Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Outside the Law
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://kudzucorner.wordpress.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://kudzucorner.wordpress.com/about/ * http://www.brash-books.com/author/phillipthompson/ * http://www.brash-books.com/phillip-thompson-writing-outside-the-law/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 99026586
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n99026586
HEADING: Thompson, Phillip
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005 19990405141217.8
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010 __ |a n 99026586
035 __ |a (DLC)n 99026586
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |c DLC
100 1_ |a Thompson, Phillip
670 __ |a His Enemy within, c1999: |b t.p. (Phillip Thompson) p. 4 of cover (managing editor of the Marine Corps times; lives in Virginia; his first novel)
953 __ |a lh38
PERSONAL
Born March 26, 1962, in Columbus, MS.
EDUCATION:University of Mississippi, bachelor’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Commercial Dispatch, Columbus, MS, reporter, c. 1996; Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo, editor; Marine Corps Times, Vienna, VA, reporter, editor and cartoonist, became managing editor; Washington Times, Washington, DC, reporter. Has also worked as defense analyst, media spokesman, consultant, speechwriter, and U.S. Senate aide.
MIILITARY:U.S. Marine Corps, 1984-96; served in combat in Operation Desert Storm.
WRITINGS
Short fiction published in anthologies and print and online periodicals, including O-Dark-Thirty, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Out of the Gutter Online, Near to the Knuckle, Yellow Mama, The Shamus Sampler II, and Thrills, Kills ‘N’ Chaos. Contributor of articles to newspapers and magazines, including Civil War.
SIDELIGHTS
Phillip Thompson is an author of crime and suspense novels as well as a memoir of his military service, Into the Storm: A U.S. Marine in the Persian Gulf War. He has cited numerous authors as inspirations, including crime writers such as Mickey Spillane and John D. MacDonald, and Southern writers such as Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Shelby Foote, Larry Brown, and Steve Yarbrough. Reading MacDonald’s novels about detective Travis McGee while serving in the Marine Corps made him want to be a writer, he told an interviewer for the Dead Mule website. “I read one, then another, then I was hooked,” Thompson said. “And I remember thinking, ‘I want to do that.’” A Mississippi native, he has also said his Southern heritage is important to his writing. “The South has always been a little different, a place of fierce pride and loyalties — which sometimes turn into breathtakingly violent episodes — a place with a difficult, tragic, complicated racial past, a stubborn independence, and a devotion to kinfolk,” he told the Dead Mule website interviewer. “The South is full of dialect, drama, love and anguish. … That’s the bedrock of storytelling, and I think Southern writers start there.” On his home page, he noted that his favorite Southern authors “write about ‘rural’ folks — working class, poor, socially disadvantaged — with authenticity, wisdom, even a little compassion and a sharp sense of humor. And they do it in such a way that you could call this kind of writing ‘redneck noir’ or “grit lit.” Or you could just call it good storytelling. Which is what I hope to accomplish.”
Enemy Within
Thompson’s first novel, Enemy Within, is a political thriller. His fictional president has persuaded Congress to repeal the Posse Comitatus Act, therefore allowing him to use the military to enforce civil law. Citizens have formed numerous militia groups in response, planning violent acts in reaction to violations of civil liberties by the president and the armed forces. Protagonist Wade Stuart, a federal agent, infiltrates one such group, the Mississippi People’s Militia, which plans to assassinate the state’s governor. Stuart, with little help from his superiors in Washington, has to try to foil the militia’s schemes and head off military action in the state, which he fears with result in a bloodbath. Meanwhile, he has fallen in love with the great-niece of the one of the militia’s leaders.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer thought Enemy Within had some weaknesses but saw reason to praise it as well. With the questions it raises about the national character, “this earnest if heavy-handed little fable is as timely as the morning headlines,” the critic remarked.
Deep Blood
Deep Blood introduces Colt Harper, the sheriff of Lowndes County, Mississippi. Harper is sometimes less than dedicated to his job, and he has made a few questionable moves in his personal life — he is separated from his wife and is having an affair with a drug-using stripper. In Deep Blood he is called upon to investigate the mysterious death of a friend’s son, but he also must deal with his own violent, alcoholic father, who has been arrested for driving under the influence.
Carolyn Martinez, a blogger at Compulsive Reader, commented positively on Thompson’s style and atmosphere. “Thompson writes well,” she said, and has produced “an interesting, fast paced tale of the choices made by hard men in a hard land.”
Outside the Law
Harper returns in Outside the Law, which finds him investigating the murders of small-time drug dealers in his county. It turns out that a crime boss in Memphis has hired a hit man, known as Hack, to eliminate them, and Hack is soon trying to eliminate Harper as well. Aiding Harper in his investigation is Molly McDonough, a federal agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, who sees the case as a way to reinvigorate her career, which has become stagnant. Thompson tells the story from the viewpoint of multiple narrators.
Some critics considered Outside the Law a compelling story with a well-drawn setting. “Read it for the action but also read it for the sense of place,” remarked a Dead Mule website reviewer. “Thompson’s writing is sparse and brilliant, no flowery speeches, no unnecessary actions — finding writing this tight and well written can be an onerous task.” The reviewer observed that the author’s “carefully chosen descriptions give you the sense of place whether you’ve been there or never set eyes on rural Mississippi.” Alan Cranis, writing online at Bookgasm, thought the novel “suffers from a near-passive pace,” but he did praise some aspects of it. “Thompson’s eye for character insight is convincing and effective,” Cranis noted, while he “also commendably relays the southern location of his story.” A Publishers Weekly contributor found Outside the Law a “tough, fast-paced” novel, in which “convincing characters race toward an inevitable and explosive showdown.” The Dead Mule website critic added that the book “would/should/will attract a vast array of readers.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, March 15, 1999, review of Enemy Within, p. 47; November 7, 2016, review of Outside the Law, p. 39.
