My review of The Donors can be found HERE.
So, let's get on to the fun stuff...
Jeffrey Wilson
The Donors
GL: Why don't you "reintroduce"
yourself to the readers that might not have met you before? J
Jeff: Hi Cassie.
I’m Jeff Wilson and among my various jobs, my relatively new title of Novelist
is one of my favorites. My first novel The
Traiteur’s Ring was released at the end of the last summer and my newest
book The Donors just came out a week
or so ago. In my “real” life, I work as a surgeon at times and with the U.S.
Navy. My favorite title is that of Husband to my beautiful wife Wendy and
Father to my three kids, Connor, Jack, and Emma. Incidentally, the most
exciting thing in our family this year is the pending release of our 11-year-old
Connor’s first book A Giant Pencil,
which will be out on August 11th from Magic Dreams books, the
children’s books imprint of Weaving Dreams Publishing in Chicago. As you can
imagine, having the youngest traditionally published children’s author in our
home has been very exciting for the whole family—and nerve wracking for one
eleven-year-old boy!
GL: I bet it is! And, believe me, I know how
proud of him you are. This is a major accomplishment… for anyone, much less
someone of his age.
GL: So what have you been up to since the
release of The Traiteur's Ring?
JW: Well, in
addition to the working edits and revisions of The Donors ahead of its June 29th release, I have been
working hard with Connor on his book release and marketing. I’ve also published
a couple of short stories—“The Writer” appeared in the Warped Words 2011: 90 Minutes to live anthology and my story
“Calling Home” appeared recently in the e-zine Buzzymag.com. I’ve had some fun
interviews, including one with my mom’s favorite blog interviewer, done a few
signings. Of course there are the day jobs, family time, and oh, yeah—trying to
find time to finish my newest book. Writing is a lot easier before you get
published! There is a lot more work to do after you sell a book than I think I
appreciated.
GL: Mom's favorite blog interviewer = ME! J
JW: The Traiteur’s Ring is a supernatural military thriller. It’s
the story of Navy SEAL Ben Morvant, a SEAL medic whose team is operating in
Africa, hunting down terrorists. Ben has a complicated past, raised deep in the
Louisiana Bayou by his grandmother—a Traiteur or spiritual healer—and is
certainly no stranger to the supernatural. He escaped his past and found a way
to the Teams, where he is still plagued by nightmares and questions about what
happened to his “Gammy.” His past collides with his present when his team
encounters a primitive village and its elder, who just before his death by a
terrorist bullet, passes to Ben a strange ring, and with it even stranger
powers. Ben has to journey back to his past to learn how to control his new
gifts—like the power to heal with a single touch or to kill with a simple
thought. His journey is led by the ghost of his Gammy, who must teach him how
to control the powers he will soon need. His team must return to Africa to
confront a growing evil far worse than the Al Qaeda terrorists they are trained
to hunt.
My time spent
working downrange with the SEALs during my time on active duty obviously had a
tremendous influence on this book, and I painted the characters with as
realistic a brush as I could, based on those experiences. I made my characters
the real life, quiet and humble men I know, rather than the action heroes
usually seen in fiction.
THE DONORS is
completely different, though shares some of the cross genre elements of THE
TRAITEUR’S RING. It is set in a hospital
and is a supernatural medical thriller and much more of a classic horror story
than my last book. The story is about five year old Nathan, who is hospitalized
after injuries suffered at the hands of his mother’s abusive ex-boyfriend.
While in the hospital, Nathan is haunted by horrible nightmares where he sees
demons, terrifying creatures who are using the staff of the hospital to do
unspeakable things. As he realizes that these are much more than just dreams,
he comes to believe that he alone can see the demons for what they really are
and that he must somehow stop them. His only real ally is his doctor, Jason,
who shares with him not only a history of abuse, but a childhood gift of seeing
the same demons that Nathan now confronts. They have to somehow stop the
creatures before their own loved ones fall prey as well.
GL: What was your inspiration for The Donors?
JW: I think that
hospitals are terrifying places already. Patients and families feel terribly
isolated and vulnerable and they have to trust their lives to complete
strangers. This makes the idea of something horrible happening in that setting
all the more terrifying.
