A Guardian Angel is the story of Andy Winter, a hitman who is hired by a seedy corporation to tie up loose ends around the globe. He is haunted by the things he’s had to do in his job and the murder of his childhood friend. The time that Andy lives in is marked by a conflict between the poor masses and the powerful elite. When Andy is recruited to kill journalist Haley Flynn, a noble woman, his moral conflict triggers the foundation of a corporate nation and the beginning of a modern American civil war.

Great premise. But we hear that the structure, and the ambition, is even more vast than that.
The novel is told through four short stories that, together, tell the story of mankind’s downfall.

Mankind’s downfall? What genre is this?
This was hard for me to peg down at first, but I’ve termed it as a “Philosophical Thriller.” It’s high-action, high-concept.

So who’s it aimed at?
People who like darkness, intensity, and complex moral dilemmas.

We need to ask about Andy Winter.
Andy Winter is a bit of a masochist. He always seems to suffer for his dark and ugly past. Employed as a hitman, he is wealthy and well traveled, but unhappy.

Do you feel any connection with him?
Quite a bit, I feel, but for dramatic effect he is an exaggerated interpretation of a portion of myself. There are differences that make us distinct from each other, but a little bit of me is in every character.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a bit of a weirdo, but who isn’t? I’ve done a garden variety of jobs in my life, which includes telemarketer, alpaca rancher –

Alpaca rancher?!
– gardener, retail, golf-ball retriever, and nude live art model for university classes. I love to think. Boredom just isn’t a thing for me.

With that range of experience, have you written any other books?
Nothing is finished for you beautiful people to read, but I have written three novels before A Guardian Angel. I wasn’t even sixteen years old when I wrote those, so they need a lot of work. But I imagine we’ll see a new novel sometime in the next 12 months.

Good.
Have you got a website?
Absolutely. The book itself has a website at www.guardianangelnovel.com. I have a blog separate of that at www.phoenixwilliams.blogspot.com.

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
My Twitter is @hamgoblin45
Like the book on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aguardianangelbook.

What’s next?
Gotta keep writing. There are some people who just must work out every other day, or drink a cup of coffee in the morning, or collect all their nail clippings in a safety deposit box in New Jersey. For me, I have to write. It’s my compulsion. Expect many more books.