Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest, Kevin G. Chapman author of the Mike Stoneman Thriller series, including Righteous Assassin (book #1), Deadly Enterprise (book #2), and his most recent novel in the Mike Stoneman Thriller series, Lethal Voyage, which will be published November 22, 2020.


Kevin has also written two other novels and several short stories (including Fool Me Twice, the winner of the New Jersey Corporate Counsel Association's 2010 Legal Fiction Writing Competition, which was the genesis of the character Mike Stoneman).

He has also written one complete screenplay (unproduced so far) and has another screenplay and two more novels currently in the works, one of which is a sci-fi space opera epic. Book #4 in the Mike Stoneman Thriller series, Fatal Infraction, is in production for publication in 2021.

Kevin is an attorney specializing in labor and employment law.  He is a past Chair of the Labor & Employment Law Network of the Association of Corporate Counsel, leading a group of 6800 in-house employment lawyers.  Kevin is a frequent speaker at Continuing Legal Education seminars and enjoys teaching management training courses.

He resides in central New Jersey and is a graduate of Columbia College (‘83), where he was a classmate of Barack Obama, and Boston University School of Law (’86).

Norm: Good day Kevin and thanks for participating in our interview.

What do you think is the future of reading/writing?   


Kevin: During the current pandemic, folks are spending more time reading books, I think, since many other activities are curtailed. I’ve been told by people in the book marketing industry that sales in general are up. So, that’s a good thing for writers (and readers).

After we get past this COVID thing, I’m hoping that people who picked up a book during their quarantine will continue reading, so I’m optimistic about authors still having an audience.

Norm: Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?  

Kevin: I’m definitely a part-time writer. I have a full-time day job that keeps me very busy, so writing happens at night and on the weekends.

It means that I can’t devote weeks in a block to the writing process – whether that’s outlining the next story or hunkering down to write the text for a first draft. My writing happens over a longer period. That forces me to outline things pretty carefully so that I remember all the details I was planning to write when I got to that portion of the story. It also means that I can’t crank out 2-3 books per year, but I’m good with that for now. 

Perhaps if I ever retire from my job as a lawyer, I’ll pick up my writing pace. 

Norm; How many times in your career have you experienced rejection? How did they shape you?  

Kevin: Fear of rejection can cripple you. I got over that a long time ago. Start with not getting admitted to Harvard as an undergrad. Not a surprise, but still devastating at the time.

I figured that being from the state of Washington would help my chances. But, I ended up at Columbia, which turned out to be a great situation for me. New York City shapes you in all kinds of interesting ways. 

When I wrote my first novel in the mid-90s, before Amazon, I tried to find a publisher and was rejected at every turn. No resume as an author means nobody wants to take a chance.

Looking back now, the book was good, but not knock-your-socks-off great, so it’s not a surprise that nobody wanted to take on a fledgling author who was only a part-time writer.

Since then, I’ve been rejected by many other agents and publishers, which is why I’m still writing as an indie author. It’s like getting a bad review – you just roll with it. 

Norm: What has been your greatest challenge (professionally) that you’ve overcome in getting to where you’re at today? 

Kevin: As a writer, my biggest challenge was moving past my desire to write The Great American Novel. 

I spent 10 years working on A Legacy of One, and I had to get that out of my system before I could move on to writing books that are more fun for me and for my readers. Don’t get me wrong, A Legacy of One is a great book, and I’m very proud of it. But, it’s not commercially viable.

James Joyce was destitute because he was writing amazing literature that nobody would buy. Now, we think of him as a giant, but in his own day, he was not “successful.” I’m hoping that people will eventually pick up A Legacy of One and appreciate it. But for now, I’m focused on writing books that people will purchase and enjoy and then ask for the next one. I’m good with that. 

Norm: Why do you write mystery and crime thrillers? As a follow up, what makes a good mystery and crime thriller?

Kevin: I’ve always been a mystery fan. The story ideas are fun to develop. My first novel was a P.I. mystery, and I loved it. By the time I got back to the point of wanting to write something like that again, those characters were 20 years behind me and lived in a different world, so I started fresh. I wrote a short story for a writing competition in 2012 sponsored by the New Jersey Corporate Counsel Association.

The contest required that the story be 5000 words or less, and had to be about law or crime.  Law is great, but I was looking to go outside my day-to-day world, so I went with crime. I created the character of Mike Stoneman, an NYPD homicide detective. I enjoyed that story, and the process of writing it, so when I was ready to dive into my next novel, I dragged Mike out and made a whole novel for him. Now, he and his peripheral characters are my focus, at least through a 5-book story arc.  

What makes a good mystery/thriller for me?  First, you need “real” characters who have realistic lives. I’m not a fan of the super-hero protagonist who takes on dozens of bad guys with his bare hands or who thwarts the nuclear war threat single-handedly.  It’s fun, but it’s not real. I like my heroes to be more vulnerable and their adventures to be more plausible. Second, you need an intricate plot. I’m all about twists and switches – as long as they make sense. Keep me guessing as long as possible, but give me a fighting chance of figuring it out before the reveal. Last, you need some humor and some fun side-plots to give me some light moments amid the suspense. I love a little romance, and I want to see characters who come back from book to book if it’s a series.

