Today, I'd like to welcome Rusty Rhoad, who has written about a road trip, with an Arthurian twist. I don't know about you, but I had to learn more.
Return from Avalon (and Points West) is an adventure that starts in San Francisco as a
simple see-the-USA road trip. Described
in a series of letters from Arnie Penders, mild-mannered used book seller, to
his ex-wife.
Of course the story isn’t about
the road trip—it’s about a mystical journey away from reality that ends up
smack in the middle of the Arthurian legend.
But still, it takes place on a road trip that goes through a lot of
places that I’ve never been to.
Now everyone knows that the best way to
research a road trip is to just take off on one. Explore all the places you’re going to write
about, then write it off your income tax.
But I was working as a chemical engineer and writing over lunch every
day (you’d be amazed at how much you can accomplish if you spend one dedicated
hour a day at it). So . . . how do you
research a road trip from the (dis)comfort of your own office?
I bought a road atlas, highlighted a
route though lots of towns with fun names or symbols denoting places of
interest. Then as my hero and I travelled,
I allocated a couple of half hour sessions each week taking an Internet road
tour of those places.
Arnie is a witty, sarcastic observer of
life; the object was to give him interesting and fun things to comment on. So of course I ended up with about 50 times
more colorful details than I could possibly use. The world is full of amazing things.
The journey ends up at Hay-on-Wye in
Wales. A fascinating place, the original
“book town.” Dozens of used book
stores. After the 1st draft
was finished, I had the opportunity to visit Hay-on-Wye while on a business trip. Oops.
It was absolutely nothing like the impression I’d gotten from the
Internet. Some serious rewriting was
required.
So now I have it on my bucket list to
make the journey for real. Maybe if the
book sells a million copies, I can market it as a summer vacation getaway. “Come travel Arnie’s route from San Francisco
to Avalon.” You’d sign up, wouldn’t you?
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4 comments:
Awesome post! Excited about the book!
I agree, this is an awesome post! The book souds great.
I've always been a sucker for paranormals with a unique twist.
The next book (under contract, out this year) also involves a road trip. Not a pervasive theme; none of my other books have road trips. Anyway, this one starts in Dayton, Ohio and ends up on a cruise to the Caribbean. I need to follow that route too. Well, at least the last half. Thanks for the invite to guest blog. - r
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