T's Stuff: The Runaway by Peter J. Thompson

Author: Peter J. Thompson

Narrator: Gary Tiedemann

Length: 10 hours 51 minutes

Publisher: Peter J. Thompson

Released: Jan. 30, 2019

Genre: Suspense

A corrupt corporation. Ruthless assassins. Will the family that runs together... die together?

Fifteen-year-old Zach Monaghan has a target on his back. In the witness protection program for his father's whistleblowing, he's now run away, back to his old home in Chicago.Zach wants to get back to his friends and to Lindsey, the girl he'd met right before being whisked off in the middle of the night. But escaping his fake identity won't last long if two contract killers catch up to him...

Big Joe Gorski has climbed the ladder from street thug to tycoon. Now he's got it all--riches--status--police, and politicians in his pocket. But life at the top is suddenly unsteady and one slip can bring it all down. With a scheming partner, politicians who won't stay bought and Feds breathing down his neck,Gorski has to move carefully. But being careful goes against his nature. He's a raging bull and he'll do whatever it takes to keep what he has ... let the bodies fall where they will.

As the ruthless killer draws closer to Zach, surviving the greedy corporate plot may force the whole family to get their hands bloody...

The Runaway is a fast-paced thriller with dizzying twists and turns. If you like non-stop action, high-stakes tension, and large casts of compelling characters, then you'll love Peter Thompson's gripping novel.

Peter Thompson grew up on the east side of Chicago, in the shadow of the steel mills where the air was sooty and smelled of sulfur. His life wasn’t always so gritty, but the grit and realism finds its way into his thrillers. He has always loved stories of every kind, and one of his joys is finding a way to get inside character’s heads, seeing the world as they see it and feeling their triumphs, pain, and fear. He visualizes his characters when he writes, and they are larger than life in the big screen of his imagination.

Before pursuing his passion and becoming a full-time author, he tried his hand at everything from factory work, breaking cement in a construction crew, running his own pizza shop, and he was a well-regarded presence in the mortgage industry for nearly thirty years. When he isn’t writing, Peter loves, spicy food, live music, and exciting and thought-provoking books and movies. He is a fitness buff who loves to spend time with his grown sons and is looking forward to traveling the world and seeking adventures with his lovely partner.

To get in touch, find out more about future projects, please stop by www.authorpeterthompson.com. Sign up for his reading list to find out about new releases and receive free perks.

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Gary Tiedemann is a full-time voice-actor and narrator of audiobooks, with over 60 unabridged titles narrated and counting. He has voiced countless commercials and multimedia productions in addition to spending over 10 years on stage performing improv, sketch comedy and original works of theatre. Gary is a graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans. He currently splits his time between Florida and Chicago. See more at www.garytiedemann.com

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Top 10 Reasons you should listen to The Runaway Audiobook

10- It’s an action packed thrill ride that starts out fast and keeps on running.

9- This is a big story with a wide cast of characters, and narrator Gary Tiedemann gets to show his whole range of voices, from a 15 year old Catholic school girl to a Russian mobster with anger issues.

8- It’s a big book and it will keep you happily listening for a long, long time.

7- Because you’ll want to slap Zach for causing his family such a hard time when he runs away from his fake life in the witness protection program, and then you will want to give him a big hug and tell him it will all be okay.

6- The characters are written as real, living, breathing people, and you can get inside their heads and climb around for a while.

5- I had a lot of fun writing the villains for this story, and I think you will have just as much fun listening to them.

4- If you are a parent, this is one of your worst fears come to life, and you can experience it while knowing it’s not happening to you.

3- Employing corporate assassins is a view of how to succeed in business that you won’t see on CNBC, or the business pages of your newspaper.

2-With the story’s dizzying twists and turns, you won’t be able to guess what will happen next.

And the number 1 reason to listen to The Runaway on Audiobook is …

1- Why wait for the movie?

