‘Paradise’ author comes to Richmond

Everybody looks for his or her own paradise. Some find it in the hustle and bustle of the city, while others are lucky enough to find it in the charm of nature. Meanwhile, some manage to find it in just the right places. In “West of the Equator,” Cheryl DuBois shares her own adventures in paradise through her character, Rob, as he sails through the West Indies in search of his own Eden.

DuBois is a VCU graduate who studied painting, printing, photography and world religion. When she embraced her interest in sailing and moved to Florida to start a sailing charter company, she never realized how she would find her own Paradise in the islands.

“I was never a writer in school or studied it,” DuBois said in an interview. “I wrote about 90 pages of the book in a room in Hawaii from a screenplay I had started writing. I never had writer’s block or anything, and I wrote most of it sitting on the beach in the islands.”

She divulged the story of her novel as being born as a screenplay about 15 years ago, while she was working with Robert Redford at Sundance. After the movie “Captain Ron” came out, no one wanted to touch movies about sailing anymore, so the project was put on hold.

When DuBois picked the piece back up after some time, she went back into writing about Rob’s adventures.

“My sailing friends call me Rob, now,” she said.

Most of the material in the book was, in fact, based on real events DuBois had experienced, including two hurricanes that nearly ruined the area in which she lived.

“There were probably only two completely fictitious characters.”

When “West of the Equator” caught the eyes of Jeff Apple, the producer of such movies as “The Recruit” and “In the Line of Fire,” and “Law and Order” director Ted Kotcheff, DuBois was thrilled. The three had the same vision, and the author has expressed that she is not worried about losing too much in the change of media.

“We definitely captured the same essence, even after honing the screenplay down to 120 pages,” she said.

DuBois also shared her experiences as a medium, which she said also played a big part in the overall ethereal feel of the novel as something of a “spiritual tutorial.”

Her biggest hope is that the book and movie will truly touch people.

“I really want people to get something out of it,” she said. “I want my stories to make a difference.”

Cheryl DuBois will be conducting a book signing and discussion this Saturday, starting at 2 p.m. at the Borders Books and Music on 9750 W. Broad St.