‘My life is a novel’

Marti Davis is a novelist, but she avoids writers groups or courses.

“I didn’t want someone to destroy my natural way of telling a story,” she said.

So, when the Huntington Beach resident wanted to tell a story about a cash-strapped California prison that experiments with castrating violent inmates, she found a more direct but decidedly more dangerous source of inspiration.

She signed up for a day in prison.

As part of her research for her first novel, “A Better Man,” Davis decided to visit a maximum security prison in California.

To spend a day among hardened criminals, murderers and rapists in a Sacramento men’s prison, Davis had to sign a waiver that she wouldn’t be rescued if she was taken hostage by an inmate and it involved releasing the inmate.

But that was a sacrifice she was willing to make because she feels she has to write from experience. The idea of male castration, Davis said, came from reading her ex-husband’s biology texts.

Davis said she has grappled with danger many times before. She’s been chased by a herd of elephants in Africa, marooned on an island in the Bay of Bengal in eastern India and faced off with a tiger in the Malaysian jungles ? to give a few of her hair-raising stories.

“My life is a novel in itself,” Davis said.

Her Huntington Harbor home is a creative space, filled with unique artifacts, knick-knacks and wall hangings reflecting her love of travel and adventure.

Sandy Zamora, a friend and researcher for the book, said Davis is a great travel companion and they do extensive interviews with the local people and take detailed notes.

“She picks up the all the nuances in everything going on around her,” Zamora said. “Her book has so much detail that you feel like you’re on the street with her.”

Her vivid, fast-paced writing based on her travel escapades with Zamora brings the scene alive.

“[You] can smell the air, feel the mist on your skin, the sky changing colors, because she writes what she feels,” Zamora said of her friend of more than 12 years.

Her books are always fun to read, Zamora said.

“Hard to put them down till the end. You want to always see how it ends,” she said.

Davis’ motto is “getting high on life.”

Davis dabbled with freelance photography, public relations and massage therapy and even worked as a printing broker after being a stay-at-home mother for several years.

“I used to be the perfect wife but I always felt something was missing,” said Davis, who’s been married four times. “I just needed to find me.”

Writing helps. “That is what feeds me,” she said.

“I’ve more stories than I can write although getting them published is another thing,” Davis said.

Peacock Publishing liked her novel because it capitalizes on timely issues in the media concerning overcrowded California prisons, Davis said. Peacock will also publish five other of Davis’ novels.

A file full of pictures of people, cut out from magazines and slugged meticulously, helps her visualize her characters. “I visualize it just like in a movie.”

That’s Davis’ next goal ? to get a movie deal.

Her dream as a novelist would be to walk past a bookstore and see her book in the window. Oh, that and getting a chance to compete on “Survivor.” For more information, visit martidavis.com.hbi.20-davis-CPhotoInfo621T2R7V20060720j2mfcfncCredit: Caption: (LA)Huntington Beach writer Marti Davis spent a day in prison to research her debut novel, “A Better Man.”