disintegration

In March of 2010, I finished the original final draft for Lawson City. My laptop and USB with the file were stolen and I had to start from scratch. What came out of that release was a rushed attempt at keeping a deadline and a second draft hitting the printers instead of a well-thought-out and finalized manuscript.

I would later add another chapter and try to tweak it up with little effort to re-examine the actual story. Instead, I addedartwork and changed a few things here and there, but didn't really add anything special or new to the overall experience. Kind of like George Lucas.

But that all changed a few years later in 2020. Yes, we were all trying something new and different then; I discovered my love for bourbon and my ability to have toilet paper stocked on the ready without buying a bunch I didn't need. I worked in a hospital at the time, and there would be no time off for me. No locked indoors for months or years, eating toilet paper sandwiches or family members. No, I was lucky and unlucky at the same time. Going into a hospital every day during a pandemic was strange. You never knew if you would get it, or if you would unknowingly pass it on to someone else that may lose their life over it.

I saw coworkers; nurses, doctors, environmental services, patients, dropping out left and right, some, I would never see again.

It was a stressful time, one that led me to tell more stories to people, and in turn, inspire me to go back to the well. I decided I would rewrite Lawson City and Falling Home, my first two novels, from scratch. A feat that I would do in the early morning hours at my desk at work before punching in. That's how 2021's release of Lawson City came to be.

But I wasn't through, I was going to rework Falling Home. These were stories written in 2008 and 2009, my first attempts at novel writing.

Instead of sitting on them for years and making them something readable, I put them out to the world. Lawson City out of desperation and Falling Home to distract me from a personal loss. But after Lawson City was re-released, I felt the itch to tell the continued story.

Truth is, Lawson City 2: Electric Boogaloo, was planned to be my third book, what would eventually become Reese S. Peppercorn: The Number Killer, and when I thought about doing the sequel again, The One You'll Need had to be written to work through my mental health issues. The story of someone thinking about jumping off a building in Lawson City and Venger intervening was meant to be a cliffhanger to tack on to the original Lawson City, but with no explanation for why the airplane crashed into the city, soon after, the idea was shelved.

That's not uncommon. I think most writers, well, at least the ones I like, wait for the characters to speak to them before telling their story. And that made sense. I couldn't tell you why the plane crashed into the city at the time, or who the person was that jumped out of the plane shortly before impact was until now.

Lawson City: Disintegration is that story.

We pick back up in Lawson City seven years after the death of crime lord David Proud and we get a glimpse of what kind of domino effect has occurred once the head of the snake is cut off. Crime is down, Venger isn't needed much anymore, and Lawson City has become one of the best places to live. Well, before a terrorist makes themselves known.

This story, like the ones before it, leans on established characters and introduces new ones. One of my favorite things to do in a novel is bring a character that was featured on one page in one book, and make them the main character in the next; a gift to any eagle-eyed reader. Disintegration is no different.

This story puts Stephen Carver, the partner to Reese S. Peppercorn in The Number Killer novel at the forefront. His investigation into the plane crash and subsequent events that I won't spoil here, is the crux of the whole story. I would like to tell you the intention of his storyline, but again, I don't want to spoil anything for you. So, I will leave it up to you, the reader, to interpret.

August 9th is the day this bad boy hits Amazon to order. You can either get the e-book or the physical copy. You're hearing it here first, there are small variations in both, so, again, eagle-eyed readers will be rewarded for their care, assuming they spend 30 dollars to get both. Ha!

We're approaching marketing differently this time. Instead of random celebrities holding up copies of the book in a poor photoshopped attempt to convince you that important people read the book so you should too, I'm just putting it out there. With the seriousness this book deals with, having Dua Lipa licking the book or something sends the wrong message.

I hope you enjoy reading this new novel, it was fun playing with these characters again. And, if you get the paperback, you will read a note from me that we might be doing some extra storytelling later to close up holes or open new ones. We shall see. (evil laugh here). Follow me on Instagram @TyTyTheWriterGuy to see what I have planned.