For those of you who don’t know, Jeremy Evans is a character in all nine of my books. At times, he is central to the plot. Other times, he is a secondary character, kind of like a whisper in another room.
Jeremy first appeared in Stolen Lives, Book One of the Lives Trilogy. In that book, he was single and working as a high school counselor. He had adopted a set of twins who had previously been adopted by separate families. Randy ran away from an abusive home in Marshfield, Wisconsin, to seek his brother, Billy, who had been living in the Milwaukee area. Randy was no longer wanted, and had never been loved, by his first adoptive family. He was placed in foster care, and Jeremy, being single, accepted the role of foster dad to Randy. Jeremy later adopted Randy as his son.
While Randy’s past is tragic, Billy had a wonderful life. While Randy knew he had been adopted, Billy had never been told. He grew up in a happy household. That is until Billy stumbled upon an article that had appeared in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about adoptions and featured Jeremy and Randy.
Billy’s world crumbled. Angry at his parents because they had never told him, specifically his mother who had never wanted Billy to know, he spent more time with Jeremy and Randy, getting to know his brother. Billy’s adoptive parents divorced, and his mother moved to a different state. When Billy’s father died from a heart attack, Jeremy, because of several circumstances, took Billy in and adopted him.
Jeremy’s background in education is similar to mine: former teacher, coach, and counselor. I added administrator to my resume, while Jeremy wanted nothing to do with that role. He, like me, enjoyed working with kids and their families. I am often asked if the character of Jeremy is me. The answer is no, other than certain bullet points on a resume. He is a work of fiction and of my imagination.
In Stolen Lives, Jeremy opened his home to George Tokay, a Navajo boy whose family had been murdered in revenge for him leading the FBI to uncover a sex trafficking ring. It could be said that without George coming forward after witnessing the execution of a boy his age, the sex trafficking ring would not have been broken, and the perpetrators of the ring would not have been brought to justice.
By the end of my book, Caught in a Web, Jeremy had four boys he had adopted, had proposed and had gotten married to Vicky McGovern, who had two boys of her own through her first marriage. Six boys total. At the end of Betrayed, the seventh (and final? Who knows?) boy was adopted.
Jeremy’s small family grew. His house got bigger, and so did the stress and strain of raising seven boys, each in different stages of recovery from past trauma. In Fan Mail, Jeremy struggles in his relationship with Brian, one of the boys he had adopted. They don’t see eye to eye on many topics, and when Jeremy has a heart attack, Brian blames himself as the cause. In a conversation with his mother, Vicky, he offers to move out of the home in order to save the family. Vicky talks him out of that idea.
The coming-of-age portion of Fan Mail, the conflict between Jeremy and Brian, is central to the plot. Brian doesn’t know how to deal with Jeremy, and Jeremy doesn’t know how to deal with Brian.
The hardest character to write in any of my books? Jeremy. He is not a villain, and unlike the seven boys he adopted, he is not a trauma survivor. Jeremy is a father who loves his sons, including Brian, but doesn’t know how to say it. That silence, that gap between love and expression, destroys families every day. Brian sees himself as the cause of the Evans family falling apart. He thinks Jeremy regrets adopting him. Jeremy thinks Brian knows he’s loved. They’re both wrong. They’re both right. That’s the tragedy.
Each of us are imperfect because we are human. It is this imperfection that is central to my writing, and it is central to each of my characters in my ten books. The reader feels the conflict brought about by this human imperfection in Fan Mail. The reader feels it in Black Yé’ii, and this conflict is front and center in the book I am currently writing, The Disappeared.
Just like each of us, Jeremy isn’t perfect. He has imperfections. It is not my intention to have Jeremy become a monster. I have other characters who can certainly be described as such. Most of the time, Jeremy tries and succeeds, while other times, Jeremy tries and falls short, especially in his relationship with Brian. Will the two of them work it out? Perhaps. You’ll have to pick up my books to find out.
You can find all my books on Amazon in Audible, Kindle, and Paperback format. They have been translated into Spanish, German, and French. You can find each, along with their descriptions and a link that will take you directly to Amazon on my website: https://www.jrlewisauthor.com
For your convenience, listed below are the books I mentioned in this post, along with their links to Amazon:
Stolen Lives, Book One of the Lives Trilogy = https://tinyurl.com/42daf7yz
Caught in a Web = https://amzn.to/2GrU51T
Betrayed = https://amzn.to/3i2dxDz
Fan Mail = https://tinyurl.com/37xyxe3r
Black Yé’ii = https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DH8P5TNV
As always, thank you for following along on my writing journey. I would love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to use the comment section below. Until next time …
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