ONLINE
Bookgasm, http://www.bookgasm.com/ (August 2, 2017), Alan Cranis, review of Outside the Law.
Brash Books Web site, http://www.brash-books.com/ (August 2, 2017), brief biography.
Compulsive Reader, http://www.compulsivereader.com/ (December 20, 2013), Carolyn Martinez, review of Deep Blood.
Dead Mule, http://www.deadmule.com/ (February 1, 2017), interview with Phillip Thompson; review of Outside the Law.
Goodreads, http://www.goodreads.com/ (August 2, 2017), brief biography.
Mississippi Writers and Musicians, https://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/ (August 2, 2017), brief biography and interview with Phillip Thompson.
Phillip Thompson Home Page, https://kudzucorner.wordpress.com (August 2, 2017).*
Quoted in Sidelights: write about ‘rural’ folks — working class, poor, socially disadvantaged — with authenticity, wisdom, even a little compassion and a sharp sense of humor. And they do it in such a way that you could call this kind of writing ‘redneck noir’ or “grit lit.” Or you could just call it good storytelling. Which is what I hope to accomplish.
About
3
“I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace. Their heads are so hard that almost nothing else will do the work.” — Flannery O’Connor
About Phillip Thompson
Photo: Kathryn Thompson
Photo: Kathryn Thompson
I grew up in and around the East Mississippi town of Columbus, birthplace of Tennessee Williams, where I spent a huge portion of my childhood reading comic books (Batman), novels, history and stories from Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen mystery magazines, courtesy of an aunt.
I received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ole Miss before serving in the Marine Corps for 12 years, where I served mostly in California and Hawaii, aboard the USS Missouri, and in combat during the Persian Gulf War with the 1st Marine Division. While aboard the Missouri, I began writing my first stories, both fiction and nonfiction, and discovered John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series, which had a huge effect on my desire to write.
After leaving the service, I worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Mississippi (Columbus and Tupelo) and Virginia. My journalistic work has been featured in newspapers across the Deep South and the East Coast. I’ve written as a freelancer for Civil War magazine and The Washington Times, and I worked as a staff cartoonist for 10 years at Marine Corps Times, where I eventually became the managing editor of that paper. I’ve also worked as a defense analyst; media spokesman; consultant; speechwriter and Senate aide.
I’ve written four novels: Enemy Within, A Simple Murder, Deep Blood and Outside the Law, and my short fiction has appeared in O-Dark Thirty, the literary journal of the Veterans Writing Project; Thrills, Kills ‘N’ Chaos; Out of the Gutter Online; The Shamus Sampler II, Yellow Mama, Near to the Knuckle, Mysterical-E and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. I attended the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference as a fiction writer, where my short story, “Fishing,” which became the basis for Deep Blood, was critiqued by Tom Franklin and Peter Turchi, among others.
I also wrote a non-fiction account of my Gulf War experience, Into the Storm: A U.S. Marine in the Persian Gulf War.
I’ve been a lifelong fan of the pulp fiction genre, one that arguably goes as far back as Mark Twain, but is most often recognized for the works produced in the 1940s and ’50s by writers such as the aforementioned MacDonald, Raymond Chandler, James Cain, Ray Bradbury, Mickey Spillane, et al. And many of today’s writers trace their passion for the craft and their influences back to these writers of an era, the pulp fiction or “noir” era.
Why was it called “pulp fiction?” Because most of these novels and magazines were printed on cheap, wood pulp paper rather than the slick, glossy paper of more high-end magazines and books. The cheap price (and feel) of the books and mags seemed to fit the sometimes-sordid tales of private eyes and their propensity for .45s and rye whiskey and gangsters and their molls.
But as significant as the influence of the writers above, and the genre itself, is the influence of Southern writers — Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor (who inspired the title of this blog) and Tennessee Williams to be sure, but also “newer” writers like Larry Brown, Tom Franklin, Steve Yarbrough, Cormac McCarthy and Anthony Neil Smith. These writers write about “rural” folks — working class, poor, socially disadvantaged — with authenticity, wisdom, even a little compassion and a sharp sense of humor. And they do it in such a way that you could call this kind of writing “redneck noir” or “grit lit.” Or you could just call it good storytelling. Which is what I hope to accomplish.
Phillip Thompson grew up near the East Mississippi town of Columbus. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Ole Miss before serving in the Marine Corps for 12 years. Since leaving the service, he has worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Mississippi and Virginia, and his journalistic work has been featured in newspapers across the Deep South and the East Coast. He wrote as a freelancer for Civil War magazine and The Washington Times and worked as the managing editor of Marine Corps Times. He has also worked as a defense analyst; media spokesman; consultant; speechwriter and Senate aide.
Thompson is the author of four novels, "Outside the Law," Deep Blood," "A Simple Murder," and "Enemy Within." His short fiction has appeared in O-Dark-Thirty, the literary journal of the Veterans Writing Project; The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature; Out of the Gutter Online; Thrills, Kills 'N' Chaos; Near to the Knuckle; Yellow Mama and The Shamus Sampler II. He attended the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference as a fiction writer in 2003.
