I need reviews!

I have created a review page for my novel on Create Space. Click the link below and go and have a look. There's an excerpt to read, it'll only take you about ten to fifteen minutes. Then there are three questions at the end. The results will be seen by everyone who visits my title on Amazon. If you like the excerpt, pick yourself up a copy.
Thanks!

https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1091666

A new story...

Writing a novel is a long and arduous process. Especially when you have a full-time job to take care of, on the side. I've taken a short break from my second novel to write a short story. Short stories are a great American genre in literature. The author must accomplish what he does in a novel but he must get to the point with a lot fewer words. Read a few of Hemingway's short stories and you'll see exactly what I mean. Short stories are capable of poignancy and impact simply because the apex of the story comes around much sooner. They're challenging and fun, I'd thought I'd try my hand at it.
Regrettably, not everyone is into novels. I can only hope that my novels will change that for some of you...;) What I tried to do in my story is create a very interesting character. To take you into some of the deepest and darkest secrets of his life. And how he deals with a life and death situation. I think it might be the best half hour of your day. Go on, read it. I dare you...
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B73jH3UbazfMOTdhNGFlM2ItZmVhMi00MTBlLWFkMDEtMTllNTUyODU0NWM2&hl=en_US

Another Milestone!

I feel like I've hit a few major milestones recently. And now I can add another one to the list, and this is a big one. The El Morro Connection is now available for purchase in several places, mainly on Amazon.com in hardcopy print! Yes, my novel can be purchased in hardbound print. It's really well done, the interior is on good, heavy paper, nice and bright and the cover is absolutely beautiful. The fabulous cover art done by Tere Leger is on heavy stock paper and the color is gorgeous. I'm really happy it's out and quite proud of it. Now if I can just get more people to read it and write some reviews. For those of you who like action/thrillers I know you'll like it. If you like the genre and the stories from Baldacci, Koontz, Patterson, Clive Cussler, Vince Flynn, John Irving then I think you'll like mine. If you read it and like it, write a review, I'll sign your copy of the book and send it back to you.

Thanks for the compliments!

Recently I have been been given some very special compliments about The El Morro Connection. I have been told by a few who have bought and read the book that it is 'a real page turner'. They say they want to keep reading because there is so much action going on that they can't wait to know what happens next. These are the compliments that an action/thriller writer lives for. My goal is to write a story so engrossing,so captivating that you become addicted to it. So, according to some of you, I have done that. Thanks.
Now, what are the rest of you waiting for?...

Magazine Feature Article

The company I work for has published in the company magazine a feature article on me and my first novel. I am humbled at the attention and very excited about it. Our company magazine is an impressive publication, full-color, glossy pages, nicer than a lot of magazines sold in bookstores. And the best part is it is distributed world-wide throughout our company to over sixty thousand employees. It is published both electronically over our intranet and in beautiful hard-copy. This is definetely what I would call a break. I don't think I could get my name out in front of so many people on Facebook. This is nothing less than outstanding, about the most a new author could ask for... I am so very fortunate to have this job and to work for Conoco Phillips.

Where the ideas come from...

In the last thirty-five years I have traveled a lot. I've been all over the world and to a lot of very interesting places. And some not so interesting. I work in the energy industry and we all know there's oil and gas almost everywhere. I started keeping a journal several years ago and I write about whatever's going on in these places at the time, whether it's politics, crime, corruption, anything and everything. I read their newspapers (when they're in English or Spanish). This is where the ideas come from. Of course, by the time I get through with them they don't resemble reality anymore. The places I go to and the things going on there can be very exciting but I'm not a journalist, I'm a novelist. I take it and twist it, stretch it, distort it and mangle it till it's a story that draws you in and won't let you go. I try to get you into the characters, so you can feel what they're feeling, like you're there with them.
In El Morro, the name of the town where most of the story takes place is made up, but it's a real place. It's a small seaside town on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. I've been there and I have some very good friends that live there. It's every bit as beautiful and idyllic as it's described in the book. I was there with my wife a couple of summers ago visiting on vacation. The tempranillo in Spain is outstanding!
We actually drove with them from their home in England to "this town" in Spain. We crossed the Channel, drove through France and saw and experienced some of the most beautiful and legendary regions of France, such as Bordeaux, Cognac and the Pyrenees. We even drove along some of the route that the Tour de France follows. We stopped at local sidewalk cafes and restaurants and ate local cuisine and drank wines that were made only a few miles from where we sat. Then we drove through the vineyards where the grapes came from.
If something like that doesn't inspire you to write, then nothing will...

