Howdy people.

We’ve made it to the weekend again – woohoo, party time, excellent!

(To those working on the weekend, I salute you and look forward to when you can party too and raise a glass for you).

Just a quick note before the fun and games start – I link to a lot of other articles in my posts, so WordPress users please check your Spam folders in your Setting Menus and approve any links/pingbacks that you find from me to improve the visibility of your own blog posts, as well as mine, it’s a win win for us both 😉

Now, let’s get down to those tacks made of brass.

Time to introduce you all to Crime, True Crime and Mystery thriller author Leif Wright, whose books are sure to get your spines tingling and pulse racing before the evening is over.

Here we go and thanks for reading folks, enjoy yourselves.

 

Hi there Leif, a real pleasure to be chatting with you about your amazing True Crime and Crime Thriller books, along with allowing us to find out more about the man behind them.

Let’s start with your books themselves – “Deadly Vows”, “Minister of Justice” and “Robby the R-Word”, which is your latest release. Please tell us more about them all, what themes they explore and ultimately what is at stake in each of them for the lead protagonists.

“Deadly Vows” is a true crime book about my former best friend, Sean Barclay Goff, an evangelical minister and consigliere to televangelists, who became a polygamist behind their backs. When they found out, Sean was summarily dismissed and started working on a new religious angle—giving advice to fellow non-Mormon polygamists. He rapidly rose through their ranks to become a respected and in-demand leader, so when his junior wife started intimating that she was looking for new horizons, rather than suffer an embarrassing divorce, he stabbed her to death, cut the teeth out of her head, chopped her fingertips off, bashed her face in and buried her mutilated remains in a cairn of lava rocks under a Palo Verde tree in the Arizona desert outside Phoenix. He then embarked on a campaign of lies, fake emails and subterfuge to convince her friends that she had left him for another man and was embarking on a tour of Europe, where she would conveniently be out of touch for quite some time. They didn’t believe him, and just when police were going to start really poking around, Sean turned himself in, but wouldn’t tell anyone where he buried the body. Enterprising forensic scientists in Phoenix used the then-fledgling art of DNA matching to hammer in the nails that led to his conviction. The book explores themes of misogyny, using religion as a hammer and how you never really know anyone around you.

“Minister of Justice” is a crime mystery novel featuring a liberal pastor, Steve Samuelson, who gets frustrated when the police can find no clues in his brother’s vicious murder. Befriending his lawyer brother’s lead investigator, a funny little man with intense social anxiety, but a keen eye for detail, Steve decides to investigate the case himself and discovers a perpetrator who always seems to be five steps ahead. Joining forces with a high school Lolita whose false rape claim may have touched off the murder (and several like it) and her new big-brain boyfriend, the four must quickly figure out what’s going on before the killer realizes they’re on the trail. The book covers numerous topics, from the role of religion in morality to teenage angst, autism, child molestation and adults desperately trying to free themselves from their upbringings. Steve’s stakes are clear: Now that he has gotten himself involved, the killer has started focusing on him, so he must solve the crime before the killer finds a way to end him.

“Robby the R-Word” is a combination police procedural and mystery featuring Robby Turner, a 40-something man who has been in a wheelchair since he was a child, his body completely unresponsive and uncommunicative. For the vast majority of that time, everyone around him assumed he was a vegetable until a social worker received a one-word email: “Helllp.” From that time, Robby has been painstakingly fitted with a computer that can follow his eyes and allow him to communicate with the outside world for the first time in four decades. And suddenly, people around him start to fall victim to a brutal assailant. Detective Bain is doing everything she can to justify her promotion to detective, and she can’t let the clumsy perpetrator in this string of crimes outwit her while she fights the good old boy system at the station and struggles to keep her personal life from torpedoing her career. The stakes for Bain are clear: she’s fighting misogyny and tripping over her own feet while baffled by a case that keeps slipping out of her hands. If she can’t solve this one—with a criminal who leaves every clue in the book except his identity—she will lose respect and possibly even her job. The book covers themes of handicap abuse, child abuse, elderly abuse, drugs, gay relationships, the realities of being a cop and even a serial murderer as a subplot.

You also mention that you have ghost written a lot of other books too. Can you tell us what experiences you have learnt from this process and has this affected your own writing style in any significant ways?

