R. Lawson Gamble's Blog: R Lawson Gamble Books

A Day At The Bookstore

Saturday, November 26, was Small Business Day in Lompoc, California, and we were invited to do a signing at a very special small business, The Bookstore. Why the (seemingly exclusive) name? Because, well, they actually are the only bookstore in Lompoc.

Lompoc is one of those large small towns spreading across the Santa Ynez River Valley delta farther than one expects, its streets named with letters as if those who built the town were far too busy with serious matters to wax lyrical with street names.

The Bookstore is located on (or off?) “H” Street in a small, Spanish colonnaded plaza. I have yet to find it directly without several missed turns and have yet to see a signpost designated “H” Street, but somehow always arrive there as if it called to me in some way.

Leslie Sevier purchased The Bookstore in 2009. She is a charming woman whose warmth brings the regulars back again and again. Under her leadership, it has become a readers’ haven with new and used books topically guided through her customers’ desires. On this day, a Scavenger Hunt was under way with clues throughout the store and a table full of prizes for the winners.

During a quiet moment, Leslie and I chatted and found that we held the Sevier name in common. Her Sevier family is from Oklahoma while mine is from southern Kansas. Are we cousins? Something to explore!

The day ended with a nice check for me, a busy day for The Bookstore, and a dozen books I left behind to replenish the diminished stack under “G” for Gamble on the Mystery shelf.

TULARE SIGNING IN LOMPOC

Santa Ynez Valley Star, Staff Reporter

R Lawson Gamble will be holding a book signing for his latest novel titled “TULARE”, the 10th book in the Zack Tolliver series. The signing will take place from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, November 26 at The Book Store,1137 N. H Street, in Lompoc. (CA.)

In TULARE, Zack Tolliver is called to California’s Central Valley to investigate the mystery…(of) a family of four and their dog…found dead at the dinner table. No sign of violence. No evidence of intruders. Is it an accident, mass suicide, or foul play? There is no lack of suspects. The land the family owned is desired by big oil, agriculture, and the local Indian tribe. Who done it? And how?

Gamble’s novels have won several prizes in international book contests, including the coveted Gold Medal for “The Curse Of Matilija” (Zack Tolliver #9) in the 2022 Readers’ Favorite International Book Contest.

AFTER TULARE…WHAT’S NEXT FOR ZACK?

With Zack Tolliver #10 in the hands of fans, we have already embarked upon Zack’s next adventure. Now is this writer’s favorite time, when the story begins and hundreds of empty pages wait to be filled. Anything can happen; the possibilities at the start of the journey are boundless.

Zack’s new destination has been decided, the crime has been committed, and the his work is about to begin. We will delve deeply into a new location, a different culture, where new dangers lurk to threaten Zack and our friend Eagle Feather.

There is something compelling about entering the fictional unknown. Who among Zack’s past colleagues will share his adventure? Who will threaten him? What will be the stakes? For this author, each morning at the computer will involve the excitement of discovery, feeling the emotional highs and lows Zack will experience.

Then there are those real-life circumstances research will inevitably reveal to complicate the plot. What are the forces and conflicts in people’s lives in this location? What are the mysteries and legends in the area? I can’t wait to find out.

There is a strangeness to writing fiction novels. The excitement, the dread, the highs and lows of the moment while writing cannot be shared. Not with anyone. It is rather like watching a movie alone. Not until the first reader enters this fictional world months later does the sharing occur. But by then, for the writer, those are yesterday’s feelings.

Perhaps this is why an author so delights in discussing his/her books with readers; the chance to regenerate those feelings experienced while writing in solitude, if only to a degree. And maybe it is, in part, an affirmation of the author’s sanity, to know that a few words he strings together on the screen that cause this roller coaster of emotions within him while all alone in a closed room are actually, one day, affirmed by others.

Rich Discusses Books With Reader

Love For Tulare

It is rewarding as well as motivating to receive kind words for a project that has consumed nearly ten months of one’s life. TULARE stands as the longest of the Zack Tolliver, FBI, series to date. Ten months is a long time to work at a single project–– and a long time for readers to wait.

But the truth is, the novel was not ready to end––not after six months, eight months, or even nine months. There is always a decision an author must face: to respond to the demands of the market, or to achieve an inner sense of satisfaction with the quality of the work. I will always choose the latter. If the two happen to coincide, so much the better.

The first flurry of reviews on Amazon suggests readers feel the wait was worth it: “The recurring characters are people that you care about”. The length of the work is noted in some comments: “a fairly long and complicated ride“, “one with the most convoluted story“, and “the mystery that our hero and his allies must unravel has a lot of layers“.