Where did the idea come from?

Later today I'm going to talk about where the idea came from for The El Morro Connection.
You might be a little surprised...

I'm over the first hurdle...

At long last, The El Morro Connection has been published on Barnes and Noble.com. It was a long and winding road, and recent changes in the publishing industry and advances in technology helped make it possible. Never mind that, I'll take all the help I can get. The bottom line is it's out there now for sale. Now is where the rubber hits the road. I can blog and hype it from now till the cows come home, but the only thing that matters is if the book is good or not.
I believe that once it gets in people's hands and gets read, some reviews will start coming in. If it really is a good story, then we'll know. It's in your hands now.
Be kind though. It's not easy being a writer and holding down a day job. Especially a day job that has you traveling all over the world. It's sort of a catch-22. It's the travel to the out-of-the way places and meeting people all over the world that gives me the ideas to write about. But if the truth be known, I'd rather spend more time writing than traveling now. We gotta do what we gotta do, right...
Enjoy the book...

The Thriller Writers' First Blog

Well, we're finally on the web. The El Morro Connection is available for purchase on Barnes & Noble.com and it'll soon be available on Amazon.com. This is exciting. I am so happy to have reached this point.
Let me tell you a little about the book.

The El Morro Connection

Jon Channing and Charlie Lennox are childhood friends who have been through midlife divorces and decide to meet for an overdue vacation in Spain. Jon is British, they met as kids when Jon’s family was living and working in the US. They meet in El Morro, an out-of –the way but idyllic seaside town on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. As they lie on the beach their first day there enjoying a cold beer, they knew this was going to be a magnificent few weeks of rest and relaxation. The opportunity they had been looking for to recharge and turn the corner in their lives. To leave some miserable and unhappy times behind and move on. Seeing boats on the horizon, Charlie suggested that they start this pause in life with a fishing excursion.

The following morning at daybreak they were headed out to sea on a last minute charter Charlie was able to get because someone had canceled. Charlie had experienced the thrill of big game fishing and he wanted to introduce his friend to the adrenaline-charged rush of that unique battle of wills. Like Santiago in Hemingway’s epic the Old Man and the Sea. As Charlie hooked the first fish they witnessed that remarkable and majestic dance of nature when a big marlin explodes through the surface to dance that wild but graceful choreography. As Charlie struggled against the powerful fish the engines stalled. The deck hand opened the engine compartment to investigate and Charlie immediately saw the problem, a bomb. Moments later they were diving into the sea as the boat explodes behind them. Not everyone survives. They spend a few harrowing days clinging to flotsam and fighting sharks and desperation in an attempt to stay alive. As they drifted in that state of existence somewhere between life and death, they are assaulted yet again. Only this time it was an unintentional accident. A hapless couple on a weekend sailing excursion soaking up sun au naturel, collides with them as they cling to life, ultimately rescuing them from their slow but certain passage to a grave in the sea.

Once safely back onshore, Jon is ready to forget the ordeal and maybe even leave. Charlie, with his inimitable curiosity honed from years of traveling to obscure places in the world wants to find out why someone would want to kill them. Or if it wasn’t them that were the target, then who was? And why?

The story crosses their path with a former French mercenary who is living a quiet, unobtrusive life in El Morro. While he fences money for a ruthless African dictator whose country has recently been discovered to hold oil deposits that exceed Saudi Arabia’s. The dictator is pilfering his country’s money while his subjects remain mired in abject poverty. But a sizable sum of the money is going somewhere else in the world, to finance a cause. A vile and formidable cause led by none other than one of the world’s most infamous radical purveyors of terror. The FBI, Scotland Yard, MI6, the Secret Service all become involved. Two old friends decide to go fishing while on vacation setting them on a course of events that ultimately lead to a profound change in the geopolitics of the entire world.

So, where do you want to vacation next year…

A novel by C. Clayton Lewis