WPLN News Archive; Steven Womack In Blood Written (Rebecca Bain) 6 6 05; News Archive 5/27/05-7/22/05

nashville writer steven while mack is no stranger to murder and intrigue as is nine previous books will attest but with in blood red in the latest mystery by this award winning offer he explores what man's terrible events secret cell one which less to commit acts of horrific violence and depravity it was said to me where does come from quinine answer i just started digging deep into that stuff and seeing where it led me and not putting the brakes on and the truth is as dark as graphic as this book is it's nowhere near as bad as reality what gave stephen womack the idea for this latest book is one of those you can't make this stuff up kinds of stories begins with the books steve wrote titled chain of fools published in nineteen ninety six chain of fools was the darkest book of steve's career up to that point set largely in nashville's adult entertainment million the story includes the particularly brutal murder of a young woman from a bill meet family who has gotten tangled up in the seamy side of music city subsequent to

that down on church street in nashville there occurred a particularly horrible true life double homicide to young women who are working in a what was euphemistically referred to as the exotic tanning parlors were brutally murdered one night and in fact the murders never been caught that this has come upon eight or nine years ago in and the crimes never been solved several months after this double homicide stephen one ak was working in his office when the phone rang it was looted or tommy jacobs who at the time was head of the murder squad and nashville jacobs as steve if he had heard about the church street murders which he had of course they're latina jacobs dropped his bombshell he said we got it and the anonymous crime stoppers phone will and that the scene at this murder double homicide down on church or it was a little too similar to the end of a chain of fools and that you get it there was this long lead and paul as the phone for about twenty seconds and i just sit down and kills girls and he said it again has a polish

curious to get the signal a time but once we get out in there logged in and we have to follow up and that's window writer side of stephen womack kicked into overdrive whatever struggling offered desperate to make a name for himself actually tortures and murders him number of women to gained firsthand knowledge of these atrocities so he can write about them convincingly than what the writer find out in doing this research is that he likes it than he writes the book it becomes successful when he writes another one and another one and five books later he's broken out from a genre mass market paperback writer that nobody's ever heard of to a new york times bestselling authors rich and famous and everything's great except there's one little problem he can't stop killing people that was the genesis of them led written steve wrote the first half of this book and then he sent it to his agent she read it and was a little nervous about it but she sent out to all the major trade houses although wouldn't come anywhere near it it had everything from it's too edgy it you dark too it's set in a publishing industry was nobody will have any

interest in reading what i thought was the craziest comment of all the story of how in blood written got published is almost as fantastic as now stephen mom i got the original idea the book had been languishing in his desk drawer for several years when a friend asked if he knew anyone who could praise her grandmother's collection of mysteries many of them first editions us about oradour know somebody i know the best person in the business are a pencil at the mysterious bookshop in europe speak so steve contacted are no pension and that's when the magic occurred he just happened to mention that he was acquiring box for seven hours on a freeway space isn't that i have anything to show him and i pitched in the book in the senate under the editors and on the publisher and five muslim label in blood written hit bookstores last month and since then steven womack frequently has been asked what the nether regions of his own psyche he had to explore to write such a dark and violent thriller steve's not exactly sure i am a mild mannered reporter for mcquaid metropolitan newspaper and see that there's nothing but

you know what most people a teacher i can raise my kids and have never consider really doing anything like what michael does that yet and fantasy and imagination there are dark places as a white gay steven won act the courage to write from such a dark place part of the credit must go to his late grandmother thrilled with the publication of his first novel she demanded the elderly members of her bridge club all read it to and they came back to the next bridge party and they were they said they don't like the book but they were shocked that some of the language in some of the situations and my grandmother said he wasn't writing about church deacon so you know if you're going to go there then you know go there steven womack his tenth mystery in blood written has just been published by seven house press for national public radio i'm rebecca bain the

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