Author Steven J. Immerman Goes "In Search of Pleasure Island" And Takes A Dark Journey

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Thursday, 25 July 2024 14:13

Written by Brad Balfour

In Steve Immerman’s debut novel “In Search of Pleasure Island,” Dr. Mathew Noble, a professor of criminology and retired special warfare agent, journeys across the globe. He’s in search of his kidnapped daughter and the men responsible for her abduction and murder.

Framed for both crimes, Noble is taken into custody by crooked FBI agents, shot and tossed over a cliff into a raging river. Miraculously Noble survives. Now a fugitive, he lives in the shadows while taking on the most important mission of his life. With his elite military training, and the help of his Delta Force teammates, Noble's search takes him back to his hometown of Philadelphia. He then journeys through the backcountry of West Virginia, across the Atlantic, and on to Paris, Milan, and Lake Como. Eventually he arrives at “Pleasure Island” -- an impenetrable fortress off the Tunisian coast in North Africa. From there, further travails ensue. Delving into the bowels of international sex trafficking, "In Search of Pleasure Island" provides an engrossing summer read.

This story is a far cry from growing up in Northern NJ. While studying economics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Immerman joined the Teamsters, working at a local trucking company. After graduation, he moved to NYC and began a career in advertising and print communications. All the while, he made time to travel the globe to places like Tibet, China, Western Europe, and Central America.

While attending NYU’s school of film and television, Immerman developed a love for writing. Eventually, he made his way to Los Angeles where he represented a number of novelists to the film and TV community. Ultimately, though, he was driven to write and “In Search of Pleasure Island” was born.

In order to explain the evolution of the book, Immerman recently conducted this phone interview.

Q: You were representing authors as an agent, or in what capacity — trying to get them film deals and that kind of thing?

Steven J. Immerman: I was sitting in New York in my apartment and a gentleman walked in named Tony Seidl.He’d been representing published authors and was in the publishing for 40 years, andI was heading out to L.A. So he asked if I would help represent some of his authors to the film community, and that's what we did then.

But first of all, I'll tell you,it wasn’t so easy.Back inthe'80s, I began taking classes at NYU school of continuing education in filmed entertainment. I took various screenwriting courses, and at the end, you [were required] to make a completed script. But the idea of writing my own at the time seemed daunting.

Then I met Tony, and so, what the heck? I started representing other authors and it was great. Maybe I'm just a good communicator, but I got to touch base with a lot of high-level producers and heads of production. We sold a few different projects, some to Turner for westerns,some of Warren Murphy's books including “Forever King” and we were peddling his book series “The Destroyer.”

Anyway, that ended. I went back to my real life. Even back then, I wrote some short stories. I always had this love for telling stories, but I didn't love trying to get a screenplay up in Hollywood. I saw what went on. Ultimately, I said that I'm going to write my own stories, and by writing a novel, I can control what it is. There were a few ideas I had. To tell you the truth, the genesis of this book, "In Search of Pleasure Island," came out of two interesting things.

I've always been involved with young people, concerned about abuse, and the whole thing is that the more I understood, it became fascinating in a negative way. Anyway, my imagination started getting the best of me. Then, I started doing some research and reading about Jeffrey Epstein at the time, and one thing led to another. I said, "This is the one I want to write.” Something came to me and this became my first novel.

Q: Your character's a criminology professor, so you have to get into specifics. He's a pretty detail-oriented guy. That must have taken a lot of time so how long was the research?

Steven J. Immerman:It was a lot of research. I based one character “Dutch” on two men that I knew. One was an ex-special warfare operator andamercenary for hire; the other, a former green beret and worked in elite security.That was pretty easy for me because I had known both of these gentlemenprior.The criminology thing absolutely took research.I started doing more and more research about human trafficking and criminology. And this character, Matthew Noble, came about. I have twins, a boy and a girl, who are now in their mid-'20s. So I saw that relationship between father and daughter, and it all came about.