Norm: Do you write more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Please summarize your writing process.   

Kevin: I’m an outliner. I come up with a story idea, then start fleshing out exactly how it will play out, scene to scene. I’m writing a screenplay more than a novel. I want every scene to have meaning, and every step of the story has to logically follow from the next. I like writing the ending first, so that I know where I’m going. Then, when I start actually drafting text and dialogue, it flows organically, but always based on the plot points that are supposed to happen in that scene. I often don’t know what my characters are going to say to each other until I’m in the middle of writing the scene, but I know where they’re going.

Norm: What do you think most characterizes your writing?  

Kevin: I’m very dialogue driven and very character driven. I’d like to think that my readers will say the relationships between my characters is what’s most important about the books. The stories are fun and interesting, but you have to care about the characters – whether they live or die, whether they succeed or fail, whether they find happiness or despair – to really want to keep reading, and want to buy the next book. I write very cinematically, so that my readers are “watching” the story unfold scene to scene. I try to avoid having much happen inside the heads of the characters. 

Norm: What helps you focus when you write and do you find it easy reading back your own work?

Kevin: Second part first. I’ve narrated my books as audiobooks, and I have found that to be a wonderfully fun process. Getting to voice the characters and re-read the stories aloud into the microphone is a joy. If it’s a good story, then it’s still fun to read even after the twentieth time through. I know I have a problem if I’m proofreading a draft and I’m bored with the story.

That’s when it’s time to re-write. Now, when I’m writing, I’m thinking about how the characters’ voices will sound when I narrate them later.

Focus is a problem. I’m often writing in the evenings while watching the Mets game or otherwise spending time with my wife. I’m multi-tasking all the time, so even when writing staying fully focused is hard. That’s why I outline things so carefully. On the other hand, since I have a day job, I look forward to my writing as a distraction. In that sense, I’m lucky because I don’t need to sit at my computer with writer’s block. If I’m not inspired to write on any given day, I just don’t – I’ll do something else. 

Norm: Does the line between truth and fiction sometimes become blurred for you?

Kevin: There are some times when I put a little bit of myself in the characters and stories. Some characters have been based on real people in my life. In Deadly Enterprise, the young woman who is found floating in the Hudson River turns out to be from a small town in Washington – which is my home town. My characters make a road trip there, and I got the chance to describe it to my readers.

The character of the sister of the dead woman is based on a real person from my childhood. But, the story elements are all fiction. It’s like “what would this person do if put into this situation?” I can speculate based on what I know about the real person, and then have the character do that.

I’m very picky about making sure that the details of the stories are true-to-life and that the action of the plot makes sense in the real world. I’ll take some liberties, but I never want my readers to think, “that would never happen.” If I’ve crafted the books properly, everything will make logical sense. So, I want it to be “realistic.”

In 2017, I had a kayaking accident and ended up having shoulder surgery and going through a long period of physical therapy and rehab. So, at the end of Righteous Assassin, I had Mike Stoneman suffer a stab wound to his shoulder, resulting in surgery, and I had him in a brace following his operation.

Then, in Deadly Enterprise, the book starts off with Mike going through rehab for his injuries. I know what that process is like (having just gone through it myself), so I wrote that into the book. Unlike some characters in thrillers who get shot multiple times and stabbed, and run over, and yet still jump over tall buildings in a single bound right afterwards, Mike Stoneman went through a 21-week rehab period before he was fully recovered. I like that – keep it real.

 

Norm: Many people have the skills and drive to write a book, but failure to market and sell the book the right way is probably what keep a lot of people from finding success. Can you give us 2-3 strategies that have been effective for you in promoting your book? 

Kevin: First of all, I fall into the category of not being prepared with the knowledge about book marketing when I started writing. It was more of a hobby than a business. Over the past several years, I’ve taken it much more seriously and studied the subject much more carefully. I’m not successful enough to give advice, but the three things I’ve found most important are:

(1) make as many contacts as you can via social media, your website, your newsletter, at conferences, etc. Reach out relentlessly and don’t worry that not everyone will want to engage with you;

(2) cultivate a core group of readers who will post reviews for you early – having 15-20 reviews for a book helps a lot; and

(3) don’t be afraid to give stuff away in order to build an audience. Every name on your newsletter subscriber list is gold.

Norm: Please tell us about your latest novel, Lethal Voyage.

Kevin: In Mike Stoneman’s world, in May of 2019, he and his partner, Jason Dickson, are just off an exciting – but very unauthorized – shootout in a Brooklyn hotel. The police commissioner suggests that they should take a vacation; get out of town so the local press can’t even ask them questions. So, Mike’s love interest, Medical Examiner Michelle McNeill, and her friend, Rachel (who has been dating Jason), arrange for the two couples to take a cruise to Bermuda.

Sounds peaceful and relaxing, right? At the start of the cruise, they meet two important people. One is Mike’s former mentor on the police force, Edwin Ferguson, who is now the head of corporate security for Epic Cruise Lines. Ferguson and his wife, Millie, are taking the cruise as a vacation, and Mike is happy to re-connect with his old friend.

