Steel received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Kathleen Novak.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Steel was released February 15, 2022.
What’s the book’s first line?
The gun hung by the door where the men could see it.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
This is the story of a gun that hung on the wall and the son who fell in love and the miner who left to be a cop in Chicago. It is also the story of the son’s younger brother, who outlived everyone to tell what happened, how they adored their first-born Tony, how Tony found the prettiest girlfriend, strived to be a man, then fell away into a state of mind they did not foresee, and what it is to remember all—the house full and poor, their mother praying in Croatian, their immigrant father leading rough track-gang workers in the widest open iron ore pit in the world.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
My father’s family kept the secret of the oldest son’s destiny for almost a hundred years. Recently, I researched his life and have written my version of his story.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Steel is a beautiful love story and a reminder that humanity changes little over time. The challenges of immigrant families, the upsets of violence, even the role of guns remains surprisingly the same. The book is at once historical and immediate.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character?
Tony Babić is a young man whose arc in life becomes inexorably altered by the values and economic realities of his era. Perhaps he most resembles Romeo Montague.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I have been a poet all my adult life. I began writing narrative fiction fifteen years ago when a story from my childhood (of course) grabbed onto me and would not let go. I later re-wrote that first attempt into the novel Rare Birds which was published by The Permanent Press (TPP) in 2017. TPP also published Do Not Find Me and The Autobiography of Corrine Bernard: A Novel in 2016 and 2018 respectively. I have published many poems in literary magazines nationally.
I love to write.
It saves me.
I so enjoyed working with TPP, but Steel was not a book for them, and this time I wanted to control both the production and outreach. My upcoming book, also historical, tells the life of a prairie woman at the turn of the last century and may be right for a feminine press. Each book has its own journey. I will say that traditional and independent publishing each have their strengths (and stresses). I’m relieved that the industry now makes room for both.