Eric Coulson
Author · Diplomat · Soldier
An Interview

Eric Coulson — Q&A: The Chrysalis Option

A conversation with the author on Kiana Azunna, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, and the lived experience behind the fiction.

  1. No. 01

    Eric, what is your debut novel, The Chrysalis Option, about?

    The Chrysalis Option is a spy and military thriller centered around Kiana Azunna, the first woman to complete Royal Marine Commando training in the UK. She has a complicated past with trauma she is trying to overcome and when this leads to a failed mission in Afghanistan, she reinvents herself and faces a new series of challenges. These challenges are physical, emotional, and mental but result in her going back to Nigeria, the country her parents were from, to eliminate part of an international criminal ring and settle some private family scores. The book is her story where she learns she is much better and capable than she gives herself credit for. She does not let obstacles get in her way.

  2. No. 02

    The backdrop for the book involves when a military mission goes tragically wrong during the pull-out from Afghanistan. As a retired US Army and Foreign Services Officer who worked in Iraq and other countries, are you writing from an informed perspective?

    Yes — these large organizations have specific ways of working. They have rules and regulations. I tried to give a sense of what it is like to be in one of those organizations, especially when things go wrong.

  3. No. 03

    You also served in Egypt, Nigeria, the UK, and the Dominican Republic. Each place is so different. How did you find yourself adapting to these varied cultural landscapes, each with their own mission challenges?

    Living in different countries is a wonderful way to get outside of your comfort zone. It makes you adaptable and better able to overcome other challenges because a society is not going to change for you. Once you choose a lifestyle in the military or the Foreign Service you know that wherever you go, whatever it is like, it will not be like the United States. So I always approached it as a real-life adventure.

  4. No. 04

    Does your book show how powerful and strong women can be?

    Absolutely. Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in heels. Women can absolutely do anything men can. I think it is well past time women are given their due and not need to go above and beyond the standard just to be accepted as competent.

  5. No. 05

    Kiana comes from Nigeria. There are not many spy thriller heroes who are black and female. How do you hope to highlight her unique abilities?

    Kiana is a product of her environment. Her parents fled embattled Biafra at the end of the Biafran war as young children. Thus, they grew up and Kiana grew up with their feet in both the UK and Nigeria. When you add in her orphaning and being there when it happened, you have a pretty driven individual anxious to prove herself to a world that is at best indifferent.

  6. No. 06

    Kiana sees an opportunity, at some point, to start her life over, but living a new purpose in life for a trained soldier is never easy, is it?

    Coming home from the military, particularly if you have been in combat, is very difficult. You need to be "on" when in a combat environment and even everyday military life is so structured that when you come home it can be a challenge to find your own structure.

  7. No. 07

    How would you describe your writing style?

    Fast pace, action packed, with highly developed characters.

  8. No. 08

    You say this story is a love letter to London and the United Kingdom. How so? Why?

    Any of the scenes in London I really tried to highlight a sense of being there and to highlight the great things of the city. I lived there for two years and absolutely loved it. I would move back in a heartbeat if I could afford it. That's the one downside to so many big cities today though — super expensive. I hope any Londoner reading my book appreciates how I tried to make the city an important character.

  9. No. 09

    What draws so many people to read spy thrillers? How would you say your book compares to others in your genre?

    People like to be in on the secret. They like to think they have knowledge of what is going on in the world with nefarious actors real and imagined. The recent raid into Venezuela or the capture of bin Laden are perfect examples of that — regardless of how you feel about those actions, they are fascinating when you learn everything that led up to it. The thriller writer fills the gap to let the reader be in on it in real time. Some writers completely invent the world they write about; I prefer to have it based on things that are really happening. For this book I found the fact the Syrian Army was running a drug smuggling operation fascinating because it never occurred to me that with everything they were apparently doing to hold on to power, they would also have time to do that. I hope my book compares favorably to novels like Slow Horses and The Day of the Jackal — set though in modern times with a new kind of hero.

  10. No. 10

    One of your missions was to oversee humanitarian relief in Northwest Syria a few years ago. What were the challenges and dangers attached to that?

    I worked this position from Washington DC so the dangers were mostly limited to DC traffic and Covid. The big challenges though were getting the permissions necessary for aid vehicles to be allowed from the Turkish side into the contested areas around Aleppo. Additionally, Russian-directed artillery was a constant threat to both the aid convoys as well as the residents. On top of all that, northwest Syria was contested by ISIS and the Syrian Government — neither friendly to the United States. Turkey, a NATO ally, was contending with more than 6 million refugees, and northeast Syria had mixed revolutionary groups where the US had more sway. It was hard to get attention for the relatively small area and number of people in that region.

  11. No. 11

    You also were involved in adjudicating tens of thousands of Visas from several different countries. Is that process much more complicated now, under President Trump?

    In some ways I imagine it is easier. Some countries have had their nationals completely banned from traveling to the United States. Conversely, I imagine Consular Officers are spending a good deal more time looking at the social media sites of various applicants. The Department has not made public, at least to my knowledge, the criteria they are using to deny people based on social media usage. I can't imagine taking the risk of approving someone based on a cursory review of their social media right now.

  12. No. 12

    One of your riskiest jobs was as a commander of 130 soldiers in Iraq, locating and eliminating 434 improvised explosive devices over 20 months. What was that like?

    Combat is 98% boredom and 2% sheer terror. I had three platoons driving the roads of western Iraq at 5–10 mph just scanning the road and roadside looking for signs of IED emplacement. That could be holes in the road that had suddenly been filled with rocks or a rice bag with wires extending from it. Boxes well intact by the side of the road. We would interrogate them all from the relative safety of an armored vehicle. The hardest part of course was when three of my Soldiers were killed north of Falluja. And even the injuries were life changing. Many of my Soldiers received multiple concussions and many did not want to report them because their families would receive notifications of their injury and they did not want their families to worry. But it was very challenging to maintain the edge you need when you go outside the wire. Once you get to a status quo position, you must refocus your mind as if you just arrived.

· · ·