Spotlight & Giveaway: All The Perfect Days by Michael Thompson

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Michael Thompson to HJ!

Hi Michael and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, All The Perfect Days!

Thank you for having me back! It’s great to be here.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Dr Charlie Knight fears life is passing him by. He’s in his late thirties, and treading water as a family doctor in the same small town he grew up in. Still treating the high blood pressure and arthritic knees of folks who’ve known him since he was a kid.

Charlie has a secret plan to escape: he’s found a new job, and even bought his plane ticket. But during an appointment something changes. He develops a gift, an extraordinary insight for any doctor: a sense of exactly how many days his patients have left to live. He wants to help them make the most of every moment – to live every day they’ve got left.

But in a country town like Marwick, his patients aren’t just anonymous people in an emergency room. They’re his friends. His own family. The people he grew up with, and the girl he still loves: Genevieve, who’s arrived back in town at the worst possible time.

And soon Charlie discovers this gift may not be a gift at all.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

Charlie put his hand to his stinging face and felt warm blood. The door flew open, and a figure was standing above him, arms raised as though trying to make herself seem bigger, more threatening.
A silhouette, gorgeous in the kitchen light.
“Charlie?”
That voice.
He squinted up at her and took in the black hair piled in a messy bun and those big dark eyes.
Oh no.
Not now.
Genevieve Longstaff was back.
Just in time to ruin everything.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I wrote the first draft of this book very quickly, in about three months. It then took me three years of editing to get it right!
• It was in part inspired by a conversation with someone many years ago who’d just been diagnosed with an illness. They said they wanted to keep working, and everything would be okay. When they passed away a few years later, I wondered if they would’ve gone about things differently had they known: perhaps it would have inspired a bucket list trip around the world. OR maybe this was their idea of perfect days – just being with family, friends, and doing a job that they loved.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Charlie and Gen have a lot of history. They were together seven years ago until a tragedy saw Gen move away, and Charlie stay behind. They’re now in their late thirties, and find themselves in each other’s orbit again. And there’s still something there: a shared connection. And of course, there’s an undeniable spark.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

There are a few deaths in this book – after all, it’s a book about a doctor knowing how many days his patients (his family and friends) have left alive. There are a couple of very sad moments (which I won’t spoil here) but despite that, it’s not a sad book: it’s hopeful, uplifting and life-affirming. As a young doctor, Charlie has a huge amount of empathy for his patients, like this one below: the 84 year old woman he treats in the first chapter of the book. She was also his teacher when he first started school years ago. When she later passes away, it hits him hard. But it’s also the moment that he realises the gift he has: he knew how many days Edna had left. If he knows it about others too, then he can help them make the most of every moment. The scene below is when Charlie learns about Edna’s death.

He could picture it clearly.
Edna Bradley squeezing shampoo into her hand, a little of it dribbling through her fingers and onto the tiles. Her weight shifting slightly, a foot finding the slippery patch and shooting out
from under her. The panic she must’ve felt at that moment, and the pain, and the sound, that horrible crunch when she hit the tiles. All those children’s faces, all the shortbread, all the kindness, all the memories, gone in an instant. One sudden, lonely, awful instant.
Charlie closed his eyes as a deep sadness washed over him, a longing to have been with her at the end.
To have put a hand on her arm.

Readers should read this book….

If you like magical realism with warmth, humor, tenderness and whimsy. If you like the tone of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and the character-driven storytelling of Fredrik Backman’s novels, then this might be for you. It’s a novel that celebrates the preciousness of life, the importance of human connection, and the idea that not every day needs to be spectacular to be perfect.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’ve just finished the second draft of my third novel. It’s come together very nicely – I’m looking forward to diving back in!
 
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A finished copy of ALL THE PERFECT DAYS

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Book Info:

Family doctor Charlie Knight is in his late thirties, still playing tennis against the same people every Friday night. Still jogging the same streets every morning. Still treating the same patients every day—fixing the high blood pressure and arthritic knees of folks who’ve known him since he was a kid. But Charlie has a secret plan to escape. A plan to live the life he wants, even if the woman he was meant to do it with has left him behind.

But then Genevieve Longstaff comes back to their hometown, just as something extraordinary happens. Charlie begins to have a vision of the exact number of days a person has left until they die.

Charlie believes it’s a gift. It certainly seems like one—after all, he’s using it to help his patients, family and friends make the most of their to mend relationships, to travel, to retire. But this gift comes with awful consequences, and soon Charlie realizes there are things he doesn’t want to know—especially about the woman he still loves.
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N |  kobo |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Michael Thompson has been a journalist, producer and media executive for almost 20 years, and now co-owns a podcast production company called Fear & Greed. He lives in Sydney with his wife and two young children. All the Perfect Days is his second novel. Michael’s first book, How to Be Remembered, was published internationally in 2023, translated into seven languages, and optioned for film by a Hollywood studio.
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