Float the Boat follows a former aid worker who finds himself amid a global scandal after he finds his former colleague murdered and is accused of being an infamous serial killer. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Memories of days gone by inspired me.

In Float the Boat, half the story and the first of a series of murders take place in a former Vietnamese refugee camp in Indonesia. During the 80s, I worked in such a camp on Galang Island, Indonesia. We ran an educational program for refugees bound for the States and taught our students survival English, cultural orientation, and pre-employment skills, all to facilitate smooth assimilation into the US. Life in the remote island camp, located only a few miles from the Equator, was extremely stressful, with long work hours, a harsh environment, and the ever-present swirl of corruption and geopolitics. The maps I created bring some of this reality home to the reader. Of course, since the book opens in Washington, DC, some six weeks after Harvey Weinstein’s exposure, headlines from those days and after provided more raw material.

In summary, then, real life minus the tedious parts inspired me, and then I added in a dash or two of the extreme!

What were some of the emotional and moral guidelines you followed when developing your characters?

In real life, nobody is wholly good or bad. I modeled my characters on real people and placed them in realistic situations and conflicts. Nick Harmon, my protagonist, is a prototypical Everyman not without warts and quirks who finds himself in dire straits. Once before, he went all-in to save his life and now, confronted by dilemma after dilemma, he’s prepared to risk it to pursue the truth and save his skin. Adnan Sulaiman, my antagonist, is one bad cookie but has positive aspects, like personal magnetism, that rocketed him to fame and fortune. Even my serial killer has a soft side. Once I placed the characters in the arena, I let the famous quote from either Edmund Burke or John Stuart Mill, that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing,” drive the plot.

What experience in your life has had the biggest impact on your writing?

I’d like to mention three experiences. First, a lifelong love of mysteries and thrillers determined my genre. Next, I’ve spent almost a quarter of my life living in Indonesia, Japan, and Korea, and that experience fuels the stories I want to create. Last, I came to writing late in life. This is my third career, following one in the NGO world and another in strategic purchasing, and I see the wisdom in Mark Twain’s quote “Write what you know.”

Is there a second book planned?

Yes, and thank you for teeing that up for me! Nick Harmon will return in a stand-alone Mystery-Thriller sequel. A new client has a unique need, and he gets entangled in another thrilling adventure filled with twists and turns and murder, and set in Ohio and Japan. The release target is Summer 2025, and I’ll make an update on my website later this coming spring.

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