NEVER WAVE GOODBYE: AN INTERVIEW, REVIEW, AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
NEVER WAVE GOODBYE

BY DOUG MAGEE

ABOUT THE BOOK:

After passing the bittersweet parental milestone of putting her daughter, Sarah on the bus to sleep-away camp for the first time, Lena Trainor plans to spend the next two weeks fixing all the problems in her marriage. But when a second bus arrives to pick up Sarah for camp, no one seems to know anything about the first bus or its driver.

Sarah and three other children have been kidnapped, and within hours of the crime the parents receive an email demanding $1,000,000. When the specifics of the delivery terms throw suspicion on the parents of two of the abducted children, some of the parents begin to turn on each other, exposing fault lines in already strained marriages and forging new alliances. While the kidnapped children are living their parents' worst nightmare, the police are trying to sort the lies from the truth in conflicting stories and alibis that seem to be constantly changing.

Deftly weaving the emotional story that pits the parents of the missing campers against the police—and each other—with the fate of the kidnapped children hanging in the balance, Never Wave Goodbye will keep readers holding their breath until the last page.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Doug Magee has been a photojournalist, screenplay writer, children's book author, death penalty activist, film producer and director, war protestor, college football player, amateur musician, and the basis of the Aidan Quinn character in Meryl Streep's "Music of the Heart." This is his first novel. He lives in Spanish Harlem with his wife and two teenaged children. Photo by Mark Caparosa.

You can find out more about Doug Magee at his website HERE. Reading Group Guide is HERE and I think this would make a great book group choice!

AUTHOR INTERVIEW:
Please welcome to BOOKIN' WITH BINGO, Author Doug Magee. I am THRILLED he agreed to answer some questions as I am such a fan after reading NEVER WAVE GOODBYE. 

1. Welcome, and thank you for agreeing to an interview for BOOKIN‘ WITH BINGO. Is there any personal information you would like to start out with today?
I’m a writer, photographer and filmmaker living in New York’s East Harlem. I’m married and have three sons. I’m an amateur jazz trombonist.

2.  Where did you get the inspiration or idea for this book?
The book began as an image, I guess, of a woman who has put her daughter on a bus to camp, gone back in her house, and then opens the door to the real camp counselors.  From that image the story took on a life of its own.

3. How did the title of your book come about?
My wife is Norwegian and she told me her grandmother always warned her about waving goodbye to someone. If you did, she said, you’d never see them again.  Thus, Never Wave Goodbye.

4. Do you see yourself in your characters? Which characters are easiest or more difficult to write?
I’m sure there are elements of me in my characters, but I hope I’ve used my imagination well enough so that people much different from me come alive on the page.  The dictate to “write what you know” is fine, but the question is, what do you know?  I include things bouncing around in my head in that category.

5. What books would you say have made the biggest impression on you, especially starting out? What are you currently reading?
I wasn’t a big reader growing up.  I’m still a very slow reader.  I studied English literature in college and did a thesis on D.H. Lawrence. But I don’t think he influenced my writing all that much. I was more taken with Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones than with Lawrence.

I just finished Jennifer Egan’s  A Visit From The Goon Squad. I think it deserves all the praise it’s been getting.

6. What is the next or current book/project you are working on?
I have a new novel coming out in October called Darkness All Around. It’s the story of a man who returns to his hometown after an eleven year absence, claiming he killed his wife’s best friend before he left.

7. What is something about you that you would want people to know about you that we probably don’t know?
I’m a decent cook.  I don’t say anything about this because I’m really seat-of-the-pants in the kitchen.  But I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have you over for dinner.

8. Do you own an eReader of any kind and how do you feel about their impact on books, as well as you as an author?
I don’t have an eReader. My wife does and since she got her Kindle she has been reading much more than she used to. If she’s any indication, I suspect eReaders might be a boon to authors.

9. What is your advice to anyone, including young people, who want to be writers?
Find a way to make enough money to live comfortably in a job that gives you time and mental space to write. One of my mistakes in my various careers was to depend on creative endeavors to bring home the bacon. In our arts universe right now there are very few people who can make their living through their art. Your work will be a lot better if you’re not worrying about the rent while writing.

MY REVIEW/THOUGHTS:
How many of us have felt what it is like to send our children off without us for the first time somewhere? Now imagine how you would feel if you were Lena Trainor, the main character in NEVER WAVE GOODBYE by Doug Magee, sending her only child, nine-year-old daughter Sarah, on a bus to summer camp for the first time. Lena knows her daughter will have fun and be fine, but she is still anxious for her as the camp van drives away while they are waving goodbye. Lena’s thoughts shift to her plan of using the time apart from Sarah as a way to attempt to get her marriage back on track with husband David. Mixed emotions for sure keep Lena busy until another camp bus, the REAL one, pulls up to pick up Sarah!

How can this be? Sarah went off with that “J. D.”, the counselor and driver, about 30 minutes before on the way to pick up a few more campers before heading off to Camp Arno. Now with the validation that the second camp bus is indeed the real one, Sarah begins to think of little things that might have been suspicious had she been paying closer attention to detail. She questions herself for instance, wasn’t it odd that only one counselor came to accompany four youngsters to camp? The story moves into second gear with the realization that four children have been kidnapped and four families have become part of a parent’s worst nightmare!

Police, and soon after FBI, become involved and each family meets the other, waiting for news from the kidnappers. Magee is brilliant in creating mental images of this group for readers, and the suspicions begin to fly in all directions. Is it possible one of the parents is involved in taking these kids? The “who, what, where, and why” of a kidnapping kicks in and each couple reacts in their own way. Accusations fly, bonds are formed, and as things speed along, with one twist and turn after another, we learn more about each child and their family and wonder what part they may have played in all this. Although the story is centered on Lena and Sarah, the other victims all go into making up a fascinating and terrifying mystery. The villains gave me the creeps as I knew the children were being kidnapped long before the kids realized it,  and so we’re witness to the evil mind of the captors! Will the kidnappers ask for money, or do they have something else in mind? Will all the children be returned unharmed? How will this all too realistic and chilling premise effect each person who reads it?

I was hooked on NEVER WAVE GOODBYE from the first time I read a synopsis prior to its release. From the first chapter, Doug Magee had me and I knew I would devour this book. NEVER WAVE GOODBYE is such a dynamic thriller and readers will be able to relate to the plot line on a personal level, and thus will be flipping pages long into the night. The investment one places in these well-developed characters makes you feel their pain, anguish, fear, and frustration. It also is written with alternating chapters from the parent's point of view and then the children's so you experience the drama playing out as if it is taking place in real time with all involved. I loved this book and felt like I was holding my breath until the end, but was still sorry to turn that last page. I look forward to the next story that Doug Magee might have coming our way with great anticipation!  

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO KAITLYN AND THE GOOD

FOLKS AT SIMON & SCHUSTER, I HAVE

3 COPIES OF THIS WONDERFUL, GRIPPING

NOVEL TO GIVE AWAY TO READERS!

 
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