SW: I live in a small town in East Texas where I practice law, write books and study the publishing business. My wife of 26 years is an occupational therapist who works in pediatric OT. I have three daughters, the youngest of which graduated from high school in May 2012. I blog regularly at http://venturegalleries.com/author/stephenwoodfin/ , and my Twitter handle is @stephenwoodfin.Last One Chosen, the first novel I wrote, is a fast-paced legal thriller in which the government attempts to silence a brilliant scientist who will not assist in a plan to deploy the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. It is a parable about what can happen to a genuinely good person who refuses to violate his conscience. It is the first book in the Revelation Trilogy.
SW: Take this notion: A person who is without reproach faces the raw power of government and refuses to compromise his moral values. Set the story in the present, make what is at stake a matter of life and death for many people and see where it leads. That’s about as much as I can tell you about the genesis of the story. I wrote about places I knew from visiting or living in them. And I wrote about what I have observed of human nature. So, the research was really investigation into the human condition.
SW: I suppose the two lawyers in the book, Ert Roberts and Leadoff Pickens, are based on my own personal story and the story of a young protégé of mine. The other characters are not based on any specific people, but represent a lot of different types of people: a TV actor, a business man who got caught stealing, a Gay Black preacher, a woman of the street, an establishment minister who loses his job. The bad guys are remorse and conniving, and will stop at nothing to accomplish their goals.I actually have had an inquiry about the movie rights to Last One Chosen, but nothing has been finalized. In the movie, I could see this cast: Joshua Issacharoff (Benicio Del Toro); Leadoff Pickens (Matt Damon); Maggie (Charlize Theron); Ert Roberts (Gregory Peck a little older than when he played Atticus Finch).
SW: I have written and published five novels. Two of them are the second and third installments of the Revelation Trilogy. Those books, Next Best Hope and The Revelation Effect, deal with the relationship between faith and politics, although they are also fast-paced legal thrillers. In the first book, a group that calls itself the Christian Militants attempts to overthrow the United States government, and all hell breaks loose. In the second, the body count grows as a splinter group resorts to acts of terrorism to destabilize the government.I have also written a football book called Money is Thicker Than Blood: Murder in the SEC and a book which features a WWII vet with Alzheimer’s disease called The Warrior With Alzheimers: The Battle for Justice. Alzheimer’s disease is an issue that is a passion of mine because my mother fought a terrible ten-year struggle against it.The book I am working on now also deals with an Alzheimer’s theme, but from a totally different angle. I hope to have it finished in time to release it before the coming holiday season.
SW: I recently finished Creole Belle by James Lee Burke. I read all his work. My other favorite writers are probably Robert Parker and Ernest Hemingway. I read a lot of novels by independent writers and plan to read all the thrillers that are finalists in the Best Indie Books of 2012 list. I also plan to read Hugh Howey’s Wool, which I have just started.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Stephen Woodfin holds a BA in religion from Dallas Baptist University, graduating magna cum laude in 1974, as well as a Master of Divinity Degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC (1979) where he received the Cullen Midler Theology Award for the best paper submitted in Systematic Theology. In 1985, he graduated from Baylor Law School with a JD and gained admittance to the State Bar of Texas. He has practiced law for the last twenty-six years. He often tells juries that he went to seminary to get the Lord on his side and to law school to get the Devil on his side.
Woodfin has appeared as a featured speaker at state and national legal seminars, authoring papers for these appearances and for the Texas Paralegal Journal. His presentation at the American Bar Association Annual Seminar on Class Actions was one of the highest ranked of the seminar.
In 2008, Woodfin’s courtroom short story, The Promiscuity Defense, appeared in the Northeast Texas Writers’ Organization (NETWO) Anthology. Also in 2008, Writer’s Digest published his story, He Ain’t Leaving; He’s Gone, in its 2008 Short Short Story Collection. The story, which features a protagonist suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, ranked 15th out of over 7,000 submissions.
Woodfin is the author of five legal thrillers, a collection of short stories and standalone satirical five thousand word piece about a lawyer turned vampire who faces an ethical dilemma when he becomes a born-again Christian.
You can visit Stephen at his website, FB, Twitter and blog.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Homeland Security agents raid a small East Texas town and arrest a humble blue-collar worker for domestic terrorism and espionage. When two country lawyers take on his defense and fight to prevent their client’s execution, they learn that he holds the secret of a doomsday device, a secret he will not divulge, even under torture. At the trial’s astonishing conclusion, they realize for the first time that their struggle was not only about justice, but also redemption.
LAST ONE CHOSEN chronicles what can happen when one person motivated purely by the desire to do good for his fellow human beings is willing to give his life to oppose the forces of evil.
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This was a great interview Cheryl Mash, very detailed and insightful! Thanks for sharing about the Plot of your book with all of us Stephen Woodfin. I think your book, ” The Last one Chosen”, which I already began reading is amazing! This interview was so great! I also enjoyed learning more about your upcoming works Stephen Woodfin! Kudos!
Syl Stein
Thanks so much. And thanks to Cheryl for featuring Last One Chosen. SW
Great Interview Cheryl, it’s always great to hear about where Author’s get their plots from and any research they have done. It’s particularly interesting to see that a lot of it is down to observations of human nature (perfect excuse for me to people watch now – ‘i’m researching a book’)
People are truly fascinating; how different we all are, how we react to circumstances and interact with each other. This was a valuable response and I will take this away with me.
Well done
Great interview! Wow, three daughters, Stephen? I bet your household was interesting when they were still at home! Love the idea of this novel, and I think the cast for the movie adaptation would be amazing. Thanks for sharing this interview, Cheryl! 🙂
Fantastic interview! I love finding out where the characters come from.
I’ve been having a great time following the book award finalist interviews, learning great things along the way! Cheryl, great interview, and to Stephen, I am downloading your book asap!
Thank you so much, Cheryl, for such a fantastic interview! Very enlightening about Stephen!
Great job!
Juliette