He also authored the non-fiction account of his Gulf War experience "Into the Storm: A U.S. Marine in the Persian Gulf War."
He lives in Virginia. Find him on Twitter at @olemissgrad38 and online at his blog, "Grace & Violence," at http://kudzucorner.wordpress.com.
PHILLIP THOMPSON
MAJOR WORKS BIOGRAPHY REVIEWS INTERVIEW RELATED WEBSITES BIBLIOGRAPHY
Major Works
Author Phillip Thompson
Author Phillip Thompson. Photo by Kathryn Renee Thompson
Deep Blood (2013)
A Simple Murder (2011)
Into the Storm: A U.S. Marine in the Persian Gulf War (2001)
Enemy Within (April 1999)
Phillip Thompson: A Biography
by Emily Cranford (SHS) 2002, Updated 2015
Emily Cranford, SHS Researcher
Emily Cranford, SHS Researcher
Phillip Thompson was born on March 26, 1962, in Columbus, Mississippi. He and his family also lived for awhile in Meridian, Mississippi, but in 1970, he returned to Columbus and graduated from New Hope High School in Lowndes County, Mississippi. Following graduation from high school, he moved to Oxford, Mississippi, to attend Ole Miss to pursue a career as a journalist and a Commissioned Officer in the Marine Corps. His first book Enemy Within is set in Oxford, Mississippi.
Thompson joined the Marine Corps in 1984 as an artillery office and served in the Marine Corps for twelve years. As a Marine, he served in California and Hawaii, aboard the USS Missouri, and in combat during the Persian Gulf War with the 1st Marine Division. He also spent almost two years crossing the island nations of the South Pacific as the lead planner for the 50th Anniversary of World War II in the Pacific. While aboard the Missouri, he began writing his first stories, both fiction and nonfiction. He also began reading John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series, which had big influence on him.
He served in combat with the 1st Marine Division during Operation Desert Storm. and while on duty, he wrote several historical pieces for Civil War magazine.
After leaving the Marine Corps in 1996 to pursue a journalism career, he worked as a reporter for his hometown newspaper, the Commercial Dispatch, and as an editor at the Tupelo-based Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.
In 1997, Thompson moved to Virginia to work as a reporter and editor with Marine Corps Times. He also worked for The Washington Times, and as a staff cartoonist for ten years at Marine Corps Times, where he eventually became the managing editor of that paper. In addition, he has also worked as a defense analyst, media spokesman, consultant, speechwriter and Senate aide.
Deep BloodThompson’s second book is a non-fiction work entitled Into the Storm: A U.S. Marine in the Persian Gulf War about his service during Operation Desert Storm. He has also written two additional novels: A Simple Murder and Deep Blood. The main character in Enemy Within and A Simple Murder is Wade Stuart. Some short fiction has appeared in O-Dark Thirty, the literary journal of the Veterans Writing Project; Thrills, Kills ‘N’ Chaos; Out of the Gutter Online; The Shamus Sampler II and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Before writing Deep Blood, Thompson attended the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference as a fiction writer with his short story, Fishing, which became the basis for his third novel Deep Blood. The novel is set in Lowndes County, Mississippi. Phillip Thompson lives in Virginia.
Return to Top
Interview with Phillip Thompson (2002)
by Emily Cranford (SHS)
What author do you think influenced you the most?
Phillip Thompson, photo used with permission from the author
Phillip Thompson, photo used with permission from the author
I can only pick one? It’s pretty hard to decide on any single influence because there are so many writers out there that are so good, regardless of genre. Writers who made me want to write include Tennessee Williams, Shelby Foote, John D. MacDonald, Norman Mailer, Leon Uris. Each of these writers worked in a different area, yet all are superb storytellers – and that’s the key. Likewise, poets have influenced me as well: Roland Flint, William Butler Yeats, Robert Frost. Again, their storytelling capabilities hold us in awe. Personally, I think the best Mississippi writer in the business today is Steve Yarbrough.
When did you become interested in writing?
I’ve been interested in writing since elementary school in Columbus, when we would publish a newspaper as a class project. In the 8th grade, I had an English teacher – Mrs. Barbara Pittman – who was one of the greatest teachers I ever had, and she taught creative writing, with a real emphasis on creative. I wrote several short stories in that class; that is probably the real moment I decided I wanted to be a writer.
What kind of student were you in high school?
Well, if you ask the teachers, they might give you a different answer than I. I went to New Hope in Lowndes Into the Storm by Phillip ThompsonCounty. I made good grades in high school – especially in English and history – but I was also an extremely disruptive student. Not in a malicious way. More like a mischievous way. I spent my share of time in exile from class out in the hallway. But I was also involved in school. I played football, was the class president of my junior and senior class and vice-president of my sophomore class. I went to Boys’ State and served as a page in the Mississippi Legislature. But while all that sounds like I took school very seriously, I really didn’t. I didn’t have very good study habits, and I sort of glided my way through.
How long did it take you to write Enemy Within? Into the Storm?Enemy Within
I stopped and started writing Enemy Within at least a half dozen times over half a dozen years, and unfortunately the finished product shows this. Once I decided to finish the book, it took about a year. Same with Into the Storm, but I had a period where all I did was transcribe my handwritten journal entries into a Word file. That took months to do. Then, I began to write it. It took a little more than a year to write; much longer to sell it, though. That was probably about a two-year process.
