A Week's Worth by Thyme Lewis
You may remember him as Days of Our Lives’ heartthrob Jonah Carver, but Thyme Lewis’s career extends beyond the realm of day-time soap operas. He’s an actor, producer, ex-stuntman, former FEMA inspector and now — writer.
His debut novel, A Week’s Worth (Palmetto Publishing), is the first in an action-thriller series inspired by his experience doing disaster relief work with FEMA. The story follows Mac, an ex-Navy Seal turned FEMA inspector, as he helps disaster victims rebuild their lives and protects potential victims from criminals inhabiting the seedy underbelly of disaster work.
The following interview dives deeper into Lewis’s inspirations and motivations for writing A Week’s Worth, and where he sees the series going from here.
Q: Where did the idea for A Week’s Worth come from?
A: The idea came from a trip I took with my mom to Venice Beach during the pandemic.
Q: Tell us about Mac, your protagonist ¾ what makes him tick and what was the inspiration for him?
A: Mac has an interesting past, and the book series will time-jump with each book to reveal his history. I can say that Mac was a Navy Seal who quickly rose to captain before his life took a turn and landed him in Hollywood doing stunts in films and television.
In A Week’s Worth, we pick Mac up later when he is working with FEMA, division 6 of Homeland Security, as a building inspector deciphering damages after our country’s most historic disasters. Mac has a keen sense for liars — both foreign and domestic — and during his time with FEMA, his acquired skillset from his colorful past serves him well. He embodies a willingness to help those less fortunate resurrect their lives and an ability to protect potential victims from the criminals that inhabit the underbelly of disaster work.
Q: You have an interesting background as an actor and Hollywood stuntman. Tell us about those days, and how and why you made the transition to author.
A: I was fortunate to land one of the funnest jobs for a long time on NBC’s Days of Our Lives portraying the heartthrob, Jonah Carver. For five years I won the hearts of fans across this great country and even overseas. It was a magical time, and I am forever grateful. We accomplished a lot of milestones during my tenure there and created lifelong relationships.
Stunts came naturally when a longtime and notorious stuntman — and my best friend — Tom McComas said I was a good driver and should train with him. I was living in Sausalito and missed the energy of working with the best creators in storytelling.
Tom raced motorcycles for a time and found he was better at crashing than winning. But in the stunt world, crashing is winning — and you get paid for it. The more spectacular the crash, the more money you make. Tom is great at it. Me — not so much. (Tom came to fame doubling Ben Affleck in just about everything he’s done. He’s also doubled Ryan Gosling and every celebrity in between.) We had fun. My favorite was working on Sons of Anarchy with Chuck Norris’s son, Eric — a badass.
But your body eventually begins to break down. I just hope my brain doesn’t. Ha ha!
Q: Was it fun making the audiobook — with you as the narrator?
A: Writing fuels my soul. Making the audiobook made me want to act again.
I had considered casting some of the characters and only portraying Mac and the narration myself, but was quickly advised by my co-producer, Jason Hatfield, that my skills were on a professional level. Having not worked in this genre except for a few short stories I recorded in Atlanta, I was insecure. Jason assured me I would be fine, and I think it worked out.
Q: What was the most challenging part of A Week’s Worth to write?
A: I was in the midst of a divorce and struggling with losing what I thought was my future. It wasn’t. My ex succumbed to addiction, something that runs in her family, and I couldn’t save her. That was tough. I know it’s reflected in the work.
Q: What writers serve as your personal inspiration?
A: Gregory David Roberts, Lee Child, James Allen, Don Miguel Ruiz, Lee Child, Ernest Hemingway, Maya Angelou, Robert James Waller, Ken Follet, Peggy Knickerbocker, David Allen Roberts, Robert Louis Stevenson and many more.
Q: What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
A: A better understanding of our parents. That we have more in common than we sometimes wish. That it’s worth it to help those in need — even when they don’t want help and you will not be appreciated.
Q: What is your next project?
A: My next book jumps back in time four years to Mac’s first deployment during Hurricane Irma. He is running by the seat of his pants when another disaster strikes on the island of Puerto Rico. They need volunteers and he breaks a rule that was common in his military background — never volunteer. It’s kind of like Steven Spielberg’s Jaws or Coppola’s Apocalypse Now when the hero says, “Never get out of the boat.” Yeah, I’m dating myself. I guess these impressions are forever etched in my mind.
Thyme Lewis, an American actor, author, humanitarian and ex-Hollywood stuntman, spent his formative years in Big Sur, CA, with his mother and two siblings. To this day, he is best recognized for his unforgettable portrayal of Jonah Carver on NBC’s Days of Our Lives. He continued with starring roles in Sunset Beach and Young and the Restless before producing feature films.
A fifth generation Californian, Thyme discovered a passion for acting while attending college and writing working with FEMA. It was through these experiences he began writing the MacGuffin series. Now a mostly full-time writer, Thyme resides in Carmel by-the-Sea. He returns to television this spring landing his first co-star on Bosch Legacy — a gritty crime drama on Amazon Original. He is of Norwegian, Scottish, Irish, Haitian and Choctaw Indian descent.
Visit https://thymelewisbooks.com.
