Here’s an overview of my tenth published book, Out of the Devil’s Mouth. I’m giving away a signed copy on my Facebook page this week!
April, 2008
Where the idea came from:
I’m not the only storyteller influenced by the great Indiana Jones movies. Raiders Of The Lost Ark made me want to tell stories of my own. Simply put, this is my version of an Indiana Jones tale.
One line synopsis:
A travel writer/adventurer from 1929 takes a trek to the Amazon jungle to look for a missing explorer.
Journey to publication:
Of all the books I’ve been fortunate to publish, Out Of The Devil’s Mouth is the one that seems most out of place. I say that because it’s a pure adventure, along with it taking place in 1929 (making it my only historical novel). I never intended to do a book like Out of the Devil’s Mouth, but circumstances paved the way to start a series that never actually became a series.
In November of 2006, right after our daughter Kylie was born, my editor from Moody Publishers called me to tell me that my upcoming book with them was going to be cancelled. That book was called Isolation. It was supposed to be published in January of 2007. I’ll get to this later when I detail Isolation’s journey to publication, but needless to say, my relationship with Moody was somewhat strained.
Moody went on to publish Sky Blue which was already in the works. Initially I was going to follow Sky Blue with a novel in the vein of Apocalypse Now about a man going up the river to search for a missionary who had gone mad. That tale was going to be dark and deal with demon possession. But since Isolation had been canceled, my editor and I felt like we needed to do something safe. I shared my feelings about the Indiana Jones movies and we decided to come up with a series based on similar adventures.
The Response:
A lot of people have enjoyed Out of the Devil’s Mouth. I loved writing it and loved the characters. I planned a trilogy at least, but a follow-up never came. As I began to start thinking of ideas for book #2 that was due to Moody Publishers in January of 2008, they decided to cancel the remaining book in the contract. Henry Wolfe would remain a one-book wonder.
My Thoughts:
I hope that someday down the road I can tell some more Henry Wolfe adventures. From a branding standpoint, it doesn’t fit what I’m doing now, so it makes sense to let Henry go. But as I said, I had a lot of fun writing this. I never took it too seriously yet I still tried to tell an enjoyable story.
That’s so fascinating to read, Travis, that even as a successful published author, you still dream of one day hitting the long ball and writing the Great American Novel. The next Great Gatsby. The one the public will be fawning about, teaching in schools, writing Cliff Notes about, long after you’ve left this whirling dervish for the next life. At least that’s what I take from your blog post.
And you have the talent, too, my friend. I can see it in Broken, your latest novel. If all this great writing, novel after novel, is merely practice for the giant book ahead, I can only imagine that the “big one” will rock the world.
I’ve been touring Konrath’s blog, and he’s a good and solid writer, seems to have a gregarious nature to him, and he’s churning out prose like a ten finger Hussein Bolt. It’s good stuff, fun—I’m reading Endurance now. But although I applaud his writing and recognize his writing as strong, it’s not Nabokov, Faulkner or C. McCarthy. It’s not even Grisham, frankly. But that’s okay—I have no doubt that he could write with strength and meaning if he was to slow it down, and take a breather, and have something deep as a goal. That is not Joe’s motivation now. I mention Joe because you’ve meet him, and he’s a master of the new $2.99 online e-book school of writing. Like Renoir was a master of Impressionism.
But it does beg the question: can a writer in this day and age, forced to pump out a complete book yearly to pay the mortgage, still craft the novels of the writers of yore, who—if particularly prolific—might get out 4-5 novels in a lifetime. And likely one or two of those are relevant; the others languish in a dustbin, picked up by zealots and academics only (think Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters by J.D Salinger).
The eternal question: labor ten years over the Great American Novel, or simply print out the pulp and buy that second car. Hmm.
You’re super talented, gifted in perseverance and ‘hoot spa”, and your “big one” is ahead of you, T.
Oops, this comment pertains to your Sorting Thru the Pieces post. LOL
Hey Coolkayaker! Thanks so much for your encouragement. It's neat to see the fans I've picked up along my writing journey. Appreciate your constant support. And here's my two cents. I think the odds favor me writing ten books in ten years and nailing ONE instead of working on one. I think it's about telling the right story at the right time in the right way. You never know. You just never know.
The other thing is that I have so many stories I can't wait to tell. I hope to continue to tell them and stay in this boat.
All the best!
I hear you, Travis. I have to say, I have been putting too much pressure on myself to write the Great One. F. Scott Fitzgerald stuff. But alas, I think I'd be better to write a medical thriller, have the reader turn those pages like a hot wind through riverside reeds, and see if I can sell one.
You see, I have a day job that pays my mortgage, but robs me of any energy when I get home. Eat, 20 winks, time with family, read Travis's books, then crash and get up at dawn to do it all over again. See what's missing in my formula… book writing! LOL
Anyhow, I did submit a longer (longer than 6 Sentences) writing exercise for Writer's Digest, and now am writing a short for Narrative.com, due July 31. So, that keeps me going. But the big book–the a medical thriller–is still a wet dream, hardening like "morning wood" only briefly, before I ruin my day by going to work again.
Live the writer's fantasy for me, T. You've earned it. Writing is hard, hard work. (there's that word–hard–again. I'm going to a Snapple now).