Thursday, March 26, 2020

THE LETTERS - C Kevin Thompson - One Free Book

Welcome back, C Kevin. Tell us about your salvation experience.
It occurred in November of 1981. I was eighteen years old. Cindy and I had been married for about three months. We were home on a Wednesday evening, watching TV, when a knock at the door came around seven o’clock. It was the youth pastor from a local church and a friend we had gone to high school with standing on our front porch. I answered the door, and they asked me if this house was the address they had on their little note card. I informed them they were looking for the house two doors down. So while they were there, we struck up a conversation, and in the midst of it, they asked me “the question”: If I was to die tonight, would I know for sure I was going to be in heaven? I admitted I was not sure. As a matter fact, it was a different question I had pondered for over two years: Was there more to this life than working really hard, accumulating a bunch of money and assorted stuff, and then dying and leaving it all to your kids? I felt like there had to be more to this life than that, but I didn’t have a clue what that would be. If there wasn’t, then why bother to obey laws and rules? Why not eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die? I didn’t word it like that, but does that sound familiar? That’s how I felt. But something inside kept telling me such hopelessness was unwarranted. There was more to this life. That night, on my doorstep, as an eighteen-year-old newlywed who already owned his own house, I gave my life to Christ. Now, all these years later, I am rich. Not in money and stuff. But I am rich in the things thieves and rust and moths can’t touch.

I love to hear salvation stories, and yours is a good one. You’re planning a writing retreat where you can only have four other authors. Who would they be and why?
 Oh, my, that’s a good question. Only four, huh? Okay, so in no particular order, they would be as follows (and you didn’t say they had to be alive, so we’re gonna swing for the fences): Charles Dickens because he wrote from his heart and believed in his work so intensely, he was willing to risk everything to see it in print; Michael Crichton because he could teach a great deal about researching cutting-edge ideas and creating plots that are ripe for the silver screen; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle because he could teach us how to develop a character that has been mimicked, copied, and spun off of, more than any other literary character in history, I think; and Tom Clancy because he believed in creating a truly good guy—a “boy scout”—and making him into a legend we all wished worked for the government.

Do you have a speaking ministry? If so, tell us about that.
I actually do not, per se. Because I’m the major bread winner, I do have a day job that takes up the majority of my time. I have spoken in churches in the past, filling in for pastors in various capacities. I am also going to be teaching a class to our local writers group this summer on developing proposals that get you published, which I hope to then use to get my foot in the door at some writers conferences, so we’ll see how that turns out. J

Hoping it works out all right. I’m supposed to be the keynote speaker for a one-day conference in April, but it has been postponed. What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you and how did you handle it?
When I was a language arts teachers years ago, I showed up to school and taught the first half of the day before a student came up to me at the end of class, as the bell rang and students were filing out. He said, “Mr. Thompson, did you know you have two different shoes on?” I laughed and said, “Yeah, right.” I thought he was joking. He said, “No, really. Look.” He pointed at my shoes, so I looked. Sure enough, I had two pairs of the same shoes in my closet. One pair was black. The other brown. I had one of each on my feet. “That’s what happens when you get dressed in the dark,” I told him. He laughed. I laughed. Then, I thanked him for not blurting it out in class and embarrassing me in front of everyone, as I was embarrassed enough. I added that he showed great maturity by handling it the way he did. I then proceeded to open my closet and allow him to raid the stash of candy I had stored away for various rewards. It was the least I could do. And no, I didn’t go home and change my shoes. I lived too far away. So I decided to make an experiment out of it and see if anyone else noticed. Much to my surprise, nobody did. Because you know that if a middle schooler with no couth noticed, he or she would have said something.

People are always telling me that they’d like to write a book someday. I’m sure they do to you too. What would you tell someone who came up to you and said that?
I usually ask then what they want to write. Then, I steer them in the right direction, because fiction is a different animal from non-fiction. If they just want to write a memoir, then that’s an entirely different discussion. But I always tell them that books don’t write themselves, so you have to sit down and actually write it. First things first. Can’t publish an unwritten book.

I also ask them what they plan to do with it once it’s done. That also helps me answer questions and give them some pointers about next steps after it is written.

Very good advice. Tell us about the featured book.
The Letters is a book about two worlds colliding within the life of Rachel Hamar. She’s just been let go from her bank teller position as a casualty of downsizing. This happens on the twentieth anniversary of the death of her high school sweetheart, Billy Baldwin. Billy died at the hands of her father because he found out she was pregnant. As a result, her father goes to prison, and her mother lands in a psychiatric ward. At the urging of her best friend, she has an abortion.

Now, twenty years later, everything and everyone she loved has been ripped from her. All that’s left is her mother, Dorothy Hamar, who now is a psychiatric patient at a local hospital in New York City.

It’s in the midst of Rachel’s spiraling depression that a letter arrives in the mail. It’s addressed to her. No return address. Simple white envelope. Common kind. Inside is a folded-up sheet of paper with what looks like scribbles from a pencil scratched across one side. She thinks it’s weird and tosses it in the garbage. Chalks it up to a postal carrier’s error. However, as more arrive, one each day, she fishes the first from the trash and starts comparing them. When she’s in possession of several, and as they shift from scribbles to crudely written letters to pictures drawn by a small child’s hand, Rachel starts to freak out, thinking they may be intended for someone else.

