Edwin Santiago author of “Executive Betrayal / A Max Stone Series” With one of his many interviews.

One of America’s newest authors hits home with a startlingly realistic novel that appears to be ripped from the pages of today’s current events. “Executive Betrayal” by Edwin Santiago is a fantastic and “seemingly non-fiction” story of how America chooses to deal with the modern day threats to our freedom, peace, and well being.

The Daily Tribune News
Interview By: Mike Stucka
June 12, 2003

Edwin Santiago’s goal in life was to write and publish a book. Now he’s writing his third. Santiago, 46, spends his days working for an Atlanta software firm. On Friday and Saturdays, he’ll take his wife out, return home at 10 p.m., and sometimes write until 4a.m. “I like to write, “ Santiago said. “I’ve got there ideas I need to write or tell somebody about it. Writing is my passion. It has nothing to do with money.”

Santiago’s passion was formed years ago, when he first envisioned Max Stone, a cop in the New World Order who deals with high-level corruption in “Executive Betrayal,” terrorism in the second book and a serial killer in the third novel. Six novels are planned.

Max Stone and the novels were conceived before Sept. 11, 2001, Santiago said. Max Stone sometimes has to bend or break the rules to go after people who mock the rules. “If he has to do a little in justice to get justice, that’s Max Stone,” he said.

Santiago has lived in Cartersville just three years but has gotten nearly all of his writing done here. He tried to write short stories before but had problems writing them and never got them published.

“I had a dream about writing but New York is to hectic to write. I had to many friends knocking on the door,” he said. “In Georgia, I can just sit on the back deck with the laptop and write. It’s so quiet.”

He gets to write on a deck he built outside, or sometimes in an upstairs study of his duplex. There he can work with a favorite DVD playing on a big-screen TV for the noise, and simply keep writing. With a comfortable chair on green carpet in the peach-walled room, an autographed photo of the original “Star Trek” cast facing him, he can enjoy a few bad habits that keep him writing. “What’s the discipline?” he said. “You sit there with a rum and coke and type. I take a puff, hit a couple of keys, and type more.”

“Executive Betrayal” was release in April and is now available for order through local book stores and many popular Web sites. The Max Stone novels are set in a decade when the New World Order has created an international police force with extreme abilities, such as being able to search suspect’s houses without a warrant. And even as the first involves high-level corruption, Santiago still sees hope for the future in such initiatives.

“The New World Order is a good thing. It’s just that some people will use that to their advantage,” He said. “ I’m trying to say, ‘If you ‘re going to make a change, make it a good change.”