I’ll be giving a spiel about writing “The Towpath” and will go deep into the historical fiction aspects, especially those inspired by the Cuyahoga Valley and surrounding area. I’ll answer any questions you have (to the best of my ability) and will be selling and signing copies of “The Towpath.”
An In-depth Interview on THE TOWPATH It’s been a minute since I’ve posted. With several life events happening, including the loss of my father this past summer, the loss of my brother-in-law this past fall, and a whole lot of stress from the day job, it’s been difficult to keep up. And of course, launching my debut novel has come with its own stressors, including learning a new platform for my revamped website, which still has some bugs to work out. But there have been some bright spots related to my book, including a feature from the Akron Beacon Journal, courtesy of Barbara McIntyre’s “Book Talk” column, and one that was recently published on Cleveland.com. It’s that article that I’d like to reprise here, but in its full glory, as there was much the editorial team had to leave on the cutting room floor to keep the reading time reasonable. I have no such bounds for my personal blog and had much to share in the in-depth interview, much of which I think could be interesting reading—if I do say so myself. Hence, what follows is my full interview with Maura Zurick (who did a fantastic job) of Cleveland.com and the local Northeast Ohio Sun newspapers. Could you tell me a little about yourself? I’ve lived in Northeast Ohio for nearly my entire life, having grown up in Akron before moving to Cuyahoga Falls where I spent a good chunk of my formative years. I attended St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and earned my bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton. By trade, I am a User Experience (UX) Design professional and leader (currently Director of UX at Rockwell Automation) and my previous employers have included small startups and Progressive Insurance. And yes, I’ve squeezed in fiction writing too! I currently reside in Broadview Heights with my wife Becky, and my sons Nathan (16) and Wesley (10), and love spending time in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and our surrounding “Emerald Necklace” Metro Park system. Congratulations on the release of “The Towpath.” What inspired you to write a time travel suspense thriller set in this region? Thank you! I always knew that I wanted to try my hand at fiction, though it took me a long time to work up the courage. For several years now, I’ve written non-fiction, including writing a monthly column for UXmatters magazine, where I share insights for the global UX design community. However, the itch to write fiction has always been there and I’ve been a life-long avid reader, having devoured everything from Cormac McCarthy to Jane Austen. I knew I wouldn’t be fulfilled unless I gave myself a chance, and so I started by writing a few short stories here and there to see how it would feel and to learn what it’s like to work with a fiction editor. When it came time to consider my debut novel, I admit I was overwhelmed. So, as what I tend to do in my professional life, I chose to make the problem smaller and focus on what I know and know well, which is our region and our incredible Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Doing so made it easier to take on the heady topic of time travel, which was no small task. And finally, I wanted to pay homage to our green spaces, which I feel are unsung and undersold. Though, in a way, I don’t want them becoming too popular! How did you come up with the idea for “The Towpath,” and what drew you to the suspense and time travel genres? As for the suspense side of the equation, I simply wanted to tell a story that got the heart pumping. As for time travel, there’s a deeper backstory. I’ve long been convinced that time doesn’t operate the way we think it does, and books such as Carlo Rovelli’s THE ORDER OF TIME have further cemented this conviction. But there’s a personal side of this too. When I was ten or so, my dad told me that he’d been fishing along the banks of the Cuyahoga River earlier in the day, alone, and he kept getting the sense that he was being watched. But whenever he’d turn to see who he knew was behind him, he’d see nothing but swaying reeds. He was in a hard-to-reach spot. It was early morning and there was a constant drizzle. Needless to say, he wasn’t expecting any company. Perhaps it was the breeze off the Cuyahoga playing tricks on him. Maybe a whitetail deer was passing along the ridge of the steep embankment above. But perhaps it was something else. Someone else. Watching. Now, I should mention that he told me this story after he’d previously described the various indigenous tribes who’d once called the Cuyahoga River Valley home. An association quickly formed in my ten-year-old brain. I feel the best stories always start with the question, “what if?” What if it wasn’t just a ghost watching my dad, but someone from the past—in the flesh? If so, how would that be possible? A story took root from there, and it set me on a journey that soon drove itself, demanding I tell a story that I hadn’t initially expected to tell. In fact, there’s a scene in “The Towpath” where a character is fishing at an out-of-the-way spot in the CVNP and feels as if she’s being watched. The book is set along the CVNP’s towpath. How important was the setting to the story, and what do you think it adds to the book? The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail isn’t the only familiar setting in the book, but it’s definitely a key one. Many of my favorite stories feature fast-paced scenes that leave you breathless, and again, get your heart racing—even literally—and the Towpath Trail lends itself well to one of the most suspenseful chase scenes in the book. There’s also an ethereal and even foreboding quality to the Cuyahoga Valley, especially in the
