13,000 Cyclists, One Explosion—Who Gets Home? Author REYNOLD CONGER talks with Chris Dabbs

[Music] Hello and welcome to author conversations. As usual, I'm Chris Dabbs Now today we're speaking with Reynold Conger, a about his thriller, a dangerous bike ride. Wow, the first book in the Richard Tracy series. Now, Reynold is a chemist and an engineer who spent much of his career working in the paper industry. His work eventually took him around the world as an international consultant, helping paper mills in different countries. It was during those long periods away from home, often as you'd expect, staying in hotels with little English language television, so you were a bit bored Reynolds, I get it, that you began writing fiction to entertain yourself.

After his industrial career, he spent eight years teaching secondary school math and science. Now fully retired, he lives with his wife in rural New Mexico, where he runs. That's quite good. Gardens keeps bees, I'm really interested in that, and continues to write books, of course. A dangerous bike ride, by the way, I'll give you a little bit of diesel before we actually meet up with Reynolds. Follows Richard Tracy, a 70 year old retired detective and marathon runner. Now, Richard's adult children persuade him as they tend to do to join them on the Texas MS-150, which is a two day charity bicycle ride from Houston to Austin.

He expects well, saw muscles, family time, and perhaps a little embarrassment, of trying to keep up with thousands of experienced cyclists. Yeah, not surprising. - Jesus, a runner and not a bicycle. - I know, I expect it to be running, right? Or a marathon or something. Anyhow, right? So instead of that, though, an explosion transforms the ride into a dangerous rescue mission. Along the way, Richard meets Mary Beth Austin, a retired chef, gardener, serious cyclist, and a widow. Now, I could go on and give more spoilers away, but I don't think that's the idea.

We'd rather meet up with you. So Reynold, welcome to Author Conversations. How are you? - Well, thank you. And I might add, who would expect that a retired detective and a retired chef could get into trouble? A trouble for them. - Hey, that's always good, though, right? So this thing, all right. So the inspiration for this novel, it came from a striking sort of real life moment, didn't it? After the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, I think it was. - Yeah, it's a one of the 10s. - Yeah, tell us about that.

- Several people were killed or injured. And injured seriously. Well, about a week after the bombing, my wife and I studied in Austin, Texas, washing bicycles, cool, but that was the finish of this MS-150 bike ride. We had been informed by a telephone call from my son, cell phone, that they were expected to be passing in about five minutes. Well, of course, everybody had on their mind the Boston Marathon bombing. And my writer's brain says, "God forbid could that happen here?" We got 13,000 bicycles, and all these crowds of spectators could that happen?

Well, probably yes. And my mind started writing the story. - I know, it is a good point though, isn't it? I mean, this is the thing. These things can happen wherever there's large groups of people, I suppose, but yeah, if you're actually standing somewhere, so soon after that event in Boston. Okay, so how did that moment then develop from a disturbing thought like that into the story then of a dangerous bike ride? 'Cause it's not just about a bike ride, is it? The MS-150 is, you know, it's just not simply a convenient setting.

Well, I mean, it's an embarrassing moment for Richard because he meets this beautiful Texan lady and she's in trouble. She needs help, and so he helps her with her bicycle. And from there on, they ride the rest of the way together. Tell there's a big explosion. - Okay, so why the cycling there? Well, I mean, is that a special thing within that, is that just because he helps her with the bike? You know, did you want readers to understand about the charity side of the bike ride so that you could sort of promote it in a way?

- Well, the charity side is they're trying to raise money for multiple cirrhosis research. And that year they had close to 14,000 bicycles riding in it. And so one of the odds that you're going to meet the love of your life, just riding a bicycle. And it's a two day event, right? So that's quite interesting. I mean, have you ridden that, ridden that? So you mentioned that you want to, you're someone's done it. - I'm a runner. I like Richard, I say, I don't ride in those things. But my son was in them for about five years.

