LAWRENCE
PARROTT
Michigan native
and retired Marine Lawrence Parrott
earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and his
master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma. He currently works
for the federal government. A former journalism major, Redemption
Point is his first novel.
Book
Description: After moving to a small town, a young man falls for a
girl with an abusive ex-boyfriend while trying to solve a friend’s
murder in this compelling mystery. When Zack Taylor gets laid off
from his auto factory job in Detroit, he realizes his life is
meaningless. He blames himself for his mother’s suicide following
the death of his alcoholic father, and perpetuates the cycle by
drinking whenever he has a problem. Yearning for a new job and a new
life, Zack withdraws his savings and heads south. Then he meets Kate
Jenkins.
Kate is a waitress at the local diner in Michaeltown, Kentucky.
Having just broken up with her abusive boyfriend, Tommy, Kate is
desperate to escape her despicable small-town life. For Zack it’s
love at first sight, so he settles in the small town and takes a job
at the local factory. When Zack’s mentally handicapped friend and
coworker Max is attacked, he is almost positive that Tommy and his
gang of thugs are the culprits. But even after Max dies, the local
sheriff refuses to pursue the case. Zack follows his suspicions in
search of Max’s murderer, a decision that could cost him his life.
Zack and Kate set a trap for Tommy, but when their plan goes awry,
they are forced to grapple with a murderer who would rather die than
go to jail. It turns out that redemption may be much harder to find
than Zack thought…
“A big-city boy finds love and redemption in a small
town…his rendering of the cruelties of life in a poor small
town is honest and heartfelt, and centered upon sympathetic
and well-developed main characters, whose stories continue
in the author’s next novel. Undistinguished, but pleasant
and enjoyable enough.” —Kirkus Discoveries
PageOneLit.com:
Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your
life? Who were your earliest influences and why?
LAWRENCE PARROTT: I grew up in Flint, Michigan in a middle class
family with 7 children of which I was second to the youngest. Flint was
medium sized city north of Detroit that mostly revolved around the auto
industry. As a kid in the 60s I got most of my fictional stories from
the television. The family sat around in the evenings watching half hour
situation comedies or cop shows. I really got into reading novels when I
joined the Marines out of high school. One of my early influences was
Stephen King and I read pretty much everything he wrote for several
decades. I loved horror and being scared as I read a novel or watched a
movie. I branched out to thrillers and espionage novels on those long
deployments overseas. While attending the University of Maryland I was a
journalism major for a while. I couldn’t really get excited about
writing nonfiction, although I did published a couple articles, so I
began writing a novel.
PageOneLit.com:Why do you write?
LAWRENCE PARROTT:I
write for a lot of reasons. It’s challenging. I’ve always been one who
likes a challenge and finishes what he starts. I guess it’s a Marine
thing. Writing a novel is tough. It means endless days and nights of
collecting little pieces and putting them together to form this giant
thing that all has to make sense in the end. Most people probably never
finish a novel because it takes so much dedication for such a long time
that they lose interest or get overwhelmed. Then you’re always wondering
if it will be worth reading when it’s done. But when you finish it, you
feel a real sense of accomplishment. I also write because I love fiction
and its possibilities. When you write you can create this world that
didn’t exist before you put it on the computer screen. And if you don’t
like something about this world, you have the power to change it. Then I
read later and think, wow, I did that.
PageOneLit.com: Where did your plot inspiration come from in your
new novel "REDEMPTION POINT"?
LAWRENCE PARROTT:
I wrote
the original draft of Redemption Point back in the 80s which happens to
be when the novel is set. I don’t remember exactly when I came up with
the idea, but I normally think of a scene with a character and I build
on that. Usually I think about it for weeks while it grows in my head
before I ever write it down. The only flaw with this system is that
sometimes you forget good ideas before recording them. After my first
four year tour in the Marines, I got out and went home to Michigan. I
worked in the Detroit area for a couple of years and got laid off, much
like Zack in my novel. I actually decided to rejoin the Marines and went
on to retire 16 years later, but maybe that was the “what if” that
sparked my story of a laid off auto worker who wants to start a new
life.
PageOneLit.com: Discuss your background and how it helped write
"REDEMPTION POINT"
LAWRENCE
PARROTT:
As mentioned previously I lived in the Detroit area and got laid off
myself so that had some influence on this novel, but the real focus of
this story is life in a small town. I grew up in the suburbs of Flint,
Michigan but I knew people from small towns in surrounding area and took
vacations to small towns in northern Michigan. Novels I read and movies
I saw filled in much of my other small town experience. They say to
write what you know, but what you know comes from everywhere. It’s not
just your personal experiences but the experiences of friends, family,
characters on TV, in movies, and in other novels. Your experience comes
from all around you and you can build on that. Then as you write you
realize you need to know how a cop investigates a crime scene. So you
add research to your experience to round out the story. Or, depending on
the situation, you just make it up.
PageOneLit.com: In "REDEMPTION POINT" - Zack Taylor is one of
your main characters - Tell us a little about him.
LAWRENCE PARROTT:
Zack has
a good heart. He really wants to do the right thing and defend the weak,
but he’s not perfect. He drinks too much, is promiscuous, has commitment
issues, and doesn’t always make the best choices. When he meets Kate and
falls in love, he grows up a little but continues to struggle with some
of his vises. One event that haunts his past is his mother’s suicide. He
feels responsible and wishes he’d stayed to deal with her break down
instead of running away because he didn’t know how to deal with her
problems, which eventually lead to her death. His nightmares won’t let
him forget yet another bad choice he made. This fuels his commitment to
bring his friend Max’s murders to justice no matter what it takes. It
may be too late to save Max, but at least he can make his killers pay.
PageOneLit.com: In one sentence (10 words or less) what is the
message of "REDEMPTION POINT"?
LAWRENCE PARROTT:
His
arrival in town leads to love, murder and redemption.
PageOneLit.com: "REDEMPTION POINT" would make a good movie - If
Hollywood called who would you cast as the actors?
LAWRENCE PARROTT: If it was made into a movie today Ben Affleck
would play Zack, Brad Pitt would play the ex-boyfriend, Tommy, and Kate
Hudson would play her namesake, the beautiful, blond Kate.
PageOneLit.com: What's next?
LAWRENCE PARROTT:
I’ve
completed about a dozen chapters of the sequel to Redemption Point,
which has a working title of Beyond Redemption. A couple of the main
characters continue their lives in Micheltown, now a growing community
in the 1990s. This book starts out with two murders, with more to come,
but you’ll never guess who the culprit is this time. After this second
novel I’m going to try something different. I’ve always been a fan of
horror …
PageOneLit.com: What was the last book you read?
LAWRENCE PARROTT: City of the Dead by Brian Keene.
PageOneLit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do
they enhance your writing?
LAWRENCE PARROTT:
Because
of my military career, I’ve traveled extensively around the U.S. and
overseas. I currently work for the federal government and live in
Manila, Philippines. I’ve had a lot of experiences, met a lot of people,
and been to places most people will never go. I can draw from those
experiences. Then I end up writing about a fictitious small town in
Kentucky. Go figure.