Obviously my time
spent working as a surgeon had a huge influence on this book and of course,
allows me to write the setting and the medical aspects with lots of realism and
authority. I have been a patient and a family member as well, so I also know
those other terrible feelings. The book was inspired most by an unpublished short
story I wrote years ago while a Chief Surgery resident on the Trauma Service
during my residency training. In the end, I couldn’t do the story justice as a
short and THE DONORS was born.
JW: Well, in most
ways it has been much, much easier because The
Donors is the second book of a three-book deal I have with JournalStone.
There was no querying to find the book a home and I already had a great
relationship with Chris Payne and knew just what to expect from the process.
Unfortunately, I broke my own pattern with this book and so the editing process
was much more painful. The editors had the book before I had done my second run
through and proofing and so the manuscript was much more rough than the first.
That made for a longer, and more painful, editing process. The end result was
that, again, JournalStone’s team helped me turn a book into a terrific novel, but
it was a longer process this time. It’s a mistake I won’t make with my third
book, Fade to Black, which is due out
in 2013. I am so grateful to Chris and his team for their patience.
GL: One of the main characters, Nathan, is a
young boy who faces very grown up challenges. Other than his terrible
circumstances, is Nathan very similar to your own children?
JW: I don’t know if
he is similar, but there is no question being a dad, my favorite of all my many
jobs by the way, makes it easier to write the point of view more realistically.
My kids are now eleven, four, and three so I have some experience with the way
a kid’s mind works. It is so amazing to watch how they think and see the world.
GL: Was it difficult writing a child's point
of view?
JW: Yes, very
challenging. I hope that I pulled it off.
GL: I think you did a pretty awesome job J…
GL: Can you tell me… what ARE those lizard
men? Where do they come from? How do they make you "dream" those
things?
JW: Well, I have
always been a big believer that the real expert of any book is the reader. That
sounds like a cop out, but I truly believe that. I most certainly have my own
thoughts about what they are and where they come from, but I don’t want to bias
my readers as they search those answers in the pages of the book. For sure
there is a classic good versus evil thing going on.
GL: If you could be any Power Ranger, which
would you be? How about a Star Wars character?
JW: Well, the Red
Ranger of course! Red Ranger is the best, right? I suppose if I was a Star Wars
character I would probably be one of the background characters. I change
careers so frequently that I could not have made it to become a Jedi. I think I
may have a short attention span.
GL: Hahahaha… You should have finished that
off with: "Oh, look at the little squirrel!"
GL: Where can we find some of your other
stories? Which short story has been your favorite to write thus far?
JW: Oh, Jeez,
that’s tough. I think for me, my favorite is always the one I’m working on
right now. I am, literally, just a few days from finishing my newest book, Julian’s Numbers, and I have really
enjoyed this book. I again had to write from a child's point of view, but this
time the kid is around eleven, which is much less of a challenge, I think. I am
particularly fond of my short story “Calling Home” as it has a lot of personal
meaning to me.
Other than “Calling
Home” and “The Writer,” which I mentioned earlier, most of my shorts are out of
print. The work of getting out two novels in ten months, while still getting my
fourth book written had proven a real challenge in terms of time, and I haven’t
written many shorts the last year or two. I have a fun story called “Dolls Eyes”
that I am shopping for a home for, but that’s about it right now for short stories.
It’s a real shame, because I love shorts and I also find that writing them
well, for me at least, is a very perishable skill compared to writing novels.
GL: I love both "Calling Home" and
"The Writer" and I can't wait to read more of your shorts. I love
writing short stories, maybe because I like that quicker sense of
accomplishment. J
JW: My family, no
question. I love being a husband (to the best and most patient woman in the
world) and a father. Spending time with my kids puts everything else in
perspective for me.
GL: Have you guys taken or planned any
awesome family vacations this summer?
JW: We’ve had a great
summer already! We spent a week at the beach doing nothing but playing on the
beach, running around on our boat, and playing board games. It was awesome.
