When Randy Wayne White wrote his first Doc Ford novel, he did it for the right and wrong reason, both at the same time. He wrote Sanibel Flats, published January 1990, because he needed the money.

“I say truly, no one in their right mind goes into writing to make money,” White says, now 34 years and 26 Doc Ford novels later. “And if they do, good luck to them. Because it is an unlikely and perilous venture.”

One Deadly Eye, the 27th in the series about Ford—a fictional marine biologist on Sanibel Island and former undercover government agent—releases June 4.

White called this his greatest novel, and acknowledged the cliché of writers saying their latest is the greatest. But this time, he insisted, it truly is. He didn’t just endure Hurricane Ian on Sept. 28, 2022, but also witnessed the eyes of hurricanes Irma in 2017 and Charley in 2004. Those experiences were crucial in crafting his latest work.

But those storms were decades away when he typed his first three novels, published by St. Martin’s Press in the early 1990s.

“I was just absolutely driven by a couple of things,” White says of the early years of becoming a professional novelist. “One, I wanted to write. And I wanted to write well. Two, I had been a fishing guide on Sanibel for many years; on Tarpon Bay. And when the marina was closed to tarpon fishing traffic in the late 1980s, I was out of a job and not qualified to do anything but drive boats. I had two young sons, at the time 8 and 10 years old. And I had to make a living.

“I decided I would write a novel. I wanted it to be literate, maybe even literary. But more importantly, I wanted a book to sell. I needed to make money—I had a mortgage and two young sons. Financial obligations were a giant motivator to me.”

The writing didn’t come easy, and neither did the money.

“I write 355 to 360 days a year,” White says. “Without exception. No matter where I am, every day, I’d work on the book. Seven days a week.

“I think people have the idea that when you feel the urge, or you feel the muse, you sit down and magically the book appears. That is not the way it works. It is a full-time, all-encompassing job.”

The early books were not enough to make ends meet, as he said he signed a three-book contract that paid him $5,000 for each book in advance.

“I signed that terrible contract because I’m not a business wizard,” says White, who then turned to writing for national magazines including Outside and Men’s Journal, a far more lucrative endeavor, as he said they paid him about $11,000 to $12,000 for a 1,500-word article.

“Then a couple of years went by when I did not write a novel,” White says. “I got a call from a major New York editor at Putnam—now Random House. He said, ‘I’m interested in your books. Would you be interested in writing more of the Doc Ford books?’”

White and the editor agreed on the phone to a new contract that would pay White a $100,000 advance for each of the next few subsequent Ford novels. “Which is a big step up from $5,000,” White says.

“We focused on writing novels. And we did well. I also worked very hard,” he says. “It’s not an exaggeration to say if I got paid by the hour, in terms of the hours I put into a book, it would seem like far less money.

“I stuck with it. In the late 1990s or so, I started making the bestseller lists. And then my advances went up a lot.”

White supplemented the book-writing income with his love for Caribbean-flavored hot sauces. He made the concoctions but had no place to sell them, so he and some business partners began devising such a place, which became the chain of “Doc Ford’s Rum Bar” restaurants that began on Sanibel and Captiva islands and Fort Myers Beach.

White owns the restaurants’ names, while the business partners own and operate them. The arrangement leaves White with plenty of time to write more Doc Ford and young adult novels.

White gave his elevator pitch for One Deadly Eye:

“A historic hurricane hits a barrier island,” White says. “And statistically, an isolated place like a barrier island after a natural disaster is a primary target for thieves. In this case, a very well-organized group of thieves, they target whichever island gets a direct hit.”

The insurance industry also plays a role in the new novel.

“Ethics plays no role in that industry, no matter what they say,” White says. “If you read the book One Deadly Eye, you’ll get some insight into how that industry works in terms of profiteering.

“It is the best novel, by far, I’ve written to date. It is the best.”