Publisher: Three Clover Press (June 25, 2023)
Category: Action, Suspense, Thriller, Love Story (but NOT a romance)
Tour dates: January 11-February 22, 2024
ISBN: 979-8988505709
Available in Print and ebook, 293 pages
Description Never For Glory by Lloyd Lofthouse
He’d give his life for his country. But this time, it’s personal.
Fighting his way out and desperate to rescue the victims with minimal body count, Josh plans a daring raid on a remote ranch. But after learning the identity of the mastermind behind the hit on a former lover, the talented operative takes the law into his own hands on a hell-bent solo mission for revenge…
Will Josh’s single-minded thirst for justice finish on the wrong side of a gun barrel?
Never for Glory is the pulse-pounding second book in the Josh Kavanagh thriller series. If you like determined heroes, tough conflict ripped from the headlines, and page-turning action, then you’ll love Lloyd Lofthouse’s pursuit of payback.
Review Never For Glory by Lloyd Lofthouse
“Review by SuzieA no nonsense tale of guts and glory!
This is the second book in the 'Josh Kavanagh' series
by Lloyd Lofthouse and this book packs twice the punch of the first! This time,
Josh Kavanagh quite literally begins the novel by falling from the sky.
Parachuting into southern Venezuela, Josh's main target is a known sex
trafficker by the name of Damien Bran.
Now, Bran is a slippery guy and Josh finds this out
the hard way pretty quickly when he loses track of him in the jungle. But,
while Josh does not find Bran, he does find a barn full of Bran's living
victims-- dozens of children that have been brought into the country to be sex
trafficked and are being kept in cages.
The situation is bleak, made all the more so by the
traps and land mines surrounding the building and the gang of criminals one
building over. Josh has to think quickly, and he needs the help of his partner
and his former lover-turned sex trafficking victim advocate, Mia. The two of
them have a lot of history to work out together, which is made even more
complicated by the feelings that Josh still has for his comatose wife.
If you think all of this sounds exciting, you should
know that this is just the tip of the iceberg with this novel!
Lofthouse spins a tale that is equal parts action and
heart, with just the right amount of mystery thrown in for good measure. You
definitely don't need to have read the first book in this series to enjoy this
one, as Lofthouse also gives you everything you need to know right up front.
'Never For Glory,' was a slam dunk for me, and I'm
sure that it will be a great read for anyone who enjoys a good thriller. 5
stars all around!
Interview Lloyd Lofthouse
Suzie:
What is your favorite scene in the book? Why?
Lloyd: Two
scenes in Never for Glory are tied for my favorite spot, and they both
include Adrienne. When Josh first meets this new character, she’s locked in a cramped
cage meant for dogs, and is being trafficked into the illegal, global sex
industry. In chapter 12, while rescuing her, Josh is impressed by how calm she is
and the fact that she sees humor in her situation, as they are trying to disarm
an IED buried under her cage (an improvised explosive device powerful enough to
kill them all in an instant).
When
writing that scene, I never intended to elevate any of the rescued children to
become permanent characters in the series beyond that chapter, but Adrienne impressed
me and Josh into becoming a regular, who ends up with a major role in this book
and the next one in the series, Fiddling with Death.
The
second scene starts with Chapter 28. A short time after the rescue, Josh was severely
wounded. The only reason he’s still alive is because of Adrienne, who refuses
to let him die. He sees himself as a burden and contemplates suicide to give
her a better chance to survive the mess they’re in.
Suzie: Where do you get the names for your characters?
Lloyd:
Most of the character names come from Writers Digest’s Character Naming
Sourcebook, second edition. After I determine the family history of a
character, often back to that family’s roots, I look up the country of origin. While
I’m looking at those names, I’m also paying attention to what they mean. For instance, Adrienne’s full name, the one
she chose, not what her parents gave her at birth, is Adrienne Odelette Avice. Since
Adrienne is one of Mia’s super fans (Mia’s a famous French singer in the novel
who also secretly rescues trafficked children). When Adrienne legally changed
her name at 16, she went with French, not Portuguese, her first language.
Adrienne
means dark
Odelette
- little singer
Avice -
warlike.
Why did
she change her name to this one?
Well, she’s
melanin-rich, stands less than 5-feet tall, is a popular busker in Brazil with
a successful YouTube channel, and when needed, she won’t back down. She’ll
fight.
Suzie:
How completely do you develop your characters before beginning to write?
Lloyd: I’m a pantser, who only develops
characters with more depth after I know they’re going to stick around. Josh was
born from a prompt in the Wednesday morning, VA, PTSD support group I belong to
that uses writing as therapy to help us manage our trauma. The prompt that gave
birth to the Josh Kavanagh thrillers was about a combat vet coming home. The
revised results of that first prompt turned into The Patriot Oath’s
first chapter. A week later, the results from the second prompt, heads or
tails, continued Josh’s story. At the end
of chapter one, he flips a coin to find out how he’s going to reconnect with
his high school sweetheart Rachel.
After that, I wanted to explore Josh’s life in
depth, and kept writing. Now I’m about halfway through writing the third
thriller in the series.
Eventually, as a character takes on a life of
their own, I have to stop and create a detailed character profile that sometimes
reaches back before their birth into their family’s history. A lot of the
details in those profiles never make it into the story, but they help me
understand what makes each character tick.
Suzie:
How has your being in the Marines and seeing combat influenced your writing?
