November 29, 2016

Peter Petrack on writing for a modern audience

Sorry for the late posting but I've just started a new job and I'm all over the place. :-P As a result, today's post has not been written by me but is instead a guest post by Peter Petrack. It's all about his new book Wayfarers Highway. If you're looking for an epic story about a seemingly normal character then I think you've landed in the right place. Enjoy!


A camper travels the back roads of America, but it is not what it seems. Pursued by powerful forces: a master-mind, a maniac, and a terrorist, its crew wonders if they'll ever reach Journey's end.

When Eloise Corwin - a longtime patient in her desert hometown's infirmary - finds a wounded young traveler sharing her sick room; she insists that he tell her about his adventures. The young man, Orson Gregory, tells her how he found and stole a glowing gemstone, hidden for decades beneath the government-built factory beside his family farm. He tells her how he's been chased ever since - by mercenaries, by terrorists, and by other, stranger enemies. He tells her how he threw in his lot with a real adventurer, a mythology professor, an innkeeper, and a duo of hired guns on a cross-country journey to clear his name and return home - something he's currently failing to do. To reach safety, the motley travelers will first have to deal with each other, evade the foes that follow their every move, and tangle with other forces both strange and powerful, their fellow travelers on the Wayfarers Highway.
About the Author:
In addition to writing the Wayfarers Highway novels, Peter Petrack is also a composer and performing trombonist. In recent years, he has found growing success as a writer of Jazz, as well as Orchestral, Choral, and Band Works. Between these two artistic businesses, Peter has frequently been forced to write in the third person. He lives in Pennsylvania, where he is constantly surrounded by pieces of paper.
In the Author’s own words:
Wayfarers Highway is a story for today. We live in a really weird time. A lot of people are confused and frightened. Naturally, readers and writers turn to strange stories in these kinds of times. The difference now is that a lot of the bizarre things in the story can come directly from real life. I wanted to write that kind of story, a legend for today – that’s something I’ve been calling it for a while. I wanted all of the adventure of the big legends set in the modern world, with modern themes, and modern characters.
I like that timeliness. It also made the book difficult to write. I would never want to write something blatantly for 2016, for example, something that a year from now would be obsolete. But achieving the general early 21st Century setting was worth the balancing act.
Wayfarers Highway is the end result of nearly eight years of that kind of thinking. It’s a story about an ordinary young man, named Orson Gregory, who steals a glowing rock that he finds under a factory that was built decades ago on farmland his family sold to the government. This ends Orson’s life as he knew it. People want the rock he stole - strange people, and dangerous. Powerful enemies – mercenaries, terrorists, and maniacs chase him across America. Orson’s only help comes from a motley bunch of his fellow travelers, a hippie, an innkeeper, a mythology professor, and hired guns. On the road, trying and failing to find a way to return home, Orson is forced to face the truth that the world is stranger, more complicated, and more dangerous than he ever imagined.
Here are the purchase links:


You can find Peter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterpetrack  or @PeterPetrack

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