GLENN WALTON / Special to the Eagle

Marco Island author Tom Williams hands longtime Marco Island resident and close friend "BK" an autographed copy of his recently released action adventure novel "Lost and Found" Friday evening at Sunshine Booksellers.

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A lust for gold runs deep in Tom Williams’ premier book, “Lost and Found.” But the writer says you won’t find him on the pages of his novel. Williams’ passion is for the places he can travel to with the printed word, not what he can buy with buried treasure.

That imagination helped him create a global theater where the hunt for gold drives good and evil to compete for the wealth it can provide. Neither, he said, is he one of the two techno-geeks who stumble onto the newest, most sure-fire way to locate hoards of valuable antiquities.

Williams’ signature seems to be found “in” the pages, not on them, where his reliance on action and dialogue captivate the reader. He is self-proclaimed for shunning the mire of long narratives that bog down those looking for an adventure.

“My goal was to develop the characters and then make them do the work,” Williams said. “I had as much fun writing ‘Lost and Found’ as my characters had doing it. There was nothing hard about it. It was a joy all the way.”

Speaking from a bar stool in the corner of his family room, Williams’ voice took on the lilt of a seasoned storyteller, one who has studied the art of a good tale all his life.

As a youngster growing up in Crossville, Tenn., Williams was the kid who never chose sports because he felt nerdy and suffered from lack of muscle memory for athletics.

“I was painfully thin,” he explained, “and a total geek.”

That didn’t stop his parents from finding outlets for their lanky yet imaginative boy.

“I often fell asleep when my mom and dad let me watch movies with them late into the evening. The next day my parents would tell me the rest of the story.”

Not only did they finish where William’s left off, they would play the movie back to him in words, helping each other remember explicit details and allowing him to absorb vicariously their viewing experience.

“Together, they were detailed to the max,” William said, “And what that gave me was a love of storytelling.”

By way of proving his point, Williams challenged readers to open “Lost and Found” to any page with a guarantee that they would immediately be captivated by it.

Despite his boast, Williams was modest when he explained that much of the idea for the book fell into his lap. Three years in the making (from 2002 to 2005), “Lost and Found” was seeded by the hunt for other buried treasure from the ocean floor.

“My interest began when I read about them finding the Titanic, the Bismarck and the space capsule Liberty Bell 7 (recovered in 1999 three miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas). I asked myself, ‘What if someone used satellite telemetry to discover other things underwater?’ ”

Chapter one doesn’t start with the race for gold. Instead two aerospace geologists are hired to oversee a quest for future oil fields working for a West Texas oil company. Although they wind up failures at finding oil from space, the 97 anomalies they discover have the pair scratching their heads.

“I really had to do my research,” Williams admitted. “I had to learn how satellites work and how they are sent into orbit. It fascinated me that a satellite could cost $340 million and twice that amount to send into space.”

The anomalies turn out to mark coordinates for gold from shipwrecks including a lost galleon off Cape Romano. That sends the pair of geologists to a Goodland marina where they meet their female protagonist, Billie Johnson, a feisty tomboy with a penchant for salvage. They also end up face-to-face with a Southwest Florida hurricane.

The publishing journey for Williams took three more years after he finished the manuscript before he had a publisher, a publicist and the first edition in hand.

“I’m so proud of it,” Williams said. “I take everything to heart but most of the responses I got from literary agents about the book kept telling me to keep trying and not give up.”

That tenacity explains a great deal about his bold and adventuresome characters.

In the future Williams hopes that “Lost and Found” can be made into a movie; maybe a PG-13 action/thriller, perhaps in the Indiana Jones genre.

“When I was writing it, the action was always in my head,” Williams remembered. “For me, it was action and dialogue front to back.” As a first-time published novelist, William experience gave him new insight to pass on to up-and-coming young writers.

“Writing should be approached as a great adventure. An author can do anything, anything in the world, with pen and paper.”

For Williams, his time spent waiting for his first novel to be published continued in just such an adventure, completing the prequel to “Lost and Found” called “Flight of the Valkrye.” For now, Williams will bask in his new accomplishment with book signings, reviews, and some television appearances.

In addition, Williams is a contributor to the Marco Eagle, the Naples Daily News, Paradise Magazine, and ETC, a special feature Sunday news magazine. He is currently working on his third novel, “Checkmate.”

Williams is a master Merchant Marine officer licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard and a veteran scuba diver specializing in shipwreck sites. He also is employed as a sailboat captain by Marriott’s Marco Beach Resort Golf Club and Spa. He lives on Marco Island with his wife Vicki who works at the Marco Island Area Chamber of Commerce.

More information on William and “Lost and Found” can be found at his Web site, http://lostandfoundadventure.com.

“Lost and Found” is also available on Marco Island at Sunshine Booksellers, at either location: 677 Collier Blvd., (239) 393-0353 or 1000 North Collier Blvd., (239) 394-5343.

Local book signings

Oct. 15 – Marco Island Yacht Club, 1400 N. Collier Blvd., Marco Island, FL 34145 (239) 394-0199

Nov. 15 and 22 – Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Waterside Shops, 5377 Tamiami Trail, Naples, FL 34108 (239) 598-5200.