It’s never too late to finish a book and you’re never too young to start.
Don Levers, author of ‘Loot for the Taking,’ debuted his novel inspired by the 1977 Vancouver heist that always fascinated him. As part of his tour, the Edmonton-based author visited the Bonnyville Municipal Library on April 18 to discuss his book with local readers.
“I still lived in Vancouver at that time, and it always infatuated me about these guys pulling this movie-style robbery in downtown Vancouver,” said Levers. “These guys were extremely smart, they knew how to rob, where to rob, and what they needed to get into the vault through armored steel plated concrete.”
Originally, Levers had a concept to write the book as a screenplay, but felt he didn’t have the art of screen writing. A producer from the Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (CBC) suggested he write it as a book and he took the advice.
Levers started ‘Loot for the Taking’ back in 1987. Being a member of the Vancouver Police Reserves for several years, working in sales, and eventually starting his own business, he couldn’t devote himself completely to writing.
“As I like to tell people, life got in the way, and in 2016, I was able to finally start on it again. It took me eight months to write it,” explained Levers.
When he began writing, there was no online resources available for his research. In order for Levers to collect the facts about the heist, he had to step out of his comfort zone.
“In 1987, there was no way to look up these guys, no way to follow them as there was no Internet. I walked to the places that the incident happened and that was a fun part of the whole research,” Levers expressed. “I was able to get in the vault and met the man there who gave me a tour of the inside. While I was on that tour, he gave me one of the actual deposit box doors that was used in the heist.”
Levers is currently on his book tour, visiting cities across Alberta, explaining the idea behind penning down the novel.
“Doing this tour is a lot of fun. It’s really been neat going around, meeting people, and talking about the book,” he said. “I’ve met somebody whose family lost $300,000 in coins in the robbery and never got it back.”
Levers started writing stories for his kids back in the 1980s. He wrote and self published his first children’s book, ‘Ogopogo the Misunderstood Lake Monster,’ which sold over 25,000 copies over the last 32 years.
He said if his debut novel could sell a quarter of what his children’s bookdid, he’d be a happy man.
Like most indie authors, Levers struggled when it came to promoting the novel.
“Writing the book is actually the easy part, the marketing part is the challenge.”
During his tour, Levers met a man who was in the RCMP in 1977 and was at the airport when the robbers were arrested. He got a review on his book from an actual witness to the event.
“For somebody that new the real story and could buy into it was the biggest compliment that I could ever get,” he said. “Hopefully, people read the book and say it’s fun and it’s believable.”
‘Loot for the Taking’ is available at Amazon and Chapters.