That’s a good question. Ghost writing is a completely different animal, because if you’re going to make a living that way, you have to be able to imitate the person for whom you’re writing. For example, I did a lot of work for televangelists, and that meant I had to listen to hours of tapes of each one to pick up idiosyncrasies and often-repeated words and phrases. Often, they wouldn’t give me any sort of outline; instead, they’d hand me a theme (such as “Supernatural Eyesight”) and they’d depend on me to provide everything else while making it sound like something they would come up with. It taught me to write quickly; the turnaround time for most of them was less than a month for a 200-page book they’d be offering as a “gift” in return for donations. That’s a skill that has really affected my current writing. For instance, my next book, a 100,000-word horror novel titled “Father of Malice,” was written in 14 days flat. Ghost writing hasn’t affected my writing style, since I had to be a blank canvas in order to get the gigs. Now, I don’t have to pretend to be anyone else.

If any of your novels were to be made into films (or even a TV series), who would you cast in the lead roles?

Minister of Justice: James Spader. He has this quality about him that makes him morally authoritative, even if his characters espouse and enact viewpoints 90-degrees divergent from the traditional ones.

Robby the R-Word: Maybe someone like Milla Jovovich, though she’s too tall to play the part (Bain’s shortness is frequently mentioned). Bain is supposed to be tiny but intimidating, attractive but unavailable. Jovovich ticks all those boxes.

What do you find the most difficult thing about writing? And what do you find the easiest?

The most difficult thing about writing is avoiding clichés or tired tropes. Being unique is impossible, but being significantly different is doable with a little thought. I’m not sure what I find easiest, it’s hard to quantify. Writing has always been natural for me, so frankly, the entire process is easy.

Who are some of the authors and historical figures that inspire you?

Stephen King is a great inspiration, because despite hoity toity allegations otherwise, he is an amazing writer and a great thinker. His endings are almost always terribly weak, but it is a testament to his skill as a writer that so many millions of people keep coming back. He also has a work ethic that has served me well: write every day; set yourself a word count and write to it, regardless of any extenuating circumstances.

Hunter S. Thompson is another great inspiration, simply because he demonstrates the value of being who you are and shoving it down people’s throats until they start to like it.

What sort of research do you do to write your books?

It depends on the book, obviously. For Deadly Vows, I had to read a lot of court transcripts, old news reports, archived posts from web forums and such, even though I lived through most of the story. For Minister of Justice, I had to research police procedure, some medical facts and procedures and similar things. For Robby the R-Word, I did a great deal of reading about types of brain injuries and what types of trauma would cause them.

Why do you write? What inspired you to become a writer?

The answer to that now is much different than it used to be. When I was ghost writing, the answer was “because I’m good at it.” The answer now is “I have something to say.” My books all try to soft-shoe several themes, without being annoying about it: the cruelty of which people are capable, the hidden darkness in just about every person, the hope for the triumph of dogged people who are mostly good, but fundamentally flawed. Taken together, I think they present a pretty good picture of my worldview: People are basically self-serving assholes, but you and I can be the exceptions to that rule.

What keeps you motivated during creative slumps? How do you deal with Writers Block?

I work on six or seven projects at a time. I don’t generally get writer’s block, but if I write myself into a corner I’m having trouble backing out of, I’ll simply bounce to another project, which essentially flushes my mind and gives me a fresh perspective when going back to the one I was stuck on. It pays to not be too precious with ideas. If something isn’t working, drop it, even if you lose several thousand words in the process.

You have access to a time machine. What advice would you give to your younger self?

I would probably skip college and go directly into something like writing. Knowing then what I know now would be a huge advantage, and my college experience ultimately contributed little to my future.

How do you spend your free time when you are not writing?

I play music and sing professionally, I program computers, but mostly I spend time with my children, who are 5 and 3. One of the advantages of running a business from home is that I get to watch them grow, and I keep both eyes as wide-open as possible so I don’t miss a thing.

Tell us more about your upcoming projects. Are you working on anything specific or have plans in the pipeline?

I have one novel in the can (Father of Malice, which I mentioned above), and two main projects going right now: One is a novel with an archaeologist discovering a billion-year-old nuclear reactor, and a second is a man who moves into a house, only to discover several mangled corpses in his cellar, each with a perfect, tiny Play Doh sculpture laid neatly on its head. I have several other projects going, but those are the two main ones I’m focusing on, along with my long-threatened comedy/theology book, titled Jesus Was A Communist.