My daughter joined him for four of those years. And every year we would go down to Texas and we'd stay a night or two in my son's house in Houston. And then we'd take off with our camp here. We would camp and route and be ready back at the start and to the stadium to cheer them on, get them going. And we would then follow the bikers and stop where we think they'd be next calling them up on our cell phone and they'd say, "Oh, no, we've already passed there." Or we won't be there for another 15 minutes or thing.

And so we would chase them the whole way. Then they were on a little team that a support crew, the support crew would stop at the overnight place in a fairgrounds. And we would stop and visit their campsite and usually get fed by the support crew that was feeding all these hungry bicycles. Then we would go on to our campsite, say overnight and the next morning we'd be back on the road trying to catch up with them. Yeah, I can't get it. I mean, just go quick question on that because I've done a few long distance cycle rides like that in my time.

How far is it? Is it 150 miles? 150 miles plus people like my son can take the challenge route, which has another 20 miles. No, it's not. I'm sorry. You may as well, hey. You might as well take the extra route if you've done it with 150 miles. They probably don't want to stop at the end. I can imagine. Well, not on the other, but it's a very hilly section. So they get an extra distance and extra old. Well, brilliant. Okay, well, tell us about Richard Tracy then. I mean, he's 70 years old. So he's quite, I guess, brave going on this cycle ride, right?

He's a retired detective at Widower and an experienced marathon runner, like yourself, I guess he's a runner. But, you know, I mean, he's saying that he's not a cyclist and yet will his son makes him do the 150 miles from Houston to Austin. What you did, you're in your shape of a marathon. You can keep up with him. You know, that works every time. Exactly. Oh my gosh, but Richard, you know, he's quite worried about his injuries, isn't he? And I'm familiar to be road cycling. He had scheduled to run, to run in the Duke City, marathon in Elba, curky in November.

Now, this is only April, but that's when a marathon starts working out. So he has to be in shape by the early April to start running serious miles. And he doesn't want to break a leg or anything like that. And he'd be out for the year, right? At least, yeah, I mean, that's terrible. Okay. So what are trying to do then to the idea of an older hero beginning the story, you know, trying to be outside of his comfort zone? I mean, what made you think that is that something that you've experienced yourself?

Well, for one thing to hear when is a little bit outside of her comfort zone, she may be bike enthusiasts, but she's riding an ancient six-speed, show it a three-speed, show in bike, not in her grand order, but I was lensing her road bike because the other, the, the, the the swing is not suitable. And she claims to be the same age as Jack Benny, 39. All right. Is that a gag that Jack Benny always said he was 39 today? He always was. And he and he was always celebrating 39 on, on a national TV. And, but here's the point, she is retired, chef.

So obviously she's, she's like Jack Benny, she's cheating a little bit on the 39. Yeah. Must be exactly. Retired, chef. Hang on, was it at 39? Yeah. Okay. So that's amazing. So let's talk a bit about Richard then so that people can get an understanding about him. So he spent many years in law enforcement, right? That's right. And 20 years, I believe, right? I don't really put a number of years there. I just say at one point his son says when he says I might have somebody shoot at me, he says, oh gee, dad, it's been 20 years since you've been in law enforcement.

And you said most of those people are either dead or in jail. So that's where you might got that, that I've gotten the 20, but I've left it sort of indefinite. All right. So it could have been longer actually if you're saying, you know, for those people in jail a little bit. Well, it's hard to say it. I mean, return. Most people work mainly until they either get injured or until they reach a retirement age where they can retire with lots of money and compared with their working years and enjoy themselves as retiring.

Yeah. No, totally, totally. So how did you approach sort of writing the habits and instincts of a detective then who's left that profession? But you can, but you'd never really, obviously he'd never stop thinking like a police officer, right? And then he'd get into the mind of that and start writing it like that because obviously I have a close friend who, at least for a while, was was a sergeant of detectives for his police department. He's now the assistant chief. And so I pick his mind every now and then.

So that's good. Well, at least you had a source then. You could actually find out from no brilliant. Okay. So let's talk about Mary Beth Austin and about her. You've already mentioned, of course, that she's a jack bany age of 39. And what they meet up at a rest stop of the cycling ride, I guess, right? You know, bicycles, especially the road bikes and the racing bikes, have very narrow, hard to sit on seats. And he's hurting by the time he has to rest up one. His rope hurts. And so he stops just to get off the bicycle.