THE LATEST I’m happy to share that the paperback version of THE TOWPATH is available for pre-order now (ebook will be this Spring)! And while I’ve been waiting to share the cover design, the cat will be out of the bag anyway if you check it out on Amazon. The publishing world is still a mystery to me, and timing can be very difficult to understand as huge online marketplaces like Amazon and Barnes & Noble are governed by their own rules, processes, etc., and things drop without my knowledge unless I proactively go out and see what’s happening. COOL STUFF THAT MIGHT ONLY INTEREST ME Let’s delve into time travel for a moment, shall we? In The Towpath, things only get worse for you the longer you stay, the further you go back, and the more you attempt to meddle with your own past. Not only do you become marked, even putting the Earth’s creatures on high alert (yep, they want no part of you), you will look different too—at least, temporarily. I won’t give away how time travel happens, but let’s just say the physical effects may remind you of the weird story of the Children of Woolpit. That is, if you’re familiar with it. If not, allow me to bend your ear for a moment. In this bizarre historical account that took place in Suffolk, England, in the 12th century, a group of villagers came across a young boy and girl whose skin had been tinted a sickly green and they were acting strangely, if not temperamental. The kids didn’t speak any language that was recognizable to the villagers and were taken in by a local man who tried to feed them, but they refused to eat. Over time, they acclimated: their skin turning to their natural color and eating what food was available to them. The boy died young, but the girl adjusted to her new life. When she was eventually fluent in English, she said that she and her brother came from the land of St. Martin, which was a place of perpetual twilight where the sun never shone, and she did not recall how they made travel from their homeland to Suffolk. I also find it interesting, at least according to this Wikipedia entry, how the sister was described as being “very wanton and impudent.” There have been many attempts to theorize where the children came from, and some people have asserted that they came from underground and could even have had extraterrestrial origins. Other theories simply assert that the kids were malnourished, lost, and spoke an unfamiliar dialect or language. I won’t describe just how much this bizarre story has influenced the mechanics and consequences of time travel in The Towpath, but you’ll likely make some connections after having read the book, including how characters behave based upon their length of stay and what they do during those visits. WHAT’S UP NEXT I’ll admit that self-promotion is not a natural inclination for me. But I also get that it’s a necessary evil, even if my novel is going to be traditionally published by Collective Ink. From what I’m learning through my crash course on the world of fiction publishing, even authors published by the “Big Five” (Macmillian, Penguine Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster) still need to hit the proverbial streets, grow a following, and drum up interest. It’s also overwhelming just how many options authors need to consider for promotion and how they should strategize building interest for a book that could take several months to finally release. But I’m starting to get a handle on this and have made a deliberate decision to grow my audience through the following channels: Well, that’s all for this post. Until next time! Sapere Verdere. For more on The Towpath: NovelTime TravelThe TowpathSuspenseThrillerHistorylegendsAmazonBarnes & Noblesocial media
