| Today, I’m speaking with Michael Bradley, author of DEAD AIR, a psychological suspense novel (CamCat Books, 2020). Three can keep a secret, but only if two are dead. No one knows that better than Kaitlyn Ashe, who has been running from a childhood secret her whole life. Until now. Crowned the top-rated radio DJ in Philadelphia, she is finally ready to settle down with her fiancé and new friends who know nothing about her past. When a sudden flood of anonymous letters threatens her seemingly charmed life, she realizes that someone out there knows. But who? As the threatening letters escalate, Kaitlyn’s life spirals toward a reunion in the one place she’d hoped to never visit again: The Shallows. Isn’t her secret buried with the dead? From the Philadelphia skyline to the rural suburbs of New Jersey, DEAD AIR weaves a suspenseful tale of past misdeeds and present malice as Kaitlyn plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with a mysterious killer who will stop at nothing to get revenge. Susan: DEAD AIR has earned multiple publishing industry accolades:·
Did you ever imagine such success so early in your fiction career? Michael: Not at all. This year has been amazing, as well as humbling. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t always accept compliments very well. I always feel like people are just being polite. My first response to the news about these awards was, “there must be some mistake.” It took a little time for it to sink in as being real. Susan: You have worked in radio for a long time, which lends authenticity to your story. Kaitlyn, your main character, is stalked by a listener. Has that ever happened to you? Michael: I can’t say that I’ve ever had a stalker like Kaitlyn does in DEAD AIR. I’ve had one or two callers that made me want to check that the building door was locked. I recall, very early in my broadcast career, receiving calls from a woman, who I will call Betty to protect her identity. I was doing the midday show (10a-3p) at a very small station in New Jersey. The broadcast studio was in a tiny building on the outskirts of town. The station’s business office was located elsewhere so I was usually on my own. Betty would call every day to request a song, and to chat. I’d put her on speaker phone and let her ramble about her day while I pulled CDs and queued up my next song. A few weeks into these calls, Betty’s ramblings got increasingly strange. She once mentioned that Michael Jackson, during a recent television interview, had spoken directly to her to express his undying love. A few days later, Betty calls stopped. When she finally called again a month later, I found out that she’d been admitted to the nearby psychiatric hospital. I eventually became an expert on predicting when Betty had stopped taking her medication and would be re-admitted to the hospital based on how bizarre the conversation would get. Susan: Wow! Were any other incidents in DEAD AIR based on events in your life? Any deep, dark, long-buried secrets you’d like to share? Michael: Sorry to disappoint, but there are no long, buried secrets in my past. There is, however, much in the book that is based on real life. Some of the settings in the book are based on real places. There is a small lake that is central to the book’s plot that is based on a real lake in New Jersey. The trail where Kaitlyn runs every day actually exists, as do many of the streets and landmarks. And, although I don’t mention the school by name, Kaitlyn attended the same high school that I did. As for other real life events, there are a couple anecdotal radio tales from my life inserted into the book. Most of them are casually mentioned in passing. If I ever write a “tell-all” book, one of those stories that is certain to be included will be from the time I worked for a top forty radio station and returned to the studio after a late night live appearance only to find myself coming face-to-butt with a naked woman who was running away down the hallway. I’d apparently interrupted the woman’s nocturnal visit with the overnight DJ, who, I might add, seemed a bit disheveled when I stepped into the broadcast studio. Susan: Umm, hahaha. I’ll leave that one right there. What inspired you to create a female protagonist? Did writing from a woman’s perspective pose a challenge? (Kaitlyn is a completely realistic character – If I read the story without knowing the author’s name, I wouldn’t be able to tell if it were written by a man or a woman.) Michael: I enjoy writing with alternate points of view and my books usually include two protagonists; one male and one female. I find that writing the female perspective is sometimes easier than writing a male protagonist. I knew, going into this book, that I wanted a female protagonist at the center of the plot. I couldn’t visualize this story with a male protagonist. There are some stories that just work best with one or the other as the main lead. DEAD AIR only felt right with Kaitlyn as my main character. Susan: How much research into law enforcement techniques and protocol did you need to do? Michael: When writing my novels, I tend not to focus on procedures and focus more on the characters and events. I don’t get into the details of how the forensics officer searches for hair fibers in the carpet. I’d rather focus on how a tragic event impacted my protagonist and the police. Luckily, I was able to use some research I had from a previous novel, as well as spend some time in 2019 speaking with an FBI liaison about crime scene procedures. Susan: Favorite suspense/thriller author? Michael: This is tricky because it changes frequently. Right now, Lisa Unger is at the top of the list, particularly her books CRAZY LOVE YOU and INK AND BONE. She writes one hell of an unreliable narrator. Susan: What other types of novels do you like to read or are you a thriller addict? Michael: I love a good mystery or thriller, but I’m not opposed to reading outside of those genres. I’ve been known to pick up the odd science fiction novel, and I’m open to reading non-fiction, particularly if it is about an odd or unusual topic. I also love reading some of the classic works from the likes of Wells, Conan Doyle, and Verne. I dabble in noir with Chandler, Highsmith, and Charteris. I read fantasy, but only if it is by Terry Pratchett. I’m currently working my way through the Adam Dalgliesh series by the late P. D. James. Susan: If you weren’t an author, what would you be? Michael: I’d be very sad. Honestly, I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was in high school. I stumbled onto some of my earliest writing a year or two ago. Straight from high school. Even on dot matrix paper, the side strips with the holes still intact. It was bad, really bad. I had no idea about plot, dialogue, and characterization. All of my characters were based on my friends, and, to make things creep, the love interest in my stories was always the girl I had a crush on. Oh, and I was always the hero. Writing is so ingrained in my blood that I can’t imagine what I’d be without it. Susan: What can your readers expect from your next book? Michael: I’m finishing up my next novel now. It is the first book in a planned series. The new book is called THE SIN EATER, and focuses on a modern-day killer who includes elements from the 18th century religious practice of sin eating in his murders. It’s up to a small-town newspaper journalist and a faithless minister to discover the truth. Susan: Sounds fantastic! Where can readers find you online? Michael: My website is always open at www.mbradleyonline.com. I’m on Twitter at twitter.com/mjbradley88 and Facebook at Facebook.com/mjbradley88. Susan: Where can people buy DEAD AIR? Michael: Barnes & Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dead-air-michael-bradley/1136292265?ean=9780744300017 Audible – https://www.audible.com/pd/Dead-Air-Audiobook/B08DDBNQZR |
Interview with Author Michael Bradley
Posted under Uncategorized and tagged with camcat books, Dead Air, Michael Bradley, Suspense, thriller
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