Mexican Gold: An Adventure with a Touch of Humor
Jim Foreman, author of the free book How to Write and Sell Humor, has co-authored with Ken Hugus Mexican Gold, the Treasure at Santa Ysabel. Jim isn’t about to give this one away.
Mexican Gold is an exciting romp through Baja California, Mexico; and Southern California, USA. The old map and search for buried treasure theme has been done before, but never with more skill. It’s not meant to be a funny book, just a fun book to read. But it does have a few old very apropos jokes blended into the tale with no attempt to take credit for their originality. (I won’t spoil them…you’ll have to find them.)
It’s okay to recycle old jokes just like we do old stories. Note how well the authors have worked them into this story.
The novel shows that humor writers don’t’ have to be funny all the time. They have the talent to spice up a good story with snappy dialog, colorful settings, interesting characters and plenty of conflict. So maybe you won’t laugh out loud a lot, but you’ll read Mexican Gold with a smile on your face.
The novel presents historical and technical information about mining and refining gold and does so without being pedantic. It’s all interesting meaty stuff meted out in small, palatable bites that always move the plot forward.
The antagonist in the story is Guillermo Perez, also known as Montezuma’s Revenge. Now that’s a happy choice of a name for you: Montezuma’s Revenge is a metaphor for the Gringo Tango and the Aztec Two-Step. But this Montezuma sparks the movement of drugs, not bowels.
The protagonists–aerospace attorney, Brad Carson and his college professor pal, Jack Hamby–are Montezuma’s kaopectate.
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Filed under: Insights & Opinions, Writing Technique