One does not have to be a biker to like this book – just appreciate a good story.
-Coloradoan Book Review

Great book and I wonder if there is more truth than fiction.
-Christina N.

Enjoyed your book very much. Makes you think. Was it fiction or a look into the future?
-Jack W.

This book is Whew! Couldn’t put it down once I started – had a few short nights around that…
-Kali W.

To me this could become reality…
-John L.

 

 

The story behind the story :

The original idea for this fun story started in the ‘70s when I had a vivid dream where I experienced the confrontation between myself and the main villain. I started to write this scene as a short story but soon realized it was a much more involved tale. Living in northern California at the time I had the opportunity to ride the coast road often and envisioned the story unfolding during my travels along this beautiful ride. I never realized at the time what a journey it would take to complete this tale.

The main character, JC, was named after a Sergeant I served and rode with in the Air Force. He was one of the funniest people I’ve ever known and a great story teller. He also introduced me to Harleys. Almost all of the characters in the story got their names - and a touch of their personalities - from real people. Many who I’ve ridden with over the years.

The story evolved in pieces over the next two decades but I had to put it aside when my wife was fighting cancer during the ‘90s. After her heart rendering loss in ‘95 I became involved with raising two girls who were only 9 & 11 at the time. During that time the story continued to gather dust on my office shelves. When an occasional business trip would return me to the Bay Area I would always plan an extra day or two where I could map out further details of the story. I even took my girls on a trip to the coast during this time to show them where their Mom and I had met, and ridden, back in the ‘70s. The story continued to grow and mature in my mind throughout those years.

During this time a textbook salesman, and fellow writer, who called on me often while I was teaching at the university gave me a cartoon to put in my office. It was a doctor talking to his patient and he was telling him that “I’m sorry to inform you but that story has got to come out of you!”. After looking at that cartoon for almost 20 years I decided the doctor was right - it was time for the story to come out.

In 2005 I made one last research trip to the northern coast where I spent several days taking exact notes of the geography while recording dictation, along with photos, about the major action locations. Shortly after I returned from that trip I started to work on the final draft of the story. At that time I was dealing with the beginnings of a neck disability which made computer time a painful experience - so it was a labor of mixed love and pain. When the draft was finished I revisited my many notes from over the years and was astonished at how many of the details had resurfaced in the story. It started to feel like a destiny in the happening. “A Run Up The Coast” was meant to be. The original opening line of “It was getting so that a good ol’ boy couldn’t get by anymore!” was about to see the light of day.

What happened next was the most amazing part of this journey. My oldest daughter, Denise, had just finished college with an elementary teaching degree and she came home to briefly live with me while she searched for a teaching position. She saw the manuscript sitting on the coffee table in an old three ring binder and asked what it was about. I told her it was the final draft of the story they’d heard me talk about over the years. When she asked me if she could read it I figured she would just skim a few chapters and then lose interest. She stunned me a few days later when she brought the manuscript back and said she had read the whole thing. She then asked if she could be part of finishing the story - it was a breathtaking moment. She told me she thought it was an amazing story and she wanted to share in developing the positive messages it contained about freedom and helping others.

At that point we hired our first editor and started the long arduous process of polishing the story. We spent long hours in my home office working on the characters and dialogue. At first our egos butted heads but over time something truly amazing occurred - we started to read each others minds. At times it was spooky how we could each get into a character’s head and imagine how they would react to a situation in the story. We had a difficult plot issue in the Combat chapter about not wanting JC to make his decision yet about killing - and she came up with a twist I wouldn’t have thought of in a hundred years.

This story might never have finished if Denise had not come into the process and I will always remember her dedication to the writing. Talk about a bonding experience! She is now is a 2nd grade teacher in our community and moving on with her life - but what a contribution she made to this exciting story.

All of the “biker recollections” in the story are based upon true stories - even the one about the biker colliding with the peacock which actually happened in Colorado. Much as I hate to admit it - the one about Slim Jim doing the wheelie and crashing in front of the biker crowd at the Cold Springs Tavern in the Santa Inez mountains (near Santa Barbara) after having too much to drink was about me in a much younger and crazier time - right after the military. They didn’t carry me off in a van - I rode the bike home - but the bike, my date, and myself were really bent up. Don’t Drink and Ride was the lesson of the day!

This story touches on several topics that are important in our difficult times: our focus on materialism, loss of values, caring for others, selling beauty as a commodity, dependence on technology, and loss of faith. The most important question of this adventure is “Is freedom just an illusion?” It is also intended to be a tribute to veterans who become expendable commodities and often don't receive recognition for their service as history moves on to the next war. You have to question which is worse - dieing in a war - or returning home maimed for life and then quietly forgotten for your sacrifices?

The drug culture in the story is a part of the biker society depicted in the book - and some of our populace at large. For a brief time in the ‘70s I played in a really fun band in California called “Purple Bruce and the Cosmic Muffin” and their specialty was playing for outlaw biker parties. It was a different world for me to witness at that time. I find it an amusing sidelight of the story that the main action chapters occur in Mendocino County - one of the pot growing capitals of the world. One does have to question the political hypocrisy of why deadly cigarettes are legal and pot isn’t? JC’s attempt to quit smoking cigarettes during his life threatening adventure was intended to be a funny irony of the story.

The political conspiracies forwarded in this story started in my mind during my time in the Silicon Valley in the ‘70s. However, while finishing the story and doing Internet research, I discovered that the concept of the “invisible government” was not unique to my mind. It has been the subject of several authors since the 1940s. Well documented 9/11 conspiracy theories supported by books and videos are abundant on the Internet. The name of our secret international organization - the Concern - comes from my short time as a computer salesman with a Swiss corporation. In Switzerland a corporation can also be known as a Concern. It was the perfect name as they have so little concern for others - and as far as we know - never used before in a story of this nature.

So we hope you will read our story and enjoy it as much as we did in creating it. We seem to be developing an enthusiastic following and hope to start work on the 2nd book of the trilogy in 2013. The ideas and characters are already forming in the ether…

Please send us your comments on the story at: freedom@arunupthecoast.com.

Ride free - and “Don’t ride faster than your angels can fly!”…

Gene

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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