Bill Flynn is a featured author in this weeks “E”ndependent Publishers $2.99 Ebook Club enewsletter in the "general fiction" category.
Reasons/Motivations/Inspirations Behind Why I Wrote The Feathery
I started in golf as a caddie at 12 years old. Caddies were allowed to play free on Mondays. I worked at a golf course assisting the greens keeper during high school and continued to play and become enamored by the game.
Fast forward to my adult year … as an aerospace engineer I worked in Naples, Italy, Paris France and The Hague, Netherlands over a period of ten years. While in those countries I played golf there as well as in Scotland, England and Ireland. The Feathery is set at the golf courses of Turnberry and St. Andrews, Scotland for the golf segments. London and Ireland provide a venue for drama in the book.
While in Europe I attended four British Open Tournaments and one Ryder Cup. Back in the United States I followed an acquaintance PGA Professional from Q-School and behind the ropes at The Masters. This gave me insight into the atmosphere and play at those major championships and helped me to create that same atmosphere in The Feathery.
After retiring from Aerospace, I started a golf product export business. As part of this I was consigned a collection of golf antiques and memorabilia. This took me to Japan and back to Europe in an attempt to sell them. Included in the collection were several feathery golf balls made and played at St. Andrews, Scotland in the 1800’s. I didn’t sell the collection, but feathery balls became my mantra of interest. I researched the method of manufacturing the ball and its history when used in play at St. Andrews. I decided to write a work of fiction with a valuable and most sought after feathery ball used during a record round being an object of collector greed. Besides golf play I wrapped this feathery ball in the story around teenage defiance, foreign intrigue, sleuthing, suspense and romance.
It took me about five years to complete the book. It was accepted by a traditional publisher, Sleeping Bear Press out of Michigan with a $2500.00 advance. Half way through my work with that publisher’s editor, Sleeping Bear was sold to Clock Tower Press. The new CEO decided not to do fiction. I was able to keep the advance because of a clause in my contract stating in effect; that if the publisher changed his mode of doing business the advance would be retained by the author. I self-published with Booksurge in 2007 and since then I’ve sold a total of 612 books through bookstores, book signings, direct sales and Amazon.
About the book: Scott Beckman inherits an antique feathery golf ball used in 1849 during a record match at St. Andrews, Scotland from his mentor, a golf professional, Sandy McNair. Sandy’s intervention had kept Scott and his best friend, Matt Kemp, away from juvenile delinquency by involving them in the game of golf. Scott moves on with Matt as his caddie to play on the PGA Tour. After running out of funds to stay on tour Scott reluctantly submits the valuable antique feathery ball, bequeathed to him by Sandy, to an auction in London. Ironically, after doing so, his earnings on tour start to soar. Scott removes the feathery from the auction much to the chagrin of those who were set on possessing this treasured artifact. One collector’s obsession is so strong he’ll murder and rob to own it.
Scott leaves the solution of murder and robbery up to Chief Inspector Bradshaw of Scotland Yard and Detective Riley of the NYPD while he continues play at the British Open. But his good play there against hot competition is interrupted when his caddie and friend, Matt Kemp, is abducted. A threatening note demanding Scott’s withdrawal leaves the tournament leader with no alternative … unless Scotland Yard’s quick intervention is successful.
About the Author: Bill Flynn is a retired aerospace engineer who lives in New Hampshire with wife, Barbara. His follow-on career was devoted to golf product exporting. Both careers took him to the places where his book, The Feathery, is set. He has been fortunate to have played imperfect golf on many of the perfect golf courses on this planet. Bill’s first novel, A Deadly Class Reunion was published in 2004 and available on Amazon.com. Bill’s work in process (working title: A Drumbeat Too Near) is about the adventures of three boys on Cape Cod in the 1940′s while German submarines lurk off shore. One sub launches two spies, and the boys stumble in on their covert mission. The back story describes the life and love of a German U-Boat commander who is not as enthralled by the Nazi regime as some of those in his crew.
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