As a young boy, I loved going to the movie theater. I'd watch movies over, and over and over again, as I still do today. They were magic ... transporting my reality to a different time and world. Walking out of the Saturday matinees during the late 50’s and early 60’s into bright sunlight after being transported for more than an hour, I felt as if I'd left something behind. This feeling encouraged me to experience life far beyond the screen and my boyhood existence.

​

I grew up in sunny southern California. As a red-haired freckle faced kid, I spent hours on the beach becoming a poster child for my current dermatologist. My family owned a beach house on the water that began my love affair with surfing and sailing. I'd sit on the sand staring at the horizon with a wedge of watermelon to cool down the blazing sun. I read about Marco Polo and Sinbad the Sailor and dreamed of my own salty adventures. As I’d bury the melon rind in the sand, I'd daydream that if I had dug deep enough, I'd end up in China. I was a certified Aquarian dreamer with a wish and a flaw to express my wandering fantasies.​

​

To be honest, I hated Elementary English. It proved to be a challenge to get through the Parochial school system. But let’s get real - why do I have to do this? Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, commas, hyphens, grammar, punctuation. 

Blah...blah...blah... it put my brain in overload. But it was OK to own a Webster’s for spelling – girls might think you're smart. After all, what's wrong with a few run-on sentences to no-where-land.? Put a comma when you’re done making your point, then keep going on and on with whatever sounds great. After all, I’m the guy who’s trying to tell the story.​

 

My teachers called me a “rambler” with my sentence structure. In the 50’s they blamed that misgiving on drinking too much chocolate milk at lunch time. So, there you have it. A rambler has written a novel.

​

As a child of the baby boomer generation, the 60’s was a great time to grow up. My addiction to surfing and sailing took central focus as I slithered through High School and began college to avoid the draft. But my failure to attend my college English class earned me a first-class ticket to writing letters and poetry from the jungles of Vietnam while serving in the Army. My wanderlust wish was granted – just not the destination I'd dreamed of.​

​

My next attempt at writing came in the 70's while keeping a journal as I built and sailed away in a 47’ trimaran. That began a two-year sailing adventure with three friends as we made our way from California down through Central America. I was in no hurry to reconnect with reality, We made numerous trips through the Panama Canal and eventually I ran a charter business in the Perlas Islands of Panama with an amazing female crew of many nationalities who were bilingual and had excellent sailing abilities. Many of my adventures stimulated some of the stories in my first novel, Toucan Java.

​

After sailing back to California, I returned to my construction career, building theme restaurants. I graduated into the corporate world and eventually into owning a chain of restaurants. Along the way, fate introduced me to a pretty and talented executive creative art director with numerous major accolades in the advertising business. Together we left the corporate world to raise our two beautiful daughters on an island in Southwest Florida.

​

As the years flew by, my subconscious brain made notes on a tropical tale that I dreamed would one day find its way from fantasy to something readable.

I envisioned it as a screenplay. After reading numerous books on the subject, I finally began with an outline. My amazingly creative wife signed me up to attend a week-long seminar in New York City on how to write a screen play from the award-winning author and lecturer, Robert McKee. As I absorbed Robert’s methods, I came to my senses realizing I just needed to write THE STORY.​

​

Thus, began the journey to become an author of a novel. Over the past few years,

I have had great advice from accomplished authors and realize that in the proccess,

one of my favorite parts in writing a novel is the satisfaction received from hours of research. It’s amazing what you learn while verifying your story line as it relates to the real world with dates, timelines and history. Research, along with help from Word, Grammarly, spell check and professional editors saved the day as I began to embrace and enjoy the rules of literature. 

​

I hope you enjoy my tropical tale. Escape on a journey filled with coincidence, true love, dreams, the world of coffee, deception, unexpected losses and dark horizons that require relentless survival to allow two parallel worlds to come together to help find closure and complete a dream.

​

This first-time author currently resides with his first mate on a Florida barrier island as he attempts to expand this story in the sequel, “Winning B.I.G.”

 

​Enjoy

​

Don Sutherland

don@toucanjava.com