Miami Beach

In the first Wilk adventure I wrote, ‘The Dictator’s Children,’ I have Wilk spending part of the novel in southern Florida, in Naples and in Miami, though the home base of the narrative is Havana and there is a foray into the fictional Central American nation of El Plantio. All this takes place in 1948. The pictures here are postcards of Miami scenes from the period.

The two hotels are much like the fictional Hibiscus in which some of the action is set—a smaller hotel, three stories, in the Art Deco style, and on the beach. One could imagine the Hibiscus looking like either the Pelican or Somerset here. In pink. We never get much of a look at the outside; either the action is at night or indoors.

But it is nice to have some idea of the appearance. The third postcard is Lincoln Road, the swank shopping area. Wilk and Elena Guzman stroll up the street (in a bit of a lull before the storm) and purchase Beretta handguns in one of the stores. Those come in useful very soon after!

Incidentally, the Pelican is still there on Ocean Drive, though more closed in by its neighbors now.

A note: I probably will not write about writing much at this blog from here out, but focus on the books and stories, the characters and world building. I’ll save the thoughts on writing for my Eggshell Boats blog (eggshellboats.com).

Spies

One point I am establishing in my ‘The Old Hand’ WIP novel is that there are two ‘enemy’ spy operations in Saigon with which my characters become involved, one Vietcong, with Russian assistance, and one Chinese. These two are working separately and, though they may cooperate on occasion, have their own agendas, often not knowing anything of each other’s operations.

To be sure, there was plenty more going on than just what I am including. None of that figures in the story, though it may be mentioned in passing. And there are the spooks on the American/Republic of Vietnam side, CIA and much more. I won’t be delving into them but do make note that my main protagonist, Wilk, has had a long history with American intelligence.

Or I should say he is one of two main protagonists. John Wilkins aka Jean Wilk has had the lead to himself in the previous two Wilk novels but here he shares equal billing with American reporter Mike Baines. I knew from the start I couldn’t tell the story just from one point of view. One main character would have been worn out trying to keep up with everything! I did consider including a third POV character for a brief while but soon realized two worked better. Mike was previously introduced in the novel ‘Wilk,’ where he interviews the elderly spy in the ‘flash forward’ scenes that frame the tale.

I’m chugging along after a fairly lengthy hiatus to attend to other chores. I’ll admit, I almost set the story aside to work on a different one, but it’s coming along now. That doesn’t mean I won’t do that yet, somewhere along the line. There is no schedule or deadline to concern me—and plenty of other ideas I can turn to. The only thing that is certain at the moment for this coming year is a new poetry collection, coming on April 21. That’s my birthday and I have resolved to release a collection on that date every year until I either run out of poems or kick the bucket. ‘Shallow Poet’ has already been put together, formatted and typeset, and is ready to go.

As for anything else, you’ll know when I do!