This website is dedicated to presenting the works of author Robert Louis DeMayo.

In 1988 Robert began submitting travel articles for The Telegraph, out of Hudson, N.H., but even before that he filled his days writing about the incredible things he’d encountered while traveling. Since he first hit the road when he was 21, writing was not just a way of documenting a place, but understanding it. During one fifteen year period he traveled through close to one hundred countries and while on the road filled thirty journals. Later in life he continued this passion for travel with his wife, and then daughters. He loves story telling and over the last twenty five years has written six novels, a novella and a collection of poetry, numerous screenplays and hundreds of articles. The novels are shown below, and each has a link to a separate page with more information.

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THE SIRENS OF OAK CREEK

Historical Mystery, 454 pages – available in print and as an eBook.

A hidden, sacred canyon. Eight women. Twelve centuries. And a mystical song that connects it all. This is the layout of Robert DeMayo’s new novel, “The Sirens of Oak Creek”, a gripping tale that intertwines local myths with historical facts and the author’s vibrant imagination. The story is also about the different people who passed through Arizona’s magical Oak Creek Canyon over the centuries: Ancient hunter-gatherers, Mayan visitors, Spanish conquistadors, early American settlers and modern-day seekers of bliss. They all will have to face their truth in this remote high-desert canyon. “The Sirens of Oak Creek” is a meditation on the power of immaterial realms, and of nature itself, as perceived through the eyes of these women.

Cover design: Andrew Holman. Interior illustrators: Tom Fish, Sharolyn Maleport and Jan Marc Quisumbing.

Note: Winner of Silver Medal for Literary Fiction by the eLit Book Awards.

Note: Winner of Pinnacle Book Award for best new Historical Fiction.

Note: Winner of Book Excellence Award: Finalist, Female Empowerment.

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THE ROAD TO SEDONA

Travel Fiction, 326 pages – available in print or eBook.

We resist change, even when it’s exactly what we need. Most of us prefer to wallow in our losses before letting our hearts drift into the future. And even when that change is thrust upon us, we suffer through it, only reluctantly traveling that new road. This is the story of a young family who set out to discover a new home in America. Jobless in the wake of 9/11, they cross North America six times in their quest, peripatetically wandering the country from Maine to Alaska to Baja and the southwest. Along the way they discover that home is something you take with you, and even if your adventure turns into a complete coddiwomple—money running out and plans crumbling before your eyes—it really is about the journey, not the destination.

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PLEDGE TO THE WIND,

THE LEGEND OF EVERETT RUESS

Historical Fiction, 318 pages – available in print, eBook or audiobook.

Eighty years ago a young man disappeared in the Utah wilderness. A large manhunt followed, but all they turned up was his last camp and a couple burros. Numerous historical books have been published that attempt to prove what happened to Everett, but his fate remains one of the biggest mysteries of the southwest. Pledge to the Wind, the Legend of Everett Ruess follows the adventures of Everett Ruess from his appearance in the southwest in 1931 when he was barely seventeen, until his disappearance in 1934, shortly before he turned 21. This historical fiction novel focuses more on how he lived from day to day, the adventures he experienced, and the language he used to express them. Upon reading it, Brian Ruess wrote, “In this work of fiction … I saw Everett for the first time, as he might actually have been.”

Cover artwork, Tom Fish. Cover design, Andrew Holman.

Note: Silver winner for Historical Fiction by the eLit Book Awards.

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THE WAYWARD TRAVELER

Memoir-based Fiction, 700 pages – available in print and as an eBook.

The Wayward Traveler follows the adventures of Louis, a young American who, in 1985, is determined to travel the world. The story takes place in forty countries and spans ten years: from the deck of a felucca on the Nile to the scorched dunes of India’s Thar Desert to the powerful Beni River in the Amazon Basin. Louis feels disenchantment with his former life, and a yearning to understand the foreign lands he encounters on his travels. He’s broke most of the time and spends considerable effort trying to get by. Along the way he meets other travelers. He learns about love and compassion, and hate. He befriends a Thai monk and Hindu Sadhu Babas and learns about other ways of thought, and enlightenment. Along the way Louis develops a list of Rules to help him get by, and yet, there´s a restlessness to his travels. He continues to wander into new countries, and through it all his Rules save him. On a frozen ridge in the Atlas Mountains he comes up with his first rule, Embrace the Unknown, to combat the fear that had been building in him. In Israel he decides If You Can’t Get Out of Something, Get Into It when his survival depends on pushing his body beyond its limits. And when he’s under the spell of a mad salesman with three personalities he realizes how importance it is to Choose Your Battles.

Cover design: Andrew Holman.

Note: Winner of the Pinnacle Book Award for Travel Fiction.

Note: Winner of the John E. Weaver Excellent Reads Award for Fiction: Travel.

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THE MAKING OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Historical Fiction, 336 pages – available in print, audio and as an eBook.

The Making of Theodore Roosevelt is a 336-page coming of age story about Theodore’s experiences in northern Maine when he was twenty. Six months after his father died Roosevelt went to Island Falls, Maine, where a woodsman named William Sewall taught him to be an outdoorsman.

“In the sixties my father took us to northern Maine where he bought some land from William Sewall’s grandson and it was through my conversations with that man’s wife that I came upon the story.” (DeMayo)

This fictionalized version of Theodore’s three trips to northern Maine in 1878 is appropriate for all ages.

 Cover design, Andrew Holman.

Winner of the John E. Weaver Excellent Reads Award for: All Ages Historical.

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THE LIGHT BEHIND BLUE CIRCLES

Fiction, 300 pages – available in print and as an eBook.

The Light Behind Blue Circles is an African ghost story that involves several travelers and the Maasai. This story is 300-pages and follows a young South African boy, named Peter, on safari in Kenya with his father. The two befriend a Maasai warrior and accompany him on a journey to save a friend of his (who turns out to be a rhino). Things don’t turn out as hoped and when Peter returns to South Africa he finds he is haunted every night by reoccurring nightmares about the incident. Ten years later he decides to hitch hike to Kenya (from South Africa) to explain the nightmares; along the way he hooks up with several travelers who help him on the 3,000 mile journey. The closer he gets to Kenya the realer his dreams become. I’m not a character in this novel, but I did hitch hike the route from South Africa to Kenya, and I always wanted to use it in a story.

Cover design, Andrew Holman. Front cover image, Martin Gray.

Note: The first cover (now inside the book as artwork) was a finalist for the DaVinci Eye Award. 

 

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