Sunday, August 10, 2014

Guest Post and Giveaway by Lee Thompson

You've seen me share links to Lee's work on Facebook, heard me talk about his dedication and devotion to the craft of storytelling, and the grit and honesty with which he writes his dark tales. Lee is a hell of a guy, a true friend, and I'm proud to have him as a guest poster on this humble blog. So without further ado, here he is:



A BEAUTIFUL MADNESS BLOG TOUR + GIVEAWAY


A Texas Senator and his wife go missing… On the same day, their son is slaughtered by an enigmatic killer on the lawn of ex-Governor Edward Wood's residence. Sammy, Wood's drug dealing son, suspects his father of the crime. After all, his old man snapped once before and crippled his wife with a lead pipe. But there's something more to these events…something deeper and festering just beneath the surface…

In direct opposition to Homicide Detective Jim Thompson, Sammy begins an investigation of his own, searching for the truth in a labyrinth of lies, deception, depravity and violence that drags him deeper into darkness and mayhem with each step. And in doing so, brings them all into the sights of an elusive and horrifying killer who may not be what he seems.

A brutal killer on a rampage of carnage…a hardened detective on the brink…an antihero from the shadows…a terrifying mystery that could destroy them all…

Welcome to Lee Thompson’s A BEAUTIFUL MADNESS blog tour! This blog, and the others participating, will receive a paperback copy to give to a random reader who leaves a comment and shares this post.

Throughout the book tour, I’ll be sharing fun facts about my first Mystery/Thriller, and also offering dubious advice to novice writers because I’ve had writers and editors farther along the path than myself give me tips that have helped me tremendously. If you want to up your game, pay attention and pass what you find useful on to those in your critique groups.

If you’re here as a reader, thanks so much. You’re every author’s life source. You’re the yin to our yang. The stories we set down on paper don’t seem to exist until someone else has read them, and the more the merrier.

Finding What Matters to You


I’ve helped unpublished novelists and this is something I’ve seen over and over and over. Usually what really matters to an unpublished novelist is what they least want to write about.

Why? Because it hurts. So we avoid it. Not many people like pain, but we have to write about what hurts us if we’re to touch the core of who we are.

Like many men, when I was younger I had serious problems with my dad. It took my buddy, fellow writer Shaun Ryan, to point out that dads in my novels always go through hell. And they do, they got it tough, and as I mature, I realize how I used to want to only hurt him back, but as my novels mature with me, I see how the fathers in my stories become more and more unreachable and I pity them in a lot of ways.

One thing most of my characters realize—and Sammy in A BEAUTIFUL MADNESS is no different—is that we cannot change the old man despite how he’s shaped us, damaged us, put us under his boot.

But he’s still human isn’t he?

So we hope for a healthy relationship with him.

Yet we still fear becoming him. And that’s Sammy’s internal plight, knowing that his dad, who was once the Governor of Texas, had cracked, nearly beat Sammy’s mother to death with a lead pipe, and then come back to his senses, an utterly changed man.

They say madness is in our genes, don’t they?

Sometimes we can possess a sleeper cell, a dormant demon, and when it wakes, usually under years of emotional duress, how do we keep from losing control of our grip on reality?

How do we not become that which we most want to love us and what we hate the most for not doing so?
When my mother had a stroke and was in a coma three months after she retired at age 52 from the State of Michigan, I watched my dad become a man, one I was proud to call my father, and one I was surprised to meet, as if for the first time. My momma couldn’t talk, couldn’t see well, had to go through lots of physical therapy, became diabetic, and he took care of her as if she were his only child.

It still makes me tear up a little replaying those years, and how much he has changed for the better—more patient, more forgiving, more understanding, relentless in his selfless actions to make her feel comfortable and loved.

And it still amazes me how tragedy can truly pull us together. It’s one of the themes I’ll probably always write about because it fills me with wonder and hope.

Is it the same for women with their mothers?



Author bio: Lee Thompson is the author of the Suspense novels A BEAUTIFUL MADNESS (August 2014), IT’S ONLY DEATH (January 2015), and WITH FURY IN HAND (May 2015). The dominating threads weaved throughout his work are love, loss, and learning how to live again. A firm believer in the enduring power of the human spirit, Lee believes that stories, no matter their format, set us on the path of transformation. He is represented by the extraordinary Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary. Visit Lee’s website to discover more: www.leethompsonfiction.com

A BEAUTIFUL MADNESS main page (http://www.leethompsonfiction.com/?page_id=2423)

Enter to win a paperback copy! There will also be a grand prize at the end of the tour where one winner will receive my novel, and four other DarkFuse novels in Kindle format!
Simply leave a comment on this blog and share the link.

Thanks to those who participate.

Happy reading~ Lee