We are heading south today to a small college campus to meet Lam Corso, the hero of a new mystery thriller novel. Our guide is author Gary Guinn from Arkansas. He writes literary and mystery/thriller fiction. His first novel was published in 2005 and his poetry and fiction have appeared in a variety of magazines, and his short fiction has appeared in several anthologies.
His newest book, Sacrificial Lam, was released recently by The Wild Rose Press. It is set on a small Southern college campus. Gary tells us his favorite pastimes are reading, writing, traveling, and brewing beer (and of course, drinking it).
Let's find out more about Lam and his adventure:
When
English professor Lam Corso receives a death threat at work, he laughs it off.
A liberal activist teaching at a small Southern conservative college, he's used
to stirring up controversy on campus. It's just part of the give and take of
life. Even when violently attacked, Lam is convinced it has to be a mistake. He
can't imagine anyone who would want to kill him for his beliefs.
When his home
is broken into and his wife's business vandalized, Lam is forced to face facts.
The police can't find a single lead. Lam's wife—a passionate anti-gun
crusader—is outraged when Lam brings a gun into the house for protection. Left
to their own devices, Lam and Susan must examine their marriage, faith, and
values in the face of a carefully targeted attack from an assailant spurred
into action by a different set of beliefs. What will it cost to survive?
Because I love to know more about fascinating characters, naturally I have some questions for Lam. Tell us a little about your past and what made you decide to become a teacher?
The
college where I did my undergraduate work had an inner-city program. They took
groups of students to Chicago for three weeks over Christmas break to work with
at risk kids. I participated during my sophomore year, and it changed my life.
We worked with the kids on literacy. One of the young guys in my group made
great strides the first two weeks, and I got close to him. He didn’t show up
for week three. I found out just before we left the city that he had died in a
gang shooting. The news was devastating. Working with him, seeing him get
excited about learning to read, had been the most satisfying thing I’d ever
done. Literacy might have helped him escape the inner city. When I returned to
the college, I enrolled in the education program.
What
do you like best about teaching?
I grew up with
books. I loved to read. When I decided to teach, I thought literature would be
a good field to get into. It turned out to be a perfect fit. I love working
through a piece of great literature with students and seeing the light come on
in their eyes, seeing them smile when they get it.
Least?
That’s easy.
Administrative gobbledygook. If professors at small colleges could just teach,
put all their energy into their work in the classroom, their lives would be so
much more rewarding. But at small colleges, everyone has to serve on committees
and turn in reports and do all kinds of evaluations. Those are onerous tasks to
most teachers.
Lam,
you’re a liberal thinker, but you teach at a conservative college. Is there a reason you chose to work there or
is there another story behind your job?
It’s a simple story,
really. I was married, just finishing up my PhD. First baby was on the way. PhD’s
in English are a dime a dozen, so when I was offered an interview at Mid-South
Methodist, I jumped at the chance. I toned down my more radical progressive
ideas for the interview. I got the job. I thought I’d be there a couple of
years, build my resume, and then find a better job at a state school. But I
found that I, and a handful of other liberal professors on campus, served a
really valuable purpose in offering students another way of looking at the
world. Students on the fringe of the status quo reached out to me. I became a
mentor to some of them. And I developed close friendships with some of the
other liberal professors, especially one of the professors in the Psychology
Department. A couple of years stretched into a dozen.
Fill
us in on this new trouble you appear to be in?
Any hints of what’s going on?
Well, though the
university treats liberal professors even-handedly, our fit in the college
community is sometimes difficult. There are some faculty, staff, and students
who express dismay at the fact that the school hired liberal professors in the
first place. There is particular outrage whenever one of us outspokenly
supports liberal social causes, especially causes related to LGBT or
immigration. Reproductive rights for women and the environment are also
hot-button issues. But I never felt threatened, never felt that anyone on
campus was capable of lashing out violently.
That changed when I
arrived at work on a beautiful Friday morning and found an envelope under my
office door that held an anonymous death threat. I thought it was a joke by one
of my colleagues in the department. But that evening I was run off the road
while riding my bike, and a few days later I was attacked in the parking lot
after dark. It was a narrow escape. The police and campus security are now
involved, but they have not been able to find anything that points to a
suspect. I’m beginning to worry about my wife and two boys, nine and six years
old.
Our
readers love romance. What drew you to
your wife and what makes the two of you work as a couple?
My
junior year in college, my roommate talked me into going to a peace rally. He
said that’s where the good-looking women would be. I had nothing else to do, so
I went along. And there she was, holding up a sign that said, “Schools, not
Bombers.” Well, I agreed with the sentiment, but it was the eyes and the lips,
that incredibly sexy crooked smile, and the knockout figure that slew me. We
talked, hit it off. I took her to a coffee house after the rally. We talked
till two o’clock in the morning. I was already in love.
But
we’ve had a great marriage because of more than physical attraction. She’s an
incredible person. She runs a very successful screen-printing business she
started in high school. She founded and runs a regional peace center that is
active in political and social issues. We’ve both become activists in issues of
peace, the environment, and immigration.
What’s
going on now with the death threat and attacks is putting a strain on our
family and our relationship.
What
would you say is your secret or hidden passion?
I’ve
always wanted to live on a sailboat in a small harbor of a small island off the
coast of Greece. To get up every morning and dive into the Aegean Sea. To sit
in a deck chair and watch the sun set on the ocean, with Greek folk music
coming from the dock. A glass of wine. Fish on the grill.
Thank you, Lam, for sharing your story with us. Here are the buy links:
Mystery series have always intrigued me and I'm always looking for a new character to enjoy and/or a new town or shop to visit. Today's guest in My Writing Corner is Misty Simon who writes the Ivy Morris series. Misty says she likes to make people laugh with her work, and as a reader, I always enjoy the humor I find in her books. 
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