Q: Besides the people you just described, have you met anybody that has been through a trafficking experience, was a trafficker, or anything like that? Did you try to meet someone or did you want to keep a distance and just read things about them?

Steven J. Immerman: This was really done through research, by being organized.For a while, I was a Big Brother at Covenant House.So many kids come from broken homes. They're out on the streets, being hustled by pimps and traffickers. Basically, Covenant House is a refuge. So I got to know, personally, young people. And when I say young, their ages were probably from the 15 to 19 year old range. These kids are on the streets right here in L.A.

Prior to that, when I was in New York, I did work with the Police Athletic League. I spent time there too, and got to see all these young people and their concerns. As a parent, obviously, seeing everythinggoing on, I fear formy own kids and life in general. Maybe it's always been something close in mind for me. When I worked at Covenant House and PAL, I was single, but it's always been something that I've been interested in.Well, not really children, but young people.

Q: Did you find that it flowed naturally and you didn't have to think about all those things?

Steven J. Immerman: It was highly structured.After I wrote my first draft I reached out to my agent Tony Seidl. I showed it to him and he helped me to structure the draft.He really went back and restructuredit.He decided to bring in a buddy who was Dutch,a second partner in it,and reformatted the book. It took a few drafts, and yes, we worked on a structured timeline.

Q: How much balance did you feel you needed to strike between action and exposition?

Steven J. Immerman: That was tough, because what I didn't want to do was only one or the other.I didn’t want just a straight line men’s action book. I also wanted to show the courage of the young woman “Danni” and her struggles as well.I ground out most of my training.I also tried to keep the action, and that really drives the story forward.

Q: When you wrote this, did you see it as a movie? Did you have cinematic ideas along the way and view the scene structures as if there were a camera there.

Steven J. Immerman: It's interesting you say that. I see it in my mind. But if I write as if it were a TV series or movie, that would be hard. I don't know if it would make a good motion picture or not, but I think it would make a great streaming series. There are so many different sections to it. First, there's the development, and the first half is really more of the hunt. The second, the chase. The action gets more and more intense until we have that big scenario. Yes, and then his whole family got into this chaos and this terrible situation. He falls deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole after his wife is killed and his daughter is taken. Then, he's thrown over the cliff and barely survives. Now he must try andsave his daughter.He has a military background and is a criminologist, andyet can't even save his own daughter.

Q: Were you worried about comparisons to the Liam Neeson-led film "Taken?"

Steven J. Immerman: I saw "Taken."This could be "Taken," but I believe there is more in my story; you see it is her journey too --you don't just see it from his perspective. Here, she is taken to the“FARM,”a place where victims are held captive. There, she meets another young girl named Snowand it's their journey just as much. It's very different in that aspect. In "Taken," they quickly established who he was and why they took his daughter, and then, Boom! — it had all the complications, the twists and turns. Whereas in a novel, you have the luxury of being able to really add a lot more in.There's so much about Danni that creates the suspense, like when she is taken to the “FARM.”We see it's almost a rebirth where she's forced out of the womb and becomes a new person.

Here she is this young 16-year-old who grew up adopted from China. She's Eurasian, grows up in privilege, and then her world is snatched away from her. She has tofind andfigure out how she's going to survive. Here she is thrown into this‘hell hole’ I gave her a hint,and she's got to overcome death. She's got to figure out how to live in this new world and survive and succeed. When she does, she finds a way.She meets Snow, and shebecomes a hero. When she saves Snow, they run away. Then, they're caught again and sent over to Europe, and are separated. She's forced into this brothel. She has to survive, and finds a way to survive. She goes through some very traumatic situations. In the end,Noble and Dutch come and rescue her— I hope that’s not a spoiler.Then, the story continues.

Q: When you were writing this, did you have an image of the characters in your mind, like actors or in a graphic novel?