Finally, are there any nuggets of wisdom that you can impart to other aspiring writers?

Two simple words, separated by an “and”: Read and write. Reading is the textbook of writing, and writing is the workbook. You’re going to suck initially, so just prepare yourself, suck it up and write that horrible crap so you can get to the good stuff.

And that’s a wrap! Thank you for giving us a cracking start to the weekend, we look forward to checking out all of your exciting books and sticking with them until their gripping conclusions 🙂

Bio:-

Leif M. Wright is an author, business owner, professional musician, computer programmer, father and husband. He and his wife live with their three children on a ranch outside Muskogee, Oklahoma with 11 dogs, numerous cats, chickens, deer, a llama, horses and cows.

You can connect with Leif via the following Social Media channels:-

Facebook:- Leif M. Wright – Author (FB)
Goodreads:- Leif M. Wright (Goodreads Author)
Website:- The Website of Author Leif M. Wright

You can buy his books here:-

Buy Leif Wright’s books in Canada

Buy Leif Wright’s books in the UK/Europe

Buy Leif Wright’s books in the US/Rest of the World

If you too would like to be interviewed on my blog at TooFullToWrite and you have a book or a series of books that you would like us to chat about then fill out the Contact Me form here with your details and we can arrange a future interview slot.

Still want more? Well, Leif’s books are stuffed full of twists, turns and revelations. For more articles on the theme of ‘Revelation’ then check out the links below:-