THE LATEST It’s been a minute since I last posted (in February). In this issue, I’ll share some ruminating thoughts on the recent solar eclipse that many of us experienced in North America—and the incredible coincidences needed for it to happen—plus, some historical reactions to these kinds of events (which are a bit scary), and a look back on some prior works that got me to where I am with my debut novel. REFLECTIONS ON THE APRIL 8 SOLAR ECLIPSE Were you along the path of the solar eclipse that happened on April 8? I was, from my vantagepoint in Cleveland, OH USA, and I am still marveling at how extraordinary the path of totality was. It was simultaneously dusk and dawn at one point, the diffused light that fell upon our neighborhood as surreal as a Dali painting. Then, the darkness of totality happened, the light posts lining in our neighborhood’s front yards winking on one-by-one to the tune of barking dogs and gasping humans. And when I say it was extraordinary, there was something that felt “designed” about it. Is it just me, or did you feel that way too? If you’re wondering where I’m going with this, let me explain by posing a question: what are the odds? What are the odds that the sun is 400 times larger than the moon, yet is 400 times further from the Earth than the moon; hence, making the two heavenly bodies identical in size—at least, from our minute vantagepoint on this spinning blue marble? The math is near perfect. How did nature, God, or whichever higher power you believe in create this? If your brain works the same way as mine, something about seeing the black disc of the moon slide past the brilliant sun—almost like an eye occluder covering one eye for a vision exam—felt purposeful. Then, as it perfectly covered the sun save for the slender corona, it felt like a divine design that we (or some other creatures) are meant to see and experience. Or perhaps there’s some other purpose that defies our knowledge or ability to understand it. Maybe it’s meant to be an occasional reminder, communicating, “Remember, all this can go away at any time. That precious life-giving star is all you’ve got. Appreciate what’s been given to you—don’t F it up.” I know these thoughts sound like tin-hat ruminations, but I couldn’t help but wonder… what are the odds? And why? HISTORICAL FREAK-OUTS If you lived back in 1806, your thought process might’ve been very different. And by what’s been recounted by local Northeast Ohio historians, your pre-knowledge of this incredible event could’ve led to your death. Take what happened with the Wyandot tribe in what is now a Cleveland metropark (Hinckley Reservation) and not far from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, where THE TOWPATH takes place. A Wyandot woman was able to predict a “great darkness” that would fall over the Earth. Her insistence of this freaked out the tribe and she became viewed as evil, or some kind of witch, and was later hanged over the nearby river for others to see: a warning. A couple of weeks later, when the eclipse DID happen, the tribe understandably got spooked and assumed it was the woman’s way of exacting posthumous vengeance. While this event of course ended tragically, it’s incredible that she was able to predict it—at all. She must have had uncanny knowledge of the movements and patterns of the Earth, moon, sun, other stars, and time itself. It makes my head spin to imagine just how she went about acquiring this knowledge and studying/understanding it to the degree that she could predict something of this nature. Then again, the ancient Mayans—who predated this North American Tribe by centuries—had remarkable knowledge of the stars, were exceptional mathematicians, and keen observers and recorders of time. So, there’s a part of me that also feels that we modern humans with all our glowing technology and conveniences have lost some important connections with our planet and no longer marvel at the heavenly events swirling around us—that is, if we’re even able to get away from our own light pollution. Hence, we tend to think it’s beyond comprehension that people of the past could understand and calculate these things because our own comfort and ignorance has gotten in the way, and this so happens to be a subtle theme in THE TOWPATH. In fact, because we can’t grasp it, we often assume it had to be aliens, divine intervention, or some force that gave our ancestors this special knowledge. Maybe that’s true… but maybe not? THE WRITING JOURNEY All this looking to the past has made me feel nostalgic, and I often overlook those past efforts that landed me where I am: which is on the cusp of releasing a debut novel. Had I not gotten my feet wet with some short stories, I doubt my writing and self-editing abilities would have landed me a traditional publishing contract. The following are a couple of works that I rarely, if ever, promote (they are FAR under the radar on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other distributor channels), but I’d like to share them with you nonetheless since they are part of me and my journey as a writer. And heck, maybe you’d like to check out these stories and their respective anthologies, which contain some great stories from some talented, unsung writers (wink wink, nudge nudge). My contributions: SHALLOWEEN Featured in GHOSTLIGHT, THE MAGAZINE OF TERROR Sam Haines is a cantankerous senior whose affinity for Halloween goes to the extremes—much to the chagrin of his immediate neighbors. Despite warnings from his wife to keep a “low profile,” Haines conjures up an antagonistic game of judgment for trick-or-treating children and their helicoptering parents. But is Haines the only antagonist on this cold and dark Hallows Eve night? Purchase the anthology on Amazon. REIGN, REIGN Featured in THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL: AN ANTHOLOGY OF DARK ROMANCE Recovering drug
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