A continuing theme within the series, prevalent in TULARE, is expressed by one reviewer: “Zack Tolliver stands between two worlds, and must make a journey to decide which to follow…There is the real world case…There is also the spiritual world, which is intertwined so closely that to ignore one is to betray the other“. The spiritual, supernatural, and cultural elements are integral to the series: “Add in multiple Native American connected supernatural elements and a few twists, and you have a riveting ride,” writes another. It is an element with which Zack constantly struggles, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. Eagle Feather quietly observes his friend’s inner conflict, but does not interfere, only offering an occasional dry comment on Zack’s successes; such as “You sometimes surprise me, White Man”.

While there is great satisfaction in spinning a tale and creating the characters to inhabit it, an author achieves little without readers, just as a music performer without listeners or a painter without viewers are questions without answers. There is nothing more fulfilling to an author than the active engagement and enjoyment of his readers.

Work has begun on the next Zack Tolliver, FBI, novel. There are many questions without answers now, but the quest has begun.

TULARE AUTHOR INTERVIEW with the SANTA YNEZ STAR

Excerpted

“Author R Lawson Gamble has published the 10th novel in his “Zack Tolliver, FBI” series titled “TULARE.” The long awaited novel is now on pre-sale at Amazon.com. The longest book of the series, so far, takes the reader from the Navajo Nation, where the story begins, to California’s Central Valley, where Tolliver and Eagle Feather attempt to solve the mysterious deaths of an entire family of Yokut Indians, and their dog, while seated at the dinner table in their home.”
STAR: How did this story idea come to you?”
GAMBLE: I had visited the Tachi Palace Casino in the Santa Rosa Rancheria, Lemoore, California several times, which set up an idea for a new storyline.”
STAR: Where does the name TULARE come from?
GAMBLE: A little known fact about the Central Valley is that Tulare Lake used to be the largest lake west of the Great Lakes. Its shores were inhabited by the Yokut Indians with an abundance of wildlife and fish.
STAR: What happened to it?
GAMBLE: The encroachment of Europeans and their industries contributed to the disappearance of the lake. It dried up after its tributary rivers were diverted for agricultural irrigation and municipal water uses.
STAR: How does the fate of Tulare Lake fit in your storyline?
GAMBLE: I feel the now vanished lake serves as a metaphor for the fate of the Yokuts, once populous, but now absorbed and gone, but for a preserved representation who now live on the Santa Rosa Rancheria. The mystery of how the Yokut family died speaks to the ongoing repression faced by underprivileged peoples.
STAR: This is the longest book in your series so far.
GAMBLE: Yes. I started writing this book last Fall. Basically, it took me a year because the protagonist kept going, and the more he investigated, the more there was to investigate. In essence the book didn’t want to be finished, it kept revealing more and more.
STAR: This is the tenth novel in the series. Where do all your ideas come from?
GAMBLE: I’m always exploring new topography and find inspiration exploring deep canyons and hot deserts as a distance runner. They stimulate my creativity. As I go deeper into research, I always find something fascinating. That’s the fun. That’s how you discover the magic.

The above article in its entirety can be found in the SPOTLIGHT section of the September 20 – October 3, 2022 edition of the Santa Ynez Valley Star. It is written by Pamela Dozois. TULARE may be purchased on Amazon.com.

TULARE’S TWO-SPIRIT PEOPLE

Early readers of TULARE, Zack Tolliver, FBI #10 now on pre-order at Amazon, have been puzzled by the concept of a Two-Spirit person, as personified among the Yokuts in the novel. I have leaned on an essay by Deborah A. Miranda, of the Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation, Chumash. Her title, Extermination of the Joyas : Gendercide in Spanish California, is indicative of the comprehensive nature of her subject, much more than needed for our purposes, but fascinating.

The subject touches many of us today, with similar barriers to understanding in present societies. The concept for the Yokuts, and many indigenous Americans, was simple, yet at the same time complex and important enough to be inculcated into their very culture. In short, they saw three genders.

The Spanish first called the third-gender people joya, then jotos, Spanish for homosexual or faggot. To them, men dressed as women and consorting with men were an affront to God and required punishment. “The idea that a man would choose to dress and work as a woman with other women — and that the community accepted and in fact benefited from that choice — was inconceivable to the Spaniards.” – Miranda.

Yet the people living this role had a particular function within the society. They were the undertakers, and death, burial, and mourning rituals were their particular province. “The journey to the afterlife was known to be a prescribed series of experiences with both male and female supernatural entities, and the ’aqi,” (an Ineseño word), “with their male-female liminality, were the only people who could mediate these experiences. Since the female (earth, abundance, fertility) energies were so powerful, and since the male (Sun, death-associated) energies were equally strong, the person who dealt with that moment of spiritual and bodily crossing over between life and death must have specially endowed spiritual qualities and powers, not to mention long-term training and their own quarantined tools.” – Miranda.

