Publisher: Three Clover Press (May, 2015) Category: Crime Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Tour Date: May/June, 2015 Available in: Print & ebook, 325 Pages
From the award winning author of 'My Splendid Concubine' and 'Running With the Enemy' comes 'The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova'!
Don Juan Casanova wants to discover what it’s like to be loved by only one woman. His problem is that he was raised by his grandparents to become a Lothario, who loves and then leaves women for the next conquest. As he approaches 40, he is facing a crisis. His grandfather and then younger brother have been viciously murdered, and Don is the prime suspect. As he struggles to stay out of jail and end his life of serial seductions and find one woman to love, he’s discovering it isn’t easy to kick an old habit. His mother isn't helping by quoting scripture every chance she gets in an attempt to change her son’s lifestyle of sin for one of piety.
Praise for 'Running With the Enemy' by Lloyd Lofthouse:
Runner Up in General Fiction: 2013 Beach Book Festival Honorable Mentions in General Fiction: 2014 Los Angeles Book Festival 2013 San Francisco Book Festival 2013 Hollywood Book Festival 2013 New York Book Festival "Obviously drawn from the author's first-hand experiences as a Marine serving in Vietnam, Running with the Enemy is a rough but occasionally heartfelt war story. ... The book is sometimes too obviously drawn from his experience. But ultimately that's a small complaint about a book that, on the whole, is quite good and has a lot to say about the nature of the conflict ." - 21st Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards commentary from an anonymous judge"This book grabbed hold of me. It has left me knowing just how horrific conditions were for those who fought in Vietnam, and I applaud those who survived."-Lisa Binion, The News In Books
“I found Running with the Enemy captivating and well worth reading and enjoyed such a different type of historical novel from Mr. Lofthouse than his previous. Since Mr. Lofthouse is a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, I am sure he drew from some of his personal experiences and I shudder to think of some of these experiences.”- M. Denise C.
“Running With the Enemy is a gut-wrenching page-turner at once a historical rendering of the Vietnam-American war, a suspense-thriller involving the framing of an innocent man forced to go on the run, and a passionate love story. As an historical novel, it renders an intricate tapestry of the era, the geography, and the several cultures in confrontation at that time. As a suspense-thriller it grips on page one and keeps your heart racing page after page with hardly a paragraph of relief. As a war story, it depicts war as the bloody, hell that it is–a place in which the mettle of the honorable is tested and honed in the same landscape where sociopaths thrive and reach the heights of power and influence. As a love story, it portrays the way a bond between two hearts can transcend race, religion, politics, national identity and family loyalty, defying all convention, tradition, prejudice and law to claim their right to have each other. The characters are all deftly drawn and believable and if they exist beyond a page or two they will leave their mark on the reader who has come to care about them whether it is to love them, admire them, hate them or simply be amused by them. I can wholeheartedly recommend Running With the Enemy as a story that rewards the time and effort invested. Its impact will linger long after the last page is turned.”-Joystory
Praise for 'My Splendid Concubine':
Finalist in Fiction & Literature: Historical Fiction: The National "Best Books 2010" Awards, December 2010 Honorable Mentions in General Fiction: 2012 San Francisco Book Festival 2012 New York Book Festival 2012 London Book Festival 2013 DIY Book Festival “My Splendid Concubine is packed cover to cover with intriguing characters and plot, a must read for historical fiction fans and a fine addition to any collection on the genre.” Midwest Book Review“Lloyd Lofthouse believes Hart was motivated to destroy his papers not out of shame but out of privacy: ‘What he had with Ayaou was something special he wanted to keep to himself. I don’t think he would approve of My Splendid Concubine … but we live in a different age than Victorian England. I feel that this love story deserves to be told.’ ”- Anneli Rufus , East Bay Express
“Historical fiction potboiler, yes. But where the `Concubine’ saga truly shines is its thought-provoking passages on relationships, attitudes and cultural differences.”-Tom Carter, author of China: Portrait of a People
“Told in descriptive detail and such beauty of the Chinese culture that I did not want it the story to end. A very well written and impeccably researched story that I highly recommend to the historical fiction fan. A lot of history but not written like a history book. This book does have a lot of sexual content in it but told in a very tasteful way. I really enjoyed this book.”- Kathleen Kelly, Celtic Lady
About Lloyd Lofthouse:
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My Review:
Poor Don has to change his ways and can only be with one woman. That is what I thought when I read the info for this book. However it is so much more. The murderer might get away with it if Don takes the fall, There is the nightclub, and of course there is an undercover agent. The book was definitely unique, especially with people hiding in dishwashers and the author's take on certain adult establishments (floating for example). I like the author's style of writing, he has a certain way of making his characters very quirky. I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own.
Interview:
1. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
It was 1968, a few months after leaving the U.S. Marines and starting college on the G.I. Bill. I started out majoring in architecture at a community college, but took one creative writing class as an elective. The creative writing professor mentioned that Ray Bradbury was going to speak at the college, and he urged us to go. Bradbury is the author of “Fahrenheit 451”, “The Martian Chronicles”, “The Illustrated Man”, etc. He wrote 27 novels and more than 600 short stories. I came away from hearing Bradbury talk and decided I was going to wrote novels. That Bradbury lecture would also lead to a change of majors and I’d earn a BA in journalism and later an MFA in writing.
2. How long does it take you to write a book?
My Splendid Concubine took about 7 to 8 years and that one went through a lot of revisions.
It took about four years to write the rough draft for Running with the Enemy while I was attending a writing workshop out of UCLA in the 1980s, and a few months of revisions and editing in 2012 to complete the final draft.
