If you would like your talent featured in Authors in Our Midst or Artists in Our Midst, send me an email message. Don’t be shy! I have no more Artists or Authors posts in the queue, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to be featured.
Let’s give a warm welcome back to Chris Gerrib, who has a new book available for order.
Author posts for two previous books: Pirates of Mars and One of Our Spaceships Is Missing.
My name is Chris Gerrib, and I’ve been reading Balloon Juice since John Cole was complaining about how we were in the process of hosing up the occupation of Iraq. When I comment (very occasionally now) it’s under the nym of cgerrib. (Yeah, original). This is my third appearance as an Artist in Our Midst, so hopefully I’ve got this thing figured out. I will let you be the judge of that.
My previous appearances were for my science fiction novels, of which I have four published. Now I’m here to shill talk about my first non-SF novel, Strawberry Gold, out this week.
I blame my dad for this novel. Don’t get me wrong – he’s a great person and dad, but not much of a reader. He finds science fiction especially difficult. So the first two or three times he told me “you should write a regular book” (meaning not science fiction) I ignored him. But one day I thought, “you know, he taught me how to use a spoon. Maybe I ought to humor him.”
I grew up in and my parents still live in Westville, IL, a small East Central Illinois town. On one of my visits back home, my parents suggested that I should visit the Westville Il Depot and Historical Museum. The museum is in a small railroad depot and there’s not much to see. However, I did learn something from that visit, namely that the earliest mention of Westville in the broader world was a one-paragraph news article from 1894 about a railroad strike and the strikers blocking the tracks. At the time I thought it was just a neat bit of trivia.
Then, in March of 2018, I got laid off and was unemployed for nearly eight months. One fine summer morning I found myself in the Geneva, IL Public Library with Don Hunt, leader of my writing group, participating in a Writing Jam. This is, for the uninitiated, an event when writers get out of the house, go somewhere, and write.
Sitting in the sunny main reading room, I wrote what is now Chapter One of this book. A gunman, externally presentable but full of violence, is taking a suitcase full of gold coins to Chicago. We don’t know why but given the man’s past it’s presumably not entirely legitimate. The striking railroad workers have put up a barricade to block the tracks, with a handful staying nearby to prevent the train’s engineers from clearing it.
Our gunman’s not happy – what he thinks is indigestion is bothering him – but to move things along he decides to get off, walk past the blockage, and resume his journey. Unfortunately for him, it’s what’s ailing him isn’t indigestion – it’s a heart attack. He dies and is buried in an anonymous grave, but not before he hides the gold.
The rest of the story revolves around that gold, hidden somewhere in Strawberry Creek. In 1986, Patrick Kowalski needs that gold to prevent his parent’s house from being foreclosed. Vincent Bisceglie III thinks that gold represents money that was stolen from his grandfather. (Note to self: next time, pick an easier name than “Bisceglie” to type!) Neither young man is sure the gold ever existed, let alone if there any of it left. But they’re both desperate enough to give it a go. During this hunt for the gold, both of them, high school seniors in the fictional small town of Eastville, learn a lot about their respective family histories.
Authors get asked two questions. The first one is “where do you get your ideas?” and I’ve hopefully answered that. The second one is “how did you get published?”
When I get asked this question, I always feel like the person asking me is expecting an answer that involves eye of newt, candles, Latin, and a moonlit night. The reality is much less exciting. I paid for a subscription to Doutrope, a site that lists agents and publishers. I searched for people who handled mysteries, then went to their websites and followed the instructions on how to submit.
Looking at my records, I sent this out to eight publishers. Finally, Karen Fuller, owner of World Castle Publishing accepted it in January of 2024. We’ve never met in person or even had a phone conversation – it’s all been via email. This slow and unglamorous process is how most books get made.
There’s some salty language and violence, so the book is not for little kids, but Juicers and high schoolers should be able to handle it. I hope the gang here finds it to their liking. You can visit my website to buy this book and my other books via Amazon or Indiebound.
Thanks to John Cole and Watergirl for this opportunity and keep up the faith!
WaterGirl
Hi Chris, let us know when you get here? thanks.
cgerrib
@WaterGirl: I’m here, at least until the Illini basketball game is over. BTW, thanks again for the opportunity.
Ph64n
I live over in Champaign-Urbana ( Go Tigers!), and I look forward to reading a novel set in Westfield (Go Tigers!). You may have changed the name, but did you change the Mascot? So many schools in the western part of east central Illinois seem to be nicknamed the Tigers, there must be a good reason.
wonkie
Congratulations on finding a publisher. I use Kindle Direct mostly because at my age–71–I’m too damn old to invest a decade in looking for one. The cover is compelling and the story start you give is too. I like stories that are layered through time. Best wishes and happy holidays.
Ph64n
Watergirl!, I’m in Slovenia right now, and can’t get the Border War on local TV. Please post spoilers!
KatKapCC
Hey, I’d say it’s pretty original, since I don’t think I’ve ever seen your last name anywhere before!
The novel sounds intriguing! I love a good “small town family secrets” kind of situation.
cgerrib
@Ph64n: Illini 16 Mizzu 12 at the first TV timeout!
Professor Bigfoot
I prefer SF, so I went and bought “One Of Our Spaceships Is Missing.” So there. Nyaaah. ;)
cgerrib
@Ph64n: I *think* I changed it to Lions. I did that a lot, actually – Westville has an American Legion, Eastville has VFW, for example.
