Between the Lines: Jim Hawkins

When I was growing up, one of my favorite books was Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, Treasure Island. When I saw the Disney movie, I loved the book even more. A while back, I interviewed Long John Silver and we had a fun time reliving his old pirating days. Today, I thought we'd chat with his old shipmate, young Jim Hawkins.

Greg:  Welcome, young Master Hawkins. It's nice to see you.

Jim:  Good day, sir. It's nice to be here and feel solid ground beneath my feet once more.

Greg:  Sounds like you've just returned from a sea voyage.

Jim:  Why, yes sir. I've just returned with Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey from Treasure Island.

Greg:  Oh, I see. Looking for more treasure, eh?

Jim:  Oh no, sir. There isn't any more treasure to be had, at least not pirates' treasure. We were scouting locations for a theme park.

Greg;  You're kidding. A theme park?

Jim:  That's right. At first I was as confused as you. Then, Squire Trelawney explained it all to me. A theme park is a place where people can come and have all sorts of fun. There are games and rides, and all of them have the same kind of theme to them. So, like I said, people come to have a good time and--here's the best part--they pay you money to get in. Plus, you can also sell food at really high prices, because there's nothing else to eat or drink--that is unless they bring their own, but the Squire says they won't be allowed.

Greg:  Hmmm, that Squire seems way ahead of his time. Quite the sly one. I can hardly believe it.

Jim:  Neither could Dr. Livesey, but the Squire showed us a layout for the whole park. Ours is going to have a pirate theme. Squire Trelawney says we'll call it Pirates of the Caribbean. That's when Dr. Livesey decided that he should sail with us. He wanted to make sure we made it back.

Greg:  So how long will it take to build this theme park?

Jim:  Not long. They're going to have to clear a lot of land but after that Squire says things should move pretty quickly. We've only come back to see if we could enlist some pirates to use as performers. Squire says there's nothing like a real honest to goodness pirates to give a place atmosphere.

Greg:  I suppose that's true. Say, whatever happened to your mother? Does she still run the inn?

Jim:  Yes sir, but not for too much longer. You see, we're going to sell the Admiral Benbow and she's going to run the concession stand at the Pirates of the Caribbean. We stand to make a fortune.

Greg:  Yes, there's more than one kind of pirate out there, those with swords and those selling deluxe travel packages. Ah well, it was nice to see you, Jim my lad. Whatever you do don't let success spoil you. I wonder how Dr. Livesey feels about all this.

Jim:  He hasn't really come around yet, but Squire Trelawney is working on him. He can be very persuasive. Do you know, he's hired Long John Silver to star in the Treasure Island Thrill Ride? It's going to be terrific. The crowd's going to eat it up!

So, What's This Book About?

Okay, now that you've seen the cover, I suppose I should tell you a little bit about the book. To start it off, here's the description that's going to be on the back cover:

A world is in trouble, who can save it?

Certainly not Eric Scott, a 12 year old boy coming to grips with his own personal tragedy. But that’s exactly what Stig, an owl from another world, asks him to do. Together, they are sent to deliver Calendria, a small fishing village, from Sharky, an immortal pirate captain that has enslaved them. But defeating Sharky and his band of bloodthirsty pirates will be no easy task.

When they arrive, Eric and Stig meet Kate Endria, who is convinced that they are the Deliverers—heroes of an ancient prophecy who are destined to defeat Sharky and his crew. Eric devises a plan that he hopes will work. Eric’s confidence rises when they rescue Hallo Tosis, an outcast dwarf who gives them the key to a powerful weapon. But it’s only after things start to go horribly wrong that Eric and Stig discover the true object of their mission.

That's the gist of the first half, more or less. You'll have to read the book when it comes out to discover what happens next!

This book has been a long time coming. When I first started it close to ten years ago, I didn't think I could write an entire novel--I'd only written short stories. The story just sort of grew layer on layer, and I was able to join those layers at the end to form a whole.

But along the way there was a lot of trial and error, wrong turns, and a ton of revisions.Through all this, I was writing everywhere; at my old job (sorry Floor Focus), on the train to and from press conferences, in airports and on airplanes, in my basement (long story)...I could write a book. Oh, wait, I did! I mean, I could write a book about writing a book!

I'll go into detail on alot of that in the coming days, weeks, months, years. As I said in my first post, I could wind up writing about anything. I mean, look at this post. It was supposed to be a little bit about the book. I did give you the book description, but I haven't told you anything about the characters, like how did I come up with the idea of a talking owl? Well, that's a great topic for tomorrow's post! I don't know how long these blog posts are supposed to be, but since I don't have any picture today to break up this text, I think I'll say goodbye until tomorrow.

Goodbye until tomorrow!