Bahama Breeze by Eddie Jones

Book Look by Carol McClain

An interview with Sonny Cay, star of the tan and sandy romance, Bahama Breeze.

Sonny, given your aversion to working with unknown authors and screenwriters, why did you agree to star in Bahama Breeze?

Honestly, I needed the work. Not that I’ve made a dime off this project, yet. But the author assures me the royalties will begin arriving any day. Of course, this is the same guy who earns his living by making up stuff, so I’m not holding my breath. Except when he’s hovering over my shoulder, of course, because as it turns out he has a really bad case of gingivitis and halitosis. 

So you were desperate for work, is that what you’re saying?

Who isn’t? Have you looked at the unemployment numbers lately? Shameful what’s happened to the middle class. But I’m not here to discuss our government’s economic policies or how messed up our electoral process is: though I definitely have some strong opinions on these issues. What I am here to discuss are dreams.

Dreams?

Yeah, Carol, dreams. Everybody has them. Or did, until those aspirations became crushed in the pursuit of financial security and left as road kill on the Highway of Life. Maybe your dream is to become the next Miss. America, usher in world peace, and find a cure stress-related acne. 

What is your dream, Sonny?

Me? I always wanted to write a novel. But my English teacher suggested I peruse an alternative line of work: one that didn't involve pronouns, prepositions, or dangling participles ¾ which at the time I thought was a small organ attached to a frog’s intestines. "Sonny, there’s a good chance you won’t even graduate from high school,” my teacher warned. “Much less go to college.”

So is that why you left Anna? Because you were afraid of failure?

By Anna, you mean Anna Fortune, my high school sweetheart and the real brains of the story. No, I did not leave her after graduation because I was afraid of failure. But I knew a C-minus trombone player and part-time defensive tackle was never going to make her happy. She deserved better. All women do. But until God comes up with an alternative for male homo sapiens we men will have to do. By the way, did you know homo sapiens is Latin for "wise man?" Sort of makes you wonder about the intelligence of our predecessors? 

So you skipped college and did what? Took a job selling toilet paper?

Naw, the job at the paper company came later. First I joined the Army. Ended up in Korea. I won’t give away a lot of what happened over there because some people… okay most people, haven’t read the book.  What I will say is that the author, like God, put me in tough circumstances. This creates tension in the story and forces the character grow or whither. About three quarters of the way into the book, I had a heart-to-heart with the author of Bahama Breeze and asked if he would back off on the trials. He explained that every story is like a track heat. You start out of the blocks strong. Then in turn one you confront your first hurdle. It’s usually small and easily surmounted. Shortly thereafter there is another, and another. Until finally on the back stretch the journey is nothing but one hurdle after another and each obstacle is more difficult than the one before. Pretty soon the character in the story can hardly land before he’s forced to jump over the next barrier. The idea is to build hope in my heart but create such intense opposition that I become convinced I will fail.

Did that happen to you in Bahama Breeze? 

Oh yeah. At first all I had to worry about was trying to sail a rented sailboat in the middle of a tropical storm while dealing with a terminal disease, but then the weather and circumstances deteriorated. Next thing I know I’m locked up for destroying a golf cart, chased by a deranged Cuban terrorist, accosted by a presidential candidate polling in the single digits, tossed into shark-infested waters, stranded on a deserted island, forced to surf hurricane swells and dropped from the eye of the storm onto a Russian submarine.

I thought you said Bahama Breeze was a romance?

Did I mention that I got to kiss my high school sweetheart under the stars, hold her hand on a porch swing, sail into the sunset, and here those immortal words, “I forgive you?” Besides, I’m a guy. What do I know about romance?

I’m afraid to even ask this, but does Bahama Breeze have any significant underlying message for its readers?

Oh sure. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s about pursuing your dreams. It’s about taking life by the tail and trying not to get bit too hard and often. Look, even when you think you've failed, you have not. Long before the book was finished, the manuscript took first place at a writer's conference. The award put a THOUSAND DOLLARS in the author’s pocket. Note, I didn’t receive a penny, but as a character in the book my job is to bring glory to the author, not shine the light on myself. As it turns out, it’s a good thing the book won first place, because when the author returned to his campsite later that evening his tent had collapsed and lay soaked by the rain. So you see, no matter how bleak things look, no matter how much you fear failure, you should pursue the dream that the Author of your life has placed in your heart. That’s the theme of Bahama Breeze.

Eddie Jones is co-founder of Christian Devotions Ministries and a three-time winner of the Delaware Christian Writers’ Conference. He is Acquisition Editor of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas and has written over a hundred articles that have appeared in 20 different publications. His Middle Grade / Tween novel, The Curse of Captain LaFoote, won the 2011 Selah Award in Young Adult fiction. Eddie’s latest romantic suspense, Bahama Breeze, is available where ever books are sold.

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 check out the trailer
 http://www.youtube.com/embed/4-ca0FNZ8vE