What kind of stories are your favorites? Where do your eyes turn, when you push open the bookstore door and the bell jingles? For me, it’s mystery and suspense novels. The kind where you have a hard time putting it down because of a driving need to know what happens next. Full of tough characters facing even tougher choices, ones who fight through trouble that’s thrown in their path, as they race against the clock to solve a crime.
But I love it when those characters are like you and me.
Sure, there are books about super-sleuths, about specially trained agents with super-skills where the stakes are nothing short of saving the world. Thrilling, to be sure. But I’ll walk past those to a shelf with stories where the characters’ strengths are inside.
Bestselling author Harlan Coben said it well: “I think it’s more compelling to write about people more like you and me, people who are trying to do right, but wrong still seems to find them.”
Sounds about right.
Lee Ross owns four guitars, but doesn’t play any of them. He’d say that it’s
only because he needs to spend his available time writing, but since his most
recent novel is about a musician, nobody’s buying it anymore. At home, it’s a
battle of musical tastes anyway, with anything on the playlist from Billie
Holiday to Billie Eilish. He tries to sneak in a band with a guitarist when he
can.
He’d paid the bills over the years by paying other peoples’ bills. Which
sounds like a serious job, and he might describe his position in finance much
like you would a consigliere—which if you’re not sure what that
is, let’s just say it’s an advisor who works with strong personalities.
Most of all, Lee likes reading and writing mystery and suspense stories.
Stories of music and murder. And maybe a little more.
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