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Last Wish of Summer by Phillip Overton - Book Spotlight, Interview, Excerpt, and Giveaway
As the sun prepares to rise on the last day of summer, three friends find themselves totally
unprepared for the events that are about to take place around them. For Tanya it is a chance to
find peace three years after losing her parents in an auto accident. Deciding she simply can't
continue blaming God for her loss, she places a heartfelt poem in a bottle and throws it into
the sea on the eve of her birthday, granting her birthday wish to whoever finds it.
Early the next morning, her best friend Anton and his buddy Johnno find the bottle washed
up on the shore and set about putting it to the test. When Johnno falls for the new waitress at
the café where Tanya works, it stirs up feelings of jealousy in Tanya. Surely Johnno couldn't
be the man that God had in mind for her? Suddenly, strange wishes are beginning to come
true, but is it all a coincidence? Or is God about to change people's lives for the better?
Welcome to Kings Beach, where the forecast for the last day of summer promises to be hot,
hot, hot, with a definite change in the air.
Interview with Phillip Overton
INTERVIEWER: What led you to sit down and write what would eventually become your first novel, The Long Way Home?
PHILLIP: It's said that everyone has at least one story inside them waiting to be told. It's often more interesting to hear the circumstances that draw these stories out. When I look back, my first novel in 2005 was probably the result of a mid-life crisis. It was a time I found myself reminiscing on those golden childhood dreams I sensed the sun had long since set on, one of which had been to write a book. Setting the story in my childhood home town of Gosford in New South Wales, Australia enabled me to revisit a time I realized I would never get back. Shortly after I set out to write my book, I seriously injured my shoulder on vacation while racing against my daughter in the swimming pool and had to take three month's leave from work. It's funny how an unfortunate event can ultimately provide an unexpected opportunity. I spent the majority of that time typing left-handed with my other arm in a sling. If I hadn't vowed to have something to show for those three months, I probably would never have finished writing what became my first book.
INTERVIEWER: Your passion and drive to write is obviously strong. How has allowing yourself to fulfil that passion changed or enhanced your life?
PHILLIP: I guess it all comes down to wanting both a creative outlet and a sense of personal achievement. I wanted something to show for my time here on earth that was more than simply holding down a 9 to 5 job. I used to run, my times were never going to catch the attention of national selectors but I was good enough to pick up some prize money in local fun runs, and a training regime of up to a hundred kilometres a week gave me a great sense of mental discipline. I can look back and say I finished two marathons. It helped later in having the mental discipline to see through a project as demanding as writing a novel. Writing provides me with not only a creative outlet, but also with a feeling of being able to escape the ordinary and believe that I can achieve something greater. It is a line of thinking that has spilled over into my way of life. I don't know if I would have found the courage to quit my job, sell our house and move my family away from the city to start a new life close to the ocean if I hadn't believed I could do it.
INTERVIEWER: What is the biggest obstacle you face when writing?
PHILLIP: I love reminding myself that life is a cruel arm wrestle of time and money. If you have the time you don't have the money, and if you have the money chances are you don't have the time. I'm not the only writer who tries to balance his or her writing with being a full-time parent and having to work a job of some kind to pay the bills. But after years of juggling all three I think I finally have them evenly balanced. But I always think that some more time to put the way of my writing would be nice.
INTERVIEWER: What process do you use when gearing up to write that allows that heartfelt connection to flow from the mind into words?
PHILLIP: I have to be in the groove so to speak when I sit down to write. I like to surround my thoughts in what I feel is a positive environment. Creating that environment can be as simple as playing the right music in the background to match the mood I'm wanting to capture, going for a nice, long walk along the beach with my wife to clear my mind or watching a favourite movie or TV show the night before you plan to have a day writing. Once I'm in that groove, heart, mind and fingers all seem to work as one.
INTERVIEWER: Are we likely to see more novels set in Australia from you in the near future?
PHILLIP: Definitely. I am currently working on my fourth novel which is set between Australia and Alaska at the height of the Gold-Rush era. I'm fascinated by the history of that era and how easily we accept the version we are taught of it based on the writings of a visiting reporter of the day and a sketchy black and white photograph of an emerging town or city. Ultimately it was an era that defined both American and Australian history. Both countries had a lot of similarities at the time as towns sprung up overnight only to disappear just as quickly when the gold ran out. But the wealth that each Gold-Rush left behind would ultimately develop two uniquely different national identities.
INTERVIEWER: Are there enough ideas in the think tank to keep your writing career fuelled for another ten years?
PHILLIP: I can't see myself ever running out of ideas. I'm sure it will reach a point one day where I'll say, you know what? I'll never get the time to write a novel for each great story I'm sitting on. That will probably be the moment you'll see me come out with a collection of short stories to clear some room in the memory bank. For now however, the secret is to know when an idea is ready to be activated from the thought process and into writing mode. The novel I am currently writing for example spent eight years being developed before I even typed the first word.
