Mystery/Historical Fiction
Date Published: May 31, 2018
It begins with a disappearance… In the waning days of World War II, the Obake Neko is the last surviving Sen-Toku—a huge secret aircraft-carrier submarine created by the Imperial Japanese Navy. As the war comes to an end, the Obake Neko sets sail back to Japan with a cargo of unimaginable value. In the chaos of Japanese surrender, the clandestine vessel and its crew vanish in the seas of the South Pacific.
Fifty-five years after the war’s end, former U.S. Navy pilot, Bud Brennan breaks into Pearl Harbor’s submarine museum in Hawaii. Bud’s son, Mike, is still raw from the death of his wife and grappling with a new career but still jumps in to help his dad. But when Bud’s antics garner the attention of the Navy’s JAG, Mike realizes his father may possess knowledge about the near-mythical Obake Neko and its fabled cargo—knowledge that is also of great value to the Japanese Yakuza. Now, Mike must scramble to learn the whole truth of his father’s decades-old connection with the legendary Japanese submarine and fight to defend his father from relentless military authorities and deadly Yakuza operatives. Even decades later, the Obake Neko and its legendary cargo are still worth killing over.
Can Mike discover the truth and protect his dad before deadly assailants succeed in silencing Bud forever?
Interview
1. What is the hardest part of writing you books?
Finding the right
balance. Balance in describing a person or a place or a situation. Not too much
or the reader might consider it flowery and lose interest and get bored. Not too
little or the reader can’t grasp what your character is like or what your
location looks and feels like. I’m constantly striving for words to clearly and
succinctly describe.
2. What songs are most played on your Ipod?
No Ipod and don’t
turn on any audio. However, I often have a song playing in my head as I write,
usually one from the 60’s. The soundtrack from Jersey Boys, Beach Boys, Phantom
of the Opera soundtrack and Roy Orbison are some of my favorites.
3. Do you have critique partners or beta readers?
I have become
dependent on beta readers. They provide a fresh objective view of my work. Most
firms that provide beta readers give them an outline of what they must cover
and that is great. I used a different set of beta readers four times in writing
my book. After each beta reader input, I would adjust, edit, modify my text
based on the comments that I got that made sense to me. Then I put it out for
another beta reader set and repeat the process.
4. What book are you reading now?
I just finished
reading Stephen Sears, Chancellorsville.
Great detail about this important civil war battle. Currently reading, The Irish Inheritance, by MJ Lee. It’s a
two-time frame story, like my book. Good read so far.
5. How did you start your writing career?
I’ve always been a
heavy reader – always reading both fiction and non-fiction. Always had in the
back of my head to write my own story one day. A plot developed in me years ago
on a visit to a submarine museum and over time I put bits and pieces of a story
together. Got serious about two years ago and wrote my first novel.
6. Tell us about your next release.
I like the two-time
frame story format, so will stick with it. I will use my key characters from my
first book in the current Hawaii time frame and keep the same protagonist. My
historical aspect will travel with Roy Andrews Chapman, the dinosaur bone hunter
in the late 1920’s, in the Gobi Dessert. The protagonist in that timeframe will
be a young boy travelling with his expedition who stumbles across a small object
on one of the digs that people will kill to obtain.
About the Author
David Gillespie moved to Hawaii as a teenager, where he attended public schools and graduated with a BBA and MBA from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Gillespie has had a varied career in Hawaii’s business community. As a consultant with a University of Hawaii program, he traveled to many Pacific Island nations. His experiences in these exotic locales, along with his keen interest and research about the Sen-Toku Japanese submarines, inform and enhance his writing.
Gillespie is retired and has taken up home improvement projects, earned a private pilot license, and works on writing historical adventure novels. He continues to enjoy life in Hawaii, his home, with his family and a tuxedo cat named Tick Tock.
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