Weed Therapy is about Kelvin Rockwell, a 40-something man.  Unhappy with his marriage, unhappy that his kids are separating from him.  He journeys to a small town in Mexico, where he spends a few days with Father Juan Miguel Santos, an old priest with a few secrets of his own.  More importantly, though, Father Santos shares with Kelvin a few pearls of wisdom and life lessons about how to make life work better.  About how to achieve happiness.

Who is Father Juan Miguel Santos?
Father Juan Miguel Santos is somewhere north of 90 years old.  He tends to his flock – villagers who live in a small village along the coast of Mexico, cut off from the modern world.  He is wise and has many thoughts and lessons to share with Kelvin.  He also … well … isn’t really a priest.

Priest or not – and we can’t wait to find out his story – it sounds like this book is quite deep.
This is a book about family and marriage and about unhappiness.  It’s somewhat of a philosophical book that addresses things like communication and effort and how to make relationships work.  It’s about finding what matters and making the most of it.

What genre is it?
Fiction.  Literary Fiction.  Family Life.

Complete this sentence for us: if you like _________________, you’ll love Weed Therapy.
I’m not sure about this.  I’m not sure what I’ve read that it compares to.

Fair enough. Tell us a little more about Kelvin Rockwell.
Kelvin has been married for about 15 years.  He has two boys.  Spencer is 13 years old and Jason is 4.  Spencer is doing what teenagers do – which means he wants nothing to do with his dad.  Jason is still in his “mommy and me” phase.  Meanwhile, as the years have passed, his marriage has grown incredibly stale and all he can see in his wife is pain and hurt and lack of effort.  There is something fundamentally wrong.

What kind of wisdom does he learn from the priest who is not a priest?
Well, the first big lesson Father Santos teaches Kelvin is that life is like a garden.  You must weed it every day.  Every single day.  To keep the weeds at bay and to keep the flowers blooming to their most beautiful.

So that’s where the title comes from? What would you like this book to leave readers thinking?
That Kelvin did his best.  Did what he could.  But more importantly, unlike most of what I write, I hope the reader leaves the book behind with an idea or two about how to improve their own lives.

Yes, it does sound rather different from your legal thriller, One Night In Bridgeport. Other than that, what else have you written?
Two short story collections.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m an attorney, living with my wife and kids.  I haven’t stopped writing fiction for the last ten years or so.  Now that Weed Therapy is published, I’m moving on to one of three half completed novels that have sat for far too long. 

One is about a string of terrorist attacks across the country that culminates in a hostage situation in a small town in the foothills of California.

The second is a collection of stories that provide the fictional back story behind some of the “characters” I’ve come across working in downtown Sacramento.

The third is about an old man who lives alone on the shore of a bay – happy with the peace and solitude and unhappy with people.  The story recounts his life and how he got to this place, where he is more than happy alone.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
markpaxson.com
kingmidgetramblings.wordpress.com

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
@mkpaxson.