FMM: You have won 9 book awards in two years: In 2021, FAPA Medalist and NABE Pinnacle Awards for Harry Harambee’s Kenyan Sundowner in Literary Fiction. NABE Pinnacle for Preacher Finds a Corpse in Mystery. What is your recipe for success?
If I have a recipe, it’s not to stick to genre recipes. I may have an outline when I begin writing a novel—or simply a notion of where it will all end—but I try to leave openings for surprises. I try write from heart and soul, not from some notion of who the audience is or what they prefer. I do believe that readers want insight and truth. But they might not recognize it in some situations until I show it to them. So I let my subconscious drive the plot. I stay sensitive to hunches, instincts, and happy accidents. Once the characters are formed, I often let them do what they want. By this approach, many times I find that some seemingly meaningless detail has become important later in the story. And in more than one book, I didn’t know myself how it would end until I wrote the last page. So, if I can surprise myself, perhaps I can surprise and delight my readers.
FMM:: “I write mystery-thrillers and literary fiction for adult readers who seek insight, fascination, and delight in the adventures of their own lives.” Expound on this idea.
As John le Carré once said of his own work, I believe by now I’ve learned to play most of the instruments in the orchestra. From writing satire, historical fiction, mystery, and thrillers I’ve learned the mechanics of genre. I’ve also studied and done some screenwriting, and those skills inform my work. (I won a couple of awards for scripts, but nothing so far has been made!) But reviewers have commented that even my mystery-thrillers read like literary fiction. And by this I’d say I’m looking closely at flawed characters, who may be unsympathetic at times or act in inappropriate or unwise ways. And even when I wrote nonfiction books—on business and technical subjects—I felt that the only way to know how to do something masterfully is to have failed at it yourself first. Those personal lessons-learned are gold. If you simply follow someone else’s advice, it’s possible those lessons came out of some book they read or from a course they took—not from experience at all. Again, it’s all about surprises! Don’t those make the most entertaining reading experience?
FMM: Tell us about your new book, Harry Harambee’s Kenyan Sundowner.
Harry Harambee’s Kenyan Sundowner is an emotional story of expat intrigue in Africa, reminiscent of The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene and The Constant Gardener by John le Carré.
A lonely widower from Los Angeles buys a tour package to East Africa on the promise of hookups and parties. What he finds instead are new reasons to live.
Aldo Barbieri, a slick Italian tour operator, convinces Harry to join a group of adventuresome “voluntourists.” In a resort town on the Indian Ocean, Harry doesn’t find the promised excitement with local ladies. But in the supermarket he meets Esther Mwemba, a demure widow who works as a bookkeeper. The attraction is strong and mutual, but Harry gets worried when he finds out that Esther and Aldo have a history. They introduce him to Victor Skebelsky, rumored to be the meanest man in town. Skebelsky has a plan to convert his grand colonial home and residential compound into a rehab center – as a tax dodge. The scheme calls for Harry to head up the charity. He could live like a wealthy diplomat and it won’t cost him a shilling!
Harry has to come to terms with questions at the heart of his character: Is corruption a fact of life everywhere? Is all love transactional?
FMM: This is your 11th novel, what intrigued you the most about this story?
I think more like a Kenyan now. I’m more aware of corruption as an engine and a consequence of human enterprise. As well, Kenyans are highly transactional in their personal relationships. They can game each other repeatedly and yet remain friends (or lovers).
I lived in Kenya for two years. I went there to support my wife’s work in wildlife conservation and child welfare. My main character in this book is Harry Gardner, a lonely, middle-aged widower from Los Angeles. So I’m a middle-aged white guy writing from the viewpoint of a middle-aged white guy. The events I describe either happened to me directly—for example, I was robbed twice but I was often treated like a visiting dignitary—or they were related to me by Kenyans. You quickly learn that you don’t get the whole story in the newspapers or on TV. In Kenya, gossip is news. And I gossiped with everybody I met, from tuk-tuk drivers to restaurant owners and resort managers. I came to love Kenya, but I also realized what a huge cultural adjustment it was for me. That shift in mindset is what motivated me to write the story. In particular, I expect many Americans assume that our cultural differences and racial issues are much the same there. They aren’t.
FMM: Can you share a passage that will resonate with the readers?
From Chapter 1:
It wasn’t until he was studying a banknote in this solitary moment at the bar when he saw Harambee emblazoned on the banner of the Kenyan coat of arms, just beneath two lions rampant guarding a tribal shield. Harry pulled out his phone and searched online for the definition, discovering that the national motto in Kiswahili means We Pull Together, or simply, Unison. Harry still didn’t make the connection. He was aware that people on the street were likely to greet him as Papa, a respectful term for an older gentleman of any race, or mzungu, meaning white man or — if uttered with extra emphasis — meaning crazy (or clueless or worse) white man.
Harry Harambee would discover that, to some of his new friends, he would be one of the boys or one of our boys or one of my boys who has our money. Which is to say, One for all and all for one. Or, he feared, You for us and all you have for all of us.
Unity!
FMM: What is special about this book?
Harry goes from being a passive observer as a tourist to considering serious risks and consequences as a committed resident. For much of the story, he’s woefully indecisive. But, surprising to me, a South African reviewer claims that’s a superpower! It keeps him out of trouble! And a reviewer in Kenya who writes for one of the major newspapers commented that Harry’s deciding to finally take action might rouse Kenyans from their passive political attitudes in the country’s next general election. That remark was also a surprise. I wrote the book with the intention mainly to give Americans and Europeans a better understanding of Kenya. I never presumed that my mzungu main character might inspire Kenyans!
FMM: What’s next for 2021?
I’m writing the third Evan Wycliff mystery-thriller, Preacher Raises the Dead. It follows Preacher Finds a Corpse and Preacher Fakes a Miracle, which between them have won five awards. The plot of this next one will focus in euthanasia and near-death experiences. I also have another literary novel, Jonathan’s Journey, about a man who inherits a handwritten WWI soldier’s diary, delves into the history, and tries to understand the author’s motivations and hopes.
FMM: Please share your social media handles.
Author’s website geraldeverettjones.com, Email gerald@lapuerta.tv, Twitter @superscribbler1, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/geraldeverettjones/, YouTube https://www.youtube.com/geraldeverettjones, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/geraldeverettjones/