Are you working on a new book right now? Do you have a title for it yet? What is it about?
I am working on a second novel now, a murder mystery set in Hawaii, with a working title of A Simple Murder. I’ve been searching for an agent for this manuscript for a while; and unfortunately, I just ended a year’s work with a New York agent on this particular manuscript.
Do you have any advice for future writers and students today?
Advice, hmmmm. Keep writing. Don’t get discouraged. Develop a thick skin so you can handle the rejections and the criticisms. Keep writing. Keep writing.
How has Mississippi or living in Mississippi influenced your writing?51DWmJ9JW0L._AA160_
I think I could not write outside of my experience as a Mississippian and a Southerner. My upbringing in Mississippi – and I think this is true of most people, whether they are writers or not – gave me such a strong sense of place that I couldn’t escape it if I tried. The South is so full of dialect and drama and anguish and love and family that it’s inescapable.
If you were not a writer, what would you be?
If I were not a writer, I’d probably be…unemployed? Luckily, I don’t have to worry about that; my day job as a journalist takes care of that. I think if I had to pick another occupation, I’d try acting.
Phillip Thompson grew up near the East Mississippi town of Columbus, birthplace of Tennessee Williams. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Ole Miss before serving in the Marine Corps for 12 years. As a Marine, he served in California and Hawaii, aboard the USS Missouri, and in combat during the Persian Gulf War with the 1st Marine Division. He also spent the better part of two years traversing the island nations of the South Pacific as the lead planner for the 50th Anniversary of World War II in the Pacific.
Since leaving the service, he has worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Mississippi and Virginia, and his journalistic work has been featured in newspapers across the Deep South and the East Coast. He wrote as a freelancer for Civil War magazine and The Washington Times and worked as a staff cartoonist for 10 years at Marine Corps Times. He has also worked as a defense analyst; media spokesman; consultant; speechwriter and Senate aide.
Phillip Thompson is the author of novels, "Enemy Within," "A Simple Murder" and "Deep Blood." His short fiction has appeared in "O-Dark-Thirty" the literary journal of the Veterans Writing Project; "Thrills, Kills 'N' Chaos," "Out of the Gutter Online," "The Shamus Sampler II" and "The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature." He attended the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference as a fiction writer in 2003.
He also authored the non-fiction account of his Gulf War experience "Into the Storm: A U.S. Marine in the Persian Gulf War."
He lives in Virginia. Find him online at http://kudzucorner.wordpress.com.
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PHILLIP THOMPSON
A native of rural east Mississippi, Phillip Thompson served in combat as a Marine, covered capital murder cases as a journalist, and wrote speeches for top military leaders in the Pentagon. He has worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Mississippi and Virginia, and his journalistic work has been featured in newspapers across the Deep South and the East Coast.
Publishers Weekly described his first novel, Enemy Within, ” … as timely as the morning headlines [and] asks some probing questions about national apathy, the abdication of responsibility for one’s own country and the resulting decay of U.S. civil rights.” Thompson’s other novels include A Simple Murder and Deep Blood. His short fiction has appeared in O-Dark-Thirty; The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature; Out of the Gutter Online; Thrills, Kills ‘N’ Chaos; Near to the Knuckle; Yellow Mama and The Shamus Sampler II.
He also authored the non-fiction account of his Gulf War combat experience Into the Storm: A U.S. Marine in the Persian Gulf War. He lives in Virginia. Find him on Twitter at @olemissgrad38 and online at his blog, “Grace & Violence,” at http://kudzucorner.wordpress.com.
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PHILLIP THOMPSON
MAJOR WORKS BIOGRAPHY REVIEWS INTERVIEW RELATED WEBSITES BIBLIOGRAPHY
Major Works
Author Phillip Thompson
Author Phillip Thompson. Photo by Kathryn Renee Thompson
Deep Blood (2013)
A Simple Murder (2011)
Into the Storm: A U.S. Marine in the Persian Gulf War (2001)
Enemy Within (April 1999)
Phillip Thompson: A Biography
by Emily Cranford (SHS) 2002, Updated 2015
Emily Cranford, SHS Researcher
Emily Cranford, SHS Researcher
Phillip Thompson was born on March 26, 1962, in Columbus, Mississippi. He and his family also lived for awhile in Meridian, Mississippi, but in 1970, he returned to Columbus and graduated from New Hope High School in Lowndes County, Mississippi. Following graduation from high school, he moved to Oxford, Mississippi, to attend Ole Miss to pursue a career as a journalist and a Commissioned Officer in the Marine Corps. His first book Enemy Within is set in Oxford, Mississippi.
Thompson joined the Marine Corps in 1984 as an artillery office and served in the Marine Corps for twelve years. As a Marine, he served in California and Hawaii, aboard the USS Missouri, and in combat during the Persian Gulf War with the 1st Marine Division. He also spent almost two years crossing the island nations of the South Pacific as the lead planner for the 50th Anniversary of World War II in the Pacific. While aboard the Missouri, he began writing his first stories, both fiction and nonfiction. He also began reading John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series, which had big influence on him.
He served in combat with the 1st Marine Division during Operation Desert Storm. and while on duty, he wrote several historical pieces for Civil War magazine.
After leaving the Marine Corps in 1996 to pursue a journalism career, he worked as a reporter for his hometown newspaper, the Commercial Dispatch, and as an editor at the Tupelo-based Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.
