Want to Get Transported?
by Multi-Award-Winning Author, Dr. Randy Overbeck
Take me away.
I’m not sure if other readers feel the same way but when I sit down and open a book, I want to be whisked away. I want to leave my bedroom or gym and find myself in the middle of a dark, dense forest or walking along the beach, sun blazing overhead or driving on a country road through a blinding blizzard. I’m entranced with authors who are able to transport me from my boring space into some interesting and exciting place and time.
Here are four authors I believe are especially skilled at this.
My first is William Kent Kreuger, author of the Cork O’Connor series. Kreuger captures the scenes of his tales in such vivid, descriptive language, readers get to experience the beauty and danger of the wilderness of northern Minnesota right along with his characters. Also, he has the rare skill to use such evocative and carefully chosen language in his descriptions, his passages often border on the poetic. And his use of this skill has only sharpened as the bestselling entries in the series have piled up, with his 21st, Spirit Crossing.
My second choice would be British author, Ken Follett. The author became famous writing international spy thrillers like The Key to Rebecca and On the Wings of Eagles. When he set out to write historical fiction, he turned his skill at creating powerful scenes up several notches. His Kingbridge series are the bestselling historical fiction ever written, and for good reason. The series first entry, Pillars of the Earth, which captures the building of a medieval cathedral in England, does such a remarkable job to transporting readers to this little known time and place, they will believe they are balancing along the rafters of this massive structure or chained in a dirty, foul-smelling cell struggling to break free. Who knew the building of a huge church could be so compelling?
Next is C. J. Box, author of the Joe Pickett stories. I have never been to the untamed lands of Wyoming and Montana but after reading books by Box, this region certainly moved to the top of my travel list. This author is so adept at transporting me into his scenes, when I open the pages of his book, I feel the biting cold of the wind off the Bighorn Mountains, experience the chafing of riding my horse up and down the valleys and mountains, hear bullets sing through the air and taste the bile in my own throat at seeing an animal mutilated. His ability to paint such incredible scenes of these little known and little traveled areas, readers develop a real love for the Bighorn Mountains and Twelve Sleep Valley and keep coming back. The series is now at successful entry 25.
My fourth is an author not as well-known as the first three but perhaps should be. James R. Benn is the author of the Billy Boyle historical mystery series. All the novels in his series take place during World War II, in different locations in the theatre of war. His protagonist, Billy Boyle, is a new detective before the war and is tapped by General Eisenhour to investigate murders in the middle of battlefield and in backrooms. To craft credible, engaging description is even more challenging in this series, as each tale takes place in a different location. My favorite is the 12th entry, The Devouring, which takes place in “neutral” Switzerland. In the middle of his investigation, Billy Boyle stumbles upon a train carrying Jews to a concentration camp, Benn captured the poignant scene so vividly, I found myself weeping for the victims screaming for help inside the cattle cars as they passed.
Perhaps my love for great descriptive writing is why, when I wrote my own Haunted Shores Mysteries, I created vivid, credible descriptions that transport readers to a new resort location, along with a pretty good whodunit and a bit of romance. Now, I’m not in the league if the four above, but readers and critics have enjoyed and applauded my titles. The three entries, Blood on the Chesapeake, Crimson at Cape May and Scarlet at Crystal River have earned nine national awards, bestselling status and hundreds of 5-star reviews in Amazon, Goodreads and Bookbub, If you haven’t yet had the pleasure, I invite you to check out the first entry, Blood on the Chesapeake, a #1 bestseller on Amazon and B & N. I think you’ll find the pages will transport you to stunning autumn days in a beautiful Eastern Shore town on the Chesapeake Bay. http://authorrandyoverbeck.com/books
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Randy Overbeck is an award-winning educator, author and speaker. As an educator, he served children for more than three decades and has turned that experience into captivating fiction, authoring the bestselling series, the Haunted Shores Mysteries, winner of nine national awards. This past fall, the Wild Rose Press released his newest work, an atmospheric amateur sleuth mystery, CRUEL LESSONS, which has captured two national awards already. He hosts the popular podcast, “Great Stories about Great Storytellers,” which reveals the unusual and sometimes strange backstories of famous authors, directors and poets. He is also a speaker in much demand, sharing his multi-media presentations, “Things Still Go Bump in the Night,” “A Few Favorite Haunts,” and “Everything You Wanted to Know About Publishing” with audiences all over the US. As a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Dr. Overbeck is an active member of the literary community, contributing to a writers’ critique group, serving as a mentor to emerging writers and participating in writing conferences such as Killer Nashville and the Midwest Writers Workshop.
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