The threshold of death and what came after was the specific realm of the joyas and their extermination brought an immediate and desperate cultural crises. And they were exterminated. The Spanish often used dogs, 250 pound mastiffs, whose jaws could crush bones even through leather armor, to kill them. And so the acquiescence to and support of joyas among the Yokuts (and Chumash) went underground, and the Spanish/Catholic rituals of death were substituted, at least on the surface.

With indigenous cultural revitalization comes the re-emergence of two-spirit people within the tribes, claiming roles of caretakers of culture and spirituality. The two-spirit person today is viewed within the tribes with respect for the “necessity of our roles as keepers of a dual or blended gender that holds male and female energy in various mixtures and keeps the world balanced.” – Miranda

TULARE is on Pre-order: Is That Good?

The benefits to an author from placing a book on pre-order (allowing readers to purchase copies before its release) is clear. Many publishers facilitate the practice and many authors do it. However, there are risks. The benefits to readers are dependent on a number of factors, but those who enjoy the author and would purchase the book anyway run no risks.

TULARE, Zack Tolliver, FBI, #10 is now on pre-order on Amazon. Its predecessors, THE CURSE OF MATILIJA and LOST OASIS both rode those presale waves and did relatively well. But the market changes dramatically from year to year, and the outcome is never assured.

Currently, several popular authors in TULARE’s category (Native American Literature) have books on pre-order. They have a series, have an extensive following, and are assured of sales. Some offer books more than a half year in advance, others even before they have a cover for the book. The pre-sale option is a tremendous advantage for them at virtually no risk.

For lesser known authors, or those without a series, low pre-order numbers can plunge their book to the bottom of Amazon’s visibility listings and likely remain there after publication. It is a gamble, a risk that must be studied before acting. Even with previous successes, market fluctuation can take a toll.

In an earlier blog, I proposed some advantages of presale listing for both readers and the authors:

THE READER

The memory factor. How often have you read about a great new book and decided to buy it, only to find it is not yet available? The months go by toward publication and the book slips from your mind: opportunity lost. Now you can pre-order the book, and then forget about it. Its arrival is a nice surprise.Price. Often (usually) the price offered at pre-sale is lower. Amazon guaranties the price will be the lowest for the book during the pre-sale period all the way to midnight on release day. Often the price on pre-order is the lowest for the book, ever.Convenience. If it is a book you know you will buy in any case, buy it on pre-order and “git-er-done”.Shelve it. The beauty of digital books is unlimited shelf space. Pre-order the books you know you want and let them accumulate. Never be without that bedtime read.

THE AUTHOR

Visibility. Visibility is king, and pre-order raises visibility for the book sooner.ASIN. On Amazon, your book is assigned an ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number). With the ASIN, you can create links from any URL to your book, simplifying the task for potential readers to find and order it. You can also use it to create a link to the review page for your book, to simplify (and hopefully encourage) that process.Preview. Pre-order on Kindle offers the author a preview of how your book cover and description will look on your page, which can be changed if needed up to 5 days before publication You can preview other components as well, and make changes as needed.Coming Soon. Your book is shown through the Coming Soon filter, offering extra visibility, with fewer competing books.Momentum. If your book sells many pre-orders, it can begin life with a strong sales rating, and good momentum.(Fair warning: if not, the opposite is true.) While listing a book on presale can be a risk for authors, it is never a risk for readers.

However you decide to purchase your books, enjoy them.

Note: The above observations pertain solely to the Amazon bookstore.

TULARE IS HERE!

As I have observed before (probably too many times), my fiction is binary in nature. I simply place my protagonists in a location with an idea. The characters then make a series of decisions from the beginning of the story to the end. Yes or no? Up or down? Left or right? These decisions determine not just the nature of the adventure and the eventual outcome, but even the length of the book. In TULARE, my protagonists made decisions that precluded a swift conclusion. It is a long book.

All of my novels are what I term “character driven”, meaning the characters make the choices. Once the personalities and character traits of the protagonists have been established, I must be true to them. So when Zack Tolliver is visited nightly by a troublesome dream, his reaction is to “get over it” and he does nothing. Libby, on the other hand, tells him to go see a shrink. Neither can do else; their characters are set, and the way they respond is prescribed.

In a series, by book number ten, the personalities of the protagonists have been long established, making the task of the author even easier––and more difficult. Easier, because the plot can unravel almost automatically as Zack and Eagle Feather determine the twists and turns; more difficult, because by now the reader is tuned to the protagonists’ tendencies and will notice if they do not follow form.

