A lot of readers ask me why I choose to write what some call a return to the “classic adventure” for my series: the Alex Cort Adventures. Beginning with A Shadow Away, I decided early on that I wanted to provide an alternative to the many books written today with emphasis on chaotic, scary worlds. Instead of fictional depressed or stressed characters dealing with what is already happening too much in real life, I wanted to write about people I’d like to spend time with. Adult friends who come together to solve supernatural mysteries linked with legends from around the world.
In researching magical adventure books, I found virtually no adventure stories with positive adult role models in the bookstores I visited. I did discover most teen and young adult books are dark stories set in dystopian worlds, preoccupied with death and suicide. This might be a sign of our times, but I thought it interesting that Hyperion editor Stephanie Lurie said she was told by a young girl, “We are not all depressed you know.”
In that same bookstore, I heard a father refuse to buy his young sons the books they wanted because the stories “gave them bad dreams.” A lot of movies and books give me bad dreams, too. I don’t need more stress in my life! And I feel there are many teens who are looking for stories that capture the imagination, without the negativity that darkens so many novels today.
I like mysteries and being completely involved in an adventure with a good plot. And because of that, I want to take you on an adventure. Draw pictures with words so you can be swept away into magical worlds of your own imagination. I’d like you to come to love the characters and be sorry when the story is over. I wanted to write adventure stories with positive adult role models for the younger readers who may need some in their lives, and enjoy a good adventure, too. Most of all, I want to offer entertaining stories with a positive approach, and a chance for everyone to learn something interesting about this world, its people, and their myths and legends.
James Herriot is another author whose books I treasure. His first book is called All Creatures Great and Small. He is a veterinarian in the Yorkshire Dales of Northern England, and the way he tells his stories is fabulous. You will love his veterinary “family” in Darrowby. I envy you for being able to read it for the first time.
If you like stories with horses, Dick Francis used to be the Queen of England’s own jockey. He has a knack for telling a good story, too!
Just know there are many books you can sink into for such enjoyable adventures that you will want to read them again.
Happy Reading!
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This week I’d like to share with you some of the many myths and legends that have captured my imagination over the years and inspired me to write A Shadow Away, then the magical adventure series “Alex Cort Adventures.”
The first legend I wanted to write about is El Dorado. People still wonder about the Lost City of Gold, and just like Atlantis, nobody knows where it actually might be. In a jungle, certainly, but which one?
I chose to place my El Dorado somewhere in the vast expanse of Brazil. I love Brazil. I love the music and their joy for living, so naturally I was drawn to that location. Languages have always fascinated me, too, so I set about learning the words and phrases I would need to tell my story.
That’s part of what makes writing fun. I like learning about people, their culture, their language. It makes the story more interesting to me and I think to you who enjoy reading about the escapades of my favorite characters. Three main characters tell the stories: Alex, ex-cop detective and art theft recovery expert, is curious and brings a sense of adventure. Eccentric Andrew, the archaeologist, loves the dichotomy of science and superstition. Angel brings magic, fantasy, and the supernatural to my stories. With her, I can weave time travel, teleportation, mythical creatures and paranormal beings into my stories.
I love to write about magic, adventure, and lost treasures, so one book turned into a six-book series when I thought of so many other legends that color our world.
In my second book, All Under Heaven, I write about ancient China and the First Emperor, Qin (pronounced Chin) Shi Huang. The word “China” came from his name. Qin searched for the mythical Ninth Cauldron to legitimize his reign. Alex must find the cauldron to save Andrew and rescue a doomed ghost. Will he succeed? Magicians and sorcerers want him to fail.
Atlantis is the mythical theme of my third book, Secrets of the Crystal Skulls. Who doesn’t still wonder where Atlantis is and what happened to it after all these centuries?
I put my own twist on the fate of Atlantis with a sorcerer who tries to control its destiny with a giant crystal obelisk. Alex, Andrew, and Angel will have to time-travel, enter the Underworld, and try to defeat the sorcerer who still has his own agenda.
Irish Legends of woodland faeries, elves, and leprechauns—who doesn’t love them! My fourth book will be called The Black Horseman. Mermaids, trooper faeries, beings and creatures who live in the Otherworld, perhaps even a mis-placed Excalibur, will feature in this adventure.
Book five, a prequel, tells the tale of when Alex first joins Andrew. A treasure recently unearthed at a dig outside Saqqara suddenly disappears but who, or what, stole it and why? So many myths! So many legends! It will be fun to weave a story from these threads.
The sixth book in the “Alex Cort Adventures” begins outside Mexico City at the ruined Temple of the Sun at Teotihuacan. Ancient Aztec rituals, the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, and ghosts from the past all figure in a chase that leads Alex and his friends in a pursuit from Mexico through the capitals of Europe.
That all sounds exciting even to me! Can’t wait to write the rest of these stories, and I hope you enjoy reading them. See you next week!
Video: What made you start with the El Dorado story?
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