READ ONTARIO. Meet/talk with local authors at Port Elgin Public Library,1:00-3:00 PM, Saturday, November 4th, Port Elgin, Ontario. Free to All. Directions | Website
Featuring eight authors, including A.M. (Andy) Potter. Signed copies of The Color Red and Bay of Blood available for purchase.
Author Talk at Blue Mountains Public Library (L. E. Shore Memorial Library). 11:00 AM, Saturday, October 21st, Thornbury, Ontario. Free to All. Directions | Website
Signed copies of The Color Red and Bay of Blood will be available for purchase.
Click here to reserve a seat and see more Author Talk details on the Blue Mountains Public Library site.
“The Color Red is a first-class mystery that will keep you guessing until the final pages …. Potter’s vivid and memorable descriptions of Cape Cod will leave you smelling salt air and thinking of the Kennedys.”
~ Ron Corbett, Author of the Frank Yakabuski and Danny Barrett Series (reviewed in the New York Times), Edgar Award and Arthur Ellis Award Nominee
The history of the novel has been characterized by unending experimentation. However, one thing has remained constant. Novels are based on facts, real-world details that are twisted and turned to spin a story.
Every work of fiction sits on a fact-fiction continuum. On one end of the continuum there is pure fact; on the other, pure invention. Much of any novel sits somewhere in between.
What about The Color Red? What facts bleed into its fiction? The novel’s main murderee, Rollo Novak, loosely resembles Robert Herjavec; Novak’s business associate, Karlos Vega, loosely resembles Kevin O’Leary. Readers might recognize the names: Herjavec and O’Leary appeared on Dragon’s Den in Canada and now appear on Shark Tank in the US. However, the resemblance isn’t crucial to the story. Novak’s first wife, Melanya, was born in Slovenia. She might remind readers of a First Lady named Melania, who was also born in Slovenia. Of course, while Melanya Novak may mirror someone – anyone – she’s just a character in a novel. As copyright disclaimers say, “Any resemblance to actual persons is entirely coincidental.”
Then there’s Detective Lt. Ivy Bourque, the main character in the novel as well as the series. She’s not based on anyone “factual”; however, she is a prototypical New Englander: amiable, capable, and perceptive. On her father’s side, her French-Canadian heritage pays homage to Jack Kerouac, whose parents migrated from Quebec to Massachusetts in the early 1900s.
One final note for aficionados of fact-in-fiction and true crime stories. The main crime scene in The Color Red, an indoor pool, echoes the crime scene of a recent double murder in Toronto, Canada: the Barry and Honey Sherman murders. Echoes, I say. Okay, I’ve said enough. 😉 If I keep going, I’ll leak some spoilers.
Click here for sales information on THE COLOR RED.
To preview THE COLOR RED, download the free teaser below.