‘Anna Pigeon’ Author Nevada Barr on ‘The Rope,’ Anna & Frederick’s Chemistry & If She’d Write Another Book

Cable’s newest heroine Anna Pigeon (played by Chicago P.D. vet Tracy Spiridakos) isn’t just based on a popular mystery book series — she’s also inspired by the real life of that series’ author, Nevada Barr.

Before becoming a bestselling writer, Barr was a full-time park ranger for close to a decade, in various parks across the country, from the late 1980s through the early 90s. “Anything Anna did in the books, I made sure that I could do, pretty much,” Barr tells us. “The physical climbs, the hunting — and I worked in many of the parks where the stories were set. So she was very much based on myself and my own experiences.”

Below, TV Insider spoke to the 74-year-old Barr about USA’s Anna Pigeon and her thoughts, hopes for the future and more.

Your first Anna Pigeon novel was published in 1993. It was decades before you got the chance to see your character “in-person.” But we heard that you visited the set during production and you got to meet Spiridakos dressed as Anna. What was that moment like for you after all this time of envisioning her?

Nevada Barr: It was interesting because in all of my adult life, I’ve been writing Anna Pigeon books, and Anna Pigeon in my mind always looked a very specific, certain way. And almost the moment I met Tracy, my old image vanished, and now in my mind, Anna Pigeon looks exactly like Tracy Spiridakos. She’s beautiful, but not in an annoying way, if you know what I mean. And she’s physical — she learned to ride. She did her climbing. She did a lot of her own stunt work. I found that very compelling. And she’s got the voice.

Michelle Faye/USA Network

What did your vision of Anna look like before Tracy?

A younger, smarter, taller, more glamorous me. [Laughs]

How much do your experiences line up with Anna’s in the books? Not counting all that murder!

The murders had to be completely invented, but I was able to climb around in Lechuguilla Cave [a famous underground cave system in New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park]. I was in McKittrick Canyon [in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in West Texas], saw flash floods, tracked lions, tracked grizzly bears in Glacier National Park [in Montana], that kind of thing.

How have you been watching the show? Did they give you early access to the episodes?

I wanted to watch it for the first time with all the other kids in Hollywood. So I waited til the launch party and watched it with Morwyn [Brebner, the showrunner] and Lea [Thompson, director/EP], and Tracy and the gang. And now I am [watching] it week by week. It’s growing. It is perfecting itself. The actors are inhabiting their skin.

The series covered your book The Rope in Episode 5, which was a prequel story you published in 2012. What was special about writing The Rope for you?

With Anna in The Rope, I wanted her to start in absolute confusion, a complete disorientation, completely helpless, because I wanted her to be in a situation where she has to get herself out of it from soup to nuts. That was my challenge and my joy of writing the Anna Pigeon books, was what one woman can do to save herself and to save others. I love those challenges.

And with Anna’s experience — she isn’t some twentysomething with superhuman strength. She’s always aging in the books.

Anna aged as I aged, over a 20 year period. In fact, my editor used to say, “Couldn’t she age in reverse dog years? You have to keep making her so much older?” And I said, “No.” She ages and matures as much as I did, so that’s, you know, saying something over the 24 years that we were together.

You don’t get to see a lot of older women as these heroic figures. Usually, if you get like a badass woman on TV, she’s in her 20s and she can run in circles…

She’s a superhero! [Jokingly] And she can kickbox, and she knows all the martial arts and she takes beatings that would literally kill you. And jumps up again.

The peak of my physical strength was pretty much in my early 50s. I just think that women continue to get physically stronger pretty much as long as they want to until mortality kicks in.

We’ve gotten Track of the Cat and The Rope in Season 1. What other Anna Pigeon books would you like to see them adapt next if there’s a Season 2?

I would like to see [No. 6] Blind Descent, but since the majority of it is set in a cave, that might be a logistical nightmare. Another one I would love to see them do is [No. 18] Destroyer Angel. Because I set out intentionally for all of the women in the book to be their own hero. And I had so much fun with that because I had four very different kinds of women, very different ages and abilities. And throughout the story, each one gets to come into her own and find her own strength. So that would be fun for me to see.

You also have acting experience, having left your acting and voiceover career to become a park ranger. Would you ever appear onscreen in this show?

If I was invited, I might consider it. I’d have to be Anna Pigeon’s grandmother, you know? That would be alright. I’d [like to] be the villain. The villains are always the best.

But I love actors. Actors are the best people in the world. And there’s two in this show that I would like to mention. Tracy and Ronnie [Rowe Jr., who plays FBI agent Frederick Stanton]. When they’re sitting perfectly still on a sofa in a scene reading a magazine, they have that magic actor thing where they’re still fully invested and fully embodied and you know that there’s someone of interest sitting on that sofa reading a magazine. They’re just wonderful.

Michelle Faye/USA Network

The tension between Anna and Frederick onscreen is great, too. What can you say about that relationship in the books and what you hope to see from them on screen? Do you hope it’s a slow burn romance?

I would hope so. In the books, Frederick vanishes rather quickly. I moved on, because I did a bunch of books. So I moved on to a different park, and Frederick was gone. But in this series, I’m hoping they can keep Frederick and give him some more roots in the story. And I’ll be looking to see if that happens simply because I think the actor is wonderful, and I think the chemistry between he and Anna has potential.

What else stood out to you about your time on set?

What stood out to me was watching an entirely different medium pick up the threads of what I had spun over 18 books in 24 years and start weaving them into something new. I am excited about seeing what kind of tapestry they make out of these threads that I spun over basically my adult lifetime.

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On the Set of 'Anna Pigeon': Tracy Spiridakos' Park Ranger Heroine Is 'Fighting for What's Right'

You have such a healthy outlook over something that was your baby for so long, and is literally based on you, it’s really nice to see.

I knew it was going to be different; it wasn’t my baby anymore. It was their baby, with a few genetic codes connected to me. [Laughs]

Your most recent Anna Pigeon book was published in 2016. Have you thought about returning to her again for what would be your 20th book?

I have not. I went on to write a different kind of book, and then I was done. I had started the Anna Pigeons because I really, really wanted to see female action heroes because there weren’t a lot of them when I was coming up. And now, there’s lots and lots of them, so I can just kick back and watch and read about women action heroes written by marvelous authors all day. So I don’t feel a need to go back. If a story comes to me that I need to tell, then I would write something. But I don’t know if it would be an Anna.

Anna Pigeon, Fridays, 10/9c, USA