welcome to between the covers summer series where we Spotlight South Florida authors I'm here with G Spencer Myers author of dead wrong it's described as an ecological Thriller the subject matter is current the issues are important and I absolutely enjoyed this book thank you so much for writing it and for being here today thank you for saying that it really warms my heart never ever have I seen an EPA investigator as the lead character in a book there's a first tell me who Dirk Bryant is Dirk Bryan is a um he is the Indiana Jones of the EPA and so that's some way what why you like the character but he's also a person who is inconvenienced when he's called upon to pursue the maniacal characters that are out to despoil his own little slice of paradise and he's also obsessed with reducing his own carbon footprint um he rides a motorcycle a bicycle uh goes on lots of expeditions as he has a background in archeology and biology so he's a learned professor at the same time uh and and he cares he cares a lot he takes it very personally when he or anyone is is impacted by what's becoming the crisis of Our Lives climate change he is a fabulous character and I have to ask you what made you start writing I was lying on the beach with a friend in Key West Florida in the early 90s and I was reading Carl hyacin's first book I was 32 pages into it and I said to myself I can do this this gentleman is saying something very important he's saying in a humorous way and it's very entertaining it took me quite a while before I could begin writing I had it took four years of research and I was heavily motivated by events that occurred to me along the way when I was living in Michigan I was driving along the west coast of Florida and a woman called into a talk program and she was asking the gentleman from the EPA of Michigan about the tumors in the fish he said no no man with tumor she says Sonny you're not listening to me it's tumors they're in every fish and they were I moved to Florida and two similar events occurred Pelicans dropping like fodder from the sky over South Florida over Lake Apopka they died along with 90 percent of the alligators in Lake Apopka when that happened I had to find out what was the common denominator when I realized it was pesticides I knew I had the subject matter all right there's I'm not going to give any spoilers away for for the book but here's part of the storyline there's a truck loaded with pesticide it crashes into Tampa Bay you also have two dead college students who die after smoking pot and then there's not a hurricane there's not two hurricanes there's three hurricanes on the horizon so help me out a little bit here it's clear to me now that everything is connected every every issue is connect with climate change in some way we're not just dealing with pesticides not just dealing with fossil fuels we're dealing with the aftermath of the use of those things pesticides Plastics and fossil fuels are as addictive as heroin the difference is they're just killing us more slowly they're Insidious in the way they're and it's going to take us quite some time to free ourselves and find alternatives to those things think for instance in the past everything in your kitchen almost everything there now 30 years ago was made of something other than plastic they're all plastic now and only nine percent of plastic is recycled so I have plenty of of information and incidents in in in disasters at my hands my only challenge is weaving them into the stories of the characters that are affected or affect these things well let's look at that for a second this is a fast-paced fun read it's a thriller and you know what it's a great vehicle to lay out these ecological perils but there's a balance between an engaging story and wanting to educate so what is that what is that line well you're correct um no one likes a lecture we all sit and lecture fall set in lecture halls for from time to time but after a while we get a little board to put off we'd like characters we like to be entertained we like to be affected we like to be challenged by characters and their problems and we hope that through their Solutions we learn something so it is the constant challenge I think of any writer but particularly in the in in the subject matter involving global warming and climate change because there's not a universal acceptance of what needs to be done at this point in time what you've done is also I I don't want anyone to think it's a lecture or that you're heading anyone over their head because it's far from that there's no charts or graphs it's clever there are serious issues but there's real humor so using levity was a conscious Choice yes I I we have to be able to laugh at ourselves we have to be a laugh at others and and there are characters that are truly bizarre maniacal and and and their culprits that are humorous they make us laugh in fact in my first book pest not only one of the protagonists is a next wrestler with anger management issues you grow to despise this character but at one point in the book you root for him because it's Human Nature to root for people who are subject to Great harm and it's the challenge of any writer I am so happy to hear you that you enjoy those characters because it's it's the true challenge for me no I can't wait till the till the third book I'd love to do a quick lightning round now you can either answer in a sentence or one word whichever okay the best writing advice you have received write what you know one thing that you want readers to take away from this book change is possible if there could be a one-word teaser for dead wrong what would it be well that's a challenge bring one um read it how do you look at success is it hard work Talent OR luck successful people do what the unsuccessful people won't that's a quote I read sometime a long time ago and it's as true now as it ever was you look to fill niches you look for places where where there's a need to be met and you fill it in in regard to my writing and and climate change Dirk Bryan has created a list of the top 10 ways that you and I can reduce Global warm and they're available on my website ecobuzzbooks.com this is a challenge for all of us and that if we each take on at least one or two maybe three and ultimately all of the things on this list Will Survive and be happier and last one thing you would tell your younger self lighten up good advice the book is dead wrong G Spencer Myers I really thank you for spending time with me and educating me thank you has been a pleasure I'm Ann bocock please join me on the next between the covers [Music]