I had the pleasure of sitting with Gary Williams to discuss his career as an Author and his life in St. Augustine. I got to hang with Guen too!
Everybody knows you and Guen from your Facebook posts, when did you start writing them?
I started the “Walking Guen through the historic streets of St. Augustine” posts in the Fall of 2016, posting a day or two each week. After about a month, one of the Facebook page administrators contacted me saying people are contacting him wondering when there would be another Guen post. My initial thought was, “I’m a writer working on our next novel and I didn’t sign up to do this every day.” But then I realized that, since I walk Guen every morning anyway, and we usually come across something that sparks an idea, why not give it a shot of becoming a regular event. So, I agreed to do it daily, posting on both the “I Love St. Augustine” and “We Love St. Dogustine” Facebook pages. One thing Guen and I make sure to avoid are socially hot topics, because we want it to keep it light and I think that’s why people enjoy them.
Where are you from?
I was born and raised in Jacksonville. My wife was a Navy brat and I met her there. In June 2013, we moved to St. Augustine. I have only lived in these two cities, other than the two years I spent in Tallahassee attending Florida State. Somebody recently calculated the distance Guen and I have walked since we moved here four and a half years ago. On average, we walk two miles a day and if you add up all the days and miles over that time, we could have walked from St. Augustine to Seattle, Washington.
Have you always been a writer?
No, I worked in the corporate business world for most of my life. It was only in 2000 when I decided to write a story. At the time, I had no background in writing, but by 2007, I had written and self-published four novels. In late 2007, a woman, Vicky Knerly, contacted me who had read one of my books. She loved the storyline, but was critical of the technical writing aspects, including the editing. When I saw she had a masters’ degree in English, I suggested that we co-write, taking my latest self-published novel and reworking it. We did, soliciting several dozen literary agents, and was eventually accepted by one. It was exciting to get that kind of recognition, because if you know anything about the writing world, to even a get a literary agent to request a full manuscript after reading a sample is a long shot. Although, no longer with that agency, we are very happy to now be signed with Suspense Publishing, where they primarily put out our novels as e-books. For five of our novels, Amazon has exclusive rights. Vicky and I have now co-written eight novels and one short story.
Are any of your books in print?
One, our best sellers, Indisputable Proof, is also available as a soft cover. Our latest book, Blood Legacy, may also be coming out in paperback soon. Although set in the current day, it deals with Adolf Hitler’s death in his Berlin Bunker in 1945.
What was the first book that got the attention of the first Literary Agent?
At the time it was called Half Red Skull. Although primarily set in Fernandina Beach, Florida, it has several scenes in St. Augustine and concerns the history of the Seminole Indian, Osceola, who was once held prisoner in the Castillo in 1837. More specifically, it concerns Osceola’s missing skull, that was separated from the body postmortem. When Vicky and I reworked the story and published as an ebook, the publisher suggested a name change to Three Keys to Murder.
Where do you get your ideas?
We love to use true historical events, often leveraging historical mysteries. As such, we take literary license with the story. For example, in Blood Legacy, the protagonist gains access to Hitler’s Berlin Bunker. In reality, the bunker was filled in with dirt and has been inaccessible since the late 1980s. We also like to ingrain quirky, little known facts that we uncover while researching each novel. Hitler was terrified of cats, loved the old west, and loved to paint. Who knew?
We considered the story for Blood Legacy when two items recently came up for auction. One was Hitler’s telephone from the bunker that he used to send untold millions to their death. It had been tucked away in a farmhouse in England, claimed by a British officer who had entered the bunker after the Russians had cleared it out in 1945. The second item was Hitler’s copy of Mein Kampf. It was recovered in his Berlin apartment and was signed by the British and American Officers present at the time. To us, these physical ties to history are fascinating.
With Three Keys to Murder; the mystery was that Osceola’s body is buried outside Fort Moultrie in South Carolina, but it’s minus the head. Dr. Fredrick Weedon, a St. Augustine doctor working for the army, accompanied Osceola when he was transferred from the Castillo (known as Fort Marion at the time) to South Carolina. When Osceola died in January 1838, Dr. Weedon, left alone with the body, severed the great Indian’s skull and brought it back with him to St. Augustine where he embalmed it. (In the mid-1960s, this was confirmed when Osceola’s body was exhumed and it was, indeed, headless.) Some years later, Dr. Weedon sent the skull to his son in-law in New York. It was eventually donated to a New York museum and lost in a fire. Or was it? Well, it wasn’t in our story.
What are your favorite things to do in town?
The great thing about where we live, is our proximity to the historic district. We often walk to town on the weekends. As a matter of fact, I usually park the car Friday night and don’t drive again for a couple of days. We love to head to St. George Street or one of the side streets on a Saturday afternoon to catch live music. We enjoy going to the Social Lounge, a quaint bar that serves Florida Craft Beer, organic wines and sangria, and welcomes dogs. The Bar with No Name by the bay is great, too, with beautiful, sweeping view of the Castillo and Matanzas Bay. Ann O’Malley’s is another favorite watering hole. And it has some of the best people watching in town. It’s so nice to be able to walk to so many great establishments. We truly are spoiled.
Were you surprised when you were named St. Augustine Social’s Man of the Year?
I was shocked. It was more shocking that someone nominated me. It was a grassroots effort on Facebook. I thought it was cool, but then I started reading about the other nominees and I almost withdrew, given their more altruistic contributions. One woman had donated her kidney to save a life. A young girl had set up numerous web sites to help raise money for charitable causes. And here I am posting silly discussions that I have with my dog when we go for walks. But so many people told me they look forward to the daily posts. That it gives them a laugh and takes their mind off pressing, more serious matters. I think people are just tired of politics and some of the crazy things going on in the world.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
I taught myself to juggle. Oh, and I can play some guitar, and even less piano. But for the love of God, don’t ever ask me to sing. You’ve been warned.
Do you prefer the e-book to paperback?
People like the smell of a book and like holding a book. I do too, but the nice thing about an e-book is the ereaders are lighter and the cost of an ebook is much less than a printed book. Our ebooks on Amazon are priced at $3.99. And publishing as an e-books expedites the production time. The other advantage to an ebook is the ability to correct typos. I hate typos, it’s the bane of every writer’s existence. The last book we put out had 90,000 words, and even after having the publisher’s editor and twelve review readers proof it, readers have found several typos. But as an ebook, we can correct these errors.
How many books have you and Vicki written?
Alone, I self-published four books. After partnering with Vicki in 2007, we reworked those four novels and re-released them as ebooks. We’ve subsequently written four additional novels, for a total of eight, so far. Oh, and one short story.
Is there anything you would like to share with the community?
We’re working on the next book. I think it’s exciting because we’re temporarily going in a different direction from the normal thriller genre. I’ll explain. A lot of people have suggested putting Guen’s posts in a book and maybe do a children’s book, but that’s a hard genre to crack. I took this feedback and spoke to Vicky about writing a few sample chapters for a humorous story. It will be set in St Augustine about a man down on his luck who rents a treehouse to live in. I got the idea from my neighbor who has a tree house he rents. From there, we’ll integrate a ghost dog and turn it into a quirky ghost story. We’ve finalized the outline and are into writing and, so far, it’s going well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s something that will appeal to readers.
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