Steven J. Immerman: I've often thought ofjustdoing this as a graphic novel, which, in some ways, is more difficult because you can write the words and not necessarily have an image in mind. Of course, I have images in mind. I see the characters —Danni obviously isa tall, athletic,16/17-year-old girl. There's many 40-some-odd actors who could play Noble. Is it Matt Damon? I had a list of people, actually, that I thought of at one time. Dutch... I don't know if Stallone is the right age at this point, but Dutch is a no-holds-barred, grisly, tough individual. I picture him as,maybe,a combination of the men that I modeled him after --a thick-wristed, bulky, muscular, tough SOB.You know, a warfare operator, ex-commando. Noble is smoother, more educated, but still has that grit — more of an everyman. He could be six-foot but it doesn't matter so much. He's medium build with a nice smile — a good guy.At the same time, he's a surprise. He can be lethal as well, like in the very beginning of the book when he saves the head of Shin Bet’s granddaughter.

In the prologue, that's Noblesaving the granddaughter; that's really what it was. Some people catch it, some don't. That's the granddaughter ofEron Feldner, director of Israel’s Shin Bet.And that's why, later on he gets the help.I say in the book, Feldnernever forgot that Noble saved his grand daughter. He's here to help. And then, he sends Dutch to help.Noble and Dutch have a relationship with each other. That's important, too, because there's a certain chemistry that's built in. Actually, the backstory is that Dutch kicked Noble out of the service because Noble broke command, and that's shown in these dream sequences. They come together and work out their differences, and obviously go together. In that way, it's also different from, say, "Taken."

In terms of marketing, yes, we're putting time in to try to get people to pick it up.I hear from peoplewho have read it and have reached out to me, it's a fun read. It's easy. It's almost like watching a movie or a series. It's not highbrow. It's meant to be enjoyable, but also to deliver a message.

Q: Now that you've got the book out, are you looking to develop a series? Or looking towards seeing this book get into other media, whether as a graphic novel or being produced for a streaming service?

Steven J. Immerman: I'd love to see this story getoutto a wider audience through a streaming service. I don't want to give away a spoiler but yes, there's a sequel. And yes, it involves some of the main characters, of course, moving forward.

Q: Do you feel torn between working on this book as a professional media person, or writing the next book? In other words, are you taking one step? A lot of times, for a filmmaker or a novelist is to get the book out there, it’s also work, doing the tours, all that stuff. Other ones just want to get back down to doing the next book.

Steven J. Immerman: I'm working on a new story as well, a historical novel I call "Return to Zion.” It’s about a Jewish family at the turn of the 19th century, starting at the beginning of the Soviet era. It actually goes back into the Tsarist Empire in the late 1800s, early 1900s. It takes us all the way to the founding of the State of Israel, following this generational family's journey.I also am developing an outline to continue to create the next step in the series of of Pleasure Island.

Q: You're exploring your Jewish background. Is that something you've always done? It’s been in there as to who you are?

Steven J. Immerman: The story I'm working on next comes out of my dad’s stories about his father, my grandfather coming from Russia and my father’s stories he told about World War II.His father passed away when he was very young and he would tell me stories. I come from a Jewish family in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Q: They're from Russia, right?

Steven J. Immerman:Yes. He would tell me stories about his father -- my grandfather and his life in Russia and coming to America.Then there were stories I heard when working with my father. I got into a bit of trouble when I was about 17. My dad took me down to the Union Hall, Teamsters 560 in New Jersey, and said, "You're going to see what life is like." I got into the Teamsters, it paid well,I loaded and unloaded trucks, did whatever wehad to do.

I got to spend time with my dad, aboutfour or five years of working, and it helped me pay for college.I heard a lot of stories about my dad and my history. Iwas learning about Jews coming from Russia, actually Ukraine. My grand father was Georgian, but some of the family was from the Ukraine. I am weaving together a story. I'm working on it now, but I don't want to get too far into that.

To order the book go to: https://nextchapter.pub/authors/steven-immerman

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