Crazy is Normal, a classroom exposé took one year during the 1994-95 school year when I wrote what I think of as the rough draft—a daily journal detailing what was happening in the high school where I was teaching. That journal sat on a shelf for almost 20 years before I dusted it off, and then spent about a year in 2013 - 14 to revise and edit the final draft.
The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova was also started in that writing workshop out of UCLA in the 1980s, and then that rough draft gathered dust for decades before I dusted it off last November when I decided to revise the manuscript in one month during National Novel Writing Month by writing about 3.000 words a day. When I had the revised draft done, I went through it one more time and then shipped it off to my copy editor.
3. What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
Everyday. I’m up about 6:00 am to exercise for an hour and then I write until about 10 or 11 when I take a walk of about 3 miles. Back from the walk, that sometimes includes a film or lunch in town, I return to writing until dinner. After dinner, I write until after 8:00 pm and then stop to watch a DVD for an hour or so before bed where I read for about 30 minutes. A lot of my writing time, of course, is spent promoting my work by maintaining my author’s platform: for instance, answering my e-mails, spending time on Twitter, and writing posts for my Blogs.
4. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I have no idea. Maybe it’s the fact that I have stories in my head that don’t go away until I write them, and one of those stories has been hounding me to write it for decades. I’m getting close.
5. How do books get published?
There are two paths to publication for books. One is the traditional path where an author finds an agent and/or editor that enjoys their work enough to publish it through a traditional publisher—I’ve heard from agents that about 99.9% of the books they consider are rejected and about 99.9% of the books they represent are rejected by publishers.
The other path is the indie author path—the one I use. As an indie author, I have published the paperbacks of my work through Lightning Source and Create Space. For the e-books, I have used Amazon Kindle and Draft2Digital.
6. Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?
For My Splendid Concubine, it was collecting a library of research and making nine trips to China. For instance, glancing at the book shelves in my study, I counted about 40 books on China, and I know there are more stored under the house.
The other three books all come out of my life. Running with the Enemy is based on my years in the U.S. Marines and a tour of combat in Vietnam. Crazy is Normal is from being a teacher, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova is based on my experience as a maître d in a nightclub called the Red Onion—of course there were no murders in the real Red Onion where I worked. That’s the fictional part of the story.
7. When did you write your first book and how old were you?
I was 23 when I started writing my first novel in 1968-69 after hearing Ray Bradbury speak, and I haven’t published it yet. The book did find an agent to represent it, and an interested publisher who, after spending a year considering it, decided to pass. The final rejection said they only had a budget for one new unpublished author, and they finally decided on the other guy.
That manuscript is science fiction, and I plan to return to it one day too. Maybe it will be my next book.
8. What do you like to do when you're not writing?
I like to hike/walk, shop, go out to see movies, read, and watch DVDs. For instance, in the last month or two, I’ve watched the 4th season of The Game of Thrones, and I’m currently watching all four seasons of Covert Affairs. Before Game of Thrones, I watched all three seasons of Continuum, a SyFy series I find fascinating. When I’m out shopping, I listen to books in the car that were recorded on CDs. I also have a well-used woodshop with enough tools to build a house, a bookshelf, a table, a desk, etc.
9. What does your family think of your writing?
I’m not sure. My wife is also an author with eight published books that have been transplanted into more than thirty languages—in English alone, her work has sold more than a million copies. She writes upstairs. I write downstairs. When we do something together, she doesn’t enjoy talking about writing.
10. What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
The time it takes to write and publish a book properly. Then the fact that for every hour you spent working on the book before publishing it, you probably spend nine hours promoting it.
11. How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
I’ve probably written about a dozen or more book length manuscripts over the decades, but only published the four that are out now. I think the one that is my favorite is always the one I’m working on until that one is published, and I start working on the final draft of the next one.
12. Do you have any suggestions to help me become a better writer? If so, what are they?
This is the suggestion I’d give to every writer. Write, revise and revise some more and then edit. Then start writing again. I think the only way to get better at writing is to keep writing, and learn as many of the rules as possible so you know what you are breaking—and don’t be afraid to break any rules of writing if it feels right to you. If your copy editor doesn’t agree, then maybe a discussion is in order to find out why. Who knows, you might agree with the copy editor after they make their case.
13. Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?
Most of what I hear from readers appears is in the reviews on Amazon and in the thousands of comments on my four Blogs. For the most part, I think they enjoy what they read, but you can’t please everyone and that is okay. For instance, there are currently 158 reviews on Amazon.com for my first three titles, and 16 of them clearly didn’t enjoy what they read.
14. Do you like to create books for adults?
Yes, I enjoy writing books for adults, but back in the 1970s when I was earning my BA in journalism, I wrote a children’s story called The Wind is My Friend and came close to a book deal for that one.
15. What do you think makes a good story?
This is a tough question, because there are so many elements to a story: for instance, characterization, setting, plot, theme, conflict. I think the most important part of a story is how the characters deal with the conflicts they face, because that reveals who they are. An author’s style is also important.
16. As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
The usual immature childish dreams. I wanted to be rich and famous. Then after high school, I joined the U.S. Marines and ended up in Vietnam and those childish dreams vanished. After that, I wanted to stay in one piece and be healthy.
17. What would you like my readers to know?
I am a romantic at heart. My novels are about the challenges of finding and holding on to love in difficult situations.
Thanks for taking part in the tour and hosting Lloyd. I'm so glad you enjoyed 'The Redemption of Don Juan Cassqanova'.
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