Working with a joint multi-law enforcement task force, Detective Pat O'Connor infiltrated a Ukrainian crime family. Headed by Dmitry Andruko. O'Connor and his control, Detective Paul Eiselmann were the lynchpins in the guilty verdict
The two detectives thought it was over.
Eiselmann planned for a quiet weekend with his family at home. O'Connor planned on attending a high school soccer game and then head to Northern Wisconsin for a fishing trip with another cop, Detective Jamie Graff and four teenage, adopted brothers: George Tokay, Brian Evans, Brett McGovern, and Michael Two Feathers.
But Andruko is ruthless and vindictive. From his prison cell, he hires two contract killers to kill both O'Connor and Eiselmann and anyone else in the way. The killers can be anyone. The killers could be anywhere, and the killers could strike at any time.
The quiet weekend and the short vacation turn into a deadly nightmare as O'Connor's and Eiselmann's lives and the lives of the four boys are in peril.
Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blaze-Out-Joseph-Lewis-ebook/dp/B09B576BPJ/
Amazon US - https://www.amazon.com/Blaze-Out-Joseph-Lewis-ebook/dp/B09B576BPJ
Author Q&A
2. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what
would it be?
- Don’t take
life so seriously. Don’t listen to critics, to those who don’t know you, who
don’t want to get to know you. Keep reading, keep writing, and study harder and
more effectively.
3. Favorite childhood memory involving books?
- After school
while I waited for my father to pick me up, I waited in the library. I’d sit on
the floor between the stacks and read one book after another. One book I picked
randomly became a favorite: Seminole. I can’t remember the author, but I loved
the story and the adventure. I tried to look it up recently and sadly, couldn’t
find it.
4. If you could dine with any literary character, who would it
be and why?
- I would love
to sit at the dinner table with my characters in the Evans family. Each
character is unique and each adds depth to my stories. I enjoy the way they
tease one another and how they care and protect one another. I have a feeling
we’d laugh quite a bit.
5. Did you want to be an author when you grew up?
- No, not
really. It came to me. Growing up, I wanted to sing and be an actor. My parents
urged me to select a major in college where “I would amount to something.” It
bothers me that I caved in so easily, but my parents meant the best for me. I
wrote a short story that was published in 1987, and it wasn’t until 2014 when Taking
Lives, the Prequel to the Lives Trilogy was published. I would suggest
that one should never give up on a dream. Life is too short to fill it with
regrets.
6. If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would
they be?
- Honest,
sincere, caring.
7. What is your most unusual writing quirk?
- I need to
write with noise. After supper, I sit at the kitchen table. The TV is on. The
dogs are playing. My wife talks to me (or falls asleep on the couch), and I
write. I cannot write in isolation, unless I come to a particularly tough
passage where I need to be separate. Sometimes, I will write with my headphones
playing music (anything from modern country to sixties rock and roll).
8. What’s one movie you like recommending to others?
- My all-time
favorite is Stand By Me. It was after watching that movie the first time when I
wrote the rough draft to the short story that was published. Since then, I must
have watched it hundreds of times. It still moves me and I still get something
from it.
9. How long, on average,
does it take you to write a book?
- I liken writing and publishing a book to giving birth. It
takes me approximately nine months to a year from idea to publication. That
includes the edits and rewrites.
10. How do you select the
names of your characters?
- Randomly, or in some cases, I use the names of friends of
mine with their permission. They get a kick out of it. In the case of James
“Skip” Dahlke and Jamie Graff, they were instrumental in supplying me
information, correction and detail on Stolen Lives and the
trilogy. Pat O’Connor and Paul Eiselmann were childhood friends of mine. Mostly
though, I randomly pick names I think might fit with the story and the
character.
11. What fictional character
would you want to be friends with in real life?
- Three of my characters: Brett McGovern, who is a tough
kid on the outside, but has a heart of gold; Brian Evans, who has been through
a lot, but survived and has taken on the role of the protector; George Tokay, a
full-blooded Navajo boy raised to be a spiritual leader among his people, but
tragedy stepped in and prevented that from happening. At his core is a
spirituality that pervades his being.
12. Do you have any advice
for aspiring writers?
- Keep writing! Read as much or more than you write. I believe
that creativity can be strengthened, but you have to be determined and
persistent. Set a routine and stick to it.
13. What book do you wish
you had written?
- Lord of the Flies. It is my all-time
favorite book. The struggle between good and bad and evil. Kids having to fend
for themselves, yet surviving somehow. I believe you will see bits and pieces
of that book in my writing.
14. Tell us 5 fun facts
about yourself!
- I am the second youngest of a family of ten.
- We grew up poor, yet we had it all, because we had each
other.
- As a principal, instead of giving a principal address at
graduation, I picked a song that I felt fit the class, or a song I felt had a
message I wanted to give them, and I sang it to them. It was a tradition for
the 23 years I was an administrator. There are past grads who still contact me
and tell me they heard “their song.”
- I was on stage singing and acting ever since the fourth
grade.
- I appeared in a high school production of Bye, Bye Birdie
with my brother Jack and my sister Kathy when I was in fifth grade. I was
Randolph, and my brother was my dad, my sister was my sister.
15. What is your favorite
genre to read?
- I read thriller-crime-mystery, which is what I write. I
seldom stray from that genre, though I read several different authors within
that genre. My favorites are Baldacci, Patterson, and Sandford. I also read
Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Peter Straub.
After having been in education for
forty-five years as a teacher, coach, counselor and administrator, Joseph Lewis
has semi-retired and now works part-time as an online learning facilitator. He
uses his psychology and counseling background in crafting psychological
thriller/mysteries. He has taken creative writing and screen writing courses at
UCLA and USC.
Thank you so much for sharing this fab Q&A, loved it! Thank you for being a part of the tour!
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