The discipline and dedication to martial arts instilled a deep appreciation of the challenges one faces, and the capability to overcome all adversity.
As a business person, Peter Thomas Pontsa wrote techno-clinical articles for dental journals and as sports car enthusiast he told racing stories for newsletters. Now retired from business, Peter found mental engagement through writing crime novels.
Lyndi: How would you describe your process as you shifted from writing articles and stories for newsletters to writing a novel?
Peter: The articles I wrote for dental journals was a way of educating my fellow practitioners. The articles follow a format of research, backed by references. Rather dry and restrictive. Upon my retirement I had an inner urge to write a novel. The local library had a writers’ workshop which I attended. Later, I took an advanced fiction writing course at the University of Waterloo.
Lyndi: Why write a crime story?
Peter: Most of the books I ever read had an element of crime, mystery and thriller to them. This most certainly was a bias toward the genre in which I decided to engage.
Lyndi: How did Inspector William Fox become the main character in Outfoxed?
Peter: On a weeklong vacation to Pelee Island in Lake Erie, I visited a museum dedicated to the history of the island. During the roaring twenties, booze ran from Canada to the United States. There was a story of a rumrunner, and his speed boat called the Midnight Fox. It was split in two by a US Coast Guard cutter when they set a trap to stop it. My imagination took over, and I thought it could have been William Fox’s grandfather. And from there I developed William Fox, a younger and more vibrant man in modern times.
Lyndi: How did your interest in martial arts play out in Outfoxed?
Peter: As a practising martial artist, I felt my experiences could be transferred to my protagonist. As a young man, William Fox learned taekwondo in the academy in Seoul Korea. There are a few fight scenes where he must use his skills to save himself and his charges. Equally, my years with Jagged Edge Motorsports, were exciting and thrilling. I incorporated a car chase in my novel where William Fox, although a motorcycle rider, adapts his skills in a souped-up rally car to chase the Triad Gang members. I think both these personal experiences add an element of realism to the story.
Lyndi: Your setting is historical rather than contemporary. Why this time period and how did you go about researching it?
Peter: Actually, it’s both. The story element has to do with Admiral Zheng He, with orders from emperor Zhu Di, to proceed in the year 1421 with a fleet of treasure ships to sail around the world. A lot of research came from Gavin Menzies, who authored The Year China Discovered The World. I also researched on the Internet through archives and libraries to get the background of the admiral and his journey. That was interesting and from there it was fun to extrapolate the ‘what if’ idea that Zheng He had left treasure behind in North America. Tracy Jordon gets kidnapped searching for the lost treasure and William Fox, her childhood sweetheart, is tasked with saving her from the Triad.
Lyndi: What made you decide to go with a hybrid publisher and what was that experience like for you?
Peter: I had the resources to get my book published immediately. The experience was a learning curve. The editing was good and services rendered were adequate. During my writing journey I discovered, while speaking with other indie authors, that self-publishing has more freedom. So, my wife and I have established our own publishing company called Iconic Scribes Press Inc.
Lyndi: What is next for Inspector William Fox?
Peter: Inspector William Fox is already on his next adventure. I am pleased to say that the next novel in the series is near completion. The working title is Silicon Fox and takes place in Canada, China and South Korea.
Lyndi: What practices do you have for maintaining a balance between your writing life and your life outside of writing and how do they help with your writing practice?
Peter: My priority is to avoid deadlines which is one of the major factors I chose not to go with traditional publishers. Winter in Canada is rather cold, so most of my writing is done during November to March, with three weeks of writing vacation in a hot tropical location. During the spring and summer, the gardens are the priority, and our convertible comes out for drives. Social events and appointments are slotted in between as our calendar dictates with the occasional writing session when it rains. Somehow, in all that chaos a novel will appear.
Lyndi: How has being a part of writing communities helped you grow as an author?
Peter: It has been immeasurable. The more time I spend with authors the more I learn about the ins and outs of their journeys as well as their experiences. There really isn’t anything like it.
Lyndi: What have you found to be effective methods of marketing your books?
Peter: I am on social media and I also have a publicist. With our new publishing company, we plan to do advertising. But I find author events and book signings to be a good place to meet your readers and sell some books.
During the years Peter Thomas Pontsa operated his dental supply business, he shared his knowledge writing dental articles which appeared in many dental journals. He was president of the College of Dental Technologists of Ontario, where he helped develop the quality assurance program and was an associate publisher for a denturist magazine. He is an avid British sports car enthusiast and while president of the Headwaters British Car Club, wrote numerous stories about cars in the club’s newsletter, “British Driven.” Peter spent two seasons racing with Jagged Edgers Motorsports and is a student of Taekwondo and holds a second degree blackbelt. He belongs to the Wordsmiths and is a member of the Crime Writers of Canada. Peter
Pontsa lives in Loretto, Ontario, with his wife, Angela, and their orange tabby, Mr. Tee, where he combines his passions—British cars and writing. https://peterthomaspontsa.com
Sometimes Inspector William Fox likes to go off script, like when chasing gangsters in his cigarette boat on the St. Lawrence River. For one case, the RCMP officer with a penchant for luxury fashion finds himself teamed up with FBI Special Agent Patrick Reilly, an Irish lad who prefers absinthe to Guinness. The pair travel overseas to track down members of a gang who have kidnapped Tracy Jordan, an American academic and archeologist with teenage ties to William. In China, Tracy has been stealthily searching for evidence of Admiral Zheng He’s 15th-century connections to the area that would later be known as Nova Scotia. It’s here that Tracy and her team discover what might be Ming dynasty artifacts transported by Zheng He’s “massive treasure ships” left behind on Mi’kmaq peoples’ ancestral land.
Outfoxed — a William Fox Adventure is a slick, globe-trotting adventure that involves the RCMP and FBI chasing the Foo Dog Triad operating in Hong Kong, mainland China, and New York City. Like Tracy and Kevin Steptoe, a Mi’kmaq lawyer, the gangsters are after the ancient Chinese treasures. Outfoxed is also a political thriller, diving deeply into the power struggles of the Communist Party of China and its shadowy operatives. It wades into the Fox family’s political past in South Korea, where a tragedy took place that still haunts William years later.
Outfoxed: An Inspector William Fox Adventure - Kindle edition by Pontsa, Peter Thomas . Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Outfoxed: An Inspector William Fox Adventure eBook : Pontsa, Peter Thomas : Amazon.ca: Books
