Boston writer Chuck Hogan didn't expect this at all.
When he started writing "The Standoff," the 26-year-old author's only intention was to write a well-crafted, straightforward suspense novel. He didn't realize how national events would conspire to make it much more than that.After Waco and after the Oklahoma City bombing that took place nine days after the book's publication, "The Standoff" suddenly is the book of its times.
Much to Hogan's surprise.
He thought his subject matter was fairly obscure. His plot, about a right-wing extremist who barricades himself in a mountain cabin, was inspired by a news event that got little play in Boston. In fact, the article about a real-life showdown between a white separatist and federal agents in an obscure northern Idaho town was buried in the big city papers.
One of the agents killed in the Randy Weaver shootout was William Degan, Quincy, Mass.
"I was really intrigued by this situation, with a man holding off hundreds of law enforcement" officers, Hogan says.
At night, and on days away from his job at a video rental store, he researched the histories and views of right-wing fringe groups, the FBI and hostage negotiation techniques, and the geography and culture of the Pacific Northwest.
Hogan was three months into writing the book when the Branch Davidian compound in Waco was raided. Like many others, he was engrossed by the August 1992 standoff involving Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge - near Naples in northern Idaho - and its parallels with Waco.
Now, after Oklahoma City, the attention of the nation is focused on various fringe groups around the country and their reasons for drifting so far away from the mainstream. Debate is hot about how the government should cope with them.
And "The Standoff," published by Doubleday, is in nearly every bookstore in the country. The movie rights were sold before publication. Given the nation's current atmosphere, the project probably will be put on fast track to take advantage of all the attention.
The plot of "The Standoff" will be eerily familiar to northern Idaho residents.
Set in "Skull Valley," Montana, the story centers on Glenn Ables, a white supremacist and federal fugitive who barricades himself and his family in a mountaintop cabin. Federal troops arrive to bring him out, as do Ables' fringe group supporters.
John T. Banish, a renegade FBI agent who has alienated himself from the agency and his family, and who has isolated himself by taking a low-profile job in Montana, is brought in to quell the situation. He must draw on all his ability to find a peaceful solution to the explosive scenario.
The book plays on the similarities between the two characters and the tension of their situation.
Hogan's finished work was a hit with literary super-agent Amanda "Binky" Urban, who secured the author with a $500,000 publishing deal, an amazing sum for a first novel. She then sold the film rights for $400,000.
Hogan quit his job at the video store.
In fact, much of the attention garnered by "The Standoff" is on the amount of money it has earned its young author. He says that's unfortunate.
"I'm not pleased that that comes out so much when the book is talked about," he says. "I certainly could overshadow what it's all about."
"But I'm certainly pleased that the book has been so well-re-ceived."
Hogan also is amused that the deal has created a buzz about video store jobs. Acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino of "Pulp Fiction" also had a job giving customers tape-rental advice before making the big time.
"It's a good job to have while you're pursuing something else," Hogan said. "It's a great part-time job, but I don't think there's any special magic to it. I don't think parents will be pulling their kids out of college and trying to place them in a good video store."
"The Standoff" actually is the third book Hogan has written since graduating from Boston College a few years back. He's chalking up the first two as good experiences and is at work on something new.
"It will be a thriller, but it won't be `The Standoff II,' " he said.
In the meantime, he's enjoying his nationwide promotional tour for "The Standoff" which is bringing him for the first time to the area he wrote about in the book.
"It will be interesting to be in that country, to see it firsthand," he said. "I always wanted to go out, but I really didn't have the resources to when I was writing the book."