Author Michael Nelson, also known as Michael Deeze, chats with me today about the first in his new Thomas Quinn psychological thriller series, The Deathbed Confessions.
Bio:
Born in the ghetto streets of inner-city Chicago, Mike Nelson learned how to survive the culture. He already had earned an ‘arrest sheet’ at the age of 9. He was drafted in the fall of 1970 and became a decorated but 100% disabled Vietnam era Veteran. After the Army, Nelson lived in a communal domestic society while he received his first degree. This one in engineering and he then worked for the NRC until it was defunded in 1979. He worked as a manager for Nuclear Power plant construction and was on the team that was tasked with managing the crisis of Three Mile Island Nuclear Power plant failure. During his time in the communal living, he met his wife and they have three children.
After a severe medical crisis in 2019, Nelson retired after 38 years as a practicing physician. He now lives with his life partner Kate, their dog (Dawg) and cat (Tom). He maintains a busy wood crafting shop and in 2019, he wrote his first two novels, Bless Me Father and For I Have Sinned which chronicled his early criminal history and employed historically fictionalized accounts of the time. In 2020, he published The Heretic which is an account of his active house call practice in a large Amish community in northern Wisconsin.
Following these accomplishments, Nelson believed he was done writing, but his daughter would not let him. In collaboration with her, he wrote two more novels in 2022 and 2023 that are young adult fantasies, filled with witches, elves, fairies, druids, and dwarves. Annie Abbott and the Druid Stones and Annie Abbott and the Race to the Red Queen.
In late 2023, during a Zoom author’s contest he was given 10 minutes to come up with and write an introduction to novel. The two paragraphs that he used served as the foundation for his most recent novel The Deathbed Confessions: A Thomas Quinn mystery, an outlandish and devilishly complex, psychological thriller pitting the Chicago mob against the FBI and old school against new school crime detection.
All of Nelson’s/Deeze’s books have been critically acclaimed by those that have read them, and there is anticipation for both a third ‘Annie Abbott’ novel and ‘Thomas Quinn series’ novel.
What inspired you to write The Deathbed Confessions?
In August 2023, I was asked to participate in a contest with five other authors. Over the course of five weeks, we were to be given a writing task. Each week a group of publishers and publicists would judge the content of the authors’ writing, and each week one author was eliminated. I did not win but tied. Afterward, I put it aside and didn’t think about it again until February 2024. Deep snow and bitter cold kept me inside and I reshaped the story. By June, it had grown legs and became its own entity in September.
Excerpt from The Deathbed Confessions:
“Is he dead?” She asked before I reached the bottom step.
“Harry? No ma’am.”
She cocked her head to one side, “Atta boy Harry.”
“I was hoping to speak with you Mrs. Carlisle, if you have a moment or two?” I held my badge up for her to see it.
“Are you kidding?” She looked down at the little picture behind its plastic protector, then she raised her gaze and looked at me at the foot of the steps; her eyebrows rose, her jaw tightened, and the smile faded. “I’ve got lots of moments, nothing but moments; around here there’s plenty of moments.”
“Beg pardon?”
“A bird in a gilded cage, Special Agent Thomas Quinn. Look across the street and look down the street. You’ve attracted the Homeowners’ Association. They’re on full alert. What is it that you want?”
Across the street a man had stepped out on his front porch and stood gazing across the street with his arms folded on his chest. Two lots down the street at the inlet of the cul-de-sac, a minivan sat at the curb, a man in sunglasses was seated in the front seat.
“I’m sorry ma’am. I had no idea.”
“Don’t call me ma’am please, I’m old enough but I still don’t like it. Come on in…damage is done already. Might as well see if it was worth it.”
Once I was on the porch, she held the door open and gestured me in ahead of her. Inside the entry was brightly lit in soft off-white pastels. A long staircase ran up the right side of the hallway and the walls displayed tasteful and probably expensive artwork. A small sitting room opened to the left.
Instead of directing me into the sitting room, she led the way down the bright hallway and into a large open kitchen.
“So, you’re here about Harry.” She wasn’t asking. “Is this a cup of coffee conversation or a glass of wine conversation?”
“I was wondering about Jimmy Mencorini.”
“Oh my! It’s a martini conversation—excellent.” She lifted down a martini glass out of a beautiful rack of hanging glasses and began busying herself with a martini shaker. “Are you on duty Special Agent Quinn or will you join me?”
“I’m technically not on duty, but I’m not much of a martini guy, ma’am.”
“Coffee? How about a beer? And please stop that. Call me Sally; that’s who I am and who I used to be.”
What exciting project are you working on next?
Christmas craft fairs and writing the new Thomas Quinn story.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
That has a very long answer. I do not consider myself a writer, perhaps a chronicler but mostly a philosopher.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I write when I’ve thought about something long enough.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
As long as I have the music loud enough, the writing comes much easier
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Not in jail
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I have walked a very long road to be here. It was not for the faint of heart, and I have the scars, both physical and emotional to show for it. My kids call me the most interesting man in the world. Everyone should strive for that type of life.
Links:
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grabbed my attention right away