeare, of course, because no one understands humans better than he; Geoffrey Chaucer for wit and warmth.

SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing? 

Nickless: I’ve been reading Turkish authors lately. Elif Safak is a favorite. She says, “I write as if I were drunk. It is a process of intuition rather than placing myself above my story like a puppeteer pulling strings. For me, it’s a scary, chaotic process over which I have little control. Words demand other words, characters resist me.”

SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you? 

Nickless: I’m fascinated with history and deeply eclectic in my reading tastes.

SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What’s the audio background that helps you write? 

Nickless: Before we lost our home in the Waldo Canyon fire, I listened to instrumental movie soundtracks. Since the fire, I write in silence. I have no idea why. One ear cocked for sirens? 

SunLit: What music do you listen to for sheer enjoyment? 

Nickless: I’m going to nerd out here. I was raised in a house where classical music was the main playlist, punctuated by the Mills Brothers, Tijuana Brass, and the Fifth Dimension. I still love listening to all these artists and their collected works. 

SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer? 

Nickless: Undergoing a hospital stay for my first of (so far seven) eye surgeries. I was three and the only entertainment I had was making up stories for my own amusement.

SunLit: Greatest writing fear? 

Nickless: I won’t continue to get better—at my craft, at the psychology of people.

SunLit: Greatest writing satisfaction? 

Nickless: Hitting on an idea that lights a fire in my belly.