Interview with T.E. Woods
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a clinical psychologist in private practice in Madison, Wisconsin. For so many years my writing had been of the dull, drab, scientific variety. I mean, how exciting could the reporting of cytokine reactivity to induced stressors be? A few years ago, after getting word another of my journal articles had been accepted, I began to wonder if all this technical writing had driven the creativity right out of me. So I hopped in the shower (that’s where I do my best thinking). By the time I was toweling off, I had a murder in mind. By the end of the day I had my detective, his entourage, my antihero, and my bad guys. I was thrilled to discover my creativity hadn’t been squelched. And, as is with most authors, the writing bug infected me with the need to test the boundaries of my ability to tell a beguiling story.
Tell us about your most recent book.
Fixed In Fear is the fifth installment in my Justice Series. It finds Mort Grant, Chief of Detectives for the Seattle Police Department, joining forces with a small town police chief to investigate a mass murder that took place in a Native American sweat lodge. He discovers a link between one of the victims and his dearest friend, Nobel laureate L. Jackson Clark. Mort’s search uncovers long-buried secrets that threaten to shatter their interpretation of reality. In the meantime, Mort’s daughter, a sociopathic leader of an international crime syndicate, has evil plans for the rest of Mort’s family, and The Fixer is the only one who can stop her.
What do you think are the heroic qualities your villain/antihero/supernatural creature possesses?
There are many villains in my series. One who appears across several installments is Allie Grant, Mort’s daughter. She’s a sociopath, born into a loving and supportive family, yet destined to break any expectation, rule, or law society puts in place. She lives in the moment. She takes what she wants. She has complete understanding that this is her one and only life and she’s going to live it exactly the way she desires. She doesn’t waste one second feeling guilty, no matter who or what she destroys.
As you can imagine, a woman like Allie encounters many who try to stop her. Her survival ability is heroic. Her determination to continue on, despite everything…and I mean everything that is designed to thwart her is a tribute to her indomitable spirit. It’s an evil, twisted, selfish, ruthless spirit…but it’s indomitable nonetheless.
What kind of antagonist is your favorite?
I like the unexpected. I like to write an antagonist who cuts against the grain of every stereotype I’ve seen before. My antagonists shock. They stun. They ratchet up the depravity so high that my friends are afraid to sit next to me in the dark. But at the same time, I want my readers to understand how my antagonist came to be the way they are. I love human frailty. Human vulnerabilities. I like my antagonists to show us we’re all just one slip away from doing the unthinkable. I like it when my readers detest my antagonists, yet cannot wait to read more about them.
Who is one of your favorite fictional villains (can be from a book, movie or television)?
There are so many terrific ones. It’s hard to pick. The one jumping immediately to mind is Boyd Crowder of the recently completed series Justified. Boyd has a lot of style. He’s charming in a very feral way. You can’t take your eyes off him. In a lot of ways anyone would love to spend an evening with him. He’s funny and accessible. He has a love of words and speaks in a way that calls Elizabethan bards to mind. He’s loyal to his friends and loves Ava with the heat of a thousand suns. But if you cross him, he’ll kill you before you get a breath to beg for a second chance. He’s like a beautiful tiger patrolling his jungle. Exquisitely lovely until he decides you’re standing between him and his goal. And when he pounces, there’s no doubt he’ll be the one walking away.
Title: Fixed in Fear
Author: T.E. Woods
Genre: Romantic Suspense / Thriller
The Fixer returns in the pulse-pounding Justice series—perfect for fans of Lisa Gardner, Karin Slaughter, and Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter thrillers—as worlds collide in an inferno of bloodshed, revenge, and holy terror.
I’ll probably never see my daughter again. And if I do, she’ll either be dead or in a jail cell.
Seattle Chief of Detectives Mort Grant cannot reconcile the memories of his vibrant, headstrong young daughter with the cold, deadly woman she has become. The head of one of the largest criminal enterprises in the world, Allie Grant seized power by wrenching it away from her lover, a notorious Russian gangster. How she maintains her control, Mort doesn’t even want to imagine.
Only two other people know the truth about Allie: the vigilante known as The Fixer, and Mort’s best friend, Larry, who’s undergoing a crisis of his own. Someone close to Larry, his last real connection to his beloved late wife, has been slain in a mass murder at a sweat lodge deep in the woods of Washington State. When word gets out, Mort immediately takes on the gruesome case.
But as Mort hunts down a pair of methodical killers, The Fixer does some deep digging of her own. And what she unearths will rock Mort’s family forever. Because The Fixer has set her sights on Allie Grant—and nothing will ever be the same again.
Author Bio
- E. Woods is as eager as her fans to return to the thrilling world of the Justice series. She’s busy writing the next installment and is developing a new series set in Madison, Wisconsin.
Links
Website: http://tewoodswrites.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tewoodswrites
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tewoodswrites?_rdr=p
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/T.E.-Woods/e/B008EWPF2Y
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6433111.T_E_Woods
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