Dangerous Encounters on the Carolina Waterways . . .
DALLAS – Author Dick Elam has spent the majority of his 87 years doing three things – reporting/editing, teaching/mentoring journalism students, and sailing. His newest writing venture is Anne Bonny’s Wake (Brown Books Publishing Group, November 2016). “I started writing the book in 1980,” Elam says. “The impetus came with the purchase of a new (then) Apple II computer, a Letter Perfect document program and six weeks of summer vacation. I wrote, as I taught, about something I knew. When the words failed to gain interest from colleague and playwright Tad Mosel’s New York agent, I set the manuscript aside.”
The manuscript gathered dust for more than 30 years until Elam relocated to Lake Ray Hubbard just east of Dallas in 2013. With new determination, the first in the “Maggie and Hersh” series set sail. The romance and crime thriller features a 30-foot, sloop-rigged sailboat named after a historical female pirate, Anne Bonny. Elam and a former University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill student owned, raced and cruised the sloop in the North Carolina waterways. “The love of sailing bonds my heroes,” says Elam. “The appreciation of waterway life draws them closer. They see beauty in the muddy waters where ‘watermen’ fish, transport goods, and move people. They speak the same sailboat language, although one is a Yankee and the other a Southerner.”
Anne Bonny’s Wake is set in the 1980s when President Ronald Reagan waged his War on Drugs. “As I was writing the manuscript, it became historical fiction,” Elam says. “The United States market for drugs grew when the Reagan Administration expanded enforcement in 1982, and First Lady Nancy Reagan was encouraging her ‘Just Say No’ campaign. It was a time when Mexican drug cartels advanced from ‘detected’ to ‘prevalent.’”
Elam charts a course that sails into dark shades of corruption on the Carolina waterway and steers Hersh’s fascination with the mysterious Maggie after she unexpectedly climbs aboard the Anne Bonny
Q & A With Dick Elam
- What is the background behind using Anne Bonny as the name of the centerpiece vessel in the book?
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She was a used 30-foot long, sloop-rigged sailboat that we bought and cruised out of Morehead City/Beaufort, North Carolina. I also raced her from Oriental (NC) and offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.
What was your biggest challenge along the way as you developed the Maggie and Hersh characters and their relationship to each other?-
My biggest challenge was to help readers who might be unfamiliar with sailing understand what happens when you sail, but not lose the language a sailor would expect. The love of sailing bonds my heroes. Their appreciation of waterway life draws them closer. Maggie and Hersh see beauty in the muddy waters where “watermen” fish, transport goods, and move people. They enjoy streams that provide quick access to the Atlantic Ocean. Both have been widowed and speak the same sailboat language, although one is a Yankee and the other a Southerner.
- Why did you set the book in the 1980s during President Ronald Regan’s “War on Drugs” years?
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I started writing the book in 1980. The impetus came with the purchase of a new (then) Apple II computer, a Letter Perfect document program, and six weeks of summer vacation. I wrote, as I taught, about something I knew. When the words failed to gain interest from colleague and playwright Tad Mosel’s New York agent, I set the manuscript aside. At that time, Colombian drug smugglers appeared often in news accounts. And you couldn’t sail on the North Carolina coast without hearing about drug “bootlegging.” As I was writing the manuscript, it became historical fiction. The United States’ market for drugs grew when the Reagan Administration expanded enforcement in 1982. Mexican drug cartels grew from “detected” to “prevalent.”
Your familiarity with the North Carolina waterways from your faculty years at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill is evident in the book’s setting. What is it about that region of coastline that adds to the intrigue and mystery of Anne Bonny’s Wake?-
Transients, skippers, crew, tugboat captains, fishermen – they are all there. And, there is plenty of historical nautical intrigue in this region. The “Lost Colony,” Blackbeard’s buried pirate treasure, Civil War shipwrecks of Confederate vessels trying to run through the Union blockade, the lore of German U-Boats lurking offshore.
Anne Bonny’s Wake is the first in your “Maggie and Hersh” thriller series. Any hint as to who in your life may have inspired these characters?-
No one person. I intended to write believable characters, so I borrowed traits and words from a slew of characters I’ve met. Time spent reporting “the cop beat” during my newspaper journalist days helped. Some memories of rough characters from the oilfeld and marinas. And, some lovely ladies.
You have had a personal life journey that could be a book in itself, with opportunities that included serving as newspaper report/editor, television reporter and station owner, senatorial election campaign staff member, and university professor – just to touch on the highlights! You could have written about that, so why a fiction thriller?-
For the fun of rubbing two (or more) characters together and seeing what happens. It was also because writing news, editorials, a thesis, and a dissertation kept my imagination in the hangar, and my fancy wasn’t getting airborne.
With a lifetime of “telling stories,” whether it be delivering the news as a reporter or inspiring the minds of young collegiate students, how does telling a story as an author compare and contrast to those life experiences?-
Maybe it’s the difference between “telling it like it is” and “telling it how you think it might have been.” Like many authors I’ve read, I try to borrow from life experiences to provide enough reality so the reader can say, “Yeah, that could have happened. Thanks for introducing me to these life-like characters. I’m rooting for so-and-so.” Unlike writing for television, expanded by the camera, an author must use three-dimensional words to help you see and write dialogue to help you hear. The dividend in writing fiction comes when the author helps the reader feel an emotion, remember a touch, or recall a smell.
