Greg Dillensnyder's Blog: My Novels
December 21, 2020
Progress on Novel #3
I’m making headway on my next novel. As much as I’ve enjoyed the protagonist, Aubrey McKenna, in my first two books, I’m attempting something new with this one. Aubrey’s next adventure will have to wait for a bit.
With five chapters done so far, the new book is taking shape as a ‘homecoming’ tale — an estranged son returning home in the final days of his father’s life after a bitter lifetime separation.
Will it be a tale of more anger and recrimination or one of healing and psychological rapprochement? Will the father and son be able to bridge the shocking event that brought a thirty-year chasm in their relationship? I’m hoping for the latter, but we’ll see where the story takes me.
With five chapters done so far, the new book is taking shape as a ‘homecoming’ tale — an estranged son returning home in the final days of his father’s life after a bitter lifetime separation.
Will it be a tale of more anger and recrimination or one of healing and psychological rapprochement? Will the father and son be able to bridge the shocking event that brought a thirty-year chasm in their relationship? I’m hoping for the latter, but we’ll see where the story takes me.
December 1, 2020
AllAuthor.com Book Cover Contest
Just found out that my book cover for 'The Loner' has been selected in the first round of the Book Cover contest that AllAuthor.com does each month. There will be four more rounds of voting over the next 4 weeks to select the final winners.
Please take a few seconds and vote for my cover. Click on the link below to vote:
https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-mo...
Please take a few seconds and vote for my cover. Click on the link below to vote:
https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-mo...
November 28, 2020
Psychological Aspects of Fiction Writing 2 — Author Visibility in Characters and Plot
In the first offering of this series, I wrote about the relational attachment that an author can develop with her/his characters while writing a novel. In today’s blog, I explore another ‘author-to-writing’ relational connection that bears more risk for the quality of the final written product.
When writing a novel, an author must always keep in mind the final goal of the work. In most cases, that goal is the maximum satisfaction of the reader. Toward that objective, it goes without saying that the story must generate sufficient interest in both plot and characters to maintain the reader’s investment to the end of the action. Hopefully, the result for the reader is the reward of satisfaction for the time spent reading. This is not always merely an ‘entertainment’ type of satisfaction. It can be enlightenment, inspiration, terror, joy, or many other desired emotional responses.
From the fictional works I’ve read, my sense is that sometimes the author’s intent can wander beyond that primary goal. There may be one or more secondary objectives, whether these are consciously intended or not. And these secondary goals can sometimes be inappropriately in service of meeting some psychological need of the author. And this becomes a problem when these factors are in conflict with what ‘works’ for the story.
When it comes to issues of social import, I have to admit that I can be quite opinionated. Attribute this to my training and experience as a social worker, my early religious background, a parochial, small-town upbringing, or my involvement in social causes over many years. These all play a role in how I think about anything that makes its way through the filters of my brain. In my previous blog, I discussed how my perception of the qualities that constitute a ‘strong woman’ influenced how I developed the character Aubrey McKenna, the protagonist in my two novels to date. As I wrote both of her books, I was also aware that my psychological involvement with the social issues that emerged in the plots also influenced the storyline and how I wrote the characters’ behaviors and descriptions.
Now, this, I came to realize, can be a bit of a ‘tightrope’ performance for a writer. While I make every effort to adhere to that primary principle of fiction writing being for entertainment, I soon learned from what I was producing that I also wanted to inform, and perhaps persuade, on some of the plots’ implications for standards of fairness, justice or downright bigotry. For Aubrey McKenna to be a woman of substance, she would likely have strong opinions on issues of her time and place. So, in Murder at Mountain Tavern, she expressed herself on the abortion issue, male dominance in her sphere of policing, and a central thread in the plot involved sexual abuse of a minor and Aubrey’s passionate concern about the effect of sexual violence on women.
The ‘tightrope’ for a novel writer in this is that in addressing such issues, one must ensure that the intent to inform or persuade does not overwhelm the goal of entertainment and interest. My sense is that this boundary was more of a challenge for me in my second novel, ‘The Loner,’ than in the first, ‘Murder at Mountain Tavern.’ Perhaps this was informed by the social upheaval in our country that was present during the period when I was writing the second book.
How much focus on a topic is too much when the topics include white supremacy and systemic racism — issues that are prominent in “The Loner?” After reading my first draft, I had that feeling that a writer wants to avoid — the gut twinge that says, “Okay, maybe too far.” I knew how strongly I felt about these issues. Was I as an author too visible in the story? Was I projecting too much of my own positions on these issues into Aubrey, the other characters, and the plot? To my mind, excess in that is something a fiction writer must avoid at all costs. The reader needs to be able to clearly see the characters and the plot without being encumbered by sidelong thoughts of, “Oh, that’s how the author feels about this or that issue.” The story should carry the day.
For example, the maleficence of Aubrey’s antagonist in “The Loner” evolves throughout the plot. This was my intent. Evil can often not be fully comprehended at first sight; its true nature emerges only with additional exposure. I wanted this to be the case with Daniel ‘Red’ Strauss, the novel’s white supremacy advocate. “Well, I think that’s inbounds,” I told myself. It’s reasonable that a villain should reflect extremes; better to evoke a reader’s revulsion and disdain. But here again, take that too far, and the character becomes a caricature and not believable.
And then, the issue of ‘how far is too far’ arose for me in writing a chapter in which the protagonists celebrate the Thanksgiving meal together, in the midst of their ongoing investigation of the possible plot of Strauss’ white supremacy group. In my original writing of this chapter, Aubrey and her cohorts decide to avoid discussing the actual investigation as a device for keeping the holiday gathering out of the ‘talking about work’ sphere. Instead, they explore the more general topic of systemic racism, prompted by how this seems to be at the root of the threat that they are investigating. This became the dominant focus of that chapter.
