I pulled off onto the side of the road for a few and created this place. Okay, truth be told, I fell asleep and crossed the center line twice, so I needed to stop and take a break or die trying. I’m still here to talk about it, so it all worked out for the better. It wasn’t easy.
I started writing bits and pieces when I was holed up in the high desert. It was back in ’92 and I was trying to temporarily escape the drudgery of a full-time job and co-workers. At the time, they were all sucking the life out of me. In fact, for another eight years they continued to do so–with my cooperation and full participation, of course.
It wasn’t until 2000 that I actually got it. I finally caught on.
I was sitting in a meeting, listening to the boss tell us all how good he was for us and the company. Others were nodding their heads vigorously and vocalizing their consensus. That’s when I tuned out entirely. When I came to, I thought I had had a stroke. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.
Nor did I care.
In that instant I left it all behind.
That was on a Friday. The following Monday I gave my notice. In six weeks I was gone, never to return. I sold my house, donated a lot of the contents to charity, put the remainder in storage, and hit the road on my motorcycle. By June I was in southern California. Why there? It was warm in the winter; it was close to the Baja; I had been frequenting the place on my motorcycle since ’92. I was familiar with it. And, it seemed like the thing to do at the time.
I did it without regret.
I’ve been plugging away on Dead Reckoning, an adventure thriller about a couple of hapless drifters who take the bait and subsequently wind up being chased up the Baja by banditos in search of their missing goods. Not content to keep to themselves, they wind up spending time on a beach with two gringas who aren’t as innocent as they might appear.