They also meet Max Bloom, a Broadway theater agent, and his wife, Shirley. Michelle remembers Shirley from when she was a Broadway actress, years ago, and is thrilled to spend some time with her. But, when Shirley is killed after a fall from her stateroom balcony, the ship’s chief of security wants to call it a suicide, or an accident. So, instead of a relaxing vacation, Mike and Jason end up with a murder on their hands. 

Norm: How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book?  

Kevin: My wife and I are (well, were before COVID) avid cruisers. We’ve been on many different cruise ships and I always thought it would be a great venue for a story. We also love Bermuda, and have cruised there from New York many times. So, I decided to combine two things I love. When I started the book, I didn’t know that cruising would be shut down by the pandemic, but it’s still a great setting for a book.

We also love Broadway, so weaving in scenes from Chicago and making that story a bit of a parallel to the plot of this story was a lot of fun. 

Norm: What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them? 

Kevin: The goals of this book were: (1) develop the relationships between Mike and Michelle and between Jason and Rachel;

(2) get book #3 into a very tight time frame within the Mike Stoneman universe, so that I can get books 4 and 5 squeezed into the timeline of that universe before COVID; and

(3) find a way to write a poker scene. I got those all in, and wrote a tight story that is fun and a quick read.  There aren’t a lot of social or political themes in this book, aside from a smidge of corporate greed tamping down the pursuit of justice. There will be plenty of social commentary in book #4. 

Norm: Can you share some stories about people you met while researching this book?  What are some of the references that you used while researching this book?  

Kevin:  There are a bunch of characters in this book based on real people we have met on cruises. There is a couple singing awful karaoke (I wish I could forget them).

There is a bartender named April, who was the best bartender on the Oasis of the Seas and who served us up Zacapa 23 rum in the Solarium Bar.

There is a terrible cabin attendant named Elisabeth, who was surly, who moved things around in our stateroom for no reason, and who made the absolute worst towel animals.

Really. So, when I needed a cabin attendant for the book, Elisabeth got the call. I also spent some time talking with our cruise travel agent, who helped me make sure I got the behind-the-scenes facts about the cruise ship right. Of course, it’s my fictional cruise ship, the Colossus of the Ocean, so I get to design it how I want. The fictional ship is, however, based on the actual configuration of the ships we’ve sailed on. 

Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing this book?   What did you enjoy most about writing this book?  

Kevin: The biggest challenge with this book was to figure out a way to make the story compelling to a new reader who might be picking up the series here in book #3.

I also had to make the beginning of the book “thrilling” enough because there is a lot of set-up in the first third of the book. I had to trim a bunch of material to keep the first third tight enough. This included cutting down the poker scene, which killed me because I had looked forward to finally writing a poker scene into one of my books.


The most enjoyable part of the book (aside from writing the poker scenes) was creating the trip to Bermuda for my characters. My wife and I love Bermuda and it was like taking one of our cancelled trips as I was writing about it. I also really loved voicing some of the smaller characters, especially Mrs. DiVito, who has made a cameo in every book, so that’s like a pattern now. 

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and your novels?

Kevin: All the books are accessible on the series page on AMAZON

There’s also a continuous discussion on the Mike Stoneman Thriller Group FACEBOOK PAGE

My WEBSITE has some free stuff, some behind-the-scenes material, and plenty of information about me and my books. 

Norm: What is next for Kevin G. Chapman?

Kevin: First, I need to make sure you call me Kevin G. Chapman – with the middle “G.” It turns out there’s another author out there named Kevin Chapman, so I need to make sure to distinguish myself.  

I’m already working on book #4 in the Mike Stoneman Thriller series, titled Fatal Infraction.  I hope to publish book #4 in 2021, then start working on Book #5, which will be set mostly in Las Vegas. Beyond that, things are fluid. I don’t want to write a story set in the time of COVID, so I may pick up in 2022 and just skip this whole pandemic in my fictional timeline.

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, if you could invite three writers, dead or alive into your living room, who would they be and why?

Kevin: Wow – that’s an out-of-the-blue question. I’d have to start with Isaac Azimov. I love his stories and read so much of his stuff as a kid. He’s a master storyteller and had such an amazing imagination. I’m sure I could listen to his stories all night long.


Next, I’d invite Michael Connelly. My character of Mike Stoneman bears some resemblance to Harry Bosch, and I’ve always loved his writing style and emulate it in many ways.

I’d love to chat with him about his career arc and how he kept the Harry Bosch series alive and vibrant for so long.

Last, would be Dorothy Parker. The stories about her sound like she’d be fun to hang out with, and she was such a pioneer as a female writer in the 20s. She could tell me about all the other wonderful personalities from that period.  

I want to thank you for inviting me to this interview. The questions made me do some thinking. I appreciate the opportunity to share with your readers.

Cheers!


Norm Goldman -- bookpleasures.com is listed in the Yearbook
of Experts at www.expertclick.com

Norm Goldman -- bookpleasures.com
is listed at
ExpertClick.com