For any novelist, the toughest part or writing a novel, is sometimes finishing the work in the first place. The telling of the setting, characters and all of which make up the fictional piece seems easy at first since there is a story which needs to be told. But when is it time to leave the keyboard?
The story is written.
The work is finished.
Let it be, as the Beatles once sang.
After a year of writing a story involving two former cops from Riverside, it was time to put the book to bed. The adventures had been told. There were corpses littering the ground from Southern California to the hinterlands of northern Peru. Enough terror and sorrow for one book, but it did have a happy ending. Well, perhaps that is up to the reader and not the wordsmith to decide. But was it done?
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| These were some of the 'hinterlands' to reside while doing research |
The best thing when a novelist thinks it may be ready for readers is to send it off to the editor. Then, wait to hear back. Finally, when the writer receives something like the following from their publisher after a submission: 'John, I do want it. I have sent the attorney a memo to get you a contract.' it makes all the hours alone behind the keyboard worthwhile. Of course, it took many years to receive a contract for John's first novel, 'Hunted', but it has paid off since this is his fourth with Black Opal Books. He's hoping for a long relationship with this growing publishing house in the state of Oregon.
And here it is!
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| John R. Beyer's fourth novel with BOB |
As any fictional writer realizes, there has to be a lot of truth to a piece or it will sound like fiction. That actually does make sense since it is the job of that very same fictional writer to make the story believable. Fiction, even science fiction, isn't fun if isn't at least plausible. The relationships must ring true. The science must work. And in any work of fiction, the times and places must have a feeling of reality. John knows to make a story feel real, there must be sound research and exploration, and that is reason our intrepid trio took three separate journeys to Peru, including a month-long trip deep into the Amazon jungle. Iquitos to be exact -- where much of the novel takes place. John wanted to research, explore, and live that life...and drag his loving wife and best friend along with him. So the author and his daring team, Laureen, and Paul Bakas suffered mosquito bites, heat stroke, suffocating humidity, and generally had a great time gathering the information John needed in order to put pen to paper and bring life to the story rattling around in his cranium.
Along the way, we met some characters, some of whom appear, in one form or other, in the novel. We played with rescued sloths and monkeys, fed orphaned manatees, swam with pink river dolphins, fished for piranha and generally had the most wonderful experience my wife said she'd never want to have again. And, in the silence of the jungle night, we heard the unmatched cacophony of life end so swiftly with a deafeningly silence that inspired a scene in the novel (spoiler alert).
Some of the following photographs may look familiar to regular followers of our blog, but a trip down memory lane is sometimes good for the soul.
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| Cooling off with a breeze in a covered dug out on the Amazon |
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| Nothing better than a couple of lukewarm beers in the jungle |
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| John and Paul with Ademir - our guide for a couple of days |
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| The author with his number one Editor in Lima |
To purchase 'Iquitos, The Past Will Kill'
https://blackopalbooks.com/
https://www.amazon.com/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/
And at other book sellers around the globe...
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