1. Them There Eyes – LiveFree & LoveOnPurpose
2. forms – Tiny Fawns Writings
3. Sandmanjazz – A Sojourn for Sarah
4. The Bad and Ugly – Dog Tales
5. The Shack – idealizeblog
6. The Shower of Blessings – Nutrition Benefit
7. Copper Cranes – Trace Elements
8. Mankind Limited Excerpt – thehouseofbailey
9. Is this what God thinks? – Girl Writing
10. This, On Purpose – We Knew What We Didn’t Want To Know
11. Poetry Out West – I Choose
12. Applause. – Pebbles
13. A Work In Progress – LiveFree & LoveOnPurpose
14. Branching Out – a Tinkertoy Life!
15. Relieved – What Wendy Writes
16. Mind Whack – awesomeloopy
17. A Diary of A Single Man: A Father’s Day After Thought – Harlem Cafe
18. Branching Out – Do You Do This When In The Sun?
19. Law of One – True_George
20. Eagle’s Wing Ministries – Continuing Through Wasteland
21. The Trek, my blogs, the AT – Karyn’s Domain
22. Bonkers Away! – Revelation
23. Summer – Run and Travel
24. Hollow Place – The Icognito Writer
25. shame – The most important night of the year
26. “Against all odds at any age.” – Nomadic Adventurer
27. The Consulting Writer – How Deep The Father’s Love For Us
28. The Revelation – The peepal
29. Batches Of Beauty – My Coily Hair Revelation
30. Triumphant Blooms! – thinkinkadia
31. MOVES – MAG Stories
32. You Are What You Say You Are – Kissxd By Me
33. The First Boy in His Family to Finish School – Melinda J. Irvine
34. Short Story – The Daily Post – The Dog Rides
35. Sailors greed, when faced with a siren’s call – Sarahs Crazy Mind
36. Ray of Hope – Jenny’s Corner
37. K.I.S.S – Embracing Life
38. Laurel Grove loves… – A cup of Con fefe every morning?
39. You Get What You Give – LiveFree LoveOnPurpose
40. Blindsided in Love: Falling in Love at the Office – Love and Life
41. Suddenly Single… Minded – Where are all the guys?
42. Revelation – The Daily Post Prompt June 10 – Field Notes From Over The Hill
43. The thunder that came with you – Touchwords
44. How to Flow – Debbie Gravett
45. Revelation- Daily Prompt – Chronic Pain Warrior’s Journal
46. prakratii – The Shocking Revelation
47. Light Motifs II – On Being Wrong
48. Invisible Illnesses – Triumph – Daily Prompt
49. Deep Breaths-Revelation – Thoughts from an Alabaster Beach Girl
50. For the love of  – The Chaos Within
51. Revelations Aren’t Always Easy – Adventuresnluv
52. Weird and Wonderful Words… – Mum’s the Word Blog
53. Swell Time – Big money
54. A Self Revelation – SilentWordz
55. Revelation – Touchwords
56. tuckedintoacorner – serendipity
57. Reviews and Stories – A Ghost Story – THE Ü | REVIEWS AND STORIES
58. I Will Never Be Happy Working For Someone Else
59. Unveiling of Sunshine – Heaven’s Sunshine
60. The Secret Life. – Dimitra Pyromali’s Blog
61. Finding Life’s Purpose – Mumbles of a Struggling Student
62. Revelation Unpending – Progressing into Solitude
63. Revelation: Words from Higher Self… – Chronicles of an Orange-Haired Woman!
64. Flowers and Breezes – Revelation
65. Revelation – Living, Learning and Letting Go
66. The Shower of Blessings – Nutrition Benefit
67. Revelation – Sugunag’s Blog
68. Lost Poet found in Haiku – Zachary W Gilbert, Author
69. unApologetic fangirl – justaplatypus
70. Revelation – The Hockey Mom Fit Life
71. Listen Up! – GirlSoWoke
72. Living In Crimson – Black and White
73. Making it write – Roseate
74. Revelations – Rip Them
75. The Somewhere In Between – Day 3: A New Revelation
76. Keepsakes – jansten56
77. Daily Post Revelation – All About Writing and more
78. 150 Hour Zero Waste Challenge – stbarbebaker
79. Roland’s Ragbag – Revelations
80. Naive – Leigha Robbins
81. y – distance magnifies
82. Revelation – Dirty Little Daydreams
83. Tender kisses dance across my skin – jacey caitlyn speaks
84. The Words of Sex – Love and Life
85. Zero Waste – stbarbebaker
86. Give That Wow Factor – Daily Prompt (Revelation) – A K Rockwell
87. Fishing – Rose Glace’s Blog
88. another quiet muse – Angles…
89. Most Bizarre Interview EVER!
90. paradise – What does nelkumi think?­
91. Scrambled, Not Fried – What The Sonar Fails To Reveal
92. Piper’s Adventures – Telephone Party Lines
93. “Don’t Tell Mom!” – Inner Whispers
94. Michael’s Monologue – Addressing My Past
95. Revelation – The Bag Lady
96. Revealing Meaning – aroused
97. Job Interview Revelations – Mindflight
98. Once Again – Wings Of Poetry
99. juantetcts – Daily Post
100. Sean Hogan – Invisible Walls
101. my first memory – Adalia Haiku
102. The square of my time – While there is life, there is hope!
103. Life On The Skinny Branches – Broken Lineage
104. Minimalism: A Revelation – Adventures of a Busy Mom
105. Coping with Relevation Resentment!! – BeCre8ive’s Blog
106. Mankind Limited Excerpt – thehouseofbailey
107. Science Traveler – Experiencing the Terra Cotta Warriors of Xi’an – Part I
108. Who Are You? – epiphanyofsumi
109. convertible – Paulina Angela
110. Scottish Legend’s Blog – Batman has left us.
