Something happens to Michael when he is a child living in London, England. The incident is so terrifying and traumatic that he blocks it from conscious memory. All that remains of it is a recurring nightmare full of frightening, fragmented images that make no sense to him.

His American father Vaughn, an international airline pilot, moves the family to Southern California, far away from the scene of the tragedy. The move works, for a time, and Michael’s nightmare disappears until it is all but forgotten.

But, unbeknownst to Michael, the nightmare, buried deep in his subconscious, contains within it the seeds of his own destruction. When the time and circumstances are right it will emerge and compel him to destroy everything he cares about.

Tell us more.
The story goes back and forth between past and present so that we get to know Michael as a child and as an adult. We see Michael the adult as he struggles against the dictates of a subconscious compulsion to ruin his life and we follow the adventures of Michael as a child as he encounters first love, battles the school bully and finally, we discover the source of his terrifying nightmare. To tell you any more would be to give too much of the story away – – so I’ll leave it at that.

But you can tell us what genre this is, right?
It’s hard to pick an exact genre because of the nature of the story. I would have to put it in the General Fiction category but it contains elements of the paranormal and is also something of a mystery.

That’s an interesting mix.
I’m hoping that, like my first novel, it will appeal to broad audience and cross age and genre boundaries. However, I think if you’re a Nicholas Sparks fan you’ll probably enjoy it. He’s been known to add a touch of the paranormal to some of his stories.

That’s true.
Tell us about Micheal.
Micheal Easton is a tortured soul. He’s basically a good guy, a very talented musician and extremely likeable. He’s been brought up by his parents to have a good sense of what is right and wrong and to operate with a high degree of integrity. Which is why he, and we the readers, are constantly dismayed and disappointed when he goes astray and acts against his best instincts and nature.

He’s a very sympathetic character.
As I did with my first novel, I drew on my experiences as a young musician to create a protagonist the reader can root for. Despite his flaws and sometimes errant ways, we really want things to turn out right for him in the end.

First novel?
Yes. “Pretty Flamingo“.

What’s it about?
“Do you think it’s possible that people have lived before?”

That question will take David Perry on an emotional journey to a part of his past he never knew existed — a past that’s been hidden from him for thirty-five years. As the lost memories unfold David discovers a love so powerful it transcended the purely physical; a loss so devastating that it changed his whole life. And a promise that, if he can keep it, will return to him all that he cared most about in the whole world.

You mentioned that you have a musical background.
I’m a musician who turned to writing a novels a few years ago. I was born in England, emigrated to Australia as a child, toured the Far East as a teenager and eventually settled in Hong Kong where I lived for 12 years. I released three English-language pop-rock albums while I was there and enjoyed a good deal of success as a singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer. I moved to Southern California in 1983 and lived there until 2012 when I returned to Hong Kong for a reunion tour with a couple of colleagues of mine from “back in the day”. I reconnected with someone from my past, Hong Kong born singer/actress Rowena Cortes and quite magically and unexpectedly we fell hopelessly in love. We were married in 2013 and I have continued to live and work in Hong Kong as a musician and author.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
Yes. www.perrymartin.com On it you will find a full Bio, samples of my music, my latest CD and, of course, my novels.

My Twitter handle is @8_8008 and my FB author page is https://www.facebook.com/pages/Perry-Martin/174134199340396.

What’s next?
I have started work on my third novel, “The Man In The White Suit“. It concerns a senior citizen, Carl Becker – – an old and bitter widower who is given a unique opportunity by a mysterious man in a white suit. He can re-experience any three twenty-four hour periods of his life – – even changing the course of events if he so desires – – but after the last twenty-four period his soul belongs to the mysterious man. Who is the man in the white suit? Will Carl dare to take him up on his offer? If he does, what will he do with his three chances?

How easily do new storylines come to you? If we give you four random words – Man, Woman, Mexico, Future – can you give us a brief storyline?
In the distant future Mexico has become the richest nation on earth, due to the unexpected discovery of vast reserves of oil – – surpassing even those of the oil-rich Arab nations. World politics have been literally turned upside down by this unexpected twist of fate. The greedy, power-mad dictator of the new Mexico has decreed that all those citizens who had previously left their home for a better life in America are to considered “traitors to their homeland”. The border between the two countries is locked down tighter than the Berlin wall ever was. At the same time, the cruel dictator of the new Mexico has declared that all relatives of these “traitors”, whenever discovered by his secret police, are to be either executed or sent to concentration camps. One man and one woman, Juan and Maria, risk their lives to sneak across the border in an attempt to rescue their families and bring them to safety in America. However, once in Mexico they encounter a group of rebels with a much larger purpose than the rescue of individual family members – – they intend to bring the whole corrupt government down. Before they know it, Juan and Maria find themselves in the middle of a bloody revolution, fighting for their lives and the lives of their families.