Boy on the Beach by R.D. Maddux Book Tour with Guest Post :)
Book Title: Boy on the Beach by R.D. Maddux
Category: Adult Fiction; 304 pages
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Publisher: Ezekiel 12 Publications
Release date: March 11, 2017
Content Rating: PG-13 + M (There are implied sex scenes but no graphic descriptions of lovemaking. There is one scene with some violence.)
Book Description:
Andrew Foster, a real estate developer in San Diego, is a man suddenly haunted by his past. Memories, like specters from his former life of sex, drugs and rock and roll have come crashing into his current world of business in this sunny coastal city. The ominous, repeated appearance of a black SUV at the beach where he meets his sister each week, has triggered fears that it’s payback time for a bad choice he made years ago.
To add to his frustrations, his hopes of a big breakthrough in the San Diego real estate market haven’t come to pass. He’s starting to wonder if his visions of success will ever come true when an investor offers to finance his dream project. Soon things start to fall into place for Andrew in business, life, and even love. He starts dating the beautiful and business-savvy Nicole but even with her at his side he can’t seem to shake the ghosts of his past. As the relationship with Nicole deepens, Andrew opens up to her about the many loves and adventures that have taken him from the crazy days of living in Big Sur and Joshua Tree to business success in San Diego. Her wise insights help him face the character flaws that have caused him to fail in his past relationships.
Rounding out his social life is his once-a-week task of assisting his sister with her nanny job watching a young boy named Chandler. They build sand castles on the beach and enjoy the beauty of nature together. But the now ominous weekly appearance of a strange car at the beach has awakened Andrew’s fears. Is the boy in danger? Or worse, has an enemy from Andrew’s past come seeking revenge and now Chandler’s caught in the middle?
A strange twist of events threatens to destroy Andrew’s dreams, but as he searches for answers, a sudden revelation offers hope of a future he never imagined.
To follow the tour and read reviews, please visit R.D. Maddux's page on iRead Book Tours.
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Meet the Author:
R.D. Maddux has story telling in his blood. Since he was young he’s always loved a good tale. He’s been writing seriously since he was in high school and college. His novels range from Mystery and Intrigue to Sci-fi/fantasy. With Boy On The Beach he’s set the story in modern America, to be exact, on the West Coast of California. He’s a native of the golden state and has been a resident of San Diego since 1987. Before that he grew up in northern California and lived in the Sacramento Valley and Bay Area with sojourns in some of the beautiful parts of our state.
Living in California for over 60 years he couldn't help but watch the way things have changed in our culture and the impact this coast makes on the rest of America and the world. So even though Boy On The Beach is fiction, like most serious novels, it is not without a context and comment on issues we all face in our changing world. It takes place in real locations that are very familiar to him and its characters, which are fictional, no doubt have their counterparts in the real world. Boy On The Beach is a story of intrigue, suspense, revenge, love and redemption with flashbacks to the era when sex, drugs and rock and roll set our culture on it's inevitable journey to our present day. This idea has been rattling around in his heart and mind for a decade and it's finally coming to the page.
Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram
***GUEST POST***
A
recent trend in writing seems to be novels with perspective coming
from different characters set in the first person. The bestseller,
Girl On The Train, set off a whole new wave of similar books. I was
intrigued to find out why it drew such interest and within a few
chapters I saw why the format had a lot going for it. As I set out to
write Boy On The Beach I realized that I could use this approach but
limited it to two characters. I like the way you can “get into the
head” of the characters in a unique way, but also gain a
perspective from one character, that you don’t in others. It gives
you an overview without having to use, the third person “god”
viewpoint that a lot of novels use. Although the first-person
approach can be limiting, this multi-viewpoint approach gives the
author some options he or she might not otherwise have. It worked for
me in writing my novel. Hopefully the reader will find it works for
them as well.
It’s
amazing what 39 years can do to a culture
There’s
a span of thirty-nine years between the present day, San Diego,
setting of my novel, Boy On The Beach, to the flash-backs of another
era. So much of what our current West Coast culture is today was put
in motion by the generation that came into their adulthood during the
late 60’s and 70’s. 39 years ago, the riotous days of the
counter-culture were morphing into the disco era. But in communes
along the coast of California and the hippie hangouts in the Redwoods
of Mendocino, the last hold-outs of the “free love” scene were
still lost in the passions of their hedonistic choices. In some ways
these two eras are completely different. But in some ways, not much
has changed. By setting these two seasons in contrast and bringing
the protagonist past into direct conflict with his new identity I
think I’ve been able to explore a deeper conflict that our present
society must deal with as it faces the choices it made years ago.
Many believe that we are set on a course as a society where we
eventually will have to “pay” for the sins of our past. Boy On
The Beach sets in contrast two eras. One where we’ve sown to the
wind and one where there’s a tornado heading our way. It also
unblinkingly addresses a possible payback that may be coming but
hints as well at a possible hope-filled future our characters could
never have imagined.
Novel
researching at restaurants
I’ve
lived in San Diego for over 30 years. So, in that time I’ve eaten
in a lot of wonderful places here locally. I’ve set several of the
scenes from my novel in some of these wonderful eateries. They have
great ambience and great food. But when I was doing some background
for a couple of scenes I decided to use two places I hadn’t been.
One I investigated online but didn’t visit it. I merely took their
menu off their webpage. I’ve been to the area where they’re
located but never eaten there. But I couldn’t resist eating at one
of the “local” places near the coast I mentioned in the book.
When my wife and I dined there, we were pleasantly surprised how well
it fit the character of what I described. I didn’t have to change
anything in the scene. It worked perfectly plus the food was great.
The
beach is truly therapeutic
Taking
our day off at the beach has been a long tradition in our family.
I’ve found it one of the greatest places to relax. They say that
large bodies of water have a calming effect on a person’s mental
and emotional state. I’ve set several scenes in the novel on the
beach not just because the beach is a quintessential part of San
Diego life but also because it acts as a catalyst for much of what
happens in the protagonist life. It’s a place where he processes
things and also a place of a final catharsis (but I’ll leave that
unexplored here since revealing it would be a spoiler).
None-the-less, the beach can do wonders for a trouble soul. I’m
blessed to live near the beach and finding this “boy” on the
beach is something you’ll see often.
Seeing
things that aren’t really there
Having
a bad dream can be very troubling but for most of us any such torment
is soon gone after a good cup of coffee and a wake-up shower. But for
some people such nocturnal visits can linger long into the day and
even the week. For the main character in my novel his dreams seem to
carry over into his day. He’s seeing things in the day time that
are troubling as well. Guessing which ones are real, and which ones
aren’t, is part of the mystery. My character has a guilty
conscience and it may be the source of his torments and then it may
not. They say even paranoiacs can have real enemies. I’m sure
psychologists can explain all this to us, but in the plot of this
book all these “dreams” play an important part in how things
“play” out.
Enter the Giveaway!
Ends Aug 25, 2018
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