by Brian Lamar, Assignment Editor
It was the late 80s a group of tight-knit high school friends were busy chasing girls, hanging out at moonlit parties until they found themselves in the middle of a high-stakes mystery that involved drugs, murder and sex.
Luckily the friends involved in this plot were all fictitious creations from the brilliant mind of Author Micheal Hewes who published this mystery crime thriller, Milkwagon, last year.
Hewes, who had previously published another mystery titled Watermark, chose to not wait for traditional publishing agencies to eventually print his novel in 2022.
“I told my wife, this is ready to go. I sent it to a designer and we got the cover art back and it looked better than expected and we went with it. It was a timing thing. People were sitting at home with nothing to do due to the pandemic, so I decided it was time,” said Hewes.
Milkwagon, which has sold nearly 10,000 copies, is now available in print, e-book and audiobook formats. This John Hughes meets John Grisham style novel reached a rank of #7 on Amazon.com’s “Coming of Age” novels. The characters in his book were based on high school buddies that he hung out with until graduation from St. John’s in 1987.
Hewes draws inspiration from books like Stephen
King’s “On Writing” and expertise in his storytelling by drawing from his time as a JAG lawyer in the military. His legal experience helps him identify the ins and outs of how detectives would react in investigations and draws from experience of what he has seen criminals resort to in the past. According to Hewes, his background helps him plot the logical progressions in the story.
When Hewes jumps headfirst into writing mode, he dedicates a large part of his daily routine to get the words onto paper.
“When I really get rolling, I write three days a week. I get into an old converted vault at my office. And write for two or three hours a night,” said Hewes.
Hewes admits to starting writing projects with just an idea. “I write a couple of chapters cold and then I sit and map everything out,” he said.
Hewes has an old dry erase board that he uses to map out his vision for a project. During Milkwagon, he had short descriptions of 80 chapters scribbled down to keep his mind organized.
Since his novel published last January, he has been happy with the reviews. He has received reviews all over the world. Hewes credits his success to his upbringing.
“I have to give so much credit to my parents. I thank them. One of the greatest gifts from my parents was that they made us read all the time. I always had a book in my hand growing up,” he said.
