A few people have asked me about the origin of the story Peace River Village. The answer is it came from a dream. A few years ago, I woke up and remembered my dream about a group of police officers who lived on the same street. After I sat up, there was still a cloudy thread in my mind where the officers were working on some sort of investigation. I recalled a lot of funny things in the dream — the detectives were quite the jokesters. That was it — the basis for the book. Over the next day, the detectives became retired and found themselves living on the same cul-de-sac in a fictitious retirement community in Florida. Of course, a crime has to occur to set the story in motion and get our heroes to work on solving the case. And it did.
I especially enjoy world building. For me, the best part of writing a book is the creation of the characters. Over the next few days the good and the bad guys came to life. The first draft was about forty percent longer than the final product, but after several rewrites, some side stories and a few characters fell by the wayside, all in an effort to get those detectives out there faster and save Jennifer. I hope you enjoy the book.
Christopher Amato 