Author talks suburbs, politics and X-Files

Daily Herald reporter John Patterson recently chatted with author Jamie Freveletti about her debut novel "Running From The Devil." Freveletti grew up in Addison and now lives in Lincoln Park. Her action, adventure, thriller tells the story of chemist and marathoner Emma Caldridge and how she finds herself battling guerrilla soldiers and personal demons in the Columbian jungle. Here's an edited transcript of their conversation.

DH: First of all I have to say that I have not read your book yet. When I brought it home my wife snatched it away and just finished reading it. My wife is a lab scientist who recently took up jogging, so you've found a sympathetic audience there.

FV: I hope she liked it.

DH: Yes, she did. Last night and then this morning I was interviewing her: What's the book about? Give me the CliffsNotes version.

FV: That's very funny.

DH: My understanding is you originally grew up in the Oak Brook area?

FV: I grew up in Addison and my dad worked in Oak Brook at Sears. I spent a lot of time in Oak Brook.

DH: So how did growing up in suburban Chicago - did that shape you as an author or anything you draw upon in writing this novel?

FV: In this novel, no. ... What I had kind of envisioned was Fermi lab, that's kind of Naperville area, I kind of had pictured her working in that corridor, the Emma character and she's working in this kind of unnamed Midwestern research laboratory and then her fiancee died and she moved down to Florida to another laboratory. The laboratory where she worked was kind of a loose idea I had when I'd drive by the Fermi Lab, and I used to think, 'Wow, what kind of interesting scientific stuff goes on over there?' So in that case I guess it did somewhat influence where I put some of the scenes.

DH: Now if I were writing a novel, I would kill off all my childhood enemies and professional enemies, and I was just wondering who are these thinly veiled characters in your life who emerge as the paramilitary and the evil corporate types in this book?

FV: You know it's kind of funny, it's not childhood. It's actually drawn from a lot of politics. I'm a big fan of politics.

DH: Even better. (John Patterson is the paper's Senior State Government Editor)

FV: I was watching some of our recent past administration one night and I was thinking, 'Wow, I wouldn't mind killing off that guy.' Actually the marketing director of Harper Collins did pinpoint which guy he was and who he was based on. There's a character in there I just couldn't take anymore. He said one thing too far. I didn't kill him off, but I really made him a total jerk in the book.

DH: When you say past administration I assume you mean the White House and not the Illinois governor.

FV: Yes, I mean at a federal level, although at this point being from Illinois is almost embarrassing. We just have so much to choose from as novelists.

DH: You're a trial lawyer as well, what do you think the chances are that former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will use the "devil's breath" defense. (In Freveletti's book, her heroine uses "devil's breath" to combat enemies. In the real world, it's derived from a tropical plant and when powdered and blown into the face of victims, allegedly creates a zombie like state. In the "author's notes" section, Freveletti tells of reading about a Columbian politician who denied responsibility for stealing because he'd been in such a zombie trance.)

FV: Hey, it's been used in Columbia quite successfully. Blagojevich thinking he was going to compete on the island - I was thinking what if he does go on the island? What island would they put him on? It's almost surreal.

DH: I'm not sure he has the same survival skills your heroine does in your book, or that you do for that matter. You're a novice at knife throwing, Aikido practicing, marathoning trial attorney. What does your husband do?

FV: Actually I don't marathon. I will lay it off on him. He's the ultra runner. He's an international attorney. He does mergers and acquisitions. And when he's not doing that he runs ultras. And now he is an elite runner and he's soon to be competing in Finland at the international masters track and field championship. I actually went with him to the U.S. masters track and field championships in Washington, D.C., about a month ago. I ran the 3,000 meters. I run short distances and I try to run them very fast, although I feel at the U.S. masters track and field, I was pretty much out of my league. But it was really fun to be there.

When I started with Aikido my husband was very concerned that I would become injured. It actually has only happened a couple times. You know when you're a sports enthusiast, it's all about injury, recovering from it, avoiding it, it's almost inevitable you're going to get injured at some point.

DH: You've got some suburban and Chicago book signings coming up. When you sit down for that, how do you feel about this book?

FV: I love this book. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a great read. It's action adventure. It really is organic. I hate to sound like that. I didn't write a legal thriller and I am an attorney and could have, but I kind of wanted to enjoy an area that I knew about but didn't necessarily live every day.

I don't know if I'm explaining this well enough, but I kind of didn't want to write my everyday life. I wanted to escape a little bit and imagine a real person in strange circumstances, how would that play out?

So when I go back, to Oak Brook in particular, a lot of my friends are coming from Addison and from Villa Park and Lombard and a lot of people are going to come and my relatives all still live there, they live in all that whole area, - I think they'll like it. I think some of them will be surprised that I didn't write a mystery, a local mystery. But I think most of them who knew me when I was growing up, I was the one who was chomping at the bit to go places, to travel. I remember I had this one childhood book, it's funny how a book can really change your life, 'Come Over To My House' - I think it's long out of print - and what it was really pretty pictures and this little girl goes to every different country in the world and she goes to play and the kids open the door and they play. She goes to India and it's a kid who has a tiger for a pet. And I remember reading that book over and over and thinking I would just love to go to all these places. So I kind of have been able to do this with some of the writing, it kind of takes me away. It gets me into an idea I had as a little kid. Wouldn't it be interesting to do (? And then I write about it.

I think the ones who know me will say, "Oh, yep we figured you'd end up doing something like this."

