Richard E. Lewis

Biography

My parents were American missionaries to Indonesia, where I was born and raised and still live with my family. In 1965, as a nine-year boy living in Bali, I was an eye-witness to the madness that swept over the country and the island after a failed communist coup, during which tens of thousands of innocent people were slaughtered.

One rainy day in December, a man I’d never seen before hunched on the parlor sofa in my parent’s house in Klungkung, east Bali. He reeked of fright: acrid, bitter, biting. He was silent, hands clasped between his knees. A former member of a Communist party’s community organization, he was helpless, hopeless, marked for death, a marking that painted not by gray-skinned pallor but by stink. I’ll never forget that smell. My latest book is about that time: BONES OF THE DARK MOON, a contemporary novel exploring the massacres of 1965, a tragedy that is not part of the Bali myth and is unknown to most visitors and even younger Balinese themselves.

I grew up reading whatever I could get my hands on. I wrote my first my first short story when I was six-years-old about a yawn that traveled around the world. I also went to the beach a lot and surfed. I attended college in the US and then bailed out of a marine geology PhD program due to technical difficulties with my soul, which did not want to be shackled to a career. I ended back in Bali, writing and surfing (as a writer, I am best known for my YA novel THE KILLING SEA, about the Asian tsunami but I have other great books out there too). I also spend a good deal of my life looking for things, such as my sunglasses, which sometimes are to be found propped up on my head.

Books

A Rotten Stinking Place To Die
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 64,400. Language: English. Published: October 28, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Sea adventures
Famed Hawaiian extreme sportsman Elroy Kapuni has chartered the Orient Star to go surfing. His entourage includes an unhappy girlfriend, his AA sponsor who does not like water sports, an Iraqi War veteran with an attitude problem, and two henchmen. Surfing seems to be the last thing on his mind. He's after something else. Budi Wells, the boat's cook, must find out what before it's too late.
The Last Christian
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 108,360. Language: English. Published: September 13, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Supernatural
In each generation there are ten Righteous Ones who keep the world from destruction. Nine of this generation's Righteous Ones have been murdered. Leaving only one. Jack Saxby, who ekes out a living as an Elvis minister at a Vegas wedding chapel. He's hardly righteous, though. He's a drunk and petty thief. Does the fate of the world really depend on him staying alive?
Ketika Bulan Tidur
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 98,130. Language: Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). Published: August 16, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Literature » Literary
An Indonesian translation of "Bones of the Dark Moon: A contemporary novel exploring Bali's 1965 mass murders."
Menarche
Price: $1.99 USD. Words: 3,930. Language: English. Published: May 20, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Cultural & ethnic themes » Asian American, Fiction » Women's fiction » General
After the death of his Balinese wife, financial circumstances force expat Jordan Elliot and his nine-year-old half-Balinese daughter to return to Connecticut to his wealthy, domineering, social register mother.
Nicotine: A short story
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,480. Language: English. Published: August 24, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Sea adventures, Fiction » Adventure » General
One boat. One Balinese, one Bali expat, one Australian, one American. Three heavy smokers, one pious teetotaler. Two sacks of rice, three boxes of noodles, coffee and salt, cooking oil and sauces. Ten cartons of cigarettes. More than enough for a week sail to Bali...but what happens when they lose their smokes?
Shallow Water Blackout: A short story
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 5,150. Language: English. Published: August 19, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Sea adventures, Fiction » Sports
An epic short story tale of ego and obsession in the world of blue water hunting. Landlubber Wesley is out of his element as his friend Damien seeks to break the world spearfishing record for black marlin.
Channel Crossing: A short story
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,810. Language: English. Published: August 9, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Sea adventures
In the treacherous Bali Straits, Balinese turtle hunters meet more than their match. A tale of sea adventure and turtle revenge. 2nd place prizewinner, AsiaWeek short story competition.
Bones Of The Dark Moon: A Contemporary Novel Exploring Bali's 1965 Massacres
Price: $6.99 USD. Words: 104,530. Language: English. Published: July 16, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Cultural & ethnic themes » Asian American
On an idyllic Balinese shore, the skeletons of victims killed in the 1965 massacres are accidentally uncovered. The discovery unsettles the village of Batu Gede, and turns the life of Made "Nol" Ziro upside down. Could one be that of his vanished father? Nol and Tina Briddle, American anthropologist, set to find out. Perhaps Reed Davis, reclusive expat rumored to have been a CIA spy, can help.