Wendy and I had four days in New York City when I was on the Debut Author’s
panel at the International Thriller Writer’s “Thrillerfest” conference and had
a great time. I got to sign copies of THE TRAITEUR’S RINGS with some writing
giants, which was a little intimidating, and got RL Stine to sign a copy of his
new Goosebumps book for Connor, who is a big fan. He was very impressed that
I’m the dad to the youngest fiction writer in America. The highlight of course
will be Connor’s book launch of his book A GIANT PENCIL on August 11th.
We are so proud of him and he is so excited.
GL: Oh man! I haven't read any RL Stine in
ages… That's awesome! Sounds like y'all have had a fantastic summer already.
GL: Do you have time to read for pleasure?
What are you reading right now?
JW: I am a
frustrated, avid reader. I never have enough time to read and wish I could read
a couple of books a week—impossible with day jobs and family and getting books
out. I just finished Brett J. Talley’s THE VOID and I loved it. As great as his
first book was, this one is even better. I also am halfway through Stoker award
winner Benjamin Kane Ethridge’s latest book, BOTTLED ABYSS. It is fantastic and
I highly recommend it. My big discovery of the summer is THE CALYPSO DIRECTIVE
by Brian Andrews. It’s a science thriller and one of the best books I’ve read
in awhile.
GL: Where is the worst/most terrifying place
you've ever lived? Best/most enriching?
JW: Well, I grew up
in Berlin at the height of the Cold War, which was both chilling and enriching.
I can remember walking past the Berlin Wall and seeing the East German border
guards in their watch towers, looking at us across that short distance. All
over the wall were plaques and hand written flyers about the latest person who
was shot and left for hours to bleed to death while they tried to escape across
to the west. I have actually been through the infamous checkpoint Charlie.
While at times terrifying, especially as a kid, it also gave me a huge
appreciation for the freedoms we in America sometimes take for granted. It most
definitely shaped the person I was to become and many of the career choices I
have made.
GL: What are you working on now and when can
we expect to get our hands on it?
JW: My next book
after THE DONORS is also from JournalStone as part of our three-book deal. It
is called FADE TO BLACK and will be out next summer, 2013. It’s the story of a
young man, trapped between two worlds and trying to decide which is real and
which is fantasy—or are they both somehow real? In one, he is a young U.S.
Marine Sergeant, slowly dying in the street after losing half of his men in the
battle of Fallujah and wanting desperately to get home to his wife and
daughter. In the other, he is a middle-America science teacher, plagued by
horrible dreams about a place he thinks he has never been. Eventually he is
visited by the dead Marine buddies he shouldn’t know and must decide if he is
losing his mind or something far worse is happening to him.
I just finished my
fourth novel JULIAN’S NUMBERS and this week started on my newest project called
WAR TORN. JULIAN’S NUMBERS is about a boy with a terrible gift, a dad with a
terrible past, some ghosts and a sailing vacation from hell. In WAR TORN, I am
leaving the supernatural and horror genres (just briefly) and writing a more
inspiration book about a young soldier whose faith in God is shaken after he is
forced to make terrible decisions in combat.
GL: We have so much to look forward to!
JW: Connor’s book A
GIANT PENCIL will be released on August 11th at a big launch event
at the Glazer Children’s Museum in Tampa. When it comes out, he will be the
youngest, traditionally published fiction writer in America. The event is open
to the public, so if you are in the Tampa Bay area, you can come and meet
Connor, hear a reading, and get a signed copy of his book. A GIANT PENCIL is a
picture book for the elementary aged kids, like second through fourth grade
perhaps. It is a fun and very imaginative story that kids will love, but has a
great family message that parents and teachers will appreciate, too.
It will be available
at Barnes and Noble online
as well as
Amazon.com and other booksellers. His website is www.thegiantpencil.com and will have
lots of links and updates.
Everyone be on the lookout for a review
of A Giant Pencil and an interview with Connor soon! I have
been waiting months to get my hands on this book and have my chance to chitchat
with its author… J
Thanks so much, Jeff, for stopping by and
hanging out with us again! I'm sure we'll be seeing you around in the future. I
hope you and your family have a fantastic conclusion to the summer. I REALLY
wish I could be there for Connor's book release! And, tell your mom I
said hello J…