Lloyd:
Being a former US Marine and combat vet living with PTSD has influenced my
writing quite a bit. I started writing seriously in 1968, and it wasn’t until
recently that I realized most if not all the major characters in my fiction are
traumatized. Writing about someone else suffering from PTSD trauma has helped
me manage mine.
Writing
“provides a safe place for random thoughts, feelings and experiences that would
otherwise clutter your mind. Putting words down on paper become cathartic and
your mind becomes calmer and clearer.” — PTSDUK
And since combat vets aren’t the only people that have been damaged, the traumas my characters live with, that define who they are, runs the gamut. “This could be the result of experiences such as war, physical assault, or sexual assault. It's also possible for a natural disaster or other traumatic experiences to cause PTSD.” — The Bridge to Recovery
Another
major influence is from the other combat vets in my VA PTSD support groups,
both women and men. And yes, some women
in that group have also been in combat—one of them was an Explosive Ordinance
Disposal Specialist (EOD) for more than a decade. I asked her once why she
didn’t stay in a few more years until she reached 20, so she could retire with
some benefits. She replied, “I got tired of being blown up.” She’s tougher than
most of the men I know.
Suzie:
What writers have you drawn inspiration from?
Lloyd:
There are many. For thrillers, I think James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series
is at the top of the list. Other writers would be: Ursula K. Le Guin, Tolkien,
Frank Herbert, Anne Rice, et al. I’m a fan of vampire books, too.
Suzie:
What was your first job?
Lloyd:
I was 15, and washing dishes for minimum wage, about 30 hours a week, nights
and weekends in a May Co. department store’s basement coffee shop restaurant
during three of my four high school years.
Suzie:
What do you do when you are not writing?
Lloyd:
When I’m not writing, I’m exercising or working on the fixer upper I live in
that I bought back in 2016. That house was in such terrible shape, my offer was
the only one the seller got. It took three months working 12 to16 hour days before
I moved in. Even then, I started out
living in one room while working on the others, until the day came that the
house was livable again. I’m still working on improvements. This neglected
house was used as a rental for 40 years before I bought it.
I have
enough tools and skills to build a house from scratch if I live long
enough. That’s on my bucket list. My
dream house, well, I couldn’t build it alone. That’s for sure. I’d have to hire
someone else to work with me. The latest
project was turning my bed into a storage bed. I’m almost done with that one.
Next task, lining the inside of the storage area with aromatic tongue and grove
cedar planks.
Suzie:
What books are you reading at present?
Lloyd: Here’s a short list of the most recent books
I’ve read that are still sitting in my to-be-reviewed stack: the curious
incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon, Fugitive Telemetry
by Marta Wells, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict, Centers
of Gravity by Marko Kloos (I’ve read the entire series), A Gentleman in
Moscow by Amor Towles, Z, A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese
Anne Fowler, and Tom Lake by Ann Patchett.
Suzie:
What are you currently working on?
I’m
working on Fiddling with Death, the third thriller in the Josh Kavanagh
series, and a science fiction-fantasy-paranormal series called Becoming
Merlin, that I’ve been serializing on Amazon Vella. The subtitle for the first
book in that series may be called Fugitives.
Suzie: What is
your writing routine like?
Lloyd: My
daily writing goals mean I have to work at least one hour or more a day. Usually, it’s more. I also belong to three
critique groups, and one of the three is the VA, PTSD support group I mentioned
earlier. Before I share what I’m writing, I also run my rough drafts through
ProWritingAid.
What I
write and share with the combat vets does not always end up being published and
seen by anyone else. For instance, here’s a haiku chain poem I wrote for the
PTSD support group about my life from birth.
The Six Ages of Lloyd
Gasping to inhale
Sentenced to death at three
No way doctors said
One MD said yes
Too many jabs, no athletics
Never ending years
Stupid at Seven
He’s too dull to read or write
Two Ed judges said
By ten, a reader
Mom proved dumb experts wrong
Escaping in books
At nineteen the one
Said, Lloyd, you are healed
Free to live your life
He joined the Marines
Bootcamp was a living hell
Vietnam better
He turned twenty-one
With bullets and bombs flying
Trauma a shadow
Five decades slipped by
Surviving booze and fast food
Him haunted by ghosts
Reaching seventy
With baggage, three divorces
And PTSD
Him living each day
Combating many demons
With the feel good four
Note: The feel good four are hormones our bodies produce naturally:
“Dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin. You can boost levels of these hormones with some simple lifestyle changes, like diet, exercise, and meditation, and possibly improve your mood in the process.” — Harvard Health
Naturally increasing the production of those four feel-good hormones is one of my major weapons in managing the PTSD I live with.
Thanks so much for taking part in this interview! Suzie
You are
welcome. Thanks for having me as a guest on your blog. Lloyd
About Lloyd Lofthouse
Multi award winning author, Lloyd Lofthouse is a former US Marine (1965—1968) and combat vet managing PTSD. After the Marines, he went to college and earned a BA in journalism and later an MFA. After working as a nightclub maître d, he taught English and journalism in a public high school. For his first published novel, My Splendid Concubine, Lloyd visited mainland China several times to learn more about that country’s people, culture, and history. 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lflwriter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lloyd-Lofthouse-168775989838050/
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Thanks so much for hosting Lloyd. I am so glad you enjoyed 'Never For Glory'!
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