A rogue agent, a hidden treasure, and a chase through the Amazon. For years, Owen Martin’s debut novel was just a few ideas jotted down in a notebook and stashed in a closet. Retirement finally gave him the time he needed to bring it to life. El Dorado is now available at The Bookmart at Brown & Co. Mr Martin wrote it under a pen name, Owen Seymour.

“Jason is awoken one night by assailants who believe that he has something valuable that they are looking for – and he is sent on a global adventure that will change his life for ever,” the book’s synopsis reads.

“After fighting them off, Jason quickly realises that whatever the assailants were looking for is connected to a package that he recently received from his grandfather, who still lives in Guyana.

“His grandfather is a ‘pork knocker’ who mines for gold and precious metals, and he has given Jason an old map with clues leading to a mysterious destination that seems to boast a significant treasure.”

The question then becomes whether or not Jason is able to “survive the Amazon jungle and the pursuit of an ex-CIA agent with bad intentions”.

While working, Mr Martin had no time to think about the notebook he’d carelessly tossed into a closet outlining his ideas.

“So when I finally found the notebook, I saw the little synopsis that I wrote, and I began to think about it,” he said.

As the potential for a “bigger story” seemed obvious, he decided to take a stab at fleshing the outline out. Choosing where to set the story was an easy decision for the author, who was born in Guyana, lived in Canada, and later moved to Bermuda.

“I started to do some research, combined it with my own knowledge of Canada and Guyana, and wove it all into this story.”

While elements of the book draw from his familiarity with those places, the story itself is not autobiographical.

“For one thing, the protagonist is a handsome guy,” he laughed. “But like most characters, he’s a composite of different people I know. My cousin has the same name, he’s tall … you pull together bits and pieces from different people when creating a character.”

The title, El Dorado, refers to a legendary 16th century king who was so rich he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust before diving into a sacred lake to wash it off.

Called “The Golden One” by Spanish colonists, the name was eventually applied to his kingdom, a mythical city supposedly located in South America.

“There was a feeling back in the 18th and 19th century that the City of Gold was somewhere in [what was then called] British Guiana.

“So there were expeditions by different people, including Sir Walter Raleigh, to look for it. So it kind of made sense that that's where people thought [the City of Gold] was. And so I played on that a bit in the name and the storyline,” Mr Martin said.

“It's kind of an interpretation, obviously. There are a lot of different themes ― there’s the immigrant perspective from his parents, him being a first-generation [immigrant]; he finds a young lady he's interested in, so there's a bit of a love story; and then the whole adventure of trying to follow the treasure map. And, obviously, there are some bad people after him.”

He wrote the book with “absolutely no experience in writing”. His ace up his sleeve was that he was an avid reader for most of his life and wasn’t shy about reaching out for help with editing.

“I’ve read a lot of authors and I felt like, from my reading, I could see how to put it together. I mean clearly, it’s not going to be perfect, but I feel like I've been able to incorporate a lot of the different things that I learnt from reading,” he said.

A publishing company in Canada gave a pretty detailed evaluation of his work that helped get to the final product.

“I did have a quick chat with [Bermudian author] Angela Barry. She gave me some good advice ― more [about how to plan] the book launch ― because she was busy writing her own book.

“I was grateful for her spending some time sharing her knowledge and expertise with me.”

Including research time, El Dorado took about a year for Mr Martin to complete.

“My writing approach is I write it in a book that I buy from the Dollar Store and then later on, type it into [the computer]. And as I'm typing, I kind of edit and make corrections or adjustments. And then obviously, once you've done, you go back and reread it and re-edit it. So many iterations that you begin to get a little bit tired of seeing it yourself,” he laughed.

He then shared the book with avid readers he trusted to provide honest feedback. He is hopeful that strangers who buy it are as enthusiastic about it as his friends were.

“Once I went to the publishers I felt confident that it was an interesting story. It should hold people's attention,” Mr Martin said.

“It's a mix of different themes, as I said, and there's a little bit of adventure. There's a lot of different things that should be interesting to people – some history, some kind of modern information about the country.

“It's discovered oil so it's become a bit more known to people around the world, especially Exxon and the United States. It’s kind of topical in a lot of respects.”

• El Dorado is available at The Bookmart at Brown & Co. For more information, visitowenseymourbooks.com