111. Revelation of Personal Potential: Daily Post Prompt. – SANDRA PAVLOFF CONNER
112. the15thday – rather used to driving on the correct side of the road. or at least, being driven…
113. self-revelation – Love it Now
114. Revelation–Daily Prompt – Fearless
115. Revelation vs the Money Bandwagon – Author Tony Damian, RMT, CMT on Self-Healing
116. Revelation – Kerrstee
117. The Abject Muse – Random Haiku
118. Revelation: Our Next Steps – One Stone Away…
119. Telling the Truth – caught unawares
120. Saying Sorry – Dream Desire Achieve
121. Giggles & Tales – The Daily Prompt – Revelation 2
122. Revelation – All About Writing and more
123. Zombie Flamingos – It’s Cat…Cat…Caturday!!
124. yochet – Student Corner
125. Revelation of Mind – The Diary of a Weird Teen Boy
126. Notes to Women – Shelter
127. Revelations from the Lord: – Storysite
128. Success Inspirers World – Justice will take its course
129. the story of self revelation – positive guider
130. Musings of a Random Mind – Some Like It Hot
131. Full Moon Revelation – The Cosmic Salon
132. THIRD HAND – Rainbow
133. Revelation – the nathan estibeiro
134. sunrainlife – 2 Easy and Non-Toxic Ways to Control Pests in your Garden
135. I Will Fight Site – Tell me I’m Wrong
136. “Ever-Changing Dust Storm” – Urban Poetry Urban
137. Boringbug – The Lady
138. Never… – cries from an unkempt garden
139. SERENDIPITY – REVELATION? MORE LIKE (FINALLY) SUMMER!!
140. The value of extra time – Wells Baum
141. Least Action – Site Title
142. Finding Hope Ness – Power in high places and the tragic failure of self-awareness
143. Science Vs Revelation – Islamic Methodologies Made Easy
144. Revelation Revealed… – A Place to learn and grow together
145. Revelation – Uniquesus
146. Martha L Shaw – THAT’S FOR THE BIRDS!
147. Milky Way Revelation: Through a glass darkly – iball round the world
148. Muse of the Day – Everyday Strange
149. Harsh revelation – Playing with words
150. slideaways – Revelation
151. the burrito of god – moopanoop short fiction
152. Cookies & Moo – Answers
153. Hot Dogs and Marmalade – Blue
154. Charmed Chaos – I See You
155. Book Covers – The Mind of Nox
156. I Was Laying On……. – emotionsoflife2016
157. Studying The Book of Revelation: This Calls for Patient Endurance and Wisdom – Daily Inspiration
158. B*_ live – Walking the Haiku Way
159. Something Else – Poetry, Fiction, Politics (PFP)
160. Giggles & Tales – The Shocking Revelation!
161. Haiku: Playful Rays – whippetwisdom.com
162. Lucas’ Revelation (a good short short story) – Jittery Goat
163. Next Time – I’m a Writer, Yes, I Am!
164. #Daily prompt #Revelation – /Suzhalgal
165. Revealing Truths: Know How. – Revolving Around Life
166. The Cat Chronicles – Daily Feline Prompt: Feline Revelation
167. Three revelations – My little storybook
168. Hesitation – november child
169. Curious Hart – The Muse ~ Part Two
170. The Last Pawn – Revelation (Daily Prompt)
171. VirtuousParagon – Batter Up
172. Kids Are Weird – JUNKY TRAVEL
173. Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss – Revelationary
174. Open Your Eyes – Staci Trolio
175. MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO – Revelation
176. U.S. Joins Battle Against ISIS-Linked Militants in Philippines – TIME – LiveFree LoveonPurpose
177. Southern By Design – Four Letters…Well, You Know
178. A Lesson from My Garden: A Weed Is But An Unloved Flower – Cottage Garden Living
179. Stay Gold Ponyboy (and grab the bull by the horns)
180. Success Inspirers World – Shocking revelation
181. Views from the Edge – Revelation
182. Wheat or Chaff? – Smell The Coffee
183. Divulging, Disseminating, and Declaring – As I was saying…
184. Nyctophilia – Imaginateweb
185. Second Chance Love – Unlearning
186. Giggles & Tales – The Daily Prompt – Revelation!
187. KO Rural Mad As Hell Blog – tour group
188. Revelation Of The Truth – eddaz
189. Nan’s Farm-Inside Out – By John Tomsett – The speech Theresa May should have made yesterday
190. lifelessons – a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown – Revelation in Twilight: 19 Studies of the Moon
191. A Letter to My Hypothetical Daughter: Why We Broke the World – nothing considered
192. The Writers’ Plight: a Haiku [Prompt] – The Versed Writer
193. revelation – wordsareallihavesite
194. The Newsie – CD-W, Author Flawed to Perfection
195. An Early Summers Dream – A lot from Lydia
196. Six word story#5 – Doodlingpanda
197. Revelation – Piercing the Mundane
198. “Poem” (Currently Untitled) – LiveFree LoveOnPurpose
199. The Pinnacle – By Sarah
200. Ride Hard: Working for the man! – Redux Of Rex
201. Revelation – World Imagined
202. Frank Prem – way poem #15: I, creator
203. Frank Prem – sleeping tales
204. Jaellekatz – Ausgelaufen
205. sonja benskin mesher – .this three.
206. Frank Prem – awaiting a call to arms
207. Writing the wrongs
208. Revelation – By Sarah