While reading fiction has been a long-standing and deeply pleasurable past-time, writing it is a rather new experience. Friends had suggested it for a while, but it wasn’t until I read a piece that garnered attention from several I trusted that I dipped my toe into these waters. I quickly discovered two things: (a) it’s not as easy as it looks, and second, despite the challenges, writing fiction is a blast. To fashion worlds out of words? To imagine a different result from that awkward encounter of long ago? To meet completely new characters who want their story told? Sign me up.
To date, I’ve published two novels. You’ll find descriptions of each below, and clicking the covers will take you to Amazon.com’s order page for the e-book or paperback. What’s ahead? More…
___
THIS JUST IN!!
Amazon Prime members can now borrow Prime Target and Playa Perdida for free.
___
Playa Perdida (PLY-uh / purr-DEE-dah) emerged after living overseas during my adolescence and then later with my wife and kids, when I pastored international churches. I got to meet a wide range of people from all over the world who enriched my life, and gave me seeds for many stories. They also helped me realize that no matter where you’re from, where you’re going and how you travel matters.
Fading fast after a decade of serving troubled churches, a desk-bound pastor heads south for a break. When storms force his plane to land early, Gray Albright unexpectedly finds himself in a remote Central American town on the Pacific coast. Somehow, people there who want a church in the area know about him. They ask him to stay, but Gray says no.
Then, back home after the failed vacation, he gets sacked by his grumpy congregation. So at the urging of his wife Moira, Gray relocates his family to Playa Perdida, where there’s an array of intriguing expatriates—like Slot, a one-armed vet who shepherds lost causes; Bert, who covers her religious bases; Arthur, a refined British gent; and, the dowager Charlotte Pipe. As the Albrights settle in, a cynical journalist heckles, a surfing instructor offers insight, and a barista with a predilection for knives brews killer cappuccino.
What does it take to form a church in a place like this? While trying to figure that out, Gray deals with a suicide, entrusts worship music to a garage band, counsels in a bar, conducts a wedding barefoot and helps catch a puma. He also finds himself on the receiving end of grace more than he had expected.
With dry wit and laconic pacing, Playa Perdida introduces a lively, off-beat community of saints and sinners. Washed up on shore from all over the world, almost everybody in this tropical paradise needs a second chance.
Dan Schmidt has a terrific mind and a gift for language. In Playa Perdida, he has drawn on a world he knows well to craft a tale you will not forget.John Ortberg, Senior Pastor; Menlo Park Presbyterian Church
::What better summer beach reading could there be than a book about a beach? Really, Playa Perdida is a great read for any season. It deals with the quiet drama of spiritual growth – through endearing characters and an engaging story in a captivating setting.Brian McLaren, Author/speaker
::I began reading Playa Perdida as a favor for a friend. But I soon discovered that I couldn’t put it down. Not only has Dan Schmidt created interesting and believable characters, but he has presented them in lively, witty, and insightful prose. His well-wrought writing creates empathy for his protagonists: a pastor and his wife dealing with the frustrations, tensions, fears, joys, and blessings of the vocation. This novel will ring bells of recognition for those in the pastorate, it can also help congregations understand the often unacknowledged roles played by any earnest pastor: public relations guru, arbitration specialist, theatrical director, pedagogical theorist, marriage counselor and coffee connoisseur.Crystal Downing, Author How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith
___
In middle school I won a contest where the prize was a bookstore coupon; I bought a book about WW2 prisoner escapes. From there it was a short step to a host of other adventure stories and a lifelong fascination. The genre captivates me, and I’m always on the lookout for a good spy book to read. One day, the idea hit: could I write one of these? Prime Target fell out in short order, hustled along by the National Novel Writing Month challenge.
International art thieves. Unrequited love. A ticking time bomb…
When Stuyvesant Bedford is hired by an insurance agency catering to the rich and infamous, he has a pretty good idea of who’s behind a recent rash of robberies his new firm wants to stop. But to catch this loopy mastermind, he’ll need friends from his days undercover. He hires his nephew Max, too, because the kid is good at finding things.
From inner city Philadelphia to the coast of Portugal, between Baltimore and Montana, the hunt is on for crooks who take what they want and leave no trace. Can Bedford and his gang recover millions of dollars’ worth of loot before it disappears again, or gets blown to smithereens?
