Rogue's Angels Present: The Tursiops Syndrome by John C. Waite

Please welcome John C. Waite author of The Tursiops Syndrome

John C. Waite will be awarding a $50 Gift Certificate to Nuts.com to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

The Tursiops Syndrome

by John C. Waite 

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GENRE: Thriller

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INTERVIEW:

Who or what inspired you to start writing?

That’s hard to pin down. I started writing for other people as a teen. Attending summer camp (church sponsored) when I was about 15 some of the guys were trying to write letters to potential girlfriends at home but they just couldn’t seem to come up with the creative moxie. I was an avid reader, and couldn't imagine someone not able to express themselves on paper. So I offered to help. I wrote some of the mushiest love notes I could imagine while avoiding all of the overtly sexual inferences young guys harbor. And I got paid. I think I charged a quarter for a love note and fifty cents for a multipage letter. I bought quite a few cokes with the proceeds.

I built on that in college, taking a degree in broadcast journalism from The University of Georgia. I worked in the field for several years, editing a weekly southern Louisiana newspaper, working for radio stations in Texas and Louisiana, including one of the top-rated New Orleans stations in the 60s, when I could get a huge plate of red beans and rice and a Dixie beer in the Quarter for less than a buck.

I played with the creative writing process for decades, making a modest living. Then I joined the merchant marine and started making real money. While offshore I often wrote for my own entertainment but shared little of it. When I retired from the sea, I returned to writing, and have since penned two novels and number short stories.

What elements are necessary components for this genre?

The genres I like best always include some mystery, suspense, and action, not necessarily in that order. I also appreciate low key humor to offset some of the drama.

How did you come up with the idea for your novel?

I have always lived near, and often on, the sea. Porpoises (dolphin) have been my friends for a lifetime. They are the closest things to a human in the sea. They are warm-blooded, intelligent, family oriented, sexual beings. They learn quickly, and they exhibit the ability to reason, often even more so than human counterparts. On the sexual level, there are several recorded portrayals of their interaction with humans, readily available on the net.

What expertise did you bring to your writing?

A degree in journalism, and a lot of tough lessons converting what I saw into word pictures. Takes a lot of practice. By the time I was finishing my merchant marine career I knew I wanted to complete the novel I had started many years earlier, so I sat down and did the most important thing a writer can do, write.

What are your future plans?

I have several things I hope to complete. I have begun a novel-length story about the man who was my best friend through all of my school years, although we parted company in college. He died in 1965, one of the early casualties in Viet Nam. His stated ambition in high school was to be president of the United States, and he well might have m,ade it if he had lived. He was smart, iron-willed and a natural leader. He was leading a company of soldiers in the field, trying to talk evacuation helicopters in when he was struck by a mortar shell. His story is worth telling.

If you could be one of the characters in this book, who would it be?

The hero, Kevin, of course. He’s smart, been through a lot and survived, and hooking up with a woman who is his match.

Do you belong to a critique group? How does it help or hinder your writing?

Critique groups, one of which I attend regularly, are good for two things. They make you focus on your prose, and more fully appreciate the language. There are any number of computer programs that can help you edit, and get things grammatically correct. But the perspective a critical reader provides can help you see shortcomings in pacing, in description.

And, bringing to bear more knowledge than one person possesses, can help prevent critical factual flaws.  

        The group can also inure you a bit to the criticism that’s bound to appear once your project is completed. Criticism from someone you know and respect may hurt a bit, but it isn’t apt to hurt your sales.

When did you first decide to submit your work?

Actually, in this case, the question should ask why I haven’t submitted my work to publishers. In fact, when I was in the very early stages of this journey, I did submit a couple of proposals to agents, or to people who represented themselves as agents. After negotiating with the “agents” they outlined programs where they would negotiate with publishers on my behalf. Then they started telling me how much money they wanted to “represent” me.  I haven’t queried an agent since, and don’t plan to.

Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I don’t outline, but I do sketch a beginning and an ending, then go back and think about how I get from the beginning to the end. What are the relationships of the characters to one another; what are the events that will take the story from the beginning to the end. I want to use as few characters as possible, but how many will I have to have to tell the story.

 I sketch the characters; status, background, ambitions, and how those things fit into the overall theme, and where they will end up. Then I just start at the beginning and write, using as few adverbs and adjectives as possible, and as many active verbs as I can. I try to use active voice and verbiage even in the descriptive passages, “the sky blossomed red as the sun slipped below the horizon.”

How do you maintain your creativity?

I have always been a daydreamer, and it’s amazing how many daydreams convert into stories. The hard part is remembering to write them before they fade into yesterday. The secret is, there is no secret. Sit there and write. You’ll find the story.

Who is your favorite character in the book?

In this case, my favorite character is Dr. James Crabtree. He is a multifaceted individual who wants to be a good guy, but when the going gets tough, he starts slipping to the other side. Of course, he doesn’t make it out alive but is he really the bad guy, He seems to evolve into a heroic character, but did he intend that?

