Focus on TUSD - November 2007

Bedtime Story Basis for Book
Voelkels Write Adventure Tale Set in Mayan Culture
Jon and Pamela Voelkel didn't intend to be authors. They were just parents making up a bedtime story to their son.

Now that tale, with many more added details, has morphed into a book that debuted at the New York City Barnes and Noble Booksellers. The Voelkels have been touring the East Coast promoting the book.

As a side trip, they stopped in at Wakefield Middle School to read their book and visit Jon's younger brother, Alan, who teaches at the school.

The couple said they decided to write the book after Jon realized he couldn't face writing the book he'd researched for a business school marketing class he planned to teach. "I didn't have the stomach to do it," he remembered "I said that the book I'd much rather write is the bedtime story I'd made up for Harry (the couple's son)."

The Voelkels chose the Mayan culture and a Central American jungle as the backdrop, drawing on Jon's experience growing up in a similar setting. Boston is the home base of the book's main character, Max Murphy, because Mayan research is being done at Harvard, a natural tie-in for Murphy's parents' jobs. They chose the name "Max" after thumbing through a book of baby names. "We also had a friend named Max and we realized we'd never met a Max we didn't like," Pamela said.

They took their own children to Central America, watching their reactions as they trekked through jungles, visited the pyramids and walked across long bridges suspended over the rainforests.

The couple wrote like a relay, taking turns churning out pages and reading it. "We live with the characters while we write," Pamela said. "We surprise each other, so we figure our readers will be surprised, too."

After four years, their book was done. They took the draft to a publisher friend of theirs, where it sat on a table until the publisher's son picked it up, read it and urged his father to publish it.

The Voelkels hoped that other children would be intrigued, too. But even they were surprised when Max Murphy's adventures ended up in Barnes and Noble's corner window at Broadway and 66th Street, during October, along with a king costume.

The book costs $17.95 and is available at Barnes and Noble, Borders and Amazon.com and can be checked out of the library

The book may be made into a movie some day. The Voelkels have had inquiries from productions companies already.

The second book in the trilogy, set in Spain, will be out in about a year. The final book, which takes Max Murphy back to the jungles, will follow.

"The best way to learn to read is to read," Jon said. "I hope there will be a critical mass reading it."

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations

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Photos in the November issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations, unless otherwise noted.

The deadline to submit material for the December Focus is Friday, Nov. 7. The Focus will be published Monday, Nov. 17. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the online Tip Sheet.