INTERVIEWER: What advice do you have for a budding writer wanting to follow in your footsteps?
PHILLIP: Think big, but start small. It is important to see some results for your work. So try some short story contests, write some book reviews and try to understand as early as possible what writing style you want to be known for. Start a blog. It is an easy way to begin building your presence as a writer. And if you have an idea for a brilliant 200,000 word epic novel, sit on it for a while. A publisher is more likely to take a chance on a first time novelist with a well written 70,000 word novel.
"No way dude!" Anton whistled. "It worked, it actually worked."
"What worked?" Tanya asked him sternly. "What's going on with you two this morning? You haven't been acting yourselves from the minute you walked in here."
"It's just that Johnno ordered the raisin toast," Anton said matter-of-factly.
"I'm sorry," Tanya apologized. "I must have grabbed the wrong order from the kitchen. My head was a million miles away. I can go and find out what happened to your order if you like. Otherwise you're welcome to have this for no charge."
"No it's fine," Johnno reassured her as he sat back down, "the eggs are fine."
"Anton, what's really going on here?" Tanya pulled up a chair and sat down opposite the two boys. "I'm not leaving until you explain to me why you are both acting so weird."
Johnno looked nervously across at Anton who then nodded his head silently and pulled out the letter for Tanya to see.
"We found this on the beach this morning," Anton said quietly. "Apparently we've been granted the power to wish for whatever we like."
"It's true," Johnno spoke up. "I wished for sausages and scrambled eggs and it came true."
Tanya's face went pale with shock as she first recognized the letter, and then the opened bottle in the middle of the table. The same bottle she had decorated with all the different shades of nail polish she possessed in her collection. The letter written on the pages she had torn from her diary and poured her heart onto. She had hoped that today was going to be more than just the beginning of another day, and here they were making fun of her.
"Hey you read the letter, what did it say?" Kim asked as she too pulled up a chair and joined the other three at the table.
"It was a poem," Johnno said. Once more he seemed intoxicated by the very presence of the sultry waitress.
"Ooh a poem. Is it romantic?" She asked, moving in closer to Johnno who now held the letter for her to see.
"She knows about it too?" Tanya asked. A look of embarrassment spread quickly across her face that luckily wasn't noticed by any of the other three.
"You should read it Tanya," Anton said excitedly from across the table. "We we're going to show you once we'd finished reading it. But you are not going to believe how deep this girl's thoughts are. You can tell simply by the way the words float off the page. Honestly you'll have to read it for yourself. It's beautiful."
"I can imagine," she fumed quietly.
Tanya watched the three as they fussed over the letter. Fascinated at the same time by the apparent chemistry that had sprung from virtually nowhere between Johnno and the new waitress. Only then did it occur to her. No-one suspected it was her. In their own naive eagerness to embrace the idea of the letter actually being magical, they had all failed to recognize that the person responsible for writing it was sitting at the same table. She quickly hid her fingernails from view beneath the table. The others had failed to notice that they were painted in the same beautiful shade of turquoise that matched the love heart she had painted on the letter.
She smiled secretly at the thought of their childish excitement. Surely it was just a simple mistake on her behalf when bringing Johnno his breakfast that now had them convinced that the letter was going to make all their wishes come true. Or was it in fact a strange coincidence that they had tested their theory by wishing for scrambled eggs. Surely she couldn't have created magic. Surely this was all a coincidence.
Either way, she was going to have a little fun with them!
Phillip Overton's writing has been compared to none other than Nicholas Sparks (http://
www.readerviews.com/ReviewOvertonAWalkBeforeSunrise.html), and his latest novel Last
Wish of Summer offers readers the perfect book to spend a summer's day reading at the
beach. In a book that reminds us to be careful what we wish for, it manages to weave the
wholesome, virginal qualities of the main character Tanya with her band of misfit friends
in their pursuit of being able to reason why a washed up message in a bottle is somehow
granting their every wish come true. Often in a manner that is both coincidental and strangely
Just as a movie adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel will appeal to people of all ages, so too
will this story that follows the adventures of a group of twenty-something's on the last day
of summer. The book not only manages to cut through any pre-conceived ideas we hold on
morals, body-image and social status, but delights in helping us discover what may already be
right under our nose to begin with.
http://sbpra.com/phillipoverton/
Twitter: @phillipoverton
Links to Buy (currently paperback only)
Posted by GabbyLowe at 12:00 AM
Linda Kish said...
I would love to win/read this book. It sounds terrific.
Phillip Overton said...
Thanks for featuring my latest novel Last Wish of Summer on New Age Mama. I hope it gives readers a feel for the fun, summer mis-adventure that is waiting for them between the covers. Good luck to all who enter the eBook giveaway and remember, be careful what you wish for.
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