PopSyndicate.com

Today book blog editor Angela Wilson chats it up with poet - and PS reviewer - George Thompson.

Who is George Thompson?
George Thompson is a preacher’s kid who has gone to the “bad” side and returned spiritually.  My early life was nurtured in Biblical studies and going to church every Sunday.  That was Sunday morning for services and again Sunday night.  I even went on Wednesday nights for prayer meeting and Thursday night for choir practice.  My life was centered around my church.

I guess I rebelled when I went off to college because I wanted to try the things that I couldn’t have while I was at home.  Dancing, card playing and booze (I got drunk every weekend when I stayed on campus.).  I never experimented with marijuana—at first—and stuck to hard liquor every weekend.

It was after I entered the US Air Force that I started drinking a six-pack of beer with a friend.  My wife didn’t want alcohol in “her” house, but I reasoned with her that it was better for me to drink at home than for her to search for me at some bar.  I stayed with beer for the longest time and once we separated and subsequently divorced, I switched to wine and then started experimenting sexually.  I went to gay bars because my roommate was gay and I liked what I saw.  Men were hitting on me and I liked the attention; I took quite a few home with me.  I was 33 at the time that I admitted I am gay and it changed my life.  I’m comfortable with who I am.

Wine was my forte until I decided to switch to whiskey and bourbon.  I would buy a 750 milliliter bottle and drink it in three nights—alone.  One morning when I was off from work and had a doctor’s appointment, I fell asleep at the wheel of my car and ran into the back of another car.  The victim called the police and I was given the road test for sobriety and blew .198 on the Breathalyzer.  I was hauled off to jail, fingerprinted, and spent the day in the jail.  I surrendered my driver’s license and was told I would have to go through a regimen of tests to determine what came next.  The tests all indicated that I was an alcoholic and I enrolled in a rehab program for 30 days at a hospital.  The program was sponsored by AA and I finally admitted to myself and everyone around me that I’m an alcoholic.  I discovered and went through the 12-step program in 2002 and have been sober ever since.

How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was 16.  I wrote poetry and it was for myself.  Every time I seemed to be depressed, I could write a poem and the depression would lift.  I was still living at home and wanted to be like the other guys with whom I associated.  I never “hated” being a preacher’s kid, but I wanted to be able to do the things the guys could do.  It took a lot of restraint on my part not to rebel and break the rules of the Christian home.

I continued to write poetry while in the Air Force and some of it was published.  I also wrote articles for local magazines that used armchair travelogues.  My biggest enjoyment was being published in Playboy in its Forum section.  I was paid $50 for my work and became very excited and knew I wanted to continue to write. Those early experiences led to further writings after my mother passed away on Valentine’s Day in 2005.  I couldn’t stop writing.  Everything I saw, everything I felt I wrote about.  When I showed some of my poetry to a friend, he suggested I have it published and I did.  My first book was called Experience, Strength and Hope.  The title came about from my 12-step program with AA.  Part of its motto is to share our experiences, strengths and hopes with others “that they may want what we have.”

What compelled you to write From Christianity to Sin and Back Again?
I started writing one day and the pen fairly flew across the pages as I started the story of my life.  At first, I had no intentions of publishing it; it was my journal.  I went through various titles for my writing and the first title was “Preacher’s Kid.”  However, that didn’t seem to say what I wanted and when I talked with my publisher, I made the remark that my story was actually one of going from good boy to bad boy and back again.  That’s when the final title came into being.  The publisher thought From Christianity to Sin and Back Again was an excellent, thought-provoking title that would set the book apart from all the others on the market.

Some might think this is a novel for the Christian market, but it has some pretty race scenes in there. Who would this book most appeal to?
This book—overall—should appeal to anyone who has been through similar situations but has been afraid to admit it.  I see it as a book for alcoholics and drug addicts who are still struggling for sobriety.  If I can overcome the addiction, anyone can.  The book is an uplifting book for people who don’t want to go through what I’ve been through.

How has your novel been received in the gay community?
I haven’t done a marketing campaign for the gay community.  Several gay friends have read the book and agree that it took a lot of guts for me to write my life’s story.  I gearing up for a campaign within the gay community to see what the reaction/response will be.

What did you hope to accomplish by telling your personal story of addiction and lifestyle choice?
I hope that my story will be a beacon of promise for better things in life outside the realm of addiction.  Lifestyle should have nothing to do with it since “all” people, both straight and gay, can become addicted to alcohol and other drugs.

Who are you reading?
I’m reading John Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark, Stephen Cannell and others.  I like a good mystery with surprise endings.