In 1997, Thompson moved to Virginia to work as a reporter and editor with Marine Corps Times. He also worked for The Washington Times, and as a staff cartoonist for ten years at Marine Corps Times, where he eventually became the managing editor of that paper. In addition, he has also worked as a defense analyst, media spokesman, consultant, speechwriter and Senate aide.
Deep BloodThompson’s second book is a non-fiction work entitled Into the Storm: A U.S. Marine in the Persian Gulf War about his service during Operation Desert Storm. He has also written two additional novels: A Simple Murder and Deep Blood. The main character in Enemy Within and A Simple Murder is Wade Stuart. Some short fiction has appeared in O-Dark Thirty, the literary journal of the Veterans Writing Project; Thrills, Kills ‘N’ Chaos; Out of the Gutter Online; The Shamus Sampler II and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Before writing Deep Blood, Thompson attended the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference as a fiction writer with his short story, Fishing, which became the basis for his third novel Deep Blood. The novel is set in Lowndes County, Mississippi. Phillip Thompson lives in Virginia.
Return to Top
Interview with Phillip Thompson (2002)
by Emily Cranford (SHS)
What author do you think influenced you the most?
Phillip Thompson, photo used with permission from the author
Phillip Thompson, photo used with permission from the author
I can only pick one? It’s pretty hard to decide on any single influence because there are so many writers out there that are so good, regardless of genre. Writers who made me want to write include Tennessee Williams, Shelby Foote, John D. MacDonald, Norman Mailer, Leon Uris. Each of these writers worked in a different area, yet all are superb storytellers – and that’s the key. Likewise, poets have influenced me as well: Roland Flint, William Butler Yeats, Robert Frost. Again, their storytelling capabilities hold us in awe. Personally, I think the best Mississippi writer in the business today is Steve Yarbrough.
When did you become interested in writing?
I’ve been interested in writing since elementary school in Columbus, when we would publish a newspaper as a class project. In the 8th grade, I had an English teacher – Mrs. Barbara Pittman – who was one of the greatest teachers I ever had, and she taught creative writing, with a real emphasis on creative. I wrote several short stories in that class; that is probably the real moment I decided I wanted to be a writer.
What kind of student were you in high school?
Well, if you ask the teachers, they might give you a different answer than I. I went to New Hope in Lowndes Into the Storm by Phillip ThompsonCounty. I made good grades in high school – especially in English and history – but I was also an extremely disruptive student. Not in a malicious way. More like a mischievous way. I spent my share of time in exile from class out in the hallway. But I was also involved in school. I played football, was the class president of my junior and senior class and vice-president of my sophomore class. I went to Boys’ State and served as a page in the Mississippi Legislature. But while all that sounds like I took school very seriously, I really didn’t. I didn’t have very good study habits, and I sort of glided my way through.
How long did it take you to write Enemy Within? Into the Storm?Enemy Within
I stopped and started writing Enemy Within at least a half dozen times over half a dozen years, and unfortunately the finished product shows this. Once I decided to finish the book, it took about a year. Same with Into the Storm, but I had a period where all I did was transcribe my handwritten journal entries into a Word file. That took months to do. Then, I began to write it. It took a little more than a year to write; much longer to sell it, though. That was probably about a two-year process.
Are you working on a new book right now? Do you have a title for it yet? What is it about?
I am working on a second novel now, a murder mystery set in Hawaii, with a working title of A Simple Murder. I’ve been searching for an agent for this manuscript for a while; and unfortunately, I just ended a year’s work with a New York agent on this particular manuscript.
Do you have any advice for future writers and students today?
Advice, hmmmm. Keep writing. Don’t get discouraged. Develop a thick skin so you can handle the rejections and the criticisms. Keep writing. Keep writing.
How has Mississippi or living in Mississippi influenced your writing?51DWmJ9JW0L._AA160_
I think I could not write outside of my experience as a Mississippian and a Southerner. My upbringing in Mississippi – and I think this is true of most people, whether they are writers or not – gave me such a strong sense of place that I couldn’t escape it if I tried. The South is so full of dialect and drama and anguish and love and family that it’s inescapable.
If you were not a writer, what would you be?
If I were not a writer, I’d probably be…unemployed? Luckily, I don’t have to worry about that; my day job as a journalist takes care of that. I think if I had to pick another occupation, I’d try acting.
Quoted in Sidelights: I read one, then another, then I was hooked. “And I remember thinking, ‘I want to do that.’” \ “The South has always been a little different, a place of fierce pride and loyalties — which sometimes turn into breathtakingly violent episodes — a place with a difficult, tragic, complicated racial past, a stubborn independence, and a devotion to kinfolk. “The South is full of dialect, drama, love and anguish. … That’s the bedrock of storytelling, and I think Southern writers start there.
Phillip Thompson on Writing
2017-02-01Interviews / Book DiscussionsOutside the Law, phillip thompson
The Dead Mule spoke with Mule writer and author Phillip Thompson after reading his latest thriller Outside the Law, released this month (Feb 2017) by Brash-Books.com. A review of Outside the Law is included in this issue of the Mule. Yeehaw for Mule writers. The bold script contains our questions/commentary and the regular script is Mr. Thompson’s response to us. *
How important is “Place” to you when setting up a scene? You nail scenes in this novel, just eloquent and perfectly set up the “where” of each action. Of course, I know the South, I can see the places but I think the writing reflects an innate ability to set us in the place of action, it’s almost as if it is effortless to you, but I know it’s carefully done and deliberate.