Miss Bianca
Sounds great! Since you mention teenage protagonists, would you characterize the book as YA? Not that it would matter to my interest in checking it out, just curious.
Ph64n
@cgerrib: I will know that you mean Go Tigers!, even if, for editorial reasons it reads, Go Lions!
Have you ever read any of Steve Kuehn’s mysteries? He’s a U of I archaeologist who sets his books on sites that he (and, coincidentally, my wife) have worked on. Lots of solid Midwesterns.
cgerrib
@Miss Bianca: No, it’s not YA – there’s no teenage angst. More of a coming-to-age in that both 18-year-olds have to take on adult responsibilities.
cgerrib
@Ph64n: Never heard of him but I just bought Sunken Dreams so I guess I’ll find out!
Renie
Thanks for the mention of Duotrope.com Sent it along to my son who writes. Mostly he’s been published in short story collections but as many writers, also working on the ‘novel’. He had one editor look at one of his books but they wanted him to change so many aspects of it, he said “no thanks”. He’s also mostly science fiction.
ETA: My son already subscribes to the website. LOL
WaterGirl
@Ph64n: I am not catching your drift on that. I’m sure I should know what you’re talking about, but I don’t. Fill me in?
cgerrib
@WaterGirl: University of Illinois and Missouri are playing basketball now. It’s a big holiday game the “Border War.”
WaterGirl
@cgerrib: Thanks!
You might think I would know that since i live in Champaign!
Timill
Or type BSKG (in caps) and search-and-replace when done.
cgerrib
@WaterGirl: They are playing in St. Louis – and actually it’s being billed as the Braggin’ Rights game.
Ph64n
@WaterGirl: I misread the comment. The border war in this context is Missouri vs Illinois basketball. I am on the equivalent of a 300 baud modem overseas, and crave news.
Ph64n
@cgerrib: Of course, the border war is Jayhawks – Tigers. 40 years in Illinois and I’m still a Missouri fan at heart
cgerrib
@Ph64n: Illini 80 Mizzu 77 final. Illini was up as much as 10 points then blew a lead – several ties in the last 10 minutes.
WTFGhost
Good to see an Author in our Midst.
Had a weird reaction, I felt I’d share. I used to be able to write. I wrote a *terrible* novel, but, that’s because I was already *losing* the ability to write, other than in very short dribs and drabs. At my best, I see that it could have been *brilliant* – even if only to me, today, which is what matters most.
Every time you get in the zone, respect that you still have that ability. Don’t torment yourself over plain old *writer’s block*… too much. (Because, hey, it’s writer’s block, you can’t *not* be tormented.)
And yes, it’s far better to have loved, and lost, than not to have loved at all, but damn when your love turns into a slowly exploding land mine, so you’re not a “has been” but a “never coulda”… respect the craft, and seize the joy.
Cgerrib
Wine break – at sleepy creek winery! (Not seeing a way to embed photos or I would)
Timill
@Cgerrib: There’s no way to embed photos (unless you’re an FP – a deliberate design decision) but if you can put them on eg Flickr you can link to them.
Cgerrib
@Timill: thanks but that sounds Too Hard at wine o’clock on Sunday! :-)
Raven
I was born in Urbana and returned there in1969 until 1984. Annually we would convoy to the Possum Trot Tavern for the Turtle Races. Westville had a coal mine and a tavern that, legend has it, didn’t have a door because it was always open.
Raven
Go Illini, beating Mizzou never gets old! 21 for 22 at the line and we missed the last free throw! Fortunately they bricked the three and we won!!!
Cgerrib
@Raven: I lived there until 1989 and never heard of the door-less tavern. I think that was hype for the out-of-towners.
having said that, my great grandfather owned the movie theater in town. Per my dad, his Saturday night “staff meetings” (“staff” = family) started with the opening of a whiskey bottle and throwing away the cap. (The cap was not going to be necessary… ;-)
Raven
@Timill: You can link to photos from Flickr by going to a pic, selecting view all and the right clicking on the image. It gives you a blind url that you can then use the link function from the edit menu.
Raven
@Cgerrib: It was a legend at the House of Chin!
Timill
@Raven: Thanks!
raven
@Timill: Here’s Artemis.
WaterGirl
@raven: I see that Artie is mostly sticking to the part of the furniture that is NOT covered with the doggie protector.
Good dog!
Miss Bianca
@Cgerrib: Boy, I wish *my* theater’s staff meetings went like that!//
Altho’ gin is more likely to be my tipple than whiskey…
Cgerrib
@Raven: so I’m talking to my dad and he said he heard of the no-door bar in Westville. Supposedly it was on a hill just outside of town but he was never in it.
I still think it’s an urban or in this case rural legend.
Cgerrib
@Miss Bianca: to be clear, this was a movie theater. Alas, TV killed the business back in the 1960s.
Miss Bianca
@Cgerrib: My theater is, in fact, a movie theater. And we have a live theater company in-house as well.
We’ve been having terrible problems with our projector lately, so sometimes I wonder how long we’ll be able to keep it up…
Cgerrib
@Miss Bianca: oh wow!
Sherparick
Congratulations Chris on the new book.
Raven
@Cgerrib: Thanks for checking!