Richard R. Becker - A Dark and Skillful Teenage Crime Novel With Plenty of Heart

Richard R. Becker is an award-winning, best-selling American author. His debut collection of literary fiction and psychological thrillers began as a project to write one story a week for 50 weeks. It broke into the top 100 literary short story collections on Amazon for three consecutive months. It also won first place in the ABR Book Excellence Awards, Spring 2022 BookFest Awards, 2023 Book Excellence Awards, and was a finalist in the IAN Book of the Year Awards. His debut novel Third Wheel was released in August 2023 to positive reviews. It was named a finalist in the Global Book Awards. As our Author of the Day, he tells us about his book, Third Wheel.

Please give us a short introduction to what Third Wheel is about.

Sure! Third Wheel is a coming-of-age thriller set in 1982 Las Vegas. A young teen from Cleveland, Brady Wilks, struggles to find his place in a debut novel about belonging, betrayal, and breaking away from the paths before him.

While navigating a challenging home life in a blended family, Brady takes comfort in forging a friendship with an older teen neighbor and his friends. When a teenage drug dealer joins the group, Brady is forced to make choices that could cost him his life and the lives of those he cares about.

The story is very gritty at times as Brady brushes up against a Mexican drug cartel and the Mob, but this aspect of the book is balanced with young love and teenage lives before cell phones and social networks.

What inspired you to write this story? Was there anything in particular that made you want to tackle this?

Third Wheel chose me more than I picked it. The novel evolved from a short story I had written for a project called 50 Threads, which was meant to follow my short story collection debut, 50 States. Once I wrote the short story Third Wheel, 50 Threads became Ten Threads (ten short stories) as a Kindle exclusive, and I immediately went to work on the novel instead.

Perhaps it was because I had given Brady so much of my childhood as a framework, but I knew his story had to be told. Third Wheel is fiction, and Brady and I are very different people, but our shared life experiences connected me to him in a way that surprised me.

Tell us more about Brady Wilks. What makes him tick?

In some ways, Brady is a typical teenager. He enjoys music, art, fantasy games, and hanging out with friends. He also has some extraordinary challenges in that his father died when he was young, he was raised by grandparents while his grandmother was losing a battle with cancer, and was made to feel like an intruder into his mother’s new family.

Moving from Cleveland to Las Vegas seemed like a chance to start fresh, but it didn’t work out. His mother became more adversarial, his friendship options narrowed, and these friends got swept up into the more dangerous elements that punctuated Las Vegas in the 1980s.

Why did you pick 1982 Las Vegas as the backdrop for your story?

In the story, Brady would be a couple of years older than I was growing up in Las Vegas. So, I chose the 1980s because I know what it was like growing up in Las Vegas then. But I superficially chose the summer of 1982 because it was a few months before organized crime associate Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal’s car blew up in Las Vegas — an incident made famous in the movie Casino.

While Brady and his friends only find themselves on the fringe of the power struggle at the time, it’s indirectly relevant to the story. The Mob was in the news almost every night. Many of us went to school with kids who belonged to Mob families. It was something we all knew but didn’t talk about.

What was your greatest challenge when writing Third Wheel?

Logistically, the most significant challenge was time famine. In addition to our usual busy lives as an active family, we had to endure several hardships: finishing work on my paternal grandmother’s depilated estate, losing a family friend, and then losing my stepfather.

Emotionally, the greatest challenge was revisiting some of the hardships I faced as a teenager. While the relationship between my mother and I is more complicated than the one Brady has with his mother, the micro-aggressions and abuses are based on truth.

Have you always wanted to be an author? Tell us a bit more about your writing journey.

I only imagined myself being an author much later in life. My grandmother held me back in the third grade because I couldn’t read, so I sometimes call myself an accidental author now when I speak at events.

What I was very good at was telling stories. When I was younger, I wanted to tell stories through art and often did — even filling my elementary school spelling book with pictures instead of words. I didn’t truly embrace writing until I joined the journalism program at the University of Nevada, Reno. I intended to use my degree to become a graphic artist, and they taught me how to become a journalist and copywriter instead.

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

My skills and interests are very much like my writing: eclectic. I’ve talked about my cooking skills, illustrations, and love for travel. But lately, much of my time is dedicated to coaching a high school softball team.

My daughter’s high school team needed another coach a couple of years ago and asked me to step up. I developed a program that took them to the state championship playoffs twice, even though most girls had never played softball.

What do you hope readers take away from this book? Does it contain an underlying message?

Many reviewers have said that Third Wheel is perfect for those looking for entertainment or enlightenment. As an author, I always hope to entertain readers first and foremost. What else they might take from a book is often very personal. For Brady Wilks, he needs to learn that it is never too late to change your life — but whether he realizes this in time or not is what makes the book a wilder ride.

In which way is Third Wheel a coming-of-age story?

Most coming-of-age stories are about transformation, and Brady Wilks is a transformative character. What’s especially interesting about him is that some readers have told me they don’t like Brady on the front end. I can see that. Brady doesn’t like himself on the front end.

As readers learn more about Brady’s back story, they understand and sometimes sympathize with his actions — even the bad ones. And as Brady takes more and more control of his life, they begin to embrace him as an underdog they want to survive.

Interesting cover. Tell us more about it.

There is considerable pressure in the publishing industry to craft covers that copy other books in your genre. I suppose there is some truth to that, but I wanted to try something different, more artistic and meaningful.

The cover for Third Wheel has many meanings, layers, and representations. I’m happy to share some of the more obvious elements. The wheels are different, like people within any community or friend group. Some act as cogs that direct others on how to behave and operate. Some might recognize that one of the wheels on the cover is the cylinder or “crane” of a revolver. There are several pivotal moments in Third Wheel where that becomes important.

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on a psychological thriller set in Maine, and then I plan to write a more sinister story set in Utah. I also have a few short stories in need of some attention.

There is also good news for anybody who likes Brady, whether they pick up the book or listen to the newly released audiobook. There is certainly more to his story that I would like to tell.

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

I recently created a one-page Biosite that can help people connect and interact with me on any number of social networks. You can find it at: https://bio.site/richardrbecker

The Biosite includes links to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. It also includes links to my author page, blog, newsletter, and more. Of course, if you are mostly interested in news and reviews about Third Wheel, my publisher has a dedicated page for the book. http://www.copywriteink.com/third-wheel-by-richard-r.-becker.html I hope to see you!