Fan mail isn’t always what it seems to be…

Synopsis

A barrage of threatening letters, a car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of adopted brothers. Randy and Bobby, along with fellow band member and best friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to their detriment. The sender turns up the heat. Violence upends their world. It rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family, nearly killing their dad. As these boys turn on each other, adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly lost his life saving his brothers. The scars on his face and arms healed, but not his heart. Would he once again have to put himself in harm’s way to save them? And if faced with that choice, will he?

Guest Post

Guest Post by Joseph Lewis, Author of Fan Mail

Recently, I was interviewed on The Author’s Spot Podcast and you can find it at: https://podcast.theauthorsspot.com/1973858/12365749

The interview touched on my life and my writing, and of course, my newest book, Fan Mail. I hope you take a listen. The interviewer, K. E. Robinson, was prepared beyond belief. He knew my books and my writing, and it made speaking with him not only easy but also enjoyable.

When I write, I write about an idea that came to me, and honestly, my ideas sometimes come in the strangest of ways. For instance, when I got the idea for Caught in a Web, which was published in 2018, I was sitting at my kitchen table reading the local newspaper. On the front page was an article about the rise of fentanyl and heroin deaths in our area, especially amongadolescents. About two or three pages after, there was an article about a violent and vicious gang, MS-13, and their rise and spread into Northern and Central Virginia, my home area. The idea for my book, which won three awards and was named “One of the Best Crime Fiction Books of 2018” by BestThrillers, was born. 

When I got the idea for Spiral Into Darkness, I was an administrator at the time, and I was talking to my psychology teacher. My background is psychology and counseling, and we were having a discussion on nature vs nurture: are we the way we are based upon genetics, or are we the way we are based upon our situational life experiences? An age old question that is still debated. That evening, I watched an episode of Criminal Minds about a serial killer. The idea popped into my head: is a serial killer born a serial killer, or is there a trigger that causes one to become a serial killer?

I think I can speak for most writers when I say that this is the norm. Ideas happen, and theysometimes happen in the strangest of ways.

I think the major gift or need a writer has at his or her disposal is to be aware. To be aware of lifehappening around them. Conversations. Mannerisms. Modes of dress. Colors. Buildings. Events as they happen. Books one reads, TV shows and movies one watches, and music one listens to. All of this is potential fodder for, and the guts of, a story. 

Honestly, I’ve been blessed. As a guy who has spent the last 47 years in education as a teacher, coach, counselor, and administrator, I’ve watched and listened to kids and the adults they interact with. Kids walked past me in the hallways. I monitored the cafeteria where they ate, or where they visited with friends, worked, and sometimes took a nap. I chaperoned dances and officiated commencement. I owe a great deal to the kids and the staff I worked with. It is their voices, their actions, their events that take place between the covers of my books.

I think because of my work, my main characters are adolescents. Specifically, a patchwork family of seven adopted brothers who carry baggage- some big and ugly, some small and ugly, but they all have baggage. Of course, because I write thriller-crime-mystery fiction, I have a trio of three detectives who appear in each of my books. 

In my newest book, Fan Mail, the baggage the boys carry gets the better of them. A car bomb begins the action. This is followed by a barrage of fan mail sent to two of the brothers and a close friend who gained a modicum of celebrity in a local band. These letters become more threatening as it is ignored. The car bomb and the letters cause an inordinate amount of stress that brings about their father’s heart attack. All of this threatens to tear apart this close-knit and loving family. The boys turn on each other. Trust is lost and friendships are tested. And the three detectives race to find who is behind the car bomb and the letters before anyone gets hurt or dies.

The idea behind Fan Mail? An article I read about how celebrity kids handle, or sometimes, didn’t handle life in the spotlight, and how this affected their lives and the lives around them.Again, an idea that came to me in a strange way. Had I not been paying attention, Fan Mailwouldn’t have been written.