Your Next Favorite Read,
Authored by Richard Zapf
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Coming Soon!
Literary Journeys, Guided
by a Master Storyteller
Hi everyone. I’m delighted that you found my page. Now that you’re here, it’s time to tell you a bit about myself. I’m a retired guy with a passionate interest in aviation, sailing, and vintage sports cars. Before I retired, I practiced as a clinical neuropsychologist focusing mostly on pediatrics. As a result, I remain fascinated by the human condition. After retiring, I surprised myself by starting to write fiction, something I never contemplated while I was working.
Like most rookie writers, I made just about every mistake possible, but over the years have honed my craft to the point that a number of friends think that some of my stuff is pretty good. Presently, I’ve written considerable historical fiction, dealing mostly with aviation. I have a series called Better Lucky Than Dead, which is in the starting block and is awaiting publication (September 16,2022). Through a series of episodes, the story follows a rookie RAF pilot and his love interest through WW 2. All of his adventures are based on actual events. Some of my E-readers have said that they found themselves in the cockpit sweating along with PO Will Smythe or fretting on the ground along with his girl, Melissa Wells.
From Cockpits to Chronicles:
My Writer's Journey Through Aviation History
Being a pilot and having had the opportunity to fly some WW2 warbirds, I try to give the reader the feeling of being in the cockpit experiencing the smells, G forces, and visual orientation or disorientation depending on the situation. There is the old pilot saying ‘You can never have enough fuel unless you’re on fire’. Keep in mind that most fighters of WW2 could hold enough fuel for about two hours (without drop tanks) and twenty to thirty seconds of ammunition. As a result these young men had their eyes on the fuel gauge from the time the wheels were up.
Another series of novels, Touching the Face of God, deals with the history of aviation from the perspective of a young German boy and his exploits as a pilot that takes him from pre World War One to the jet age. As a writer I’m a pantser, which is to say I work from a rough outline, place my characters in trouble and let them figure their way out. This led to some unexpected twists when the protagonist wound up falling in love with a Jewish girl. I had to take a hard look at the holocaust and some of the reasons that led up to it and the aftermath. You wouldn’t think that the holocaust had much to do with aviation. However, aviation had a lot to do with establishing the State of Israel. How’s this for a crazy fact: During the Suez Crisis, there was an air battle involving Israeli aircraft, Egyptian aircraft and British ‘peacekeeping’ aircraft, and they were all flying Supermarine Spitfires! It goes to show that truth is stranger than fiction. You may ask when this series will come out? Once I get Will Smythe in the air, I’ll return to this series.
Weaving Words into Wonders
While I love to write about aviation, it’s not my only interest, so I wrote a novel closer to my professional roots, The Incident at Dry Salvages. This story was inspired by my brief but interesting experience in forensic psychology as well as my interest in sailing. I love sailing the North Shore of Massachusetts from the granite outcroppings of Cape Ann, as they extend down to Marblehead, and the Great Salt Marsh that extends north into New Hampshire. It also gave me the opportunity to explore the mind of a psychopath in the form of a homicidal sexual predator. My E Readers liked the story, but some said it kept them up at night for a few days after reading it. This novel has storms, hide and seek in the marsh, and intense psychological interplay between the female psychologist and the perp. If you like a thriller The Incident at Dry Salvages is for you. Presently, you can read it for free by going to Inkitt.com and typing the title in the search box. Please leave a like and a review because it will move the book along to further publication.
There are a number of short stories that I’ve written that have nothing to do with aviation and these relate to the general human condition involving the hopes and fears we all have.
I’ve written a series of short stories that deal with the major events around the year like New Year’s Eve, Halloween, and Christmas. There are many other stories as well. All I need is a publisher to launch an anthology of about fifteen short stories, but you can get three of them free on Inkitt.com. Exploding the New Year is about two friends, whiskey, and a cannon. What could possibly go wrong? The Strange Story of Maria Hallett is a Halloween story which includes a magic book, a wrecked treasure ship, lovers, and a debt that is yet to be collected over three-hundred years later.
The Night the Wolves Came to Christmas is an adaptation of a story told to me by my grandmother, who was a child in rural Germany at the end of the nineteenth century. A Christmas celebration, a smokehouse full of meat, tender yummy children and wolves circling outside in the snow add to the suspense, but what about the wolves inside? Since I wrote that story three years ago, one of my E Readers has read it to the family seated around the Christmas Tree every year. The kids and adults love it. For now these stories can be had for free on Inkitt.com. Please leave a like and a review.
Reviews
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