Sergei Kourdakov, a former KGB agent and Soviet naval intelligence officer, defected from the USSR at the age of twenty. A year later we met at my Federal Government office in Washington DC. We were watched and followed. “Even you could be spy,” Sergei whispered. My book, A Rose for Sergei, is the true story of our time together.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Sergei Kourdakov | Young, Free and in Love…


Recently I exchanged blog interviews with fellow Indie Author, Kevin R. Hill.  Interviews offer a different platform in which writers can connect with readers.  In turn, readers learn about the author’s character and individual style of writing.  One of the surprising upsides of our interview exchange turned out to be the camaraderie between two authors who have never met.

The interviewee obviously knows the Question & Answer portion of the interview in advance.  Anything else the interviewer writes about you is usually unknown until the blog post is made public.  So when I saw the headline Mr. Hill posted on his blog for his interview with me, I couldn’t hold back my laughter.  From experience I knew what to expect when you mention a certain three-letter-word publicly.  Uhhh oh, I thought, he doesn’t know.  I wondered if I should alert him, but then decided to let it go.

A few days later Kevin emailed me wondering about Russia’s sudden interest in his blog.  “It’s the word ‘spy’,” I informed him.  “It causes the blogosphere to go crazy.”  He lightheartedly emailed me back, “…that was just a wee little bit of info that may have been useful prior to publication!”

Excerpt from the Blog of Kevin R. Hill:

“Young, Free, and in love with a Spy--A real life Romance!”

In 1972, author Kolleen Kidd found herself involved with a Soviet defector, Sergei Nikolayevich Kourdakov, a former KGB agent and naval officer.  I met Kolleen on Goodreads.com, and wanted to bring her on the blog for my readers to experience the intrigue she lived.
A Rose for Sergei - Available from Amazon 

1. Kolleen, please take us to that world of excitement.  You were young and flirting with a defector, a former enemy.  Was it exciting?

Yes, it was very exciting.  I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love mystery and intrigue.  I was sixteen when I found summer clerical employment with the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington DC.  I couldn’t tell anyone what I did or even the location of the building where I worked.  It was one of many secrets I would have to keep.

The Soviet Union was our enemy.  I still remember the practice air raid drills—hiding under my desk in elementary school in preparation for the unimaginable.  When Sergei and I met, at my Federal Government office, we were both twenty-one.  He shook my hand and would not release it.  The heated attraction between us was immediate, in spite of the fact that our countries were adversaries.  We were young, single, and on our own in a beautiful and powerful city.  It was both exciting and frightening…we were watched and followed.  Each thought the other was a spy.

2. Why did you write A Rose for Sergei?

Read the complete July 14, 2016 interview on Kevin R. Hill’s Blog


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I love the newest cover for The Mayan Case!



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