Vincent Hemingway interviews L.W.Wedgwood.
Updated: Sep 16, 2022
I’m proud to present this interview with one of the most progressive young thriller-adventure authors I have met. Without further ado, let me introduce L.W.Wedgwood.
Good morning Mr Wedgwood!
Good morning to you Vincent. And I thank you in advance for this interview.
The pleasure is mine. I have followed your work from the beginning.
The beginning? Which beginning?
From your first novel, Redemption Kills, of course.
Aha, that beginning.
There were others?
Yes, but that would probably be better covered in another interview. We can start with Redemption Kills this time if you like.
Hmm, okay, but note taken. I will hold you to that. You must tell me about the earlier beginnings one day.
Okay.
Tell me about Redemption Kills? When did you begin writing that book?
When did I begin writing it? Wow, let me think. That’s going back some way. …1999, I think.
Wow! That is going back. When did you publish?
Redemption Kills was published in July 2012.
It took you thirteen years to finish?
Yes. It was a complex book to complete.
How so?
It has a plethora of characters stationed all over the world who make up a multilateral plot, which twists into an epic adventure.
Hmm, tell me more? What is the book about?
To put it simply, it's a story of redemption for the protagonist’s past sin.
The protagonist? You mean Dane Larusio?
Yes.
What was this ultimate sin that spurred this course of redemption?
When he was a teenager, during a job, while working for a local thug, Dane inadvertently kills his uncle and cripples his father.
Oh… that’s a bad one.
It’s bad enough to haunt him throughout his life, and make him do things he may never otherwise have done.
What sort of things?
Well, for one, he begins tracking down and assassinating everyone connected to the mob who had hired him as a youth.
Everyone but one, right?
Everyone but Krait, of course.
Who is Krait?
I can’t tell you who Krait is. That would spoil the story. But I can tell you that Krait is the head of a global crime syndicate known as the IUS.
So Dane is a kind of man who tends to punch a little above his weight class?
Not by choice. As you read through all three books, you will see that he never really had a choice. He was dealt the cards he was dealt, and he played them. But somehow, no matter how he played those cards, he found himself deeper and deeper in a world he wholeheartedly despised.
What do you mean exactly?
I mean, Dane is the good guy. He doesn’t always appear to be the good guy, but he despises the evil in men. He despises it enough to take action.
And there’s plenty of action in your writing. The pace in your books is staggering. How do you maintain that pace?
I have one simple rule. I never get bogged down in one particular part of a story or location. I never write myself into a corner.
Can you explain that a bit more?
Of course... I maintain the overlaying narrative, while keeping the stage moving. I’ve always found stories that stay in the same place for too long will soon make me bored.
Place? You mean scene location?
I mean place; scene location or otherwise. By otherwise, I mean that some stories put me to sleep by getting bogged down in one particular detail, which seemingly cannot be escaped. I never do this.
Well... I for one can vouch that I’ve never had a sense of boredom while reading of one of your books.
Thank you!
So what’s next? What are you working on now?
Right now, I’m in that gestating state between books. It’s time to shift into a different gear.
Hmm... Any hints as to what that different gear may be?
No, I never talk about my work at any stage before it's published.
So you’re working on an idea? We have to be satisfied with that for now?
Yes! But the work will not be too far away.
That’s right. You seem to be cutting down your time between publishing new books these days.
I’m getting faster, yes. It took me about thirteen years to finish and publish Redemption Kills. The second book in the series, The Babylon Coordinates, took about two years to finish, but it was a while before I published that book after finishing it. Brazil Trigger Warning, my stand-alone novel, was published by Solstice Publishing precisely two years after I began writing it. December reigns was published eighteen months after I began writing it, as was my last novel, The Life Left.
Looks like we have a lot to look forward to.
There will be some big surprises, that I can promise.
Well, thanks again for coming in today, Mr. Wedgwood.
And thank you again, Vincent.
Well, that’s all today from L.W.Wedgwood. Now I very much feel like going back and re-reading his work to get a feel for the twists and turns built into the staggering pace of his stories. I’ll be sure to get him back again soon to chat about some of his other books.
In the meantime, thanks for visiting this interview.
Vincent Hemingway. Author, journalist.
See some of L.W.Wedgwood's work here:
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