What Would You Do If You Knew – For Certain – That You Had 10 Days To Live?
Some would get their legal affairs in order. Others would contact family, friends, lovers, ex-lovers. Some might take a trip or make an exceptional donation. Still others might clean the house and do the laundry. And some…might kill.
The year is the very near future. A brilliant young doctor and mathematician, Vijay Patel, has invented a new health/sport watch that monitors blood chemistry so accurately, it can actually predict when someone will die – within 10, 20, or 30 days. The intention of this “Final Notice,” as it is called, is to allow people to get their affairs in order and reach out to loved ones before it’s too late. But when those notified have easy access to a gun, the result is sometimes lethal for more than just the watch-owner.
These are the stories of several people who receive their Final Notice and their very different reactions…including a desire to get revenge with impunity. They range from an 89-year-old resident in a retirement home to a U.S. Senator…from a benevolent widow to a crass tycoon to a noted climate change scientist.
But in this fresh, fast-paced, political thriller, page-turner, their stories are all set against the all-too-recognizable backdrop of a guns-gone-wild America, and the relentless push by the NRA and their surrogate politicians to make guns even easier to acquire.
Their stories are also connected by the involvement of several likeable protagonists. These include: the inventor of the watch … the FBI agent charged with stopping the killings…and a recently retired, middle-class couple, Vince and Trudi Fuller, with their brave immigrant friends and a very endearing Corgi, Miles.
Vince and Trudi live happily in their “California bubble” until Vince is knocked down by a young punk in a parking lot. His sense of shame and rage, resulting from feelings of age-related vulnerability, triggers a first-time interest in guns. Trudi resists, but later, an unprovoked attack on Miles and Vince – and a growing friendship with two courageous Syrian refugees – changes her mind. With very unexpected consequences.
Hello book lovers! Today is a day where I will be writing another author spotlight for a well-accomplished author whose work I have loved. As you know book lovers I love learning about authors and the inspiration behind their work, it fascinates me and adds to the depth of the book because the reader will be able to better understand it. That is how the author spotlights were created because I soon discovered that you lovely readers ALSO love learning about author’s, so I am excited to tell you a little bit more about author Van Fleisher whose book Finale Notice thrilled me from beginning to end. I personally would recommend this book to all of those that love thrillers but really the book can be read by anybody as it is flawlessly written and highly enjoyable. With today’s author spotlight for Van Fleisher, a biography of the author and an interview between us both will be shared, and I hope that you book lovers enjoy reading it! To kick this off here is an author bio about the wonderful Van Fleisher!
After 21 years with an airline, and 30 years in management consulting, I retired and found that my phone didn’t ring and the only emails I got were asking for money. So, since I was at my computer, I decided to write a novel.”
This is only half the story. (Van is notoriously modest.) The author was Director of International Marketing with TWA, and an International Management Consultant – taking him behind the closed doors of boardrooms and executive offices around the world. He knows how business works, which gives the slightly “sci-fi” premise of Final Notice a realistic feel. Moreover, his two careers led him to live abroad for much of his life. After growing up in New Jersey and Florida, where he never thought much further than the length of a football field, and going to college in New Mexico, he wound up living in England, Scotland and France, travelling frequently to the Middle East and Asia. He even spent a year living in India. And his first-hand experience with – and respect for – other cultures is apparent in this book.
“Final Notice is meant to highlight, my concerns with America’s handling of three important issues: gun control (not anti-gun), ageism and the importance of immigration. The book won’t fix these issues, but there are a number of great organizations with even greater people working on our behalf to right these wrongs. Proceeds from sales of Final Notice will help support those efforts.” www.finalnoticebook.com
Now, how wonderful does Van Fleisher sound?! The author is a truly exceptional writer and I hope that you lovely readers have a read of the author’s work because you will not regret it! Please see below an interview between us both, I hope that you enjoy the author’s answers to my questions, they are incredible and provide some great advice too!
