This is the fifth in my series of posts about how it came about that I decided to write Operation Lotus Sunday. Here are links to the other posts: The Story Behind Operation Lotus Sunday – Where I Was.

It was the last day of the 2004 Write To Publish Conference in Wheaton, IL. As I said in past posts, I was trying to answer the question: Am I a writer, or did I write a novel? Meaning, I had one novel written that I was shopping around. Was that the sum total of my book-length writing, or was I going to try to make a career out of writing? Career might be too strong of a word at this time. Did I intend to write multiple books with the idea of making money from that writing?

I think the answer to that question had always been yes, otherwise I would have just gone ahead an self-published Doctor Luke’s Assistant. But my writing ideas, as far as fiction was concerned, were limited. I had the idea for the baseball novel, but hadn’t done much with it. So I was trying to decide.

One other idea that had been running through my head also came to gel about this time, but for a non-fiction book. I had written, a couple of years before, four newspaper guest op-ed pieces. I called them Documenting America. In these I took an American historical document, quoted it, commented on it, and tied it to a current issue. The local newspaper ran them, and I received some good compliments from people who read them. I had thought about making them into a newspaper column that I would self-syndicate, but at this conference another idea came to me: turn them into a book.

I don’t know that the book idea completely gelled this week, but it came close. I had already written more than the first four, maybe up to about twelve, just to show myself that the idea was viable. If I turned them into a book, however, I could flesh out the chapters. The op-eds were limited to 500-750 words, but the material, as I saw it, would be better with chapters in the 1250-1750 range. If I did a book of this, I could do a better job with it.

So suddenly, I had the completed novel, the fledgling baseball novel I’d been thinking about for a year or so, and the new novel based in China. Plus I now had the non-fiction book to write. This was enough ideas for me to realize this was a writing career, not just a one novel wonder.

The last day of the conference I found myself at the same table as James Scott Bell. I had attended his daily class on fiction writing and learned much from it. As we shared what we were writing, I told about the book that had come to mind during the conference. Titled China Tour, it would follow the trip we had made in China in 1983. I would base the itinerary on our trip and the sites on our trip diary. The conflict would come from the American couple whose marriage is in danger, and who become embroiled in a CIA operation while there due to a case of mistaken identity. Their marriage would be under greater strain due to the extraordinary measures they would have to take as a result of the CIA operation.

Everyone at the table said it sounded good. Jim Bell didn’t say much, but he nodded his head as I told the plot, especially when I said I had the trip diary an 1983 tour books as source material. He definitely approved of that.

So, that’s my story of how I came to write the book. China Tour, which was always a placeholder title, became Operation Lotus Sunday just before publication. Sales are slow, but it’s out there. It’s my fourth self-published novel, and I guess I’m a writer.