I always start with “place” when I’m trying to write something out. When I was at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, one instructor said I tended to write like a playwright – and I still don’t know if he meant it as a compliment – in that I tend to set the scene first. I suppose that comes from the way I view the world, and being a big fan of movies and how they are made.
For me, a sense of place is everything. Knowing where you come from, and I don’t mean just the geography. It’s the environment, the society and its mores that produced you and makes you a part of it. I grew up in east Mississippi, about a mile from the Alabama state line. A mile. Yet, “we” — the people in my community — referred to people who lived almost within sight of us as “them Alabama folks.” Why? They weren’t from our place. That’s not necessarily a negative, it’s just a way we expressed our identity. The Alabama folks did the same with us, I’m sure.
A sense of place anchors a story, puts a mark on it. Larry Brown did this about as well as anybody, and when I first read his fiction, I fundamentally changed my approach to writing because he wrote about a place as much as he wrote about the characters that inhabited that place. And he did so with an authenticity that practically hummed when you read the words. It blew me away.
Why do you think Place features so prominently in Southern novels, or do you think it is more important in southern novels (am I just trying too hard to find something that differentiates southern from other novels?)
Well, I think it’s important and I do think we Southerners tend to make it a central theme, and that’s because — not to talk bad about any other part of the country — the South is, still, a little apart. Some of our uniqueness has been turned into cliche: our accents (and there isn’t just one “Southern accent”) and our passionate religiosity and conservatism, for example. Yet, we do things just a little bit different down here. I can’t think of the South without thinking of heat, humidity and kudzu. And snakes. I usually write stories that take place in the summer in the midst of all that heat, dread, and passion barely suppressed. Because, frankly, the South in winter is pretty dull stuff.
The South has always been a little different, a place of fierce pride and loyalties — which sometimes turn into breathtakingly violent episodes — a place with a difficult, tragic, complicated racial past, a stubborn independence, and a devotion to kinfolk. The South is full of dialect, drama, love and anguish. And, of course, snakes. That’s the bedrock of storytelling, and I think Southern writers start there.
I really enjoyed the chapter set-up in Outside the Law, each character “owning” the chapter. Any thoughts on what inspired this or did it just come naturally?
I wish I could take credit for that. A few years back, I read The Gypsy Man, by Bob Bausch (who was one my writing instructors/mentors), and he wrote it from several points of view, with each chapter being a different character’s POV. Except the entire book was written in first person. For some reason, I’ve also found first-person writing in the long form to be difficult, but I loved the structure of The Gypsy Man. So I tried my hand at it, but stuck with third person. I like it. It’s a great way to step into an individual characters shoes.
I hate trying to come up with questions, they always seem the same — do you write every day, how does that work out for you, why are you a writer, questions every writer gets asked but hey, I like that last one
Why are you a writer?
Short answer: I have no idea. I’m not good at math and science? I get asked that a lot, and it’s a little bit of my way of finding some sort of order in the chaos of the world, I suppose, and there’s definitely a compulsive aspect to it. I write because I can’t imagine not writing. I always have words in my head and it’s only a matter of time before they find their way into a story.
A big part of why I’m a writer is because I’m a reader. As a kid, I read constantly. And I mean, constantly. Ask my cousins. Reading is a portal, and it was my escape mechanism. And at some point, I think in the eighth grade, I wrote a short story, which was heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock magazines that I read each month. I did that all through high school and college — mostly reading, but occasionally trying to write something. None of which was any good.
But I can remember the moment I wanted to be a writer. I grew up reading tons of pulp fiction: Mickey Spillane, the Hitchcock magazines. Lots of mysteries and thrillers. When I was in the Marine Corps, in my 20s, I was assigned to a base in San Diego for a few days and I went to the PX to find something to read. I stumbled across a paperback, Barrier Island, by John D. MacDonald. I’d never heard of either. But it was a crime novel set in Mississippi. And it was awesome. And a few months later, when I was deployed aboard ship, the ship’s store had several of MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels. I read one, then another, then I was hooked. And I remember thinking, “I want to do that.”
*If you’ve been in the Dead Mule and you’re a published author and would like to discuss your book on the Dead Mule, contact us via submittable or by email deadmule at gmail, you know the rest. Sorry, we don’t review Chapbooks at this time.
Quoted in Sidelghts: “tough, fast-paced”
“convincing characters race toward an inevitable and explosive showdown.”
Outside the Law
Publishers Weekly.
263.45 (Nov. 7, 2016): p39.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Outside the Law
Phillip Thompson. Brash, $12.99 trade paper
(260p) ISBN 978-1-94129899-2
Sheriff Colt Harper, as the title of Thompson's tough, fast-paced sequel to 2013's Deep Blood suggests, takes a Dirty Harry approach to law
enforcement. In his first term as sheriff of Mississippi's rural Lowndes County, Colt has shot several people, and his office stands accused of using
excessive violence. He's unsure whether he should run for reelection. At the scene of a convenience store robbery, a teenage boy, whom Colt
places under arrest, tells him that somebody has been taking down drug dealers. When drug dealers start turning up dead, Colt suspects that a
serial killer is at work. Molly McDonough, an ATF special agent, helps him investigate. Colt and Molly, who have each become disillusioned
with their jobs, are seeking redemption for past mistakes. Meanwhile, a Memphis crime lord has ordered Hack, a hit man, to stop Colt. Hack, too,
expresses a desire for redemption. Fueled by either remorse or revenge (or a combination of both), Thompson's convincing characters race toward
an inevitable and explosive showdown. (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Outside the Law." Publishers Weekly, 7 Nov. 2016, p. 39+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA469757472&it=r&asid=5ee655273001a85634b4becd818e6cf3. Accessed 9 July
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A469757472
---
Quoted in Sidelights:
this earnest if heavy-handed little fable is as timely as the morning headlines
7/9/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1499645265836 2/2
ENEMY WITHIN
Publishers Weekly.