And he also needs to go into the porta potty. Well she's in line in front of him in the porta potty. And she's crumpling because she's on what she calls peepells for her high blood pressure. And she stands around and he says, "Well, you go ahead of me." And so they meet. And so they each get on their bikes and get going and a power mile down the road. There she is on the side with a flat. She's struggling to fix it because the wrench she has doesn't work and so he stops. Fortunately, his son is put a better side of the wrench is in the toolkit and between the two from the get on the road and ride side by side from there on.

So that's actually quite a nice way to meet, isn't it? So that's good. I suppose really one of the main things about this is that she's quite complicated anyway, isn't she? And she's got a bit of a painful history, probably more than Richard. He just thinks she's some sort of happy, go lucky person, right? Well, yes. I mean, he recognized she's older than 39, but she's almost beautiful enough to look 39. So he's attracted, after all, he is a wetterer. And there's always a chance of something to snap in there sitting on fire.

And so, and she's got a complicated one. She was sort of a, she says, says to Richard, your counterparts in law enforcement had a lot of business out of me when I was a teenager. They were always arresting me or sending or escorting me home to my parents. And it turns out her boyfriend at the time married her in this during the Vietnam era and he got shipped out, eventually came back with the Ed Wound, who was never the same after that. So she divorced him, got a job as a cook, turned into a chef, and finally married the owner of a restaurant she was being a chef for.

And so, and he eventually died, but at least they had some children and she has grandchildren in the whole works. Nice. Okay. So between these two then, obviously older. I mean, did you really try to sort of challenge the idea that most books have that romance and adventure belongs to mainly younger characters rather than older people? Not on purpose, but I guess being an older person who, well, actually, I've got a wife the same age as I am. And we're deeply in love and we don't need to be in love.

So, I go on that basis. Well, yeah, exactly right. I applaud that. That's very true. It doesn't matter what age you are, does it? You know, you can still love. So, okay. So we've set up that side of things for the book now. Now, the other side of the book where it kind of moves on after this is quite, you know, when I read about it, I was like, wow, this is amazing. I mean, you mentioned Vietnam earlier, but what's going on with this other pilot and where it all goes from that? It, please tell us.

Well, it turns out that that Mary Beth's husband is still alive and confined to a military hospital because of his head wound and his paranoia that goes with that. Now, I happen to have met at least met several Vietnam veterans. At least one of them was very seriously paranoid. And I can, he wasn't the type they would have gone along shooting up bicycle rides, but I, something made something more serious, could have tricked him, I guess. And, but at this point, his main problem is he had been a tonal rat.

And he just never recovered from that. Well, no, I can imagine that that's, that's something. So I cook up a villain, actually a group of villains that are suffering from paranoia over the Vietnam War. And as a resort, so I'll do some rather extreme things that make the book exciting. Well, no, okay, exactly. So, you know, they're sort of the way that they, they're together, aren't they? And they're, they kind of deal with the world through the memories of combat. And I think, you know, there's a lot of suspense here, but we have to say something about how, they see the cyclists, don't they?

Well, okay, they, they are not sure what year it is. They think they're back in the 60s. They're not sure what country it is. They think they're back in Asia in Vietnam. And they're only hope is that if they can walk far enough southeast, they'll eventually find friendly troops. Because they have escaped from, they think they've escaped from Vietnam hands and they're on their own. And so when they see 13,000 bikers that go on the road, what do they think? Ah ha, that's the whole Chi Minh Trail. Yeah, well, they would, wouldn't they?

I mean, yeah, exactly. Wow, it's an amazing way to think of things that, you know, that you've come up with that. So, you know, how did you approach those characters then without reducing them to just simple villains? I mean, you know, they would just go and shoot people or something. I guess you, you involve more of their own psyche and their own, you know, problems individually. That's what they're not real. They're not really just ordinary people anymore because they now have their psyche, their psychological problems, their head wounds, things like that.

