©Laurel Holloman

Andy’s first novel also came with a surprise when Laurel Holloman posted this on twitter, “yes that’s one of my paintings on his book cover. Just happened to work great, I think, and that paintings headed hopefully to Milan soon.”

Andy was kind enough to answer a few questions to www.l-word.com about his debut novel that might help to know him a little bit better.

Interview with Andy Holloman

 

L-word: You are known as Mr. Mortgage but soon your debut thriller, “Shades of Gray”, will be released to make you also known as a novelist. What prompted you to write a novel?

 

Andy Holloman: Well, as is typically the case, it is a long story.  In the 1990’s I owned a group of travel agencies in the Raleigh/Durham NC area.   I had a sales agent in my Durham office that brought to my attention the story of one of her clients who appeared to be buying air travel tickets in an unusual (but legal) way and my staff person thought this woman might be smuggling drugs.  Later, this woman was found murdered in her burned out home and it was ruled as a drug related homicide (no arrests were made).  After 9/11 and the decline of the travel industry, a story idea lodged itself in my brain and wouldn’t let go.  To what lengths would a person go in order to save their business?   After my company closed in 2003, I began writing the story and it literally poured out.  I found that the process was challenging and the creative side of me truly enjoyed all of the parts of laying out the story.

 

L-word: The main setting of the novel is North Carolina where you actually live. How helpful was it to write about a familiar background?

 

AH: For this story, I feel that it was essential to use North Carolina as the setting and I found it extremely helpful to include the cities, landmarks, and places around me as scenery for the novel.  North Carolina is not only my home, but my true love when it comes to places I’ve seen in this world and I have done a good deal of traveling.  Our state is more diverse than most folks would know, especially here in the Triangle area (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) and we have the best beaches (Outer Banks, or OBX) and mountains in the west.