by Bob Sparrow
As is obvious from the last 14 years of this blog, Suzanne and I love to write. But just recently we decided we wanted to write something besides the blog. Those who follow us know that Suzanne has already written something besides this blog. As in two very good, non-fiction books, In the Enemy’s Camp, (2004) a riveting account of American civilians, her husband’s family, held prisoner by the Japanese in the Philippines, and Before All Is Said and Done, (2022) a book that everyone should read to prepare you for life after your spouse has passed. Both books are available on Amazon Books.
But I had a story rattling around in my head, with which I wanted to do something. I actually have several stories rattling around in there and I thought it was time to . . . I was going to say empty my brain, but it’s pretty much empty already. So, I asked Suzanne if she was interested in co-authoring a novel, novelette, short story, screen play, television series, something! I really didn’t know how the rattles in my head would shake out. Fortunately, she was on board with whatever we decided.
So, our story takes place in the South Pacific and I believe the germ of the idea came from an old television series called Adventures in Paradise, which was created by James Mitchner, yes that James Mitchner. It starred Gardner McKay, who was, by most accounts, a nice-looking, bad actor. It was on television for three years – 1959 -1962 (I know, some of you weren’t even born yet!). I went on YouTube and watched three or four episodes – it was in black and white, had weak story lines and was poorly acted; generally, it was awful! But it took place in the exotic South Pacific, and I saw potential for perhaps writing a television series that would be in living color, have interesting story lines and be well-acted. After several discussions with Suzanne, it was decided that I would write down the basic story and she would not just edit it, in terms of choosing the right words and punctuation, but helped create the ‘arc’ of the characters and story, as well as re-write parts of it to make it more interesting and believable. We each had our responsibilities; she is an excellent writer, who had experience in the book-publishing process and I . . . well, I just had a story and a desire to write it. But I found out, I didn’t really know how to write a story! So I searched Amazon for books on how to write and found two great ones, both by Sol Stein, Stein on Writing and How to Grow a Novel. When I was done with them, I had scribbled notes on almost every page, yellow highlighted sentences throughout, and dog-eared pages from front to back.
As Suzanne and I were writing this story, we thought it fit nicely as a six-episode television
adventure/travel series. So I asked my son-in-law, Jason Shomer, for some advice as he’s a good writer in his own rite and has had experience in this field. He bought and sent me a book called The Anatomy of Story, by John Truby, which is now also scribbled on, highlighted and dogeared. Jason also gave me some advice about writing a television series.
So, Suzanne and I re-wrote what we had into what we thought was a television series, dialogue format. After reading it we decided that we really were over our heads in trying this, and that we should get back to being over our heads in trying to write a novel. The working title for this project is In Search of Bali Ha’i and we’ll keep you updated on any progress with this adventure, but don’t hold your breath, I’m still learning how to write!