I also had a poem published at 11. The elementary school, Wesley, I think it was called Wesley Elementary in Addison, there was a contest and Carol Burnett, she used to apparently on the television show, she would read kids' poems and things. And they sent out a nationwide contest to get as many poems as they could from kids. And two of us in Addison won, actually got our poems published. My mother still has the book proudly displayed on her mantelpiece.

The people who knew me then knew I was writing. Sometimes things from your former life come true. I think they'll remember that book and that poem.

DH: I realize you're just kind of hitting the road with this book, but is there another one to come?

FV: Yes. It was a two-book deal. I was under contract to write another one. Being a lawyer, being under contract is very important to me. I did get it done. It is - I don't know if I can even say it. I've been trying to ask Harper Collins if I can say it because it's something I started a year ago and now it's in the news all the time and at the time I started it a year ago everyone was kind of like scoffing at me and now nobody's scoffing. I would rather not say, but the second one is done and if I can update you, I will.

One thing I can say is it involves some of the same characters. Not all of the same characters, but some of the same characters in this book will carry over into the second book. That one's already in, but the editors have to get to it and we have to talk about it.

DH: Do you think you'll continue with writing books?

FV: Yes. I see this as a career. I hope. I'm going to put a lot of effort into making this my next career, and I love it. I don't know what will happen down the road, but I think it is a wonderful way to release a lot of ideas into the world. I'm really enjoying it. I enjoy being a lawyer, but I enjoy this as well.

DH: You said you went to Wesley Elementary?

FV: Yeah. I went to Addison Trail High School. Then I went to Northern Illinois University and IIT-Chicago Kent for law school.

DH: If I can ask, what year did you graduate from Addison Trail High School?

FV: Ahhhh. I'd rather not say. You can say I'm in my 40s. You're the second journalist to ask me my age. My husband said, just give them your age.

DH: I was trying to think of a more generic, polite, runaround way to ask.

FV: I'm in my 40s.

DH: If you'd said class of 1998 -

FV: You'd be, like wow!

FV: You're in Springfield? Do you ever talk to David Ellis? He's a writer.

DH: Yeah. He was the prosecutor for the impeachment.

FV: David's great. He's been writing. He's a great writer. I just saw him at a writing conference. We were having a drink and he told me he'd moved down to Springfield. I'm like, 'Oh my God, it couldn't be a more interesting time.' It just can't be a more interesting time to be from Illinois. This is really going to be fascinating. I don't think Blagojevich is backing down.

FV: What did your wife (who's read the book) want you to ask about?

DH: She was very impressed with the amount of information and detail of the paramilitary outfits in the jungle and wondered how you came to that level of expertise?

FV: I read everything I could get my hands on about the paramilitary groups in Columbia. I scoured the Internet. I was reading about all the different ways they were trying to get these guys under control and it was fascinating. I actually did fly down to Columbia and tried to get to the beach where Emma, at the end she's at a beach, and it's kind of near the Lost City. In the end Emma goes there and she's running and she gets to another location and she's running onto a beach. It's near Cartagena. So I flew down to Cartagena and tried to get to that beach. And when I was there I said to the concierge, 'I've got to get over to the beach' and he said, 'No you don't. They just had a kidnapping there.' What happens is they take them off the beach. It's usually Columbians that they kidnap. They rarely kidnap foreigners, though the last large group of foreigners kidnapped were actually hikers headed to the Lost City. I think it was 2003.

That's unusual. Usually you pay off the paramilitaries, the guys running the tour do.

So along with all of that, going down there, and then kind of reading everything I could, I pretty much got very conversant with who's who, what's what and who's doing what to whom.

I did a lot of research and love it.

DH: How long did it take you to put this book together?

FV: From beginning to end, I did two revisions, it took me a year to write and six months for the two revisions.

DH: The name Emma, anything symbolic about it?

FV: Yes. I didn't want the coolest name in the world. I think scientists should kind of have thoughtful names, not swashbuckling names. I didn't want like Lara Croft Tomb Raider kind of name. But I wanted something for a thoughtful woman. Emma struck me as a thoughtful person.

I also love Mrs. Emma Peel from The Avengers. And any girl growing up - I just loved that show. I used to see it on reruns at home when I was a little kid. I thought it was great. I just loved her. She was the coolest thing.

It was a name that wasn't as flashy. I wanted her to be thoughtful. I didn't want her to be this jack-of-all-trades who could do anything. I wanted her to be more like a real woman. What would you do if you were in this jungle? And she does have some skills, more scientific skills. She doesn't have these fighting skills. And I wanted her to kind of go through the steps.

And I wanted her to not have a male sidekick who saved her. I wanted her to save the man. And I'll just lay that right out there. I wanted the woman to save the man but not make the man be a wimp, make the man cool, but have her carry the day. And I think she does. In the end, she has some very strong men around her who help her, they're great characters, but I think as a character she can hold her own among them.

In short, a lot of women are really going to like that book.

Men too. My husband read it and he loved the (Edward) Banner character. I was a little surprised by that.

DH: I always watched the X-Files for Dana Scully as much as Fox Mulder, so I'll have to check out the book.

FV: Yeah, that was one of the groups I looked at. It's funny that you say that, if you look at the relationship that Dana and Mulder - I didn't want to pair Emma up that closely, but that was kind of what I was shooting for. I felt in that show they both had a lot of respect for each other, although in different fields. You didn't feel like he was saving her or she was saving him, they were very equal. I really wanted to portray that. Whoever Emma meets, whenever she's with the men, she's an equal. And they treat her that way. It's more fun to me when everyone's operating at the same level.

I wanted to see if that would work and it worked big. When I was trying to sell the book, a lot of the editors in the big (publishing) houses were saying "We don't have a female thriller character like this in books right now."