Q&A with James H. Lewis

  

 

 

James H. Lewis is the author of the new novel The Boy in the Mirror. His other novels include The Dead of Winter. A former journalist and public media executive, he lives in Pittsburgh. 

 

Q: You note that you were inspired to write The Boy in the Mirror after reading an article in The New York Times. Can you say more about that?

 

A: I am a voracious reader and am often lured by a headline that tweaks my interest. Such was the case with a full-page article in The New York Times on January 3, 2025, by Saskia Solomon, “Accounts of Past Lives Peer Beyond Death.”

 

It explored a program at the University of Virginia, the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS), that applies scientific rigor to the study of reincarnation. Its founder, Dr. Ian Stevenson, a psychiatrist in the university’s Department of Medicine, became intrigued by the subject and devoted his career to investigating children’s memories of past lives.

 

Intrigued, I prowled the DOPS website, which led me to a book on Stevenson’s work and another by his successor. Dr. Jim B. Tucker. Both chronicled studies of children with vivid memories of people and events before their physical births. Neither reached any firm conclusions about reincarnation. They investigated and documented.

 

I had no thought of basing a novel on this. I just found it interesting. As often happens, however, I soon asked, “What if…?” As I was finishing my last novel, the germ of this story developed.

 

Q: How did you create your characters Oliver, Lauren, and Chris?

 

A: In reviewing the DOPS case studies. I was interested in the reaction of the parents of these children. Some met their child’s claimed memories with skepticism. A few felt threatened. Others accepted the stories. Their culture or religious beliefs colored their responses.

 

I tried to incorporate this range of responses in Oliver’s parents. One had to begin as a doubter but come to accept the reality of her child’s story. Since mothers often spend more time with their young I assigned that role to Lauren.

 

The other had to model those parents who resist. That became Chris, a devoted father, but one whose job gave him less time with his son. I could then develop their tension.

 

Ollie was modeled on some children in the DOPS studies and the precociousness of my own grandchildren. My grandson continues to surprise me with the arcane bits of knowledge he’s learned, some of which are new to me.

 

I incorporated that into Ollie’s personality and hoped the reader would accept that his knowledge beyond his years come have come from the older child whose memory he’d absorbed.

 

Q: Can you say more about how you researched the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: Most of my research came from the literature on the subject. I follow what DOPS is working on under its current leadership and have run across other stories of child memories.

 

Avoiding a spoiler, the final chapter, which follows Ollie seven years after the events in the book, comes from what Stevenson and Tucker found in their subjects. Ollie’s journey, as he gradually recovers more memories, is also “by the book.”

 

Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I had a vague idea of the climax, but it developed as I neared the end of the first draft. The final chapter, which Campbell called “Return with the Elixir,” I added after I’d worked out the climax.

 

After completing the first draft, I added many scenes and did a major restructuring of the two story threads, bouncing from one to the other in each chapter.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’ve completed a short story and am working on another as I think about the next novel. Will it be another police procedural, will my newfound interest in parapsychology suggest another story along this line, or will it be something else? I’m constantly playing with ideas, and one will force itself on me.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: It probably doesn’t belong here, but my wife passed away during my work on this novel. This forced me to put it aside for a few months. When I returned to it, I saw it with new eyes and made numerous changes. It is the one positive thing that came out of this experience. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with James H. Lewis.