Notice of Assignment: A Conversation with the Author

Marie lived the true stories with Chris. Now she gets to ask him some questions.

I wrote Notice of Assignment because I've been telling stories for twenty-five years and finally decided to put a fictional one on paper. So I handed the mic to the person who knows me best (my wife, Marie) and let her ask the questions. Here's what came out.

Discussing the Real Estate Thriller, Notice of Assignment

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A Husband and Wife Discussion About a Book He Wrote

Chris Lengquist sits down with his wife, Marie, to talk about his debut novella, Notice of Assignment: The Cal Brink Files, Book One.

Chris Lengquist: My name is Chris Lengquist, and today we’re going to do something a little bit fun. My wife is going to be on here — say hi, Marie.

Marie Lengquist: Hello,

Chris Lengquist: and she’s going to ask me some questions about this novella, Notice of Assignment, coming in October, and I’m going to answer as truthfully as I can. And by the way, you’re going to get to see a little bit more of her here, because, well, she’s my better half, she’s my real-life compass. And in Notice of Assignment, you’ll meet Shawna, who is Cal Brink’s compass — or you can meet both of them in the short stories that you can find at CalBrinkFiles.com. It’s up to you. (You’re already here.)

Marie: So you’re clearly having fun, but why did you write a book, and why now?

Chris: Well, I wrote this book because I started with The Process Server Chronicles back in January. Somewhere in late January, I had this idea — I’ve been telling these stories for years and years and years, these true-ish stories. I mean, I’ve been known to embellish a little bit, and I’ve been known to hide the names.

I’ve said the names out loud to you, I’ve said the names out loud to some close friends, but on The Process Server Chronicles, I’m not going to say those names. These are household names of people we’ve investigated. Now, that said, I wanted to put the stories on paper, maybe as a memoir, maybe as entertainment, maybe all sorts of things, but these are fun stories, and people have said for years, “Write them down.”

So, I wrote them down. I love telling the stories. I love having the memories of the funny stories. I just like writing the stories.

Marie: So you’re talking about the life you lived, creating fictional experiences to tell a story that you imagined could have been. Why did you decide to write it so personally?

Chris: I think there are stories in every person. I mean, how long have we known each other?

Marie: Forty-two years.

Chris: Forty-two years, something like that. I like stories, I like telling stories, I like imagining things that could be, or alternative versions. And so I just — Cal Brink, you know, as well as I do, our first son, I was thinking about naming him Calvin, you know, and you came in with some ideas, and we ended up with a different name for our son, which is great, but I thought, well, now I can use the name — Cal — which you know I wanted to do. I would also just simply say that I think people are more complex than we make them out to be. We say this guy is this, or this woman is that, but the truth is we all are multiple, multi-layered, and we all have stories that we tell out loud. We all have versions of ourselves that we show to others, but we all have deep, dark places. We also have places where we want to go, who we want to be. And I think when I look at people, I say, okay, what are their stories? What are the complexities of this person, because those complexities are what make people people. And in this case, that’s a story — a novella.

Marie: Where do people go to find the book?

Chris: Well, I haven’t decided yet. I do know this: if you go to CalBrink.com right now, you can get the first four chapters. You can download them, and it doesn’t cost you anything. In fact, if you download them and read it, and you love it or hate it, or have some ideas about it, send me some comments — leave a comment, send me an email, whatever it takes. Because here’s the truth: I wrote the novella, it’s thirty-two chapters, and those thirty-two chapters are sitting with an editor that I’m kind of surprised took me on. She works with people who sell some books, and I’m real nervous about what she’s going to say, but she’s going to change things. She’s going to say, “Hey, you need to think about this, you need to think about that, you didn’t do a very good job here.” So get the third version already of the first four chapters, and we’ll see where they go after the editor’s done with me.

Marie: I remember those days you told me very little about your work, and I could see the emotional toll it was taking on you. You didn’t start telling these stories till much later. Do these emotions bleed into the page?

Chris: Yes, absolutely. Choosing what to write and what not to write — well, first of all, it’s a work of fiction, so it’s all fiction, really. But the fiction is an amalgamation of all of my experiences, all the things that I saw, all the things that I did, all the things that I witnessed, testified to.

Cal Brink lives at the intersection of where truth meets fiction.

I just think that’s the best way to put it. I’m not going to tell any true stories in the fiction work I do, but just the way I live and the way I think and the way I write, the truth bleeds into fiction. And by truth, I mean the emotion, I mean the toll, I mean the considerations. You read the whole thing — how would you describe it?

Marie: It was a really entertaining read. I liked that I was able to read it on a short road trip, and even knowing some of the characters and some of the story, I thought you did an amazing job of describing without over-describing. You’re a man of few words, and that’s how you write — you were very succinct. And I liked that there were some twists and turns that were very interesting, and you nailed my character pretty good. It was awesome, and it was an enjoyable read. The ending wasn’t all tied up neatly in a bow, like Hollywood likes to do, and like a lot of the books I like to read, but it was fun because there was always the ‘what next.’

Chris: What do you mean, short road trip? We drove from Kansas City to the Grand Canyon.

Marie: Well, I finished it quickly — it was, what, Dodge City to—

Chris: Dodge City to Albuquerque? I think — no, Dodge City to Santa Fe.

Marie: Yeah. How would you describe Notice of Assignment?

Chris: One person who’s read it has described it as a hard-boiled novel with a noir ending and a Christian reckoning. Now, that’s a mouthful, but my faith bleeds into this. We’ve known each other a long, long time. I believe in living the way you believe.

I believe in doing the right thing. Matthew 7:12 bleeds into every moment of my life. I fail at it often, but it’s what I try to do. And this is not a Christian novel — there are places in here that some of my more conservative church-going friends will go, “What are you doing?” But the point is that my faith bleeds into who I am. And in this book, these are questions that I’ve asked. It’s not a big deal, and it’s really only one chapter, but Cal Brink is standing on a precipice, and he’s trying to decide who he wants to be.

Marie: This has been a lot of work. Will you write more?

Chris: Yes, absolutely.

I’ve got the next novella, and the next, already written in my head — I already know exactly where they’re going to go. But I think that brings up a good point: I’m writing novellas, I’m writing short fiction.

I’ve even been writing micro fiction. Cal Brink Files is where you read the micro fiction, you read the behind-the-scenes of writing — that’s a fun series I’m doing right now. It’s also where I’m writing little short stories that can go anywhere.

So, did I answer your question about the novella? Yes, I’m going to write more. I already have several of them figured out in my head as to where they’re going to go, but I don’t see myself ever writing a three-hundred-fifty-page thriller that Hollywood picks up. What I’m writing are short stories that you can read on an airplane, or a Saturday afternoon, or a little bit Saturday night, a little bit Sunday night, and be done with it.

It’s my personality bleeding through — I’m not a long-term guy, I’m a short-term guy. So, in short, what I’m saying is that Cal Brink is fictional me. Cal Brink has different experiences — he’s a real estate agent now, but he was an investigator in the past, and to be a really good real estate agent, to some degree, you have to be a good investigator. I think real estate agents can learn a lot about how they do their jobs by reading this book. I know that sounds crazy, but you’ll learn the behaviors, you’ll learn the tells, you’ll learn how to investigate and how to think.

It’s going to be fun.

What do you think? What questions do you have?

If you want to know more about Cal Brink and his Files, subscribe to this page.

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In any case, thank you.

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