Writer/author Lawrence Heibel discusses the five things he learned writing REUNION.
Pam Mondy witnesses her abusive husband’s death as she prepares to leave him for her college professor Ron Candleson. Five years later, Steve Thorndyk, a young medium, unwittingly helps Ray, Pam’s dead husband, to return to life by possessing a living body. Six months later, Ron and Pam Candleson are camping at Bay Haven State Park where Ron is reunited with his teenage children. Disguised in a living body, Ray strikes up a reunion with Pam which includes a seduction and a reign of terror.
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1. I wrote the novel in the early 80s and made little effort to publish. I got it back out in 2013 and read it and discovered that after 30 years the novel still held up. It was a solid story.
2. It’s okay to write dark, violent material. I was afraid when younger that if I wrote violence and sex scenes that readers, namely friends and family, would chastise me. They didn’t because I didn’t write them gratuitously. The sex and violence were important to the story.
3. It took me 30 years to “finish” this book. All the revision in the world won’t make it perfect. When a story is done you need to turn it over to a professional editor, take their comments and suggestions to the story and make necessary changes.
4. Writing is an intregal part of my life. I was an avid reader because I loved get involved in other stories. Now I write those other stories and there is nothing more gratifying than spending time with imaginary people (except spending time with real people).
5. Once a story is told, it’s time to move onto another story. I don’t define myself in any genre. I have five books published, New Blood is a photographic novel that is a vampire story told with 100 pictures and 100 pages of text. Overture to Rain is a novella suspense story that takes place in a stone prison cell. Termination Notice is a collection of early short stories mixing horror, literary, sci-fi and humor. Reunion is a horror thriller and Will You Please Listen, Please Is a collection of short stories that look at how we talk or don’t talk, listen or don’t listen to each other and ourselves. In progress are a fantasy trilogy and a contemporary drama. Novels pending are a criminal perspective and a spiritual toned book. You don’t have to confine your writing to any one genre. Just write what you enjoy be it one genre or 10.
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About the Author
Lawrence Heibel is a professional writer with five books published by his company, Heibel Media. Lawrence has been writing since elementary school. He worked 13 years writing news and features for the Grand Rapids Press. Writing is his passion, but his career path veered from writing to photography in 2006 as he anticipated the change in the newspaper industry. While writing for the newspaper, he developed skills as a photojournalist and in 2006 transitioned from newspaper correspondent and photojournalist to portrait, event and wedding photographer. Since 2010, Lawrence has split his time between writing novels and short stories and helping photographers from hobbyists to professionals improve their photography through classes, workshops and photography studio rental at WorkShoots in Grand Rapids. His first novel, Reunion was published in November 2014 and a collection of short stories titled Will You Please Listen, Please was published in March 2015. He has four novels in various stages of production including a fantasy trilogy and a contemporary drama. He lives in Cutlerville with his wife, Kim, who has put up with him for 30 years. They have two sons, Andrew 26 and Alex 20.
A lonely young vampire waits for the sun to rise and put him out of his miserable existence. A young woman comes along looking for a vampire and can’t bear losing him to the sun. As the night rolls on, the vampire tells the story of the vampires who came before him and how he is doomed to follow their deadly desire for New Blood. Will his story convince her that he should die? Or can she give him a reason to live?
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In a land where it rains once every 19 years, when the rains come, life is renewed. However, for a prisoner in a stone cell at the bottom of a valley, the rains will bring his death. On the day the rain comes, another prisoner is dropped into the cell next to him. As the rains fall, the two prisoners exchange stories with an ending you won’t see coming.
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An eclectic collection of short stories that give insight to a young writer. Included are a handful of stories from Lawrence's elementary and high school years. The main stories are from Lawrence’s 20s. Stories range from the humorous supernatural story Door to Door which pits a working Mom against an inept demon trying to buy souls. Test Duty is a sci-fi story that stirs memories of the Vietnam conflict. Turning to Golf is a contemporary drama about a young father struggling with his daughter’s coming of age.
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A collection of contemporary short stories that have a central theme of communication between oneself and others. The title story goes back and forth between a married couple as they think about what they want to tell their spouse but can’t bring themselves to say what they need. In The Squashing of a Toad, a middle aged man faces his child self and teenage self as two opposing forces in his life that kept him from living the life he wanted. In At the Intersection three peoples’ lives are changed by a lack of communication.
Come visit Lawrence and five other West Michigan authors at Grand Rapids Comic Con, October 16-18, 2015
