Names

Even I have wondered where some names come from when writing a novel. For instance, in the first chapter Matt and Janell go to dinner in the North End of Boston to celebrate his admittance to medical school. They go to their favorite Italian restaurant The Blue Parrot. What kind of name is that for an Italian restaurant? Actually, when I attended the University of Colorado in Boulder many years ago there were two Italian restaurants east of town in the boonies in a little farming community named Louisville. My buddies and I used to speed out there periodically to have a few beers and gobble down some Italian at either Colacios (sp?) or the Blue Parrot.  The spelling of Colacios still  doesn’t look right to me so I used the Blue Parrot name instead. Both spots were wonderful. Both are gone now. And Louisville? It’s covered with malls, big box stores and is the epitome of sprawl as a bedroom community for Boulder.

Here's The Story

Here’s the story.

We’ve all been here before – learning to grow up. But maybe in your case and mine a bike wasn’t the prime mover.

Well, in the novel Traveler, when the teenager at the center of the story runs away from home on a a 1980 Schwinn Traveler, it’s the fun and action on this special bike that teach him again and again what it takes to grow up.

He learns the ups and downs of love in Virginia. He is comforted by how he reacts when there is a horrible sky diving crash in Georgia. Toward the end of the book he is caught in the cross-fire of some drug runners in Texas. They stole his beloved Schwinn Traveler in a clever scheme to use the bike to smuggle drugs into the U.S.A.

Author David Cheever says the book was inspired by a classic 1980 Schwinn (it is a Traveler model Schwinn thus the book’s title) that was donated by a doctor when Cheever worked in a small non-profit used bike store. The doc told Cheever, ”I bought this Traveler new in 1980 when I entered medical school in Boston. It took me faithfully to class for four years and then for three more years of residency. That’s why I’ve kept the bike for over 30 years. I’m donating it reluctantly.”

            Cheever was born and raised on the east coast and has been in the advertising business in Hawaii for many years. During that time his wife Cindy has tolerated him riding his bike solo at various times in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Georgia, and Texas.

            Cheever has written seven non-fiction books. This is his first novel.