Interview with author Melvin Foster
Conducted by: Charlene Austin

Char: Mel, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. Tell us a little about Melvin Foster.

Melvin Foster: I was born in Detroit and attended the University of Michigan. I was in a playwriting class with Lawrence Kasdan -- he was simply Larry back then -- and our professor was Kenneth Thorp Rowe, who had taught Arthur Miller several years before us. I spent 25 years working in advertising, 21 of them spent as a creative director at J. Walter Thompson. During those years I wrote a few novels, working during the early morning hours. I got encouragement from editors, but nothing got published. I left advertising to pursue two creative outlets. First, I wanted to write another novel and second, I wanted to become a voiceover talent. It's been a very interesting journey going from a regular paycheck to the freelance life. Shaking Hands With Lefkowitz, the novel I wrote after leaving advertising, took only three months to complete a first draft. It was a great high to work on it all day long, as opposed to "stealing" an hour each morning.

Char: Mel, Excellent, enjoyable, thought provoking! I loved Shaking Hands with Lefkowitz. Will you share a little about this book with our readers?

Foster: Glad to. The book begins when Alan Borman, a successful attorney, sees a body lying face down in the street with three bullet holes in the back. A detective, Lefkowitz, remarks that the scene isn't quite right -- the man's Lexus still has the keys in it, his wallet is still in his back pocket. Then the EMS arrives and the techs turn the body face up to place it onto a stretcher. Borman turns pale. "Do you know the guy?" Lefkowitz asks. "Yeah, it's me," Borman replies.

From there, we are transported to what we assume is heaven. Or some version of it. Long white corridors. Physical reality that seems to shift with our thoughts.

The novel then deals with Borman's attempt to solve his own murder from the other side.

Char: You have used a very unique and original presentation for Shaking Hands with Lefkowitz. Your story seems to take a mystery thriller and weave it into a complex, for lack of a better word, fantasy, of a plausibility, where a death investigation quickly becomes a life investigation. What, where, or who was the catalyst? What inspired Lefkowitz?

Foster: That's a hard question to answer. I know this: I would not have written Lefkowitz the way I did if I hadn't already written a few other novels first.

Let me explain. The inspiration for Lefkowitz was that opening scene, the body in the street and the arrival of the EMS. I knew I wanted Borman to say, "It's me." And I knew I wanted Lefkowitz to then say, "Really? In that case I'd better take you in for questioning." That was it. Nothing more.

I spent three months trying to do all the conscientious things a writer should do before beginning a novel-length project. I journaled, asking myself plot questions, character questions, etc. I got absolutely nowhere.

Finally, armed with the knowledge that once begun, I had the stamina to finish a novel, I just sat down and started to write.

When Chapter Two began with a description of long white corridors, I was as surprised as the reader might be. My goal each day was to surprise myself.

Char: You did an excellent job of maintaining tension with the shifts between realities and with the flashbacks. What were the challenges you faced as a writer in making these transitions between reality and fantasy flow smoothly for the reader?

Foster: There are two primary stories in the novel. In addition to Borman's attempt to solve his murder -- a process which caused him to examine his life --there is the story of Arlene Jaffe, who is a counselor for victims of rape. The two stories both arise from an incident on a school playground when Alan and Arlene were thirteen years old.

Borman's story line is told in first person. I wanted the reader to experience the eccentricities of heaven from a novice's point of view. It helped, I think, make the experience feel more remarkable.

Arlene's story line is told in third person. It takes place in the present. Yet we very much feel the pain she still feels as a rape victim when she was thirteen.

Every time I left one story and went to the other, I tried to make a reference that segued naturally from Alan to Arlene and vice versa.

Char: You maintained an equally intriguing balance with your character interaction. They not only tug at the emotions but pass them to the reader. How difficult was it to imbue these emotions into your characters and did you find it difficult giving them an ending, and letting go after working with them?

Foster: It was relatively easy for me to give voice to Borman's emotions. His life was being judged down to the very slightest of incidents -- the panhandler he passed on the streets without giving him any money. Each incident proved to be a thread in an extremely complicated web that connected his life to everyone he ever met -- and to many others that he never laid eyes on. He reacted to this with wonder, with outrage, with love and with humility. I felt, as the writer, that I was sharing these emotions.

It was much harder to give voice to Arlene's emotions. She had been raped by her uncle as a teenager and now counseled rape victims. I have never experienced anything close to that in my life. But I was once robbed at gunpoint in my own home. (I did mention that I grew up in Detroit, didn't I?) So I knew what it felt like to be powerless and violated. My wife and I were placed on our hands and knees with our hands tied behind our back. I had fantasies for months afterward of ripping off the rope, jumping to my feet and beating the living hell out of the gunmen. I tapped into that experience in order to help me identify with Arlene.