Q&A with Author Peter Thompson

What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”?
- No, I don’t think it’s cheating at all. I’m guessing that the people who think of this as cheating haven’t really listened to an audiobook. The experience in your head is the same whether you are reading or listening. It’s almost like a form of hypnosis, you are drawn in to the story and are experiencing it as if you were the characters themselves. Listening allows me to read more. I can be doing something else and still have the great experience of reading. I read both ways and enjoy them equally.
How did you celebrate after finishing this novel?
- Living Proof was my first novel and it was a big accomplishment to finish it, but there were a bunch of other things going on in my life at the time and I really put this on the backburner for a time. It was more of a sense of accomplishment than joy. I did put together some copies to send off to my family and some friends and it was great getting the comments back and how much everyone loved it. Once I saw the book in book stores, that was another milestone, and I took my family out for a nice dinner to celebrate.When I finished The Runaway, it was a big relief. This novel has a couple of storylines going on at the same time, and a lot of moving parts. I started out strong, and got a little lost along the way. I loved my characters but couldn’t figure out how to bring them together in a way that would be a satisfying ending. I was too close to the story and overthinking it. One of my author friends looked over the manuscript and made a couple of suggestions that changes my whole view of the story. I went back and rewrote it, but I knew where I was going and everything came together fast, and It all felt right. When I finished, I kept looking at the page, joyful that it was over, and satisfied with how I got there. I called some people to let them know I’d finished it and had a celebratory drink to mark the occasion.
  
  Hit Me was an idea that I kicked around for a long time before writing it. I loved the idea of a hit man who gets a contract against himself, but I wasn’t sure how to approach it or what the real story would be. When I finally started writing, the story came together fast. I told it strictly from the character’s point of view and made it a family story. It was a lot of fun to write and I wrote this faster than anything else I have ever finished. I was going on a trip to Europe with my girlfriend Toni and finished the novel right before we left. The trip itself was a celebration. The story was out and I didn’t feel pressured to figure out what would happen next. We could relax and just enjoy the vacation.
What gets you out of a writing slump? What about a reading slump?
- I’ve had some monumental writing slumps in the past, and it took me a while to figure this out, but the best way to get through a slump is to keep on writing. I’m pretty disciplined. I try and write every day. Some days the words and ideas flow. Other days I am slogging through molasses, and feel like I have no ideas and nothing to say. If I keep at it though, something always comes through. I write in sprints. I put a timer on, play some mood music, and I commit myself to write something for a half hour at a time. Sometimes I finish up and know its just garbage, but over time I always find a gem that I can build something around. The subconscious mind is always working. If I continue to write, even when it’s not flowing, this gives an outlet and something always comes through. Eventually.With a reading slump, the best course is to try something different. I am writing mostly thrillers now, but I read just about everything. Trying a new author, or a new category, is a great way to get excited again.
In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of writing a stand-alone novel vs. writing a series?
- I have mostly written stand-alone novels up to now. I’m not sure why. I think I saw my character in the situation that the novel called for, and while writing it I fully immerse myself in the characters. But when the story is over I think they’ve gone through a tough time, they deserve a break for a while. Then I have another idea with another cast of characters and I’m off and running. But I have thought a lot about writing a series, and I think it would be easier with a familiar hero that I could come back to again and again, and. I know I enjoy a lot of great series like Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series or Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp books. The book I am writing now has a character from Living Proof as the lead, and I think I can build a series around this. Too early to tell for sure, but I’m hoping to have a series going soon.
Have any of your characters ever appeared in your dreams?
- Yes, when I am in the middle of a novel, the characters are a big part of me and they are never far away. It’s common to go to bed feeling stuck for how someone will get out of a tight situation, and then have the answer come to me when I wake up in the morning. I have also dreamed about myself, as the character. It happened more than once with Ramon Willis, the lead in Living Proof.
What bits of advice would you give to aspiring authors?
- First, keep writing. Writing is solitary work. You sit by yourself, banging out words on paper, and you usually don’t get any feedback. It’s easy to question yourself and wonder if what you wrote will connect with the reader. You are in a vacuum and have to have faith in your ideas and the power of your story. If you only write once in a while, or when inspiration strikes, you are not likely to keep going when it gets hard. Make writing a habit, every day if possible, and your confidence will grow over time. Second, get feedback and have others read what you’ve written. I joined a writers group soon after I started writing seriously, and it was my real education in writing. By reading my work and getting comments and suggestions from other writers, I learned so much about what worked, and what didn’t. I learned as much from reading other people’s work and giving them my feedback, and hearing others suggestions. This can be scary, putting your new story out, but if you get a good supportive group, it is the best way to learn the craft of writing.