My Diary

I actually started writing this book over twelve years ago but put it on hold when I became interested in the Rennes-le-Chateau Mystery and concentrated on deciphering the clues a 19th century priest, Berenger Sauniere, hid in his church decorations. Which I then followed up with a book called Lost Tomb of the Knights Templar. Originally, Amazon Adventure was to be a non-fiction documentary type novel as I planned to go to the Amazon jungle to see if I could find Dead Horse Camp, and using the information I had learnt about Colonel Fawcett, try to follow in his footsteps to see if I could discover what happened to him, Jack and Raleigh. This would then form the basis of my book. However, short of funds for the trip at the time and now having left it for so long, others have now done this – Benedict Allen with his Bones of Colonel Fawcett TV series and more recently David Grann with his The Lost City of Z.

With Brad Pit soon to play the starring role in a film about Fawcett I thought now was a good time to finish writing Amazon Adventure, albeit with a few changes. It would no longer be non-fiction documentary type of book but an exciting action fueled archaeological thriller. Or so I hope.

With the excellent feedback I was receiving for my Lost Tomb book, and my experience writing Beginnings, my fiction novel about my discoveries, I knew I could do the Fawcett Mystery justice and weave the facts, legends and stories that surround the expedition’s disappearance in 1925, into a great novel.

November 2009

As previously mentioned, as Grann had already done what I had planned to do, I changed the book into an adventure novel. Like others I had always wanted to read about the discovery of Fawcett’s Lost City, what did it look like, who built it and why, and to find out the source of “…the lights that never went out.” and so I set out to fulfill this want in my book.

I decided to set the story in the present-day with flashbacks to the 1925 expedition. I soon had the main plot of the story worked out, but I needed a good reason for an expedition to go into the jungle 87 years after Fawcett disappeared. My solution was to have new information about the 1925 Fawcett expedition to become known. You can read about this in the advance chapters I have posted on my Amazon Adventure website.

The Main Characters were quite easy to create, a hero (Ben Fawcett) and heroine (Kate Raleigh) were essential, as was a good ‘baddie’ (Thiago). Read about these and the other Characters here.

I have finished Thiago’s background and the story that brings Thiago into contact with the other expedition members. Still not sure as to what Ben and Kate’s professions will be  yet.

Chapters – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, some later chapters and the ending completed.

January 2010

Added two advance chapters to read. PROLOGUE 1  AND PROLOGUE 2