TULARE was a long journey but absorbing. Zack, Libby, Eagle Feather, and even Jimmy Chaparral are older now, and their actions are influenced by the weight of greater maturity and longer experience. As in each series novel I write, my research uncovered absorbing mysteries, legends, and other discoveries. The once and vanished Tulare Lake is not the least of these, and the once populous and now diminished Yokuts people it supported have their own tragic history with a Phoenix-like rising ending. The land northwest of Bakersfield where my fiction unfolds is now a remarkable mix of extensive farm and ranch land, oil fields, Air Force base, Rancheria, and urban development.

The Central Valley of California is as rich a resource for a fiction writer today as it was for Steinbeck three quarters of a century ago. While this writer hopes to evoke adventure, excitement, and mystery rather than the literary masterpieces of the former, our goals coincide in the hope of great entertainment.

BOOKS AND WINE

Books and wine go together like a horse and carriage, or for those too young for that pairing – pen and paper, toast and jam, keyboard and monitor, government and taxes – take your pick. Here in central California, books and wine are most appropriately paired. Which is why I hold author events at vineyards and tasting rooms.

I cannot think of anything more pleasant than to sit in a chair in the shade of a spreading oak, reading a gripping novel and sipping a glass of local wine. Unless it is to discuss books with friends and avid readers under that same oak, still sipping wine.

And so I am looking forward to an upcoming event promising to be just that: the Western Author Party & Signing at Bedford Winery here in Los Alamos on August 20 with friend and author Wanda Snow Porter. Wanda and I have had a long professional relationship. We have found the courage to critique one another’s books, shared time in a local writers’ group, spent hours together selling and signing at events. Wanda even created a cover for my mother’s first (and only) book.

Wanda has written in a variety of genres, but is likely best know for her young person books. She writes particularly of the special relationship between children and animals. A story of a fourteen-year-old coming of age and facing her demons within the challenge of Riding Babyface, the adventure of a young vaquero whose dream is to ride the wild colts in Spurs For Jose, a thirteen-year-old boy who seeks help in training a wild burro from the ghost of his grandfather in Remedy are just a few examples.

But Wanda has something for older folks too in her well-researched history Voyages Of No Return, which links the infamous mutiny on the Bounty to the Pacific shores of Central California and families descended from a single, tragic relationship in far off Tahiti.

Writing and reading novels are solitary pursuits, but selling and buying them are social activities, and are for me a welcome diversion and respite from my self-imposed solitude. Every page I write, every character I create becomes something unique to each reader, re-imaged in their own minds. I enjoy nothing more than a conversation exploring these diverse and fascinating viewpoints. It is the best part of an event such as this.

Event details: Western Authors Party & Signing: Bedford Winery, 448 Bell Street, Los Alamos, CA; Saturday August 20, 3-6 pm. Event free.

Tulare

As recently as 1850, Tulare Lake, in the San Joaquin Valley, was the largest body of water in the United States west of the Great Lakes, its shores thick with cattails and tule reeds, speckled with brilliant wild flowers, and inhabited by migratory waterfowl and birds of every description. Deer, antelope, and elk drank from its plentiful waters, wolves followed the deer, and the king of predators, the California Grizzly Bear, ruled over it all.  

         This mighty lake supported as many as 70,000 pre-contact indigenous people of the Yokut tribe, people who sustained themselves with the resources of the lake and rivers that fed it. “Mother earth provided fish, duck, frog, catfish, clam, turtle, mustard green, blackberries, elderberries, cottonwood for shade, and salt grass as far as the eye could see”, an elder remembered. 

         The Valley Yokut were divided into the Northern Valley Yokut and the Southern Valley Yokut, while the Northern Hill Yokut, the Kings River Yokut, and the Pose Creek Yokut resided in the mountains to the east. All these regional bands were comprised of multiple tribes, among them the Tachi Yokut of the Southern Valley.

         The Tachi followed the seasons, finding resources for life and sustenance in the eastern foothills in the summer and taking refuge at the warmer, bountiful lakeside on the valley floor in the winter. From the tule reeds, they made baskets which served many uses including gathering, storing, fishing, cooking and even baby cradles. Their homes were constructed of tule mats over a wood frame. They built canoe-shaped rafts of tule mat to travel up and down the lake and rivers.

         The Yokut religious authorities were the shamans, who bathed in secret springs every night and gained supernatural power from animals that came to the springs. These animals were their totems. If a shaman was suspected of doing evil, or using his power in a bad way, he was put to death by the chief.

         But neither the chiefs nor the shamans were able to withstand the invading hordes of white farmers, hunters and settlers streaming into the San Joaquin Valley following the California Gold Rush. The Yokut were hunted, relocated, and decimated, and their great, bountiful lake, as if from empathy with its people, withered and disappeared.   

Remnants today of Lake Tulare

Look for the exciting new novel, TULARE, from R Lawson Gamble, to be released soon!