Book Nook - The Letters

Letter writing has become a lost art. For decades it was a way of keeping in touch with family and loved ones. Yet now with email, social media, and smart phones it has fallen by the wayside. Very few people still write letters. Yet those who do claim they have a stronger emotional connection and believe they open themselves out far more than those who don’t. So can letter writing be revived? Who still writes letters?

I had a chance to find out the answers to these questions and learn more about the book "The Letters," in an interview with author Joe Prine.

Can you share a little about your book?
 The Letters follows Mike Roberson as he tries to overcome the hardships in his past and present. He is a Law Enforcement Officer who was recently involved in a near death mission. After the incident, his boss decides it is time for Mike to take some time off and the department sends him to train. Mike uses this opportunity to reconnect with his childhood best friend and love, Sam. Life, as it does so often, has kept them apart save a few random interactions. Mike discovers Sam became pregnant after their last meeting and has kept the child from him, but before he can process this information, his son is kidnapped by a crazed stalker.  Mike must now save his son’s life while making sure he does not cross a line he cannot come back from.
 
What were the challenges in writing it? 

My biggest struggle was having the time between my full-time job and life as a husband and father, to sit down and write it. The story line flowed very quickly and smoothly once I started. I had to make sure I kept the momentum moving forward with the book. 

How did you develop the characters? 

I was able to base the characters of people in my life. I tried to also make them more relatable as people not just names in a book. The hardest part was trying to convey their separate personalities without getting lost from the main characters and the story line. 

 Letter writing seems forgotten in this tech driven age, what led you to base the story on letters? 

It is a very forgotten art. I drew inspiration for this story from my own experiences. I joined the army and went to boot camp in 2011. The only form of communication I had with the outside world was through the letters I sent to my best friend Samantha. It was rare to be able to call home but even when I was able to I called her. In June of 2023, Sam told me she still had every letter I wrote her during that time. The story leapt out at me, and I began writing it along the way. Handwritten letters are very intimate compared to the digital age of texting, emails, and handwriting or even see the tear stains on the paper as they break down. I hope one day we can get back to this lost art.  

Do you plan more books? 

I have already begun to outline the second book of this series. I also published a book titled The Beginning of the End. It is a religious fiction noval about the end of time. I am in the final stages of writing the second of that series as well. Finally, I am going to write a memoir detailing my units time in Afghanistan, but that on is in the very early stages.