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THE NEXT BEST THING took a long and rich journey to publication. The idea for the story came to Wiley Brooks, its author, back in 1987. At the time, he was on a four-month trek through Southeast Asia. While there, he met a man who inspired him to create the character who became Mason Ray. He had plotted the basic story before he returned to Seattle. Wiley was sure he would jump on writing it. But life intervened.
Instead, Wiley took a high-pressure job as a senior executive at a public relations firm. A year later, he left that firm to start his own. The Wiley Brooks Company thrived. Meanwhile, he met the woman who would become his wife. Then came the first of three kids, then the second and finally the third. Life was full. He kept thinking about the book. He confided to friends that he thought that writing it might be his destiny. But he never found the time.
Years passed. Occasionally, friends would ask about the book. He'd shrug and say, "someday." But someday never came. Then in August 2018, he was enjoying happy hours with one of his oldest and closest friends. His friend asked about the book. Wiley told him that he feared he would go to his grave wondering why he never found time to write it. "Just write the damn book," his friend said.
Wiley started writing in earnest that night. He waited each night for everyone to go to bed, then wrote until 2 or 3 a.m. It wasn't glamourous, but it worked.
Wiley is married to Marianne Bichsel. They have three adult children and two surviving grandchildren. Their first grandchild was a sweet, beautiful little girl named Amelia. She died two days after she was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of leukemia. She was just 20 months old. Amelia was the touchstone for Wiley when he wrote in the Prologue about Bob's pain over losing his child. It's a heartache that never goes away.
Wiley has lived in Seattle since 1983, but grew up in Tampa, FL. He was an only child in a lower working-class family. A good but not great student, Wiley graduated from the University of South Florida. He worked for a year at the St. Petersburg Times, then left for graduate school. He chose to go to the University of Missouri at Columbia, the oldest journalism school in the world.
After grad school, Wiley returned to daily newspapers, enjoying a rapid rise. By age 30, he was executive editor of the York Daily Record, an award-winning newspaper in central Pennsylvania. Then, like many journalists, he switched to a career in public relations.
In PR, Wiley developed a reputation as a go-to consultant for companies facing crises. He helped CEOs and other leaders find their ways through terrible events. He urged his clients to disclose all the facts as soon as they could. In a big crisis, the truth always comes out anyway. He helped them figure out how to talk about whatever it was the company was facing.
Wiley has also led workshops on how to write more clearly and concisely. He still does these classes. He calls them his day job.
THE NEXT BEST THING was Wiley's first novel. It won't be his last.
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