246.11 (Mar. 15, 1999): p47.
COPYRIGHT 1999 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Phillip Thompson. Salvo (Seven Hills, dist.), $11 paper (l60p) ISBN 0-9664520-2-X
The managing editor of the Marine Corps Times envisions a chilling near-future when a U.S. president without prior military experience
orchestrates congressional repeal of the Posse Comitatus Law, thus freeing him to use the military to intervene in matters of civil law. This shift in
power plays into the hands of militia groups across the country, who have prophesied this critical development and will use the ensuing erosion of
civil rights to activate their violent plans. ATF Special Agent Wade Stuart knows this, as he has infiltrated the Mississippi People's Militia, a
terrorist group, to prevent their plot to assassinate Mississippi's governor and take control of the state. When the MPM napalms the Mississippi
state courthouse, Stuart, faced with lack of support from his feckless ATF superiors in Washington, must rush to beat the president's deployment
in Mississippi of the 2nd Marine Division, with its attendant risk of widespread carnage. The mission becomes even more desperate when his
sexy new girlfri end, Lee Ann Weatherby, is kidnapped by henchmen of her 77-year-old great-uncle, the MPM's fanatic leader. However
stylistically inept--Thompson's narrative voice leaps awkwardly between journalistic authority and clunky attempts at the interiority of fiction-this
earnest if heavy-handed little fable is as timely as the morning headlines. Without trying to impose answers, the author asks some probing
questions about national apathy, the abdication of responsibility for one's own country and the resulting decay of U.S. civil rights. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"ENEMY WITHIN." Publishers Weekly, 15 Mar. 1999, p. 47. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA54148739&it=r&asid=1ca2bbc2b7586046b9ed78f64fa524fa. Accessed 9 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A54148739
Quoted in Sidelights: Thompson writes well,”
“an interesting, fast paced tale of the choices made by hard men in a hard land.
A review of Deep Blood by Phillip Thompson
December 20, 2013
Reviewed by Carolyn Martinez
Deep Blood
by Phillip Thompson
Roundfire Books
Paperback: 254 pages, July 16, 2013, ISBN-13: 978-1782791782
Deep Blood takes a gritty look at human characters, their relationships, life choices, secrets, and the realities of flawed people. Lead character, Sheriff Colt Harper, is a man’s man. Deep seated wounds and fears are barely spoken of, suppressed under a lifetime of training to be a man. Raised by an abusive, alcoholic father, there comes a time when Colt must confront demons from his past.
What would you do if forced to choose between the oath you’ve taken or protecting a guilty family member?
For a glimpse into the Mississippi people scape, this is a well paced, easy read. Thompson writes well. His style is succinct. The publisher should do a final proof read before the next print run to eliminate a small number of spelling mistakes – but one can’t blame the author for that. I would have liked to see a little more character growth. As a reader, I like to travel along with my characters as they experience life, and change and grow from those experiences. At the beginning of the novel, Harper is a man who expresses little, and at the end of the novel, Harper is still a man who expresses little. Happiness is elusive. Deep Blood is, however, an interesting, fast paced tale of the choices made by hard men in a hard land. No double or triple plots here but an easy novel for a reader who wants to ‘switch off’ and be entertained.
About the reviewer: Carolyn Martinez is the author of Inspiring IVF Stories and the President of the Hunter Writers Centre, New South Wales. She is the former owner/editor of The Westerner newspaper, and has a Master of Arts (Writing) through Swinburne University. She consults in corporate communications, and is currently writing her second book, Finding Love Again.
Quoted in Sidelights: “Read it for the action but also read it for the sense of place,”
“Thompson’s writing is sparse and brilliant, no flowery speeches, no unnecessary actions — finding writing this tight and well written can be an onerous task.”
“would/should/will attract a vast array of readers.”
“carefully chosen descriptions give you the sense of place whether you’ve been there or never set eyes on rural Mississippi.”
Phillip Thompson: Outside the Law (a book discussion)
2017-02-01Interviews / Book Discussions
Phillip Thompson’s latest thriller, Outside the Law, would/should/will attract a vast array of readers. There are those who enjoy the thriller genre, of course. But Thompson’s book will also garner appreciation from those who love books detailing the all important “place.”
This is a Southern novel, set in rural Mississippi and Thompson never lets you forget it. His writing sets us firmly right where we belong in the novel. No wandering, effluent text descriptions in the style of Faulkner, oh no, Thompson is precise and deliberate in setting us right where each scene takes place. Carefully chosen descriptions give you the sense of place whether you’ve been there or never set eyes on rural Mississippi.