In my edit rereading of this, and with feedback from beta readers, I decided that this was likely out of bounds for both plot continuity and soapbox preaching. My opinions and my psychological involvement with both the plot and the characters on these issues were not just overly visible in that chapter. They were predominant in its tone and content. It is for this reason that I decided to excise the bulk of that chapter from the novel.
However, I must note that while I did rework the Thanksgiving chapter in the novel itself, I felt that the conversation that the players had in the original version was too important to not address in some way. So I included this as an outtake in ‘Additional Content’ after the end of the book. My self-indulgence is at work in this, I suppose. But, at least, I give readers the option of reading that material without their having to incorporate it into the story.
I suppose time and feedback from readers will determine to what degree I have succeeded in my ‘tightrope’ quest for the type of author psychological invisibility that I have tried to achieve in my writings.
When writing a novel, an author must always keep in mind the final goal of the work. In most cases, that goal is the maximum satisfaction of the reader. Toward that objective, it goes without saying that the story must generate sufficient interest in both plot and characters to maintain the reader’s investment to the end of the action. Hopefully, the result for the reader is the reward of satisfaction for the time spent reading. This is not always merely an ‘entertainment’ type of satisfaction. It can be enlightenment, inspiration, terror, joy, or many other desired emotional responses.
From the fictional works I’ve read, my sense is that sometimes the author’s intent can wander beyond that primary goal. There may be one or more secondary objectives, whether these are consciously intended or not. And these secondary goals can sometimes be inappropriately in service of meeting some psychological need of the author. And this becomes a problem when these factors are in conflict with what ‘works’ for the story.
When it comes to issues of social import, I have to admit that I can be quite opinionated. Attribute this to my training and experience as a social worker, my early religious background, a parochial, small-town upbringing, or my involvement in social causes over many years. These all play a role in how I think about anything that makes its way through the filters of my brain. In my previous blog, I discussed how my perception of the qualities that constitute a ‘strong woman’ influenced how I developed the character Aubrey McKenna, the protagonist in my two novels to date. As I wrote both of her books, I was also aware that my psychological involvement with the social issues that emerged in the plots also influenced the storyline and how I wrote the characters’ behaviors and descriptions.
Now, this, I came to realize, can be a bit of a ‘tightrope’ performance for a writer. While I make every effort to adhere to that primary principle of fiction writing being for entertainment, I soon learned from what I was producing that I also wanted to inform, and perhaps persuade, on some of the plots’ implications for standards of fairness, justice or downright bigotry. For Aubrey McKenna to be a woman of substance, she would likely have strong opinions on issues of her time and place. So, in Murder at Mountain Tavern, she expressed herself on the abortion issue, male dominance in her sphere of policing, and a central thread in the plot involved sexual abuse of a minor and Aubrey’s passionate concern about the effect of sexual violence on women.
The ‘tightrope’ for a novel writer in this is that in addressing such issues, one must ensure that the intent to inform or persuade does not overwhelm the goal of entertainment and interest. My sense is that this boundary was more of a challenge for me in my second novel, ‘The Loner,’ than in the first, ‘Murder at Mountain Tavern.’ Perhaps this was informed by the social upheaval in our country that was present during the period when I was writing the second book.
How much focus on a topic is too much when the topics include white supremacy and systemic racism — issues that are prominent in “The Loner?” After reading my first draft, I had that feeling that a writer wants to avoid — the gut twinge that says, “Okay, maybe too far.” I knew how strongly I felt about these issues. Was I as an author too visible in the story? Was I projecting too much of my own positions on these issues into Aubrey, the other characters, and the plot? To my mind, excess in that is something a fiction writer must avoid at all costs. The reader needs to be able to clearly see the characters and the plot without being encumbered by sidelong thoughts of, “Oh, that’s how the author feels about this or that issue.” The story should carry the day.
For example, the maleficence of Aubrey’s antagonist in “The Loner” evolves throughout the plot. This was my intent. Evil can often not be fully comprehended at first sight; its true nature emerges only with additional exposure. I wanted this to be the case with Daniel ‘Red’ Strauss, the novel’s white supremacy advocate. “Well, I think that’s inbounds,” I told myself. It’s reasonable that a villain should reflect extremes; better to evoke a reader’s revulsion and disdain. But here again, take that too far, and the character becomes a caricature and not believable.
And then, the issue of ‘how far is too far’ arose for me in writing a chapter in which the protagonists celebrate the Thanksgiving meal together, in the midst of their ongoing investigation of the possible plot of Strauss’ white supremacy group. In my original writing of this chapter, Aubrey and her cohorts decide to avoid discussing the actual investigation as a device for keeping the holiday gathering out of the ‘talking about work’ sphere. Instead, they explore the more general topic of systemic racism, prompted by how this seems to be at the root of the threat that they are investigating. This became the dominant focus of that chapter.
In my edit rereading of this, and with feedback from beta readers, I decided that this was likely out of bounds for both plot continuity and soapbox preaching. My opinions and my psychological involvement with both the plot and the characters on these issues were not just overly visible in that chapter. They were predominant in its tone and content. It is for this reason that I decided to excise the bulk of that chapter from the novel.
However, I must note that while I did rework the Thanksgiving chapter in the novel itself, I felt that the conversation that the players had in the original version was too important to not address in some way. So I included this as an outtake in ‘Additional Content’ after the end of the book. My self-indulgence is at work in this, I suppose. But, at least, I give readers the option of reading that material without their having to incorporate it into the story.
I suppose time and feedