LAKETOWN: a novel in stories received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Gerald DiPego.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
LAKETOWN: a novel in stories, publication date March 15, 2024.
What is the book’s first line?
“The man with three fists was Hank Wenslow, and all of this happened in the lake towns of northeastern Illinois in the 1950s.”
What is the book about?
In these four interconnecting stories, residents of an Illinois lake town in the 1950s move through deep love, loneliness, great joy and the mystical, as they discover the truths that linger just below the surface of everyday lives. A farm couple, a young newspaper man, an aging sign painter and a store owner, all carry us with them on their singular journeys.
What inspired you to write this book?
I had invented several fictional stories that all took place in the town where I came of age, and created stage readings of these tales with local actors. The stories were very meaningful to me, and I decided to give them a deeper and fuller treatment by linking them together into a novel in stories.
What is the main reason someone should read this book?
Each of the main characters moves through impactful journeys that go deep and alter their lives, and they are changed forever by these journeys. A reader will travel with them and find their own emotions entangled with each character’s experience, learning about themselves in the process.
What is the most distinctive thing about the main character?
Each of the main characters in the four stories is distinguished by a worry, a wanting, a wonder, a fear, a longing, and each story is a pathway toward what is needed for this character to become whole: a farming couple who want to find their way back to each other, a young man who needs to solve a mystery, a young girl who must forgive herself, an aging lonesome man who needs to find a connection, and a man who comes back the town to reconcile his past. Each of these needs is distinctive and formative to the character.
When did you first decide to become an author?
Some of my earliest memories are the books I read and the films I saw. I was so thrilled by these fictional stories, and I remember a time when I was twelve and began to wonder: Could I DO this? Could I MAKE a story? My very first stories, of wilderness and war and conflict, I took to school and read aloud to my closest buddies.
Is this the first book you’ve ever written?
This is my fifth book. The first three were novels published in the 1970s through the 1990s by New York publishing houses. After that, I wrote scripts for films that were produced through the years until I left the movie business. I also published a non-fiction book on the craft of writing. I wanted to publish this new book on my own and enjoy that experience.
What do you do for work?
I feel lucky that my work is my joy and the writing of fiction has been my sole endeavor since I was in my thirties.
What is the greatest piece of advice you can share with Indie authors?
Write from the deepest part of yourself and think of the books that reached inside of you and are still inside of you, and write for that level of experience – and speak with sureness and grace about your work.