Randy Wayne White on his new book, restaurant suit

As he publishes Tomlinson’s Wake, the 27^th novel in his series featuring Florida marine biologist, intrepid adventurer and skilled combatant Marion “Doc” Ford, author Randy Wayne White is in the thick of a very public lawsuit.

The 75-year-old New York Times bestselling author talked with the Catalyst about Tomlinson’s Wake, and the legal imbroglio with Fort Myers-based HM Restaurant Group, the company behind his Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille restaurants.

White will be in St. Petersburg Monday (Aug. 25) for a discussion about the novel. The Tombolo Books-sponsored event takes place at Nova 535, at 535 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street N.

In the suit, the author alleges HM, which operates two Doc Ford’s restaurants in St. Petersburg, one on Sanibel Island and one in Fort Myers, violated the terms of its licensing agreement by using the Doc Ford’s name to promote its other restaurants.

There are additional claims, including unpaid royalties, an HM-sponsored fishing tournament that uses the name, and a Doc Ford-branded hot sauce which White says he was not allowed to pre-taste and approve.

The restaurant company has disputed White’s claims.

However this ends up – and it will likely go to trial – the goodwill generated by the successful Doc Ford’s restaurants could be in jeopardy. “They could cease to exist as they are now,” White admitted. “If that happens, there are certainly other options. The brand will not cease to exist, I can guarantee you that.”

On the advice of his lawyer, White said, he couldn’t discuss precise details of the case.

“I’m very disappointed (in what’s happened),” he said, “but I actually don’t think about it much because I have a very good trademark attorney. And my trademarks have been extant in place for decades, and well established. And really, they can’t be argued.

“According to my attorney, if someone breaches the conditions in the contract, I really have no choice but to sue.”

Not just to protect the Doc Ford brand, he added, “but the birthright of my sons and my grandchildren. For them, if nothing else.

“I am concerned about the welfare of the restaurant staff. They’re wonderful people, and it troubles me that they might be hurt by this.”

Tomlinson’s Wake, meanwhile, is the second Doc Ford adventure since Hurricane Ian nearly totaled the Sanibel home White shares with his wife, musician Wendy Webb, in 2022.

Additional reading: ‘When not to flee?’ Randy Wayne White and Hurricane Ian

(The house is now “livable” again, and the couple recently purchased a second home, vintage 1910, on nearby Pine Island.)

The new story takes place in coastal Honduras, where Ford’s “hipster” pal Tomlinson has wrecked his sailboat in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane.

No stranger to the effects of mind-altering drug and drink, Tomlinson’s near-incoherent babbling includes references to a Mayan boy-king, a healing “guru,” earthquakes, helicopters, psychotropic visions of kidnapped children and his own impending (or has it already happened?) death.

It’s up to Ford to figure everything out.

“Tomlinson’s Wake began as a way of exploring friendships – the importance of friendships and the devotion to friends,” White explained. “As I say in the book, I’m pretty sure friendship has a lot more to do with alchemy than it does with chemistry. It’s just mysterious how we luck into these wonderful, lovely friendships during our lifetimes. And that happened to Ford and Tomlinson.”

The Mosquito Coast is a long way from Dinkins Bay, the characters’ (fictional) home in Southwest Florida. “I just liked the idea of, post-hurricane, Tomlinson going in search of a new beginning, metaphorically and in terms of reality,” White said. “It’s what we’ve all been doing the last three years or so.”

While White concedes that Florida is “easy pickins when it comes to bizarre behaviors and events,” he is also a serious historian who goes to great lengths to ensure that even the most outlandish aspects of his fiction are rooted in reality.

His new Pine Island home, for instance, is adjacent to 60 acres of archaeological preserve, remnant of the long-ago Calusa Indians. “I look out the window, and I see remnants of burial mounds, and canals dug by contemporaries of the Maya.

“And I’ve always looked for a connection, fancifully or not – I’m just a layperson, I’m not an archaeologist – but I see so many similarities in the texture, context, structure of those civilizations regarding mounds and pyramids. And there was almost certainly some interaction between those two long-lost peoples.”

Mayan artifacts – including a full-sized “death mask” made of solid jade – figure prominently in Tomlison’s Wake. “My interest in Mesoamerica dates way, way back to the ‘70s, when I started going to Central and South America,” the author said.

Then there’s Devil’s Breath, the so-called “zombie drug” used by the story’s antagonist to get what he wants out of people. During his time in Mesoamerica, White said, “Through various sources I was reminded not to drink or eat anything unless I knew where it came from, because of that horrific ‘zombie drug,’ which is absolutely accurate (in the book) in terms of its usage.”

White, named a Florida Literary Legend by the Florida Heritage Society in 2011, admitted finding new adventures for the agile and able Ford has “never been easy – but it’s never been that tough, because ideas are in the air.

“But I find the characters are what keep me interested in the books.”

Monday’s event begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at this link.