Blog Archives
Changing Lives
Against the Wind follows a sixteen-year-old girl living in foster care who runs away and steals an antique airplane, leading her to meet a quantum physics professor also on the run from the FBI and Russian mafia. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I’ve been a licensed pilot for nearly 28 years, but I’ve been flying with my father since I was a small child. He had his pilot’s license at the age of 16 and I’ve known of young pilots flying cross country and have always been impressed with that! As for the quantum physics aspect of the novel, the science behind it is absolutely amazing! Quantum computers will change our lives forever!
Your characters are wonderfully emotive and relatable. Were you able to use anything from your own life to inform their character development?
I think most authors have a storehouse of characters and character traits to call on when writing. Any teenage cross-country pilot shows remarkable independence and, in the case of Against the Wind, real courage. I wanted the physics professor to learn as much from her as she did from him!
I felt that there were a lot of great twists and turns throughout the novel. Did you plan this before writing the novel, or did the twists develop organically writing?
For me, it’s usually a mix. Certain key twists must be planned and others evolve in the course of the writing.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am working on the next “Relic” book, featuring the moonshining hermit of Canyonlands National Park (see Moonshine Mesa for example). Thought a “series,” each novel is stand-alone.
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Chloe flees her unsafe foster home in a stolen antique airplane. Professor Dochauser eludes a Russian spy willing to kill for the professor’s breakthrough in quantum computing. When their paths collide, they begin a cross-country quest to find Chloe’s grandfather and a safe haven for the professor. The Russian mafia, FBI, and social services race to find the runaway and the quantum prototype that can tip the balance of world power.
But not everyone in the chase is who they seem…
#TechnoThriller #OrganizedCrime #RussianMafia #CrimeThrillers #EspionageThrillers #FlyingAirplaneThrillers #YoungFemalePilot #QuantumComputerThriller #ActionThriller #ActionAdventure #CrossCountryChase #Adventure #FlyingAdventures #ThrillerMystery #TechnoMystery #Heartwarming #Humour&Adventure
They Were People Like You And Me
The Melancholy Strumpet Master follows an anthropology doctorate student who is writing a dissertation on Tijuana streetwalkers. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I traveled extensively throughout Mexico when I was younger and in my mid-twenties would cross into Tijuana to buy and consume hard drugs. In the neighborhoods where those substances were available, I crossed paths with streetwalkers. A few became friends, and I discovered — surprise, surprise — they were people like you and me with intelligence, families, problems, and future goals. For the record, I haven’t used drugs in many years. Please don’t misconstrue my answer.
Why choose this place and time for the setting of the story?
The story straddles Los Angeles, one of the wealthiest cities in the world, and the more run-down neighborhoods of Tijuana. I think the juxtaposed settings work well to advance themes I was interested in.
What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?
The most interesting thing is that we’re all human and we haven’t really changed as the centuries have rolled on. That’s why the Iliad, Romeo and Juliet, and the Bhagavad Gita still ring true. The billionaire, despite his wealth, watches his marriage crumble, while the homeless person laughs on his park bench.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
I’m outlining something right now with a fifteen-year-old teenage girl protagonist that will likely cross YA and psychological thriller. Give me a few years to get it right. I wish I could say more but I’m really liking the idea and don’t want to tip my hand.
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Gil’s anthropological study of Tijuana streetwalkers had his dissertation advisor cheering him on. But that was years ago, before his best sources up and vanished. Now, with no connection to the sex worker community, his research has stalled and the faculty elders are about to kick him out of the grad program. Plus, he’s broke.
He takes a job teaching at a juvenile detention center. The steady income gives him the means to keep making his weekly trips across the border. Now he’s paying the girls to speak with him. In a sudden moment of insight, he realizes that giving them something besides cold hard cash might help him forge a new inroad to the community. But do they want what he’s offering?
LITERARY TITAN 