She enlists the help of a local detective, who is concerned this may involve the welfare of a child. However, the detective also believes this may be the work of a serial stalker, and this launches them into a story where two worlds collide into a tale of redemption and wonder.

As Rachel says in the prologue, this is her story. Some will call it a fairy tale. Some will call it a lie. But she calls it a story of love and redemption.

Please give us the first page of the book.
West 173rd Street
Washington Heights, NY
I slammed the car door shut and dropped my car keys onto the cold pavement. Shuffling the grocery bags from one hand to the other, I crouched in a pretzel-like fashion, trying not to keel over in my high heels.

Stupid keys.

Picking them up, my thigh muscles burned as I rose and fumbled for the one I needed, attempting not to crush the eggs or shatter the glass jars of spaghetti sauce clanking together in
revolt.

A stiff winter breeze battered my face as I trudged up the four blocks of sidewalk to the entrance of my five-story apartment building.

No bigger than a wide alley designed to look like a courtyard, the entrance led to eight fractured, concrete stairs, eroded by years of ice-melting salt in the winter, blistering heat in the
summer, and a million trudging feet.

The steps spread wide under two forty-year-old doors. Their glass panes, arranged in nine squares and each framed in wood, had a slightly melted, made-in-the-seventeenth-century look
about them.

How can readers find you on the Internet?
Readers can find me in several locations:
Website:                                 www.ckevinthompson.com/
Kevin’s Writer’s Blog:          www.ckevinthompson.blogspot.com/
Facebook:                               C. Kevin Thompson – Author Fan Page
Twitter:                                   @CKevinThompson
Instagram:                               ckevinthompson
Pinterest:                                ckevinthompsonauthor
Goodreads:                             C. Kevin Thompson
BookBub:                                C. Kevin Thompson

In addition to these links above, I also am a regular contributor to the writer’s blog, Seriously Write, I am a member of ACFW and have an author’s page on “Fiction Finder” too.

Thank you, Kevin, for sharing this new book with us. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book, because it is such a departure from the first 4 books I featured on my blog.

Readers, here are links to the book.

The Letters - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory or country if outside North America. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:

21 comments:

Connie Porter Saunders said...

Wow! This is so intriguing and it certainly makes me want to learn more. Thanks for sharing.
Connie from Kentucky
cps1950(AT)gmail(DOT)com

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Connie, I think you'll like it! Stay safe in Kentucky!

rubynreba said...

Loved your salvation story! I enjoyed the first page of your book!
Beth from IA

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Rubynreba, I'd say, "Thank you," but God is responsible for my salvation story. :-) However, will say it for the compliment on the book! Thanks for stopping by. Good luck!

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Melanie, I believe it is, but of course, I'm a little biased. :-) I'll let you read the reviews other authors gave to help everyone who visits this interview be the judge. Just got to my website listed above and go to the page dedicated to THE LETTERS, all 7 of those are there. Enjoy, and good luck! (The reviews are also on THE LETTERS Amazon page too!)

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Rubynreba, what part of Iowa? We lived in Des Moines and have friends still around the area.

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Stay safe in TX!

Kay Garrett said...

Thank you for introducing me to a new to me author. "The Letters" sounds like a book that I would thoroughly enjoy having the opportunity to read. I've added it to my TBR list and my Goodreads want to read list.

Appreciate the chance to win a copy!

Stay safe and stay healthy. <3
Kay Garrett from Mountain View, Ar
2clowns at arkansas dot net

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Kay, thank you for entering! Good luck! And if you read it (either way), I hope you enjoy it! Stay safe as well, and I wish that for everyone who has entered so far.

Linda Kish said...

Well, that's definitely piqued my interest. I would love the chance to read more. It sounds terrific. Linda in SoCal
lkish77123 at gmail dot com

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Linda, thanks for entering! I hope you enjoy it, however you read it! Stay safe in SoCal! And good luck!

rubynreba said...

We live in a small town about 60 miles north of Des Moines.

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Cool. Stay safe!

Alison Boss said...

Thanks for the great interview, Kevin and Lena! I always enjoy getting to know new authors. What a wonderful salvation story, Kevin! Your book, The Letters, sounds very intriguing! Thanks for the chance to win a copy of it!!

Alison from MI
nj(dot)bossman(at)gmail(dot)com

Nancy P said...

I won't remember to check back, so I will pass. Good luck everyone!

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Alison, thank you for stopping by and your kind words! Good luck! And stay safe!

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Nancy, come back! :-) Enter, then put a reminder on your phone...or go old school and put a sticky note on your computer monitor...

Mike's Minutia said...

My wife and I can hardly wait for the late May's release of BOOK 5 OF THE BLAKE MEYER THRILLER SERIES.

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Mike, neither can I! :-)

Sharon Bryant said...

Enter me,
Conway SC.

C. Kevin Thompson said...

Hi, Sharon! I think I remember you from one of my other interviews. Thanks for entering! And stay safe!