What is it about the open waterways that beckons each of us and seems to provide an ever-alluring backdrop for authors?-
After I proofread the final draft of Anne Bonny’s Wake, I came across this quote: “A man builds the best of himself into a boat – builds many of the unconscious memories of his ancestor.” — John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez
Can you tease us a little bit with what might be ahead for Maggie and Hersh in your next book?-
Their adventure continues from where Anne Bonny’s Wake left of. Maggie sells a treasure map that points to the place where she sunk a $3 million marijuana stash. A drug trafficker, called the “Bear,” pays for his stolen goods. But he doesn’t forgive and forget. Maggie repays Hersh for his sailboat voyage in the second book, Guadalajara High, by taking him on her Guadalajara undercover money delivery to Drug Enforcement headquarters in Mexico.
Praise For Anne Bonny’s Wake
“Set during the early 1980s amid the Reagan administration’s heightened government involvement in drug prohibition and regulation, suspected “dope” trafficking immediately sets a tone reminiscent of cop dramas of the era. The action begins immediately, retaining an even, suspenseful pace throughout. Sailing enthusiasts will appreciate the authentic attention to detail provided as Hersh and Maggie make their way along the coast. Anne Bonny’s Wake channels all the danger, intrigue, and thrills of a pirate’s life at sea for a twentieth-century criminal mystery.”
— FOREWORD REVIEWS
“This is an ideal read for those who appreciate an original and deftly crafted story of action, mystery, and romance — and clearly marks (Elam’s) his mastery of the genre. Unreservedly recommended for the personal reading lists of dedicated mystery buffs.”
— MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
“Anne Bonny’s Wake is a waterman’s dream filled with modern day pirates and the bluecoats that chase them. The mysterious, compelling read stars a hero-to-be and a heroine to die for, while the hardy residents of the inlets, bays and coves of North Carolina provide a delightful secondary cast of characters. The nautical and the non-nautical alike will enjoy this taut thriller with a carefully woven love story.”
— E. PAUL EDWARDS
DIRECTOR & SCREENWRITER
“A terrific debut novel that combines the page-turning action of a thriller with the sense of place found in the best Southern literature.”
— TOM YOUNG
AUTHOR OF THE MULLAH’S STORM, SILENT ENEMY & SAND AND FIRE
“Dick Elam is a marvelous storyteller. Anne Bonny’s Wake is full of intrigue and great characters. It would make a wonderful TV series; there’s nothing like it on the air!”
— VICKI LOPER
PRODUCER, KAHUNAS PRODUCTION COMPANY
“Anne Bonny’s Wake sails through the North Carolina waters I knew as a boy, as a sailor, and now as a coastal newspaper publisher. Like author Nicholas Sparks, [Elam] captures the beauty and local charm of our waterway.”
— LOCKWOOD PHILLIPS
FORMER PRESIDENT, NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION
“Dick Elam’s compelling novel blends vivid details with quick action. Superbly written and fun reading. Looking forward to the sequel.”
— ELISE SUGAR MCGINNIS
NORTH CAROLINA AUTHOR AND PRODUCTION CREW
“When a mysterious mermaid-woman climbs aboard Professor Hersh’s boat, he’s naturally intrigued—and soon drawn into her web of danger and deceit. In his debut novel of suspense, Dick Elam creates a page-turning romantic thriller full of twists and turns that build to a satisfying conclusion.”
— ELLEN MANSOOR COLLIER
AUTHOR OF THE JAZZ AGE SERIES
“I love it from the beginning to its end. I know nothing about sailing or boats and don’t swim—the shower can be terrifying—but I’m able to visualize the reality of being on Anne Bonny with Maggie! Although I don’t know sailing, I do know subtlety, double entendre, and innuendo, and Anne Bonny’s Wake drips hot with these as well as intrigue.”
— RICHARD C. MORGAN, JR., PHD
PRESIDENT, RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION (ROIE)
“Breezy and upbeat, Anne Bonny’s Wake follows widowed Professor Hershel Barstow’s last sail aboard his Anne Bonny, and the mysterious siren Maggie who suddenly climbs aboard and changes both their lives. The reader who loves sailing or enjoys the scenery, tastes, and pirate tales of the Carolina Waterways will be thrilled with this action-romance novel.”
— SHARON BROWN
WAKE COUNTY (RALEIGH, NC) LIBRARIAN
END COMMENT
$22.99 Hardcover, 224 Pages
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Advancing ripples marched, double-time, toward where I sat. I leaned to look. Saw nothing forward, so I leaned across the cockpit and peered into Anne Bonny’s shadow.
Flinched.
A swimmer. A visible face. Black eyes, framed by an ivory face. Our eyes locked. I stared at dark eye-brows, brunette hair. The head moved along the port side, reached the back corner of the boat.
Hersh, I told myself, that’s a woman.
The woman glided in a “silent swim”— the stroke practiced by commandos, spies, and poachers. Curious, I thought. Why so mysterious? Doesn’t she see me looking at her?