By Ian Rappaport
Staff Writer
Art has the power to inspire imagination and creativity. Two young Mira Costa students have embraced this philosophy with pen and paper.
Sophomores Bram Osterhout and Derek Zeoli recently completed their first novel, “Mason Pierce.” Centered around the James Bond-esque Mason Pierce, a spy with an adventurous nature and suave demeanor, the novel has been previewed over Facebook throughout the last year.
“We are not in it for fame and fortune,” Zeoli said. “Realistically, we just want the story to be published. Being able to say ‘I wrote a published novel’ would be an incredible accomplishment.”
In the novel, the Central Intelligence Agency covert operative Pierce travels extensively. Part of the story plot occurs in Venice, Italy, which required the authors to thoroughly research this location.
“Venice serves as a good setting due to its old buildings and low security,” Osterhout said. “His first attempt goes wrong, and the story takes off from there.”
The authors have looked to movies and other spy novels for influence. Works like the “James Bond” movies and the “Bourne” film series have served as models for “Mason Pierce.”
“I was mainly impressed with Bourne’s combat skills, which I had not seen too frequently in a movie,” Zeoli said. “Bond was really slick and classy and had a variety of awesome gadgets.”
One of the major emphases of the novel is to maintain a strong sense of realism throughout. This has led the authors to conduct extensive research into all the factors involved in their story.
“Every building Pierce walks into, I research everything about it,” Osterhout said. “I try to get interior pictures to make it just as realistic as possible.”
The novel is not the first writing venture Zeoli and Osterhout have undertaken. They have both started projects in the past, but none were to their liking. It was not until creating a partnership that their goals to become writers really gained momentum.
“We had been writing stories, and one day we just thought ‘lets collaborate on something,’” Osterhout said.
The journey has not been without hardships. The process of writing a novel has been time-consuming and challenging for both Osterhout and Zeoli.
“A year ago we sent it into editors, got it rejected, but started another round of edits,” Osterhout said.
The first novel is 40 chapters and ranges between 200 and 250 pages in its current state. They plan to eventually make “Mason Pierce” a series.
“We have mapped out five books,” Zeoli said. “Our overall goal is to make as many stories as we can.”
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