Of Poetry and Hitmen: a guest post by Edward Lorn (plus a giveaway)

Edward Lorn is on a blog tour right now, promoting his new novella, Hope for the Wicked, and I was more than happy to lend my little soap box that is my blog so he can offer up some details about the book and what compelled him to write it in the first place. Also, he's hosting a giveaway, so once you finish reading the guest post, just scroll down a little further to find the Rafflecopter form that you can fill out.

Of Poetry and Hitmen

by Edward Lorn

First, I'd like to thank Gef for having me. As always, I appreciate your support. Now, on with the show.

I started my newest book, Hope for the Wicked, with Robert Burns's poem, "To a Mouse," in mind. More accurately, with this line at the forefront of my thoughts: “The best laid schemes of mice and men go often awry.” I knew I wanted to write about a pair of trained killers turned private investigators. I also figured that at some point something horrible was going to happen to them. This got me thinking. What would be the catalyst? What chain of events would be so life altering that two people who dealt death for a living would turn their lives around? I believe I found that situation. I could barely stomach writing the scene, but in the end, it turned out to be just the push the story needed.

The entire thread of the book fits the Robert Burns poem perfectly. Plans are made, said plans fail or are waylaid, and situations get nasty in a hurry. Once the train is derailed, there's no going back. By the time I finished the story and had a chance to go back over it, I realized the book drew more from Burns's poem than I first intended. "To a Mouse" also deals with what comes after tragedy, what we have to deal with after loss. My antagonists, Larry and Mo Laughlin, are put to the test for the first time in their careers. Up until the events in Hope for the Wicked, life had been as simple as life could get for a pair of killers. Never before had they been tested at such length.The main character, Larry Laughlin, ruminates on luck more than once, but what seems like fortuitous happenstance soon proves itself to be something completely different, as if fate was never on their side. I thought of this as a metaphor for life. Just because things seem to be going our way, it doesn't mean it's for the best.

I will get hit for the content of this book. I know that. First, I am asking readers to root for bad people. Though Larry and Mo used to kill the vilest people on the face of the planet—pedophiles—some readers will see my character's actions in the same ill light as corporal punishment. In other words, it is not man's right to deal death as justice for a person's crimes. Also, there's one scene in particular toward the end of the book that will definitely bother some people. I tackled it as tactfully as possible. Still, I know the not-too-pleasant reviews will come. To those people, I will say this: The world can be a very ugly place, and though you may not want to believe things like this happen, they absolutely do.

Hope for the Wicked is only the beginning. The novella is what I like to call Book Zero in the Larry Laughlin series. So if you read this first installment and want more, rest assured that I am deep into the sequel, Pennies for the Damned.

Until next time,

Edward Lorn.

Where you can purchase Hope for the Wicked:

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Hope-for-the-Wicked-ebook/dp/B00B0164US/

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hope-for-the-wicked-edward-lorn/1114121988?ean=2940015955705

Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Hope-for-the-Wicked/book-ONG-devkskqs02U_FQb5TA/page1.html?s=h1ePCrBpFUGGowQ-SfTvSQ&r=1
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway