Motorcycles and murder

Today is a red letter day. Joker's Wild is completed and has been sent to the publisher. Whoohoo!

I know I've spoken of this book before but I'm going to pummel you with details, anyway!

The Palmer brothers, all four of them, were raised in Oregon and as good Northwestern natives played sports in school and hunted and fished. They were outdoorsmen. As kids they rode ATV's to get to the best hunting and camping spots. ATV's changed to road-ready motorcycles when they got older.

As people are bound to do, the boys-Joey, Alex, Donny and Eddie-grew in different directions with different lifestyles. They never lost their love of the outdoors or motorcycles and Joey and Eddie continued to ride big bikes aka Harleys as their primary form of transportation. Alex took his athletic skills to Hollywood and became the stunt double for one of the biggest actions stars of the era, Corey 'Slide' Rigby. He invited his big brother Joey to join him in Hollywood and Joey took up the offer. After a couple years, Joey opted to take the skills he'd learned from their family business and move to the Antelope Valley to work in the Aerospace industry. Brother Donny took his skills and used them in the construction business which was booming at the time while Eddie went to college for a degree in Horticulture.

Within two years of each other, the two middle brothers, Alex and Donny, would be dead from preventable accidents and their perpetrators would be cleared by the court systems. It was at this time brothers Joey and Eddie opted to take matters into their own hands.

Joker's Wild follows the two remaining brothers journey to mete out justice where the judicial system wouldn't or couldn't.

Much of this story is set in places I've lived and been involved in motorcycle poker runs. The Antelope Valley, forty-three miles northeast of Los Angeles, is part of the Mojave Desert and as such suffers extreme temperatures; snowing in the winter and becoming so hot in the summer frying an egg on one's car is a possibility. The Christmas poker run involves long johns and layers of leather to keep from getting hypothermia. The July 4th poker run starts and an unearthly time in the morning to avoid the crush of 110 to 115 degree temperatures in the afternoon. Yet, enthusiasts from all over line up to be involved.

Having moved back to the Willamette Valley in Oregon a few years ago, I've been fortunate enough to be involved in several poker runs here. The difference being in Oregon most of the runs are done from March or April through November. The VERY brave ride year round, but I'm not counted among them. I'm truly Sissy-La-La when it comes to cold AND wet.

I hope you'll find time to put Joker's Wild on your 'To Be Read' list.


Putting on my helmet and jumping on my Harley,

Sable Angel