This past spring, Paul Dean Coker and his wife, Valerie Schneider, moved to Point Loma from San Luis Obispo. With his move, Coker also brought to the Peninsula community a select and distinguished honor: he was recently named as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).
Point Loma reminds Coker of Marblehead, Mass., where he also once lived.
“For me it is like returning to Marblehead,” he said. “[Point Loma and Marblehead] are both yachting centers with a hillside overlooking the yachts, and they have the nice sea breeze. And in Point Loma you have the palm trees instead of the cold.”
Coker is the publisher of Coastwise Communications, an outfit that usually publishes books about technical planning. But in September 2006, Coastwise Communications released a novel, “The Figurehead,” written by Coker himself.
“The Figurehead” is Coker’s first novel.
“It is a fictionalized account of the signing of the Good Friday Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland,” Coker said.
The plot begins in Marblehead, and dramatizes important events leading to the signing of the historic Belfast Agreement in 1998, ending age-old hostilities in Northern Ireland. It is a book for readers who love mystery, sailing and history.
The main character is a young architect in New England. It’s not an autobiography, but it has some personal connections to Coker, who earned a degree in architecture and worked as a skipper on a private yacht in Marblehead.
“I haven’t experienced that many exciting adventures though,” he said.
The local connection continues, however, because another character in the book is from San Diego.
“When I wrote it, I was thinking, ‘One day I want to live there,'” he said.
The 482-page novel includes 30 pages on history and a timeline that can be used by teachers and instructors.
“I am not Irish, but my professor at the University of Notre Dame was an Anglo-Irish architect from Belfast,” Coker said. “I kept looking at him and trying to find out ‘Where are you on the troubles in Ireland?'”
When Coker read newspaper articles about the situation in Northern Ireland he became intrigued again and started to learn more about the social and political conflict.
Coker’s professor at Notre Dame was Patrick Horsbrugh, who nominated him to the RSA. Coker was then accepted to the prestigious, and one of the oldest associations of creative individuals in the world. The RSA was founded in 1754 in London to “embolden, enlarge science, refine arts, improve our manufactures and extend our commerce.”
Coker joins the ranks of other distinguished RSA members, including Benjamin Franklin, Charles Dickens and the Prince of Wales.
“It is an honor for me to be part of this historical society. The efforts have paid off,” Coker said. “With the appointment to the Society, I hope to be able to place the book in libraries to teach people.”
For Coker, it’s not the importance of the book as such but the importance of the celebration of peace. He wants to show how a negotiated peace agreement can work to end hostilities elsewhere.
“The Figurehead” is a story about social justice and how people engage in the effort to create a peaceful society.
“The basis of diplomatic achievement, like the Belfast Agreement, comes when our viewpoint is broad and the context of our relationships is understood,” Coker says on the website for Coastwise Communications. “I believe these two principles ” viewpoint and context ” are what led to this agreement and are the soundest underpinnings of diplomacy.”
“The Figurehead” is part of a series of three books. At the moment, Coker is working on the second installment.
“I am one-third through,” he said. “Point Loma is definitely the inspiration for another book.”
And Coker says he loves to write.
“Writing comes from deep inside some place,” Coker said. “My architecture colleagues were drawing a lot, I always had an interest to get the word out.”
“The Figurehead,” has also won a bronze medal in the Independent Publisher 2007 Book Award for historic fiction. It is currently being sold in stores in New England and central California for $24.95. It can also be purchased for a reduced price by visiting www.coastwisecommunications.com.