Philip Booker - A Well-Organized Mystery With Plenty of Surprises

Philip Booker lives in southern Idaho with his wife Katey, his step-daughter CaraLee, two cats, a dog, and a ton of fish. Philip has been writing stories since third grade when he decided he wanted to be an author. While he has written many short stories, Smoke in the Wind was his first completed novel. As our Author of the Day, Booker tells us all about this book.

Please give us a short introduction to what Smoke in the Wind is about.

When a seventeen-year-old girl goes missing in the seedy, back-woods town of Lyman, Idaho, an ex-private investigator named Samuel Harper and a drug dealer named Jesse Jensen team up to find her. Though these unlikely partners have very different motivations, they may be the only ones who can succeed where the police have failed. But discovering the truth comes at a cost and soon both men are forced to risk everything to attain it.

What inspired you to write about a seventeen-year-old girl who goes missing?

Growing up, a 14-year-old girl from a nearby county went missing from her house. Her body was later found in the river. The resulting police investigation never yielded any results. Her mother fought hard for over two decades to get the FBI involved. When they finally did, the perpetrator was caught within a few months. The incompetence of our local law enforcement as well as the town's ability to just shrug off the murder was deeply disturbing. Having heard many similar stories over the years painted a grim picture of my community I felt was worth exploring through fiction.

Why did you pick Lyman, Idaho, as the backdrop for your story?

Lyman, Idaho is a fictional town based loosely on the one I grew up in. The desolate vistas and landmarks described in the book are similar to those that surrounded my childhood. But I wanted to go beyond just descriptions. Many individuals I have interviewed since leaving the town have described it as a "bad place to live" though most can't put a finger on why.

At first glance, the town appears to be an innocent farming community, but beneath the surface is an undercurrent of crime and drug abuse that is just as much a part of its identity. My goal for the setting was to explore that dichotomy.

Smoke in the Wind features an odd team - an ex-private investigator and a drug dealer - why did you take this approach?

I certainly didn't set out with this approach in mind. My strategy for writing is to ask myself what a character wants. How they get what they want is where the drama and story come in. Jesse doesn't want to be a drug dealer. He wants to go to Harvard. But despite his best efforts, he knows good grades will only get him so far. As a result, he turns to a life of crime, simultaneously putting himself closer and further from his goal. This double life also puts Jesse in the same social circles as Macayla Guffin, whom he starts to date. When she goes missing, he has strong motivations to find her. Sam, on the other hand, just wants to run his bourbon distillery in Seattle. Unfortunately, he has an old debt to repay before he can do so in peace. Finding Macayla is the only way he can repay that debt. And so these two character's paths crossed organically through the writing process.

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

I love cooking with my wife. We have made some incredible dishes over the years and enjoy hosting dinner parties and wine tastings. Occasionaly I flirt with the idea of combining the two passions and writing a book about a master chef...maybe one day!

What are some of the major themes in your novel?

There are two themes I really wanted to focus on in Smoke in the Wind. First was the modern breakdown of the family unit. There are several families living in Lyman that the reader becomes familiar with. Each is falling apart for separate reasons, and the book concerns itself with how these families handle that dereliction. The second theme I explore is doing the right thing whether it's in your best interest or not. Several characters are faced with moral quandaries throughout the novel. Sometimes they do the right thing, sometimes they don't. In both cases they face consequences for their actions.

This is your debut work - what has the experience been like, so far?

Self publishing is a lot of work! I had always thought finishing the book would be the biggest hill to climb, but I was in for a big surprise. I had to coordinate editing, formatting, art, and promotions. All that being said, I've loved every minute of it and I'm itching to do it all over again with my next novel. Most rewarding of all though, is to have complete strangers read my book and tell me they enjoyed it.

Readers say Smoke in the Wind was gripping from start to finish - how did you pull this off?

My editor, Madeline Dyer, was crucial in making the book an enjoyable read. The initial draft I sent her read more like a historical epic (the type of book I was used to reading and had attempted to write several times). Fortunately, Madeline had studied thrillers at length for her Bachelor's degree. Although it was painful, she helped me cut out over 20,000 words and re-arrange the chapters into a shorter, tighter narrative. She also helped me to dive deeper inside my characters' heads so I, and therefore the reader, could understand where they were coming from. It has been very gratifying to hear all our hard work paid off!

What did you have the most fun with when writing this book?

Since the book takes place in a town very similar to the one I grew up in, making action scenes around familiar landmarks was an absolute blast. Blowing up grain elevators and chasing cars down old canals was obviously not a common occurrence in my home town; so using it as a literary playground for my imagination was a good bit of devilish fun.

Tell us more about the cover and how it came about

I hired my childhood friend, Logan Avery, to illustrate the cover of Smoke in the Wind. We both grew up in the town the novel is based on and I knew he would understand the feeling I wanted to evoke when you picked up the book. The snake represents the town of Lyman, and two figures represent its denizens, caught helplessly in its restricting hold.

Have you always known you wanted to be an author? What prompted you to publish your first book?

I've wanted to be an author since 3rd grade when my teacher, Mrs. Webb, had us write a story for an assignment. I hadn't written a story before and I found both the process and the reaction from my teacher after reading it extremely gratifying. I decided then I wanted to make a career out of the craft. Of course, I didn't realize at the time how much work went into writing a full-length book and it took me many years to finally complete one.

Do you have any interesting writing habits? What is an average writing day like for you?

As cliché as it may sound, I really enjoy writing in coffee shops. One in particular, Twin Beans Coffee Company in Twin Falls, Idaho is like a little slice of somewhere else. You can get a coffee early in the morning and have a glass of beer or wine in the evening. I find the background din of conversation and espresso machines helps me focus better than a quiet room. Coffee shops close early though, especially during this pandemic so more often than not, I write in my office at home.

Fortunately, I have a little writing companion at home named Odyssey. She often climbs in my lap and falls asleep while I patter away at the keyboard.

What are you working on right now?

While I did write Smoke in the Wind to be a standalone experience, I do hope to someday return for a sequel. However, currently, I am writing a historical epic with the working title "A Farm to Call His Own." It's about England in the 410s after the Roman occupation.

Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?

I'm active on Twitter @thephilipbooker and have a website where people can see what I'm working on and contact me with questions @ www.philipbooker.com