Jack Henderson

When it comes to the actual text, the author has a great deal to say about what goes into their book. With few exceptions, actually, he or she has the final say. Not so on other things; the cover, for example. Since a lot of potential readers actually do judge a book by its cover, a number of [...]

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In this first chapter of Circumference of Darkness you get a brief walk-around of John’s apartment, in the course of absorbing the opening events of the story. (There’s even more detail of his place in the U.K. version of the book, Maximum Impact.) His wall-sized media screen is a key feature of the living room, [...]

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Readers develop a clear mental picture of each character in the fiction they enjoy, and I believe these images are always very personal. That is, it’s not likely that two people would have exactly the same idea of what a character looks like. Descriptions in the text sometimes help, but even the author’s vision of a character’s appearance won’t line up precisely with [...]

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Here’s a part of the book that changed quite a bit from its original, self-published version. This was a much longer chapter in that draft, with more description of Latrell’s encampment and his philosophies. It included a speech by Latrell to his gathered followers that was equal parts evangelical tent-service and a call to military action against [...]

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This is the transcript of John’s ill-fated 1993 IRC chat, in which he inadvertently lays out the blueprint for the events of 9/11. The online conversation happens shortly after the failed attempt to bring down the Twin Towers in late February of ’93. Six people were killed in this attack and over 1,000 were injured, but many [...]

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We learn a little more about John and his history here. In this chapter he sets out on a rare journey outside the comfort and safety of his home to try and somehow make amends for the terrible thing he’s caused. I wasn’t there on 9/11, but I worked in Manhattan for about 8 years in the 80s and early 90s, and [...]

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A short chapter, which provides a bit more insight into Jeannie’s character. It also offers a good opportunity to talk a little about the approach I chose in researching the facts behind the fiction in this story. Throughout this book, it was important to me to avoid re-writing history, with the benefit of hindsight. Today, when years [...]

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I wanted to portray Edward Latrell as the most dangerous kind of evil man; one who can justify any atrocity, as long as it’s committed in the service of his cause. (Sound familiar?) You don’t have to look very far at all to find examples of this brand of self-righteousness at work in the world. Its greatest danger, and its power, lies in its fundamentalism; [...]

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Before even the initial shockwave of the 9/11 terrorist attacks had subsided, one thing was clear: the U.S. would strike back, and the gloves were coming off. Whoever could be reasonably determined to have been behind this attack would feel a major retaliation just as soon as it could be mounted. Nearly six years later, news [...]

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The Total Information Awareness program (though it wasn’t yet publicly called this) got a lot of attention in the months after 9/11. Many people were only vaguely aware of the government’s high-tech surveillance initiatives (both domestic and transnational) until they began to crop up in the news, but they’d clearly been working behind the scenes on these programs for many [...]

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John awakens after a lost week of heavy drinking and self-medication, to find his city still reeling in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. There’s not much I want to add on this short chapter, but it reminds me to write a few words now about the research that went into the book. One of my first jobs in New York [...]

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Anyone interested in the hacker community should be familiar with 2600 Magazine. The title of the magazine refers to the magical frequency of 2600 Hz, a tone which once caused a great deal of trouble for American Telephone & Telegraph. In the book, John Fagan’s old friend Winston Smith is the editor-in-chief of a publication that’s loosely [...]

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