Readers have asked me about my inspiration for Native Dreams. In my clinical practice i treat a lot of PTSD and have done a fair amount of research on it. I found it fascinating and wondered how i could work it into a ZEB HANKS story. Since Echo Skysong served in Afghanistan she seemed like the right person to focus on. I wanted to give a new twist. PTSD has existed at least since the ancient Greeks under various names, but I became familiar with it after the Vietnam War. I wanted to tell a story that related how war follows soldiers home. I chose this subject, subconsciously, because my son just began his second tour of duty in Afghanistan and I pay close attention to what is happening there and have learned lots from him about how things operate over there. While, this of course, is a fictional story, some of the facts and how things operate are based loosely on reality. This book, while a mystery in the ZEB HANKS sage, is an homage to the men and women who served in war time.
Writing the book came quite easily. I had the background for the story, the general background, of the tale then i was lucky enough to wind in Zeb/Echo/Echo's military unit/ the cartel/some witchcraft and other things that will hold the readers interest and educate them or at least make them wonder and ask questions. As with all the books there is a starting point, which can be at the middle, the end or the beginning and I build the story forward, backward or inside out based on that. This one just happened to be about dreams because I was reading a book about dreams/dreaming. Everything else evolved out of that.
In NATIVE DREAMS we see the continual evolution of many of the main characters and even introduce some new ones. Zeb and Echo have a growing set of twins, Elan and Onawa, who are at the center of their lives. Echo is teaching them the ways of the Apache and during that process some trouble also occurs, drawing the children into the story conflict. Song Bird is his steadfast self, always there, always knowing how to handle things. A half dozen of the soldiers who served in Afghanistan with Echo enter the story. The Town Talk continues to be the center of gossip along with Helen Nazelrod the ever present office manager at the Sheriff's Office. Together they work to solve the crime which in this case begins with a dream and a dead man and a dead horse.
I really love writing this series. I know the characters now and how they feel and will often react, although, all of them have yet-to-be-discovered sides of their personalities. I am on the constant hunt for little things that make a good mystery. I find them in old books, my 1000s of AZ photos, TV shows, music, my dreams, talking to people, ideas that pop in out of nowhere, staring out my window at the lake. Literally ideas for this series have come from everywhere and everywhere.
I hope you enjoy it and I thank you for your continued support for me and Zeb.
Regards,
Mark Reps