Click on the cover to get it on Amazon!
Book Description:
“He remembered the little motel in the desert when his life turned around.”
Six wayward travelers stop for the night at a remote California desert motel. The next morning each leaves “geeling good,” but unaware they have become addicted to a gaseous drug piped into their rooms.
The motel owner, Jeffrey, is a scientist recently fired by a prestigious Southern California drug manufacturer. The basement of the motel has been converted into a secret laboratory where Jeffrey conduct his clandestine experiments.
It is there that he invents “Freedom,” a drug that frees people from depression, anger, stress, and aggression. Jeffrey has grandiose plans to make “Freedom” available throughout the world in order to bring about peace and harmony.
Spinning slowly into the depths of insanity, he decides to forego getting FDA approval of “Freedom” and instead tests its effectiveness on unsuspecting motel guests.
The six travelers “feel good” for a few months, but as the drug’s effect wears off they find themselves yearning to go back to “the little motel in the desert” that made them feel so good. By coincidence the former guests meet at the motel on Memorial Day weekend and they confront Jeffrey with their suspicions that they have been drugged. Some want to continue with the drug while others decide to quit. Murder, intrigue, addiciton, and escape soon follow as they try to put their lives back together.
The book’s characters include a priest defrocked for child molestation, a Native American doctor, a wealthy but suicidal widow, a salesman whose career is failing, and a couple from Brazil whose family owns gold mines.
Blue Coyote Motel presents an engaging look at the human frailties present in all of us.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
TR: Dianne, good morning! I’m so pleased to have you today!
DH: Good morning, Thomas, and thanks very much for having me…
TR: I’m ready to hear all about you and your writing. How old were you when you wrote your first piece?
DH: I was nine years old.
TR: What did you write?
DH: It was a story about a young girl going to China. Fiction. And way before the Internet to see what China was even like!
TR: That must have been tough. How did you come about writing that?
DH: I have no idea. I can still remember sitting at a desk in the attic or our home in Kansas City putting pen to paper.
TR: An attic, eh? Well, that certainly sounds author-like. What have you written since then?
DH: Trade paper articles. This and that. Only in the last year and a half have I really gotten serious about writing novels.
TR: A little of everything, I see. So, What was the inspiration for “Blue Coyote Motel?
DH: My husband and I were at a small old boutique motel in Palm Springs, California for a wedding. The motel had recently been renovated. It was in October and the temperature was 106 degrees outside. Our room was cool and you couldn’t even hear the air-conditioner, it was so quiet. To this day I don’t know why, but I turned to my husband and said,” Wouldn’t it be interesting if someone piped a ‘feed good’ drug into the air-conditioning and everyone felt good all the time?” He immediately responded, “There’s your book.” And so it was.
TR: Whoa…of all the thoughts to have at that moment…fascinating! Okay, so tell us a little about it, and where it’s available.
DH: It’s a novel about six people who stop at a remote desert California motel and become inadvertently addicted to a drug that’s piped through the air-conditioning units. It deals with the chaos the drug brings into their lives, each of whom has life problems they’re dealing with. The cast of characters includes a defrocked priest, a wealthy widow, a Native American pediatrician, a couple who owns gold mines in the Amazon, and a salesman trying to find himself. It’s a look at the human frailties present in all of us.
It ranges from the California desert to Provence, France.
TR: I might point out at this juncture that I only asked that question for our audience. I’ve read the book, and gave it a 5-star review on Amazon – as have many others. It’s a great book! Now, is there a particular place or setting where you get your writing ideas?
DH: No, not really. I’ve led a checkered life, everything from being a yoga studio owner to an international antique and art appraiser to being married to a California Senator and entertaining governors, congressmen and legislators. I have a myriad of experiences to draw on.
TR: I’d have to say you have ideas for writing walking around you on a daily basis 🙂 Now, what made you choose to be an indie author?
DH: Well, a friend and mentor went with a traditional publishing house which went bankrupt and took all of his book’s proceeds. He decided to self-publish and strongly urged me to do the same.
TR: I have to say that’s one I haven’t heard before…wow. If you had to choose the most important element in an author’s platform, what would it be?
DH: Write the best book you can, edit, edit, and edit and don’t be in a hurry!
TR: There’s some superb advice, and I couldn’t agree more. Now tell us – What mistakes have you made in regards to publishing and marketing your work, and what will you do differently in the future?
DH: I wish I had a firm answer to that question. I’m in the process of re-evaluating what I’ve done as I get ready to launch a new book after the first of the year, Tea Party Teddy, a tell-all novel about California politics. Publishing and marketing Blue Coyote Motel was really a learning experience. I’m still assessing what’s working and what isn’t.
TR: Fair enough. It’s an ever-changing process. Tell-all, eh? You’ll have to keep me up with your progress. I’d be happy to get the word out on that. What comes after that?
DH: “Tea Party Teddy” is coming out the first of the year and a sequel to Teddy and Blue Coyote Motel have been written are in the revision process.
TR: Keeping busy…I like it. Dianne, it’s been a true pleasure. The very best of luck with “Blue Coyote Motel” and all your writing. Take care!
DH: Thanks for having me over, Thomas..I had fun 🙂
There it is, folks. Dianne’s book “Blue Coyote Motel” is a good one. Um…what are you still doing here? Go get one!