Authors’ Lounge: What is the book about?

Kent: Brewmaster of Arabia is a book is about two fans of the TV show Star Trek, Glen, and Doris. Not just two fans, but over the top nerd fans of the show that become husband and wife. When he was young, Glen took magic mushrooms and experienced an awe-inspiring hallucination where he was involved in a Star Trek episode. He became an amateur expert at cultivating magic mushrooms, and yeasts. He developed a special strain of yeast to produce a unique bread, and this turned into a business and income producing venture.

A competitor in the baking industry needed help in producing enough baked goods to feed a Festival and asked Glen for help plus brewer’s yeast to make beer to sell at the festival. Glen agrees and experiments with the brewer’s yeast and strains of magic mushrooms and unbeknownst to him, he develops a strain of brewer’s yeast that also produces the psychotropic compounds from magic mushrooms.  The festival goes off the rails a few hours after men consume the psychedelic brew, bringing the police into the festival.

The festival also tips off a secret US agency about a method for the targeted application of hallucinogenic compounds. The secret agency hires both Glen and Doris to research the production of psychotropic compounds to use for the purpose of starting revolutions. Glen and Doris locate to a secret space station where clandestine research is performed. This is a dream come true for the couple to live and work in space with other likeminded people. Mishaps on the space station happen and they are sent back to earth to help foster revolution.

Back on earth, Glen and Doris help people overthrow of dictatorships.

Authors’ Lounge: What inspired you to write this book?

Kent:  I’ve always been a news and current events junkie. Back when I thought about the story of this book (which is over 13 years ago), I decided to write in many current events that were happening in and around the same era. I used Glen and Doris as a springboard to move into the deeper actions in the book. I made Glen a racist so I can turn him around before the end. We have use of magic mushrooms because Moammar Gadhafi stated that Al Qaeda provided psychedelics to kids so they would overthrow his country. There was a revolution in Chiapas, Mexico in 1994: I pulled the leader of that revolution out to help Glen and Doris and interspersed the story with actual events. The story is serious, but it has many laugh out loud instances. The inspiration was to write a book that was fun to read, but also told a tale.

Authors’ Lounge: What or Who is my target audience:

Kent: The book is a combination of contemporary literature, historical fiction and a comedy. My target audience is everyone over the age of 18. Sometimes, as readers, we tend to read only specific genres, but it doesn’t mean a person wouldn’t enjoy something out of the genre, does it? One of my beta readers came right out and told me this wasn’t the usual genre she read, but she was so glad she did read it. The book is fun, comedic, and tells history in my fictionalized way.

Authors’ Lounge: What do you hope readers get out of your book:

Kent: The use of magic mushrooms is not mainstream behavior anywhere I know of, but it is not to say that historically the use of psychedelic substances hasn’t been contemplated or has been accidentally used to create a revolution of sorts. A deeper look at the book, beyond Star Trek, displays that secret agencies and 007 type agents are out there, just like most of us think and have their hands in all kinds of interesting stuff. It also reveals that racism on its face, is a matter of perspective.

Authors’ Lounge: Future goals for the book:

Kent: I’m pressing the introduction of this book hard. I’ve self-published two other books and didn’t really take the time to market like I should, and I want this to be different. I’d like to see a lot of good reviews and know that I made some people smile. I’m going to keep marketing of this book into the summer.

Authors’ Lounge: About the Author, Kent L Johnson (www.KentLJohnson.com)

Kent: I’ve always had a vivid imagination and the ability to create stories on the fly, tell jokes in a bar for over an hour without ever telling the same joke twice, plus use my knowledge of current events and biology to encourage folks to dig deeper for the meaning of truth.

I credit a good friend for letting me in on the secret that not everyone can create a story on the fly, as a matter of fact, few people have that ability. That got me started writing terrible prose. I joined a writing group and learned a lot about story structure, POV, displaying actions, etc. I wrote a lot of short stories and had some published in my time with the group. I give credit for those folks willing to help a new writer and my newfound ability to write good prose that is memorable. 

My future goals are to keep writing and create more stories and books and have fun. I will say, I’ve done a lot in my lifetime so far and those experiences help flesh out a story in a realistic manner no matter how bizarre the story sounds.