Anything else you want to add?

When first you sit at the keyboard and create, you expect everyone to love it. That’s what creative people do. Consciously we know that’s not true, but we want to believe it. So the first few times someone criticizes your writing, the emotive pain may pound you like a steep surf on the beach. But if it knocks you off the board, do what the surfers do, paddle back out to the break and get ready. The next one might be a great ride.

 

BLURB:

How do you get a nuke into the heart of the city? Maybe a dolphin can help. From Author John Waite, the tale of a police detective who matches wits with a mad scientist and terrorists intent on destroying America. When detective Hickory Logan joins Park Ranger Kevin Whitehead investigating the mysterious death of a dolphin she finds herself sucked into a far deeper whirlpool. Can she and Kevin stop the tide of terror that threatens to kill thousands or will they be fodder for a nuclear fireball?

A newspaper review described Tursiops thus: "The writing is, well, wonderful. Waite has a gift for dialogue and story-telling, and his plot is adventurous and perfectly paced. "

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EXCERPT:

Red Logan hunkered down next to the Humvee's left front wheel. He folded his lanky frame in several places to assure that the vehicle shielded him from rifle fire emanating from the house a hundred feet away. 

A furious fusillade had greeted A-Company, first battalion, 407th Special Forces when their vehicles pulled to a halt in front of what was a rather strange building for northern Afghanistan. In the early morning darkness it looked for all the world like a California ranch-style home.

But there was no BMW parked in the driveway. 

The firefight lasted less than fifteen minutes. There was only an occasional round pinging off the slate-riddled soil and infrequent bursts of automatic fire keeping the soldiers from charging the structure. Red wondered why the squads weren’t using some of the heavier weapons. He knew the unit armament included shoulder-fired missiles and a Carl Gustav 84-mm recoilless rifle but so far, the big stuff had been silent. 

The tip had placed Azam al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda's chief organizer for nine-eleven, in the house. 

Numerous such tips over the past two years had come to nothing. Most of them originated in minds overly-motivated to garner the twenty million American dollars offered for the capture of several of the world’s most wanted terrorists. 

At least one Osama bin Laden look-alike had been found dead. And it took weeks before authorities identified the body.  The man had been killed and left in a house to which an Afghan citizen directed U.S. forces. Not only did he not get the reward he sought, but his countrymen also jailed him for mutilating the corpse by cutting off its hands and feet. 

Army intelligence, a title Red thought oxymoronic, had considered tonight’s tip more credible than most since it had come in anonymously. The tipster hadn’t mentioned the reward. So the Special Forces unit had headed out in the predawn darkness for a two-hour drive north from Kabul into the mountainous terrain. 

“Red?”

The voice belonged to the figure squeezed into the wheel well behind him.

He could barely see Jessie’s sinewy shape, strangely gawky where the video camera and its now-dark lights rested on her right thigh. 

“Yeah, what?” he whispered.

“Should I get some video?” Jessie asked, cocking her left hand back over her shoulder. 

“Hell no. We're reporters, not soldiers. CNN's not paying us to get shot. Just keep your ass down. There's nothing to shoot."

Before he could finish his sentence, an amplified Afghan voice rang out from the vicinity of the lead Humvee, imploring the occupants of the house to surrender. The answer was a three-shot rifle volley, the rounds pinging off the hard-pack and whining away into the darkness. 

“Now,” Jessie said, pushing past Red and swinging the camera onto her shoulder, leaning on the Hummer’s hood. 

“No.” Red yelled, trying to pull her to the ground. But it was too late. The light on Jessie’s camera flared brilliantly then died in a crash of glass and the harsh double bark of a Kalashnikov. The rounds zinged away into the darkness, but Red heard in the report the crunch of bone. 

“Jessie.” he screamed. 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Thousands of author John C Waite’s words flew past Alpha Centauri years ago,  heading for the center of the galaxy, perhaps sparking an arthropod’s grin in route. Waite, a degreed journalist and retired Merchant Mariner has numerous writing and broadcasting awards to his credit, and millions of words in print and broadcast media. Originally from New Orleans he has called Panhandle Florida his home for fifty years, but still retains a taste for things Creole and Cajun. A recreational and professional sailor, his travels have covered the Caribbean, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, portions of south and Central America, Canada, Hawaii, Ireland, Britain, and Europe. John resides in Pensacola, Florida. He is a father to four, and grandfather to four.  His books are available on Amazon.

http://johncwaite.com/

https://www.facebook.com/johngllgskns

https://twitter.com/johngllgskns1

The book will be on sale for $0.99 during the tour.

https://www.amazon.com/Tursiops-Syndrome-John-Waite-ebook/dp/B01MQVDUF1/ref=sr_1_1

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

John C. Waite will be awarding a $50 Gift Certificate to Nuts.com to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f2933