Try imagining this scene:
“…The sign proclaimed the establishment a Bill’s Bait Shop. He slowed the car and checked the rearview mirror once again for traffic. Seeing none, he slowed further as the car rolled onto the old steel truss bridge, looming in the yellow glow of his headlights. The steel girders, painted green like the water below, angled up and across the still river like an erector set. He gazed at the serene riverbanks. The milky light of a half-moon shone on summer vegetation hugging the water’s edge, honeysuckle and Johnsongrass, willows arching like delicate fingers over the surface, kudzu blanketing every open space. The water here looked deep.”
Sets you right there, doesn’t it? Sounds a bit ominous, too.
Thompson uses just the right amount of local dialog or jargon. Not enough to bog you down, just a simple “ahite” (*all right) here and there, maybe a few more colloquialisms to set the scene.
Okay, back to the discussion. Are the characters believable? Well, damn straight they are. If you’ve ever watched Longmire, Justified or even old episodes (well, they’d all be old, there are no new, duh) of Gunsmoke or Paladin, you’ll understand the lawman “Colt” whose hair-trigger responses elicit a literary retort, like rapid shots of text rather than bullets. He’s his own man and bears responsibility for his actions.
The villains make your hair stand on end. Thompson’s ultimate evil, “Hatch”, completely engages the reader’s attention. As in all the book’s characters, the reader knows the villain through dialog and action, description and detail.
Thompson’s approach to storytelling is through a technique wherein each character has a chapter, the action stands alone, leading to the response, the action, of the next character in the novel. This really works, to put it simply. The point of view in each chapter resonates with the person who “owns” it. Whether lawbreaker or law enforcement, each comes from a different place and Thompson deftly moves from one mindset to another.
Yes, I’d recommend this book. It makes the heart sing when a Mule writer writes! Phillip Thompson’s “Outside the Law” needs to be savored and enjoyed. Read it for the action but also read it for the sense of place. Thompson’s writing is sparse and brilliant, no flowery speeches, no unnecessary actions — finding writing this tight and well written can be an onerous task. Give yourself a break and just get this book knowing it will live up to your expectations.
Plot? Well… bad guys sell oxycodone, good cops try to stop them, people are killed in the process, who will prevail — good or evil? Telling any more would give away the book but I gotta’ tell you, it’s got one explosive ending!
Phillip Thompson, Outside the Law, www.brash-books.com .
From the website:
OUTSIDE THE LAW by Phillip Thompson. Colt Harper is the Sheriff in a rural Mississippi county who goes up against a Memphis drug cartel and their cold-blooded assassin and will do whatever it take to get justice…even if it means going outside the law.
Quoted in Sidelights: “suffers from a near-passive pace,”
Thompson’s eye for character insight is convincing and effective,”
“also commendably relays the southern location of his story.”
Outside the Law
Author: Alan Cranis* Comments(0)
Author and journalist Phillip Thompson’s latest crime novel, OUTSIDE THE LAW, follows the aftermath of violence within the world of street-level drug dealers and the mobsters who control the dealers and the flow of drugs in a rural Mississippi county. While the events and characters are never less than absorbing, the novel’s overall impact is deadened due to Thompson’s leisurely pace and shifting perspective.
Colt Harper, Sheriff of a small rural Mississippi county, has a problem on his hands. Small-time drug dealers who operate in his town are showing up brutally murdered. It isn’t long before Sheriff Harper confronts Hack, a sharp dressing, intelligent talking and completely cold-blooded assassin hired by a Memphis mobster to eliminate the dealers. Hack immediately sees Harper as an obstacle to his assignment, but a very expendable obstacle.
Meanwhile, Molly McDonough, a Special Agent with the ATF, has been tracing the murders happening in Harper’s county. When she senses the killings are the work of a single serial killer, she sees it as a chance to boost her floundering career and works her way into investigating the case in the Harper’s home county. Then McDonough finds herself between Harper and Hack and a feud that quickly becomes deadly.
Thompson, the author of several previous novels and short stories, knows how to construct an effective plot. But this latest work suffers from a near-passive pace. Events seem to take forever to explain and eventually happen. The unfortunate result is that far too many scenes that should be suspenseful come off as dull and anticlimactic.
The constantly fluctuating perspective exasperates this problem. Thompson’s third-person overview includes every major and minor character in the narrative. So much so that chapters are titled with the character’s name (COLT, HACK, MOLLY, etc.) to help readers keep track of the focus. After a while we can’t help but wonder if every character highlighted is worth the attention.
To his credit, however, Thompson’s eye for character insight is convincing and effective. We learn, for example, about the overseas war experiences that made Harper and his deputy lifelong buddies; and that Harper would rather concentrate on his day-to-day job that bother with running a re-election campaign.
The one notable – and particularly disappointing – exception is AFT Agent McDonough, who serves no other purpose in the story than another distraction; and whose major participation does not occur until near the novel’s conclusion.
Thompson also commendably relays the southern location of his story. The sparse, rural towns with their gas stations, bars, and superb barbeque joints are wonderfully presented. Also effective is way Thompson works the constant heat and debilitating humidity – aided by the several river tributaries – of Harper’s Mississippi home county.
If Thompson has paid as much attention to the build-up of events and the necessary suspense they create as he did to his far too many secondary characters, OUTSIDE THE LAW would be a far more memorable crime story (and Colt Harper a possible series star, in the mold of such fictional southern lawmen as Walt Longmire and Raylan Givens, to name a few).
As is, Thompson’s latest disappoints more than it enthralls. —Alan Cranis