The Story Behind Like Driftwood on the Salish Sea by Richard I. Levine

 

 

 

 

 

The Story Behind Like Driftwood on the Salish Sea

By Richard I. Levine

I definitely didn’t plan this book or these characters in advance. This is my sixth novel and each time the idea came to me in a way that would make most people would think I need to be examined by a professional. Nonetheless, whether I call it my little voice, intuition, my spirit guides or angels, it’s not only the idea for the story that comes to me without warning and from out of nowhere, but it’s also an ongoing inexplainable inspirational feeling that seems to take over during the writing process. I suppose that’s called being in the zone. 

But as with my other novels, the people, the locations, and the basic story simply comes to me in a vision and music has always been the trigger that seems to set the wheels in motion. And there’s no predicting which piece of music will do that, but I suspect that it has something to do vibrational energies (mine and the music) that are vibrating at the same frequency. When it happens, it’s as real to me as anything that anyone sees in front of their eyes. So, it’s not just any music or particular songs, but it’s the way they are orchestrated--tempo, key, volume, types of instruments--that have instantaneously given birth to a story, its characters, relationships, locations, etc. For me, that kind of music, that vibration, simultaneously creates a feeling and a picture that resonates. It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, I know I have my next novel. And then there’s this little voice in my head (spirit guides? Guardian angels? Intuition?) that says something to the effect: “This one, do this one”. With Like Driftwood On The Salish Sea there were a couple of orchestrated pieces from a movie soundtrack that gave birth to Mitch, Jess and the Rockwell-esque smalltown in the Pacific Northwest where they lived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When they met in the fourth grade, it was love at first sight for Mitchell Brody and Jessica Ramirez. He was the freckle-faced kid who stood up for her honor when he silenced the class bully who’d been teasing her because of her accent. She was the new kid whose family moved to San Juan Island, Washington, from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and whom Mitch had thought was the most beautiful girl in the world.

She was his salvation from a strict upbringing. He was her knight in shining armor who had always looked out for her. Through the many years of porch-swinging, cotton-candied summer nights, autumn harvest festivals, and hand-in-hand walks planning for the ideal life together, they were inseparable…until 9/11, when the real world interrupted their Rockwell-esque small town life, and Mitch had joined the Marine Corps.

This is not just the story of a wounded warrior finally coming home to search for the love, and the world he abandoned twenty years before. It is also the story of a man who is seeking forgiveness and a way to ease the pain caused by every bad decision he’d ever made. It’s the story of a woman who, with strength and determination, rose up from the ashes of a shattered dream; but who never gave up hope that her one true love would return to her. As she once told an old friend: “Even before we met all those years ago, we were destined to be together in this life, and we will be together again, because even today we’re connected in a way that’s very special, and he needs to know about it before one of us leaves this earth.”

Like Driftwood on the Salish Sea is available at Amazon.

 

Richard I Levine is a native New Yorker raised in the shadows of Yankee Stadium. After dabbling in several occupations and a one-year coast-to-coast wanderlust trip, This one-time auxiliary police officer, volunteer fireman, bartender, and store manager returned to school to become a chiropractor.

A twenty-five-year cancer survivor, he’s a strong advocate for the natural healing arts. In 2006 he wrote, produced, and was on-air personality of The Dr. Rich Levine Show on Seattle’s KKNW 1150AM and after a twenty-five-year chiropractic practice in Bellevue, Washington, he closed up shop at the end of 2016 and moved to Oahu to pursue a dream of acting and being on Hawaii 5-O.

While briefly working as a ghostwriter/community liaison for a Honolulu City Councilmember, a Hawaii State Senator, and volunteering as an advisory board member of USVETS Barbers Point, he appeared as a background actor in over twenty-seven 5-Os, Magnum P.I.s, NCIS-Hawaii, and several Hallmark movies. In 2020, he had a co-star role in the third season episode of Magnum PI called “Easy Money.”

While he no longer lives in Hawaii, he says he will always cherish and be grateful for those seven years and all the wonderful people he’s met. His 5th novel, To Catch the Setting Sun, was inspired by his time in Hawaii.

Like Driftwood on the Salish Sea is Levine’s first foray into the romance genre.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ http://www.docrichlevine.com  

X ➜ https://www.twitter.com/Your_In8_Power 

Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/RichardLevineAuthor/ 

Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/rilevinedc