Blog Archives
Our Own Crossroads in Life
The Road Not Taken follows two former classmates that drifted apart and reconnected that decided to give love a chance. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I think nearly all of us can relate to the feelings of “what if…” One of the things I enjoy most about writing fiction is the ability to make the “what ifs” come true … at least for the fictional characters. As readers, we can vicariously enjoy revisiting the “road not taken” by the characters of the book while remembering our own crossroads in life. Most of us went to high school, had a boyfriend/girlfriend, and have similar memories of our childhood experiences, so the setting for my novel was one that almost anyone could recognize.
What was your inspiration for the characters and their relationship?
Readers tend to identify those who try to write outside of their own boundaries as frauds. The characters are compositions of people I have personally known, and the relationships are ones I have had or wish I had. I think most readers will also recognize many of the characters and relationships from their own lives. I wrestled in high school and college, and I was a pilot in the Navy … but I’m not Ty! I have never flown in combat. I’m familiar enough with the lingo and dynamics of flying to be able to write credibly about the adventures of military aviation. Because I have lived in many small towns, I’m able to write from experience about the nuances of it.
Are there any emotions or memories from your own life that you put into your character’s life?
Many. The impacts of mistakes made in youth as we live forward. The hypocrisy of religious people who do sacrilegious things. The brutality and inhumanity of war. The realization as we mature that “true love” is constructed of a lot of “like”.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The next book after The Road Not Taken was The Other Side Of Good (Gold Book Award from Literary Titan), which was released on January 18, 2022. This year, I’m working on a fourth novel, tentatively titled Pedaling West. It is a COVID-19 era novel about a young woman who “resets” her life during the pandemic by bicycling across the United States.
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The Spectrum Between “Good” And “Bad”
The Other Side of Good follows a police officer and a criminal ring leader as they work together to try to put a stop to human trafficking in the city. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
😊 Denton (Ten Ton) Jones was a support character in the first book I wrote (Full Count). He was so popular with the readers of that book (about a small college baseball team) that I wanted him in a lead role as a grown-up in TOSOG. In Full Count, he was from Cincinnati … so I was sort of “stuck” with Cincy. In another lifetime, I worked in the dinner-boat industry and had some familiarity with Cincinnati as well as good contacts there. Like many large cities, Cincinnati has several rough neighborhoods, and in Full Count, Denton came from one of those. Since I wanted to write a thoughtful novel exploring the spectrum between “good” and “bad,” it was easy to presume Denton might have had a friend growing up who didn’t take the same path as himself.
Denton Jones has to determine what is good and bad in a situation where the good guys are not always what they seem, this causes conflict in him as he has tried to be on the right side of the law and morality.
What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
That, absent perspective, “good” and “bad” are just labels. Even as we develop laws to try to define the boundaries, they continue to evolve, often changing the boundaries. I used examples in the book, like slavery, which was perfectly legal in most of the country 170 years ago; marijuana, once outlawed everywhere in the states, is now legal in some form in all but a few.
To determine right and wrong, sometimes we must depend on our personal moral compass in the context of an existing environment. Denton, (at times naively wearing his white hat) must relax his prejudices about his former friend’s illegal practices to assist him in stopping something worse than drug-dealing. Theo (wearing the black hat as an intelligent criminal) rationalizes his illegal activities, but readers recognize solid decency in some of his opinions/choices.
Without trying to influence reader opinions one way or the other, I hoped they might recognize a little of Denton and a little of Theo in themselves. Beyond the totally “black” of trafficking and the totally “white” of assisting underprivileged children … most of us live somewhere in the gray areas between.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
- Without being “preachy” … the importance, depths, and degrees of friendship.
- That spiritual beliefs, like laws, also evolve and that we should keep our minds open to where they converge in our world.
- The danger of stereotypes
- Our slow but steady march toward ethnic homogenization
- The perspectives of poverty versus privilege for children growing up in our country
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Tentatively titled, Pedaling West, the book follows the cross-country route (Virginia Beach to Mendocino) of a female bicyclist who lost her job and her boyfriend during the beginning weeks of the COVID-19 crisis. She decides to “reset her life” with the biking journey, unaware she has information that might expose her former (corrupt) employer to severe criminal charges. It’s part travelogue, part drama, with a little romance thrown in.
My wife and I took the exact route of the biker (only rural roads, no interstates) for fun in November. We went in a nice car, stayed at good motels, and had a blast! The trip changed the book, too!
Depending on a variety of factors, I think the book might be finished by late spring.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Denton’s efforts inexplicably make him a target for a corrupt city official, but a dishonest bureaucrat is the least of the city’s problems. Theo uncovers evidence of an international criminal organization facilitating human trafficking in the city. Repulsed by the crime, Theo enlists an unlikely coalition of clergy, law enforcement, and criminals to try to stop it.
Follow the characters to the uncomfortable gray areas of life where the wrong thing sometimes seems a better choice than the right thing; where a little bad turns into almost good; and where dark white and light black become the same color.
LITERARY TITAN 