📚 A Bookish Chat with 'Crashers' Lindy S. Hudis | Author Interview | #AuthorInterview

Today we welcome Lindy S. Hudis to The Writer's Life e-Magazine! Lindy is the author of the new crime thriller, Crashers. This interview is part of her Blog Tour by Pump Up Your Book. Enjoy!

Lindy S. Hudis is an award winning filmmaker, author and actress. Lindy is a graduate of New York University, where she studied drama at Tisch School of the Arts. She also performed in a number of Off-Off Broadway theater productions while living in New York City.

She is the author of several titles, including her romance suspense novel, Weekends, her “Hollywood” story City of Toys, and her crime novel, Crashers. Her latest release, “Hollywood Underworld – A Hollywood Series” is the first installment of a crime, mystery series.

In addition, she has written several erotic short stories, including “The S&M Club”, “The Backstage Pass”, “Guitar God”, “The Guitarist”, and “The Mile High Club”.

Her short film “The Lesson”, which she wrote, produced and directed, has won numerous awards, including ‘Best Short Film’ at the Paris International Film Festival, The Beverly Hills Arthouse Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival.

She is also an actress, having appeared in the indie film Expressionism, the television daytime drama “Sunset Beach”, also “Married with Children” , “Beverly Hills 90210” and the feature film “Indecent Proposal” . She and her husband, Hollywood stuntman Stephen Hudis, have formed their own production company called Impact Motion Pictures, and have several projects and screenplays in development. She lives in California with her husband and two children.

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Crashers offers thrills, crime and mystery. Which of these was the most fun for you to write?

Crashers is a story that was inspired by actual events in my life. I went through a difficult time after being involved in a minor fender bender, so I processed all that stress into a story. One day, back in the 90’s, I was in my car heading south on LaBrea Avenue, a very busy main road in Los Angeles, California. I was stopped at a red light and my car rolled forward and tapped the bumper of the car in front of me. The lady had a slight dent in her rear bumper, but she demanded an ambulance and said that I seriously injured her. It was outrageous. Anyway, this person tried to get an outlandish amount of money from me. She failed, thank goodness. I became friendly with my insurance adjuster, who was a wonderful lady. She told me that after she inspected the damage to the car I hit, it was not consistent with the injuries that the lady in the car was claiming. She told me not to worry though, because insurance companies see this kind of game all the time. We had a nice talk about how some people do this often to make money. I was flabbergasted! I thought she was kidding but she was not. So, my story was born!

Which of the characters from Crashers do you most closely identify with and why?

Shari, the lead character. She is very impulsive and reactionary, almost as bad as I am! Just kidding! Lol, well I am a bit impulsive but I’m not capable of committing a crime. My characters are unique in the since that my work is very character driven but also the story takes the characters of this horrific journey. She and her fiancé Nathan are good, hardworking young people who are planning a life together, but they find themselves in precarious situations through no fault of their own. They are suddenly thrust into the world where they must literally scramble to survive.

What do you think sets Crashers apart from other books of the same genre?

It’s a combination of cautionary tale, suspense, crime thriller and yet it is also a character study of what lengths people can and will go to when they are greedy and happen to get a taste of another life. If you are a fan of crime fiction, pulp-novels and redemption, I do have to recommend by story.

Surprise me. What is something that happens in the book that would make my mouth drop without giving too much away?

The action comes from a place of the behavior of my characters. The attorney John Nastic is the one who runs this underground crime ring. He’s super intelligent and charismatic but has a dark underbelly to his personality. His employee Bryce is his scout, so to speak. He finds vulnerable

people and exploits them, trapping them in the downward spiral of crime and fraud by promising them lots of cash. It helps that he is mysterious and sexy, too! I wrote him like that on purpose!

Who is your favorite crime thriller author?

I grew up reading Jackie Collins, need I say more? She had over-the-top characters in unique situations, and she also mixed “Hollywood Glamour” into the story. I guess you could say she was my inspiration!

Do you think writing a crime thriller novel is more complex than writing books of other genres?

It can be, definitely. Lots of research is necessary, unless of course you are a former police officer like Joseph Wanbaugh, who I am a huge fan of. The Onion Field took place close to where we live. The details and intricacies of the law and what is and is not legal, you must know about all of that. Doing research is fun though, I do enjoy it. I tell my husband that I am a “frustrated homicide detective”, lol. I am. I have a huge addiction to True Crime shows like Forensic Files and City Confidential. Truth is stranger than fiction I believe.

What’s next for you?

I also have Crashers the screenplay. I entered it into the Sherman Oaks Screenplay Competition. The screenplay was an official selection and, although it didn’t win, we got great literary representation out of the contacts we made. Crashers is currently in development with Face 2 Face Productions, as our manager is also a producer. I am still very ambitious and have never given up on my Hollywood Dream. Many people have told me that it would make a great movie, so I acted on that advice.

How far would you go to get rich?

What if you were desperate? What if you were completely out of options? Would you cut in front of a sparkling, new Mercedes on the busy L.A. freeway and slam on the brakes? What if it were that easy?

Enter the world of Crashers…

The con is simple: Get in a car accident. Collect the insurance blood money. What could go wrong? That’s what Shari believed when she found herself in dire need of cash. When she meets the sexy and mysterious Bryce, the teaches her all about how to be a “capper.”

Soon, Shari realizes that by staging more of these accidents, she’ll have more money than she knows what to do with.

But as she becomes more and more obsessed with her strange new world, she discovers there’s no such thing as easy money. And what started out as a simple payout soon turns into a deadly game.

Read sample here.

Crashers is available at Amazon and is currently in film development with Face 2 Face productions.