I didn't have any trouble letting go at the end. I think that comes from my advertising experience. You work like a maniac putting in 12-hour days to create a commercial. You live it, breathe it, dream it at night for three months. Then it's on the air and you're onto the next one. I guess I developed a "release" mechanism for my creations that way.

Char: You left a very successful career to pursue your writing. Is this something you have always wanted to do?

Foster: I wrote all during that career. Verrry slowly. About one novel every five years. I always wanted to be able to sit down all day long and crank one out. That was a remarkable experience.

Char: What books or authors do you feel have had the most influence on your writing and your desire to write.

Foster: There are writers whose work I love. Don DeLillo is amazing. Sometimes I come across a sentence he wrote to end a scene and I realize the vast gulf between his talents and mine. I love Pat Conroy. They both inspire me with the power of good writing to create awe. Chaim Potok is another writer who has touched my heart. My writing style is very different from all three of these great writers, but they inspire me to do my best.

Char: What advice do you have for aspiring authors.

Foster: Every copywriter in advertising is going to write a book some day. Most of them have already begun it. Most of them will never finish it. The one piece of advice I would give to a beginning author is this: kill your critic. Shoot him or her at least 20 times, cut him up with a chainsaw, tie a cement block to each piece and toss them into the river. (Again, Detroit.)

Typically, a beginning writer gets to about page 20 or 25 when he realizes that everything written to that point sucks. So he starts again. Odds are a thousand to one that he never gets to page 25 again.

It's that pesky critic. Ignore him. Don't -- at all costs -- go back to page one and start over again. Kill the critic and continue with page 26. And don't worry about guilt. By the time you finish the first draft, your critic will have completely reassembled himself and, boy, will he have a lot to say!

Char: Where can interested readers purchase or order Shaking Hands with Lefkowitz?

Foster: Lefkowitz is published by Zumaya. The simplest way to order it is by visiting www.melvinfoster.com. There's a link on my website that takes you directly to BookSurge where you can place the order. For book clubs, the book can be purchased through Zumaya at a discount for ten or more copies.

Char: Mel, again, thank you so much for taking the time to talk

Review of Shaking Hands with Lefkowitz

Excellent! Enjoyable!  Thought provoking!”

In a shabby run down neighborhood, the Lexus-LS430 sits at the curb with its keys still in the ignition. An undisturbed wallet bulges in the back pocket of the victim’s designer suit.

“You know him?” Lefkowitz asked.

“Yeah, I said, staring directly into the corpses still-open eyes.  “It’s me.”

Author Melvin Foster’s Shaking Hands With Lefkowitz is delightful, stirring, and thought provoking, not only for Attorney Alan Boreman as he works with detective Lefkowitz on a bizarre murder case, but for the reader as well. Shaking Hands With Lefkowitz will take you on a journey of discovery and understanding.

Alan finds himself following the swarthy detective from the murder scene down a seemingly endless corridor of impossibly white walls that seem to shift and change with his thoughts. He cannot remember anything about the last hours of his life and has no clue who might have killed him. In the interrogation room, they initiate an investigation, starting with Alan’s “Ten Worst Deeds List”. 

Alan learns as he studies the volumes of his life for clues in his own death that every thought, every action, every deed and word has a stream of energy that leaves a trail of un-thought-of never-imagined consequences through the lives of people he never even met. Occurrence by occurrence, with the help of Lefkowitz and his guardian angel, he searches through the actions of his past to find the thread that will unravel the mystery of his death.

How could he know his embarrassed, thoughtless refusal of Arlene Jaffe’s gift when he was thirteen would lead to such horrible abuse? How could he know the effect his teenage fantasies about a woman in a magazine would have on her life and her children? Can Alan’s heartfelt remorse and repentance, the gentle tear of his guardian angel, erase the damage as they do the deeds on his list and allow the victims of his deeds and thoughts to heal? And what effect might their healing have on his death?

I could not put Shaking Hands With Lefkowitz down. Melvin Foster is a gifted storyteller and an artist at crafting characters to carry out his plot and theme. Alan Boreman is a perfect balance of fear, regret, resentment, self-righteous anger, and confusion. His guardian angel is a gift of love and understanding. Lefkowitz is a believable mix of gruff charm and satiric humor, a release valve for the deep emotions this story pulls forth. Shaking Hands With Lefkowitz is delightful and entertaining escape. But I warn you, this is a stay up all night page-turner. The light will stay on until the last page is read.

Reviewed by:Charlene Austin

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