And they genuinely think they are fighting for the good old USA over in Vietnam. And they don't know their villains. They just think they're patriots doing their job. Absolutely. How is the book move on then from Mary Beth and Richard meeting to basically the guys see all the cyclists and thinking that it's the whole Chi Minh Trail? What happens next? Well, the, the, the appointment for this platoon runs across all these bicyclists. And of course, the conclusion they have is we have to, we have to get payback for our friends that are getting out in the rice patties.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. I won't tell any more about that except that Richard is in a dish covering Mary Beth to keep her safe. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, and Richard, I believe he ends up in hospital, right? Well, after then later as they're just finishing bang, a big bomb goes off. And Richard does end up in the hospital and Mary Beth ends up missing. Richard decides these can use his experience as a detective to chase her down and he does. It's the kind of story that you would never think of.

But I think that I like the way that you've mentioned a few other things that, how the weapons come across, which makes it really sort of, I think come alive, but also make you think, I think this is the point, isn't it? And think about this could possibly conceivably happen, not just at a cycle race or whatever or a cycle ride. It could be anywhere in any kind of situation at the moment. Well, they know that in Boston, but for a different reason. Yeah. Well, totally. And it doesn't matter about people's political views anymore, does it?

Because it can be any political view. In fact, today, I think a person is in danger of being either criticized or attacked physically just because their views are different from somebody else's. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's come down a lot, isn't it? That threshold, that barrier. But what did you actually want then? Because obviously we're going to think about what our readers, what your readers are looking at. What did you want them to feel, the moment that the story turns from the endurance ride and the sort of kind of love story, that kind of thing, into a rescue mission?

What did you want them to feel? I wanted them to feel the risk and the danger. After all, Richard has found the woman he loves. He doesn't want to give her up, and he especially doesn't want her to hurt. So he has to find a way to find her and rescue her. And in turn, there is a chance that you can get injured during the rescue and marry Beth at one point does her best to keep him from getting shot. Did you actually start out with the idea of it being a thriller and a mystery kind of thing? And then I thought, "Hmm, actually, I'll put some romance in there and some family story and an adventure centered on older characters."

Did it just come along as you were writing it? What did you start out with, the fact that you wanted to write an adventure with older characters maybe? Well, I started out with the bike ride and the romance part. Of course, in the back of my mind, I knew I had to have some excitement. So I had, we'll call them the lost platoon, any of the background, ready to go into action. I love that, I love that, the lost platoon. And then you kind of just wove it into the story, right? Authors, one reviewer has described the book as keeping readers on the edge of their bicycle saddles.

I love that as well. Not just on the edge of their seats, right? My opinion as a writer is that it's hard to write a good story, at least fictional story, that doesn't have a romantic interest and some danger and things like that. Exactly. And you've been able to describe all of those things quite well, apparently. According to another, well, you know, your technical background helps you, doesn't it? To describe, you know, those complex things. Yes, well, in fact, the cover for the book is one that I made up.

I couldn't get anybody to do what I wanted for a cover. So I just happened to have a picture that I'd taken of my two children, coming through to cross the line on the race they were in together. It's not raised to the right. And so I then took a graphics package on my computer and I made up this red and yellow explosion symbol sort of thing and put it in front of the bicycle tires. And one of my friends who himself as an engineer looked at the cover and read the book and says, "She, I've never seen anybody describe an explosion so perfectly."

It shows you, doesn't it? Yeah. I can imagine. I haven't read that particular part, but now I'm going to because I wanted to see how technical you've done that. I bet it's brilliant. All right. But we're actually running out of time, man. I'm intrigued with Richard. You know, at the end of the day, as a, as an ex-police person, as we've said, or a sergeant or detective, his courage that he goes out to try and fight Mary Beth is, you know, obviously great. But it doesn't mean that these people are never frightened, does it?

And I mean, this is the whole point. They are still frightened when they do all this stuff, but they just still do it, don't they? Is that something you got from your friend, for me, you know, from your source? Well, no, it's sort of the thing I expect from my characters in general. This is the first book in a whole series about these two people. And Richard Tracey is a former marine officer. So he is very familiar with explosions and danger. But he is also seriously in love. And he wants a projector.

