Interview with mystery author Samuel Jay

Today’s special guest is mystery author Samuel Jay. We're chatting about his new suspense novel, Deception.

During his virtual book tour, Samuel Jay will be awarding a signed copy of Deception to a randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too.

Bio:

The author and his wife, Joan, live in Hunterdon County, NJ. As a public relations professional he and his firm successfully handled major public issue campaigns, including raising $68 million to build Liberty Science Center, now the nation’s fourth largest hands-on science museum. He is also president of a family-owned water utility. Deception is his third novel.

About Deception:

Lieutenant Jack Morro has just days to go before being sent home from the war in Vietnam. But after inadvertently learning of evidence of a conspiracy involving his captain, he is hit by the captain’s ‘friendly fire’ in the midst of battle. He is left for dead but is only wounded, captured by the Viet Cong, and imprisoned. When Jack is reported killed in action, his fiancé, Diane – a rising New York journalist – plunges into alcoholism. A media giant named Vidal helps her recover, and Diane falls in love with him. But Vidal has secrets – including a connection to Jack’s supposed ‘death.’

However, Jack is alive, and after a year of imprisonment, he manages to escape. But he comes home to find Diane married to Vidal and his life still in peril from the information he learned in Vietnam.

Vidal, Jack, and Diane find themselves wrapped in a web of romance, deceit, and danger – and none of them will escape unscathed.

What inspired you to write this book?

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My desire to create a hero out of torture in the Vietnam War although I was never in the military.

Excerpt from Deception:

Manhattan, November 1971

Standing in the men’s department at Macy’s, Diane Gannon smiled as she enthusiastically fingered her way through layers of folded sweaters to find one for her fiancé, Jack, who’d soon be coming home from the war in Vietnam. Alongside her was future mother-in-law, Grace Morro, also smiling as she held a shopping bag in both hands. Out in the center aisle, heel-clicking women shoppers marched along on their way to Ladies’, some of them peeling off near Diane and Grace into other rows and racks of men’s clothes. Brightening the scene, broad paths of sunlight flowed through the large windows on Seventh Avenue, revealing rows of appealing merchandise as saleswomen stood behind glass counters, chatting with customers or placing clothes in gift boxes.

Diane stood in low heels, wearing a brown suede jacket over a white sweater and black slacks, her dark, reddish hair pulled back in a ponytail, her sculptured face of fair skin and striking eyes heightened by a cleft in her chin. Holding up a light blue sweater by its shoulders, she looked over at Grace and said, “What do you think, Mom? Wouldn’t this look great on Jack?”

Wearing a gray overcoat open down the middle, Grace nodded. “Yes, it would. It really would, but I can’t stop feeling nervous about him. Him still over there. Won’t stop ’til he’s home. Two years of worrying. Sorry, hon.”

Diane lowered the sweater and arched her eyebrows at Grace. “Thirty-five more days and all our worries will be gone! He’ll be home just before Christmas!”

Grace nodded. “Meantime, he’s still over there, in the fighting.”

What’s the next writing project?

I have just started my next novel, and will complete it after I am through promoting this book.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I considered myself a writer based on a master's in journalism from Columbia University followed by success as a public relations pro, handling major public issues (raised$68 million to build Liberty Science Center -- now the nation's fourth largest hands-on science museum) after which I took over as president of a water utility my father owned when he passed on early in life.  I sold the PR business after which I had the time to write.  That's when I became an author.  I still handle the water utility.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers today?

--> I encourage others who have writing skill to find a comfortable genre and go to it!

Links:

Website | Facebook | Amazon (the book will be free during his virtual book tour).

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