Thank you for joining us today at Red Headed Book Lover! Please tell us more about yourself.
I consider myself to be extremely lucky. I have three great daughters and an amazing relationship with a gifted singer-songwriter. Her young-at-heart attitude is contagious. And then, there is my “favorite child,” Yogi, my three year old golden doodle. It’s hard to be anything but happy when he’s around.
I have had two relatively successful careers, due entirely through hard work, effort and a love for what I was doing. And finally, I live my life in two beautiful places: Santa Barbara and southwestern France.
Could you please tell us readers about your book and what inspired you to write your book?
The genesis for Final Notice was watching my father adjusting to growing old. As a successful businessman and WW2 veteran, who spent 18 months in a German prison camp, he began to feel irrelevant, and even disrespected. Watching him from my global perspective of seeing how many other cultures treated the elderly with respect and even reverence, made me wish that our culture would be more kind. Enter my off-beat humor and penchant for the latest fitness watches. I imagined a society with a fitness watch that would tell us when we would die, coupled with our fondness for guns, with the result that older people would begin “taking out” people who had wronged them. Over time, as these incidents became more widespread, people would know to be careful and respectful to older folk, lest they be blown away. From there it was only a short leap to bring in politics.
What would your advice be for aspiring writers?
Follow Nike’s mantra and “just do it!” Write about what you know. Most people’s lives contain fascinating content material. And don’t worry about grammar, spelling, tenses or anything else. If you have a good story, the rest can be handled with editing and spell-check.
In your opinion, what is the most important thing about a book?
Other than writing case studies and newsletters, FINAL NOTICE was my first real effort at writing fiction. Written English was not my forte throughout my education. I try to write as I would speak, so when I pause during a spoken sentence, a comma may appear in my written work (correctly or not). I have had hundreds of reviews for Final Notice, and the vast majority of people really enjoy it, which to me is the most important thing about a book. There are some people who only see the commas. To me, that’s like looking at a beautiful rose bush and only seeing the dead flowers.
What is your writing process like?
I try to vision the beginning, end, and roughly the journey between them. I re-read whatever I wrote yesterday and revise, before tackling the next step. I also “write” a lot of the book in me head and it’s so real I often wonder why I can’t find it on my computer. I want to entertain and challenge the readers’ thinking.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
For Final Notice I had to do a lot of research about guns, gun laws and gun violence. If a fact is important to make a scene real, it must be true. What happens in the scene, however, can be surreal. Most of my research occurs as I was write.
Do you have a set schedule for writing, or do you only write when you feel inspired?
No schedule. When I have time and feel like it. Time constraints are my biggest obstacle. I haven’t been plagued with writer’s block, although I worry about it. Sort of like when I ran my first marathon. Everyone talked about “hitting the wall” and I worried about it throughout the 26.2 miles.
Do you read much and if so who are your favorite authors?
I really only started reading in high school when my English teacher gave me a copy of “Catcher in the Rye” and I thought it was about baseball. I kept waiting for that part and although I was a little disappointed, I was hooked. I loved James Michener and most historical novels. They compensate for my inattention throughout all those history courses I had to take. James Patterson and Tom Clancy have saved me from thousands of hours of boredom on thousands of flights. I like to learn and I like to escape so my reading habits are eclectic. I’m current reading “Sapiens” by Yuval Harari, with his second book, “Homo Deus,” in the queue. I want to read “Becoming” by Michelle Obama when my girlfriend finishes it.
Lastly, when can we readers expect to read more wonderful books from you?
Thanks for asking! I’m well underway with “Final Act,” the sequel to Final Notice. Sign up for my mailing list atwww.finalnoticebook.com. My laziness ensures you won’t get bombarded with e-mail!
Its official book lovers, I am obsessed with Van Fleisher! If you have liked what you have read about the author and are interested in learning more about Van Fleisher, then please do have a browse of the links below and be sure to have a read of the preview too! You will not regret it.
Goodbye for now book lovers,