And you know, too many of our young people these days equate love and sex. And they're not the same. And in fact, in my opinion, is wonderful as sex can be, and it's exciting. Love is actually stronger. And a love bond can encourage you to be adventurous on and courageous, where otherwise you might not be. Well, that's true, isn't it? I think, yeah, you're right. There are two different things. And I think as we get older, I say. Not the best for your lover, but in order to do that, you may have a route after us, something maybe embarrassment or a bomb or bullets.

So I need to know how much of Reynolds can be refined in Richard Tracey. Is he based on your Reynolds? To some extent, for example, my wife and I moved down to New Mexico about the turn of the 20s of the 21st century year. And we bought an acre land in a nice house. And like Richard, we're both carters. And I keep bees. And we like to hike and camp and things like that. So yeah, there was an awful lot of me and my wife in this. Which is lovely. I'm a little muslim. I'd like to see that with my wife.

That'd be great. Okay. This is book one of a series. And my tagline there is, who would think that I'd retire in shape and retire to take it when you get in trouble? Oh, I think so. Oh my gosh. Well, this is it. So a dangerous bike ride introduces Richard Tracey, as you said, and begins a larger series. Now the later books, these are published already, right? But the last question on this and did you always know that Richard would return for future books? Of course, I've planted that way. Of course.

I've sort of set up the concept of most of the later books before I even started this book. Okay. So you organized, right? This is it. So I guess the later books continue the same mixture of mystery, danger, humor, romance. And in fact, in fact, the later books in book one, Richard is saving Mary Beth in book two. Mary Beth more or less has to save Richard and so on down the line. Okay. That's incredible. Considering they're getting older, unless of course you're doing it in flashback. I haven't.

No, she's only 39. Oh, yeah, forget it. Yeah, that's right. Now you mention it. Yes, absolutely. Okay. Brilliant. So my final question then really is, what do you hope that younger readers take away from the relationship between Richard and his adult children? Forget about his own little thing with Mary Beth, but what about his relationship with his children? Well, we go back to this. Love is not the same as sex. And we've got to get this younger generation thinking in terms of, do I love this person or I just want to get in bed with him?

And if you want to get in bed with him, that may be a lot of fun. But if you really, really love somebody, living with him and making sure they get the best you can do for is a lot more fun. That's fair enough. Yep. So if readers could remember just one truth then from a dangerous bike ride after finishing the book and putting it down again, what would you want that truth to be that they'd remember? Well, primarily that what you need to do is to be able to get your strength from a God such as Jesus, a God who loves you, a God who supports you and you get going from there.

And there you are. Excellent. Okay. So where can people learn more about you and follow your work? Are you online? Do you have a website? Yes, I have a website. I noticed my shame. I tried to Google my website the other day under Reynold Conger and you'd be surprised how many different websites have Conger or Red of the name. Other. Oh, excellent. But the book is being published by Ingram Sparks and I'm sure that they'll also put it on to Amazon as well. Well, that's great. Well, Reynolds Conquer.

Thank you very much for joining us. And joining me, I've been really just make sure you wear a bulk profile duck when you read the book. Yeah. Yeah. Good point, actually. Well, thank you for joining us as a say and taking us behind the story of a dangerous bike ride. It's been a real pleasure speaking with you. And thank you to everyone listening and watching Author conversations.

A dangerous bike ride is the first book in the Richard Tracy series. Look through your preferred book retailer. That could be Amazon. It could be anywhere online. And you can also visit Reynold Conger's website to learn more about the author and his other books, which I believe actually is Reynold Conger.com. But you can have a look at that. Until next time then, hopefully we'll speak again Reynolds when the next book has come out. Until then, keep reading, keep writing. I'm discovering the stories.

Brilliant. It's been lovely to meet you, Reynold. Have a great rest of the day and thanks very much for joining us. Well, thank you for inviting me. No problem until thanks. Bye-bye. Goodbye. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can watch more author conversations here. [MUSIC]