A Youth Soccer Team and “The Berkut!”

The past few weeks I have had several readers of “Hunted” tell me they were reading the book a second time!  Awesome!  Happy that they enjoyed it that much. But it also got me thinking.  About one of my favorite books (that I have read multiple times) and the first youth soccer team I coached.  Huh?  Yep, they are all totally linked.

In the late 80’s (yes, that is 1980’s!) I was involved a bit in the forming of a new youth soccer club in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  TKO Soccer Club.  I was just off from playing and coaching professional indoor soccer.  Going from that environment in the pros to coaching thirteen-year-old boys was quite an adjustment!  Coaching soccer?  Developing skills?  No problem there with my background as a player and coach.  But I sure had a lot to learn about coaching kids!  However, the soccer part of coaching these boys for a few years is not the point of this post.  Suffice to say that I learned to work with youth players, the boys learned, developed into excellent players and it was an awesome experience all around. . 

TKO Boys, 1972 Birth Year – Team Photo at age U17

The book?  Oh yeah, after a game or tournament championship with this team (1972 Birth Year TKO Soccer Club) I was joking with a parent about writing a book on soccer.  They said, “You should talk to Joe.  He wrote a book, and it is on the NY Times Bestseller List.”  I thought it was a joke at first.  “Joe?  Troy’s dad?”   So, I walked down the sideline and chatted with Joe.  No shit!  He had not written just any book; he had written a fantastic read that years later has likely helped inspire my own venture into writing. 

Are you a reader that has read a favorite book more than once?  I am – quite a few, actually.  But “The Berkut,” by Joseph Heywood may be my all time favorite!  If you haven’t read “Hunted” yet, go read it.  Then go read “The Berkut.”  Seriously, I highly recommend it.  I have corresponded with Joe a few times over the years.  Usually, sending him a copy of the book to sign for me to give someone as a gift.  He has been a very prolific and successful author with over twenty books published. 

My “well worn” copy of Berkut

After just being reminded of reading books more than once, I contacted him again.  For a bit of a “quasi-interview” to get some backstory on the book, his writing process and his writing journey.  A few takeaways from a back n forth that I found very interesting and wanted to share on this post:

How did you write Berkut?  No real PC’s back in the late 80’s?  Joe: “Then-as now-I wrote and write all first drafts by hand. (Like Thomas Wolfe, I like to “feel the words flow through my wrist.”)”

How much research for this book?   How long did it take to write, get published and on the market?   Joe: “Took me four full years of research to decide if history held enough gaps that I could write in, and if my thesis could be supported adequately. Once I determined it could be done, it took a full year of writing to get the first draft. My agent, Betsy Nolan sold it to Random House rather quickly after that.”

Did you plot it out?  Plan it … Or just fly by the seat of your pants?  Joe: “No outlines for any of my short stories or novels.  The plot is diff than structure. I have neither when I start. What I begin with is a main or interesting character, and either some sort of compelling moment to launch the narrative — or an ending in mind. And at least one character, who I bring to life and then listen to, and follow them, and that becomes the so-called plot. It’s easier to write to a predetermined destination, than to begin with no course or endpoint in mind.” 

“Berkut” became a NY Times best seller … Did it change your life?  Keep working at Upjohn?  I kept working and writing and retired as VP for Worldwide PR with thirty years of service. That was a quarter century ago: The book didn’t really change my life that much except to occasionally run across a foreign language translation somewhere in my foreign travels. The book was published in 17 or 18 languages in addition to English.

Favorite book as a kid?  Any recent reads or authors you like?  Joe: “I grew up in a USAF family and lived around the world. No censorship in our home. If you technically could read something, we were free to do so and did. I read all the junk kids read then.  Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and many classics like Treasure Island, Men Against The Sea, David Copperfield, etc. As an adult, my favorite author has been the late John Le Carre, who wrote the thickest, densest sweetest narratives and interesting characters. I have read and admire all of Virginia Woolf’s varied works, a GREAT writer in all respects, and all of Graham Greene’s stories.”

Schedule and projects now?  Joe: “Now, at 81, still plugging away, 6-8 hours daily, seven days a week, with 25 published titles, two new short story collections in my agent’s hands, and me scribbling to a finish a new World War II novel I’ve been at for ten years.”   

Here is the link to “The Berkut” on Amazon:  https://a.co/d/fHKsbtp

The book is one of a few that I loved so much I not only couldn’t put it down, I picked it up again!  Historical fiction, action, thriller.  The premise is great and this book has it all.  I encourage you to check it out!   Read on!