D.B. Shuster's Blog

I published the first installment of Kings of Brighton Beach in
January, 2014. I was so thrilled and excited. Like many new
authors, I was sure my baby was going to be an overnight
success. Little did I know, I was doing everything wrong. Three installments in,
it became clear that the series was going nowhere fast. The
complexity of the story made it nearly impossible to keep up
with the ambitious schedule I had initially planned, and I had
more friends on Facebook than I did book sales.

I...

The characters and the family saga told in Sins of a Spy are
purely fictional, but aspects of the story come straight from
historical accounts of the Cold War. I have drawn deeply on the
history of Soviet Jews, particularly of the Refusenik community
and their daily trials—the surveillance, the menial jobs, the
anti-Semitism, and the harassment by the KGB. I also found
inspiration in autobiographies and journalistic accounts of
American and Russian spies. I draw on details, large and small,...

“Do I have to slap you?” Kris asked as she finished setting up for the February meeting of the Deer Park Moms Book Clubat her house, while I flapped around her kitchen in a tizzy of nerves. She had set a beautiful table with Russian-themed food and drink, and the lovely aroma of frying pierogies wafted from the kitchen. “Because I will.”

I’ll be honest. My friends regularly tell me I’m crazy. Of course, they say it lovingly, but I’m type A and more than a little neurotic, and so they’re usual...

Growing up during the Cold War, I was taught that the Soviet Union was
evil. They wanted to infect us with Communism or kill us with
nuclear missiles. In middle school, I heard the famous dissident
and Refusenik, Natan Sharansky, speak at my synagogue, and I was
moved to activism. My family participated in the March for
Soviet Jewry in Washington, D.C. in 1987. I carried a sign that
said “Let My People Go.” After Gorbachev finally let the Soviet
Jews leave, I met and later married Gene, an...

Blogtalk Radio host Bernadette Walsh interviews D. B. Shuster for Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books. Tune in to hear how Kings of Brighton Beach got its start, how this professor and book industry expert turned thriller writer navigates the crazy and exciting world of digital publishing, and how I research the Russian mafia.


Find Additional Books Podcasts with Bernadette Walsh on BlogTalkRadio

The post D. B. Shuster Interview on Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books appeared first on D.B. Shuster.

In digging into this project, I gave a lot of thought to the stories that most grabbed me. I’m not a huge TV watcher, but over the years I have been a dedicated fan of several dramas, especially Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Babylon Five, Battlestar Galactica, and Rome. What I especially loved about these series was the deep character development that happened over an evolving and fast-moving plot. I looked forward to the weekly installments, and I felt as if I knew the characters and had a clear...

The idea for the Kings of Brighton Beach Series started with a simple “what if?” On weekday mornings my husband claims to commute to Manhattan for a job in “business.” But what if that wasn’t what he really did?

What if I learned our entire life together was a lie and that he was a spy or a member of the Russian mafia? What if he was guilty of terrible crimes that endangered our family and others? What if my love for him was at odds with justice?

I dug deeper, obsessively researching the Russia...