In this email: Otis/Nelson Demille/Book Recommendations

Like a long-lost submarine, I am rising from the word abyss for some much-needed oxygen and a quick share. I have found my way to “The End” with the Otis story. It's a beautiful mess right now, as my first drafts always are, but at least I have something to work with. Now it's time to put on the editor hat for a few months and see if I can wrangle this thing into a proper story.

 

You might have seen that Nelson Demille passed away the other day. He changed my life. Back when I was a wee lad of seventeen, right after graduating high school, a friend and I hiked from Dublin to Galway, Ireland, and it was so nice to break away from required reading and crack a spine for fun. I read a ton of books that summer, but it was while consuming Nelson's Plum Island, as I sat in a Crazy Creek chair in Waterville on the Ring of Kerry, that I realized I had to write a book. His character, John Corey, was the best, so funny, sarcastic, politically incorrect, and raw. I felt desperate to create my own characters. Then I discovered The Gold Coast and Upcountry, and Nelson solidified himself as one of my favorite writers of all time. If there is any one person to blame, he is why I write. 

 

If you've also been been navigating your own deep abyss, you might have missed Dr. Casey Means's new book, Good Energy, which is rapidly climbing the charts. A dear friend recommended it by saying: “It's life-changing, Walker.” I have to agree. Dr. Means was top of her class throughout school but bailed on her trajectory toward a high-paying surgical gig when she started to question why the entire medical industry was ignoring whole-person health, and instead, promoting a medical world of isolated specialists, ie. cardiologists, otolaryngologists, etc. She started a practice in Oregon that focused on finding root causes and treating the person more holistically, which is what ultimately led to this sensational book. 

 

For you wine folks, I've jumped deep back into the rabbit hole as part of my research for the Otis book. George M. Taber's Judgement of Paris is a marvelous read that details one of the most significant events in U.S. wine history, while also behaving as a superb educator for all things vines and wines in California and France.

Okay, this submarine captain is preparing for submersion. “Set course two-five-niner, six knots, bearing three-zero toward wine country. Load the torpedoes, Otis! And, by Gods, pour us a glass of your best zinfandel!" (This has possibly been the dumbest thing I've ever typed, but I'm leaving it in because we all need to lighten up and quit taking things so seriously.)

 

Oh, I'll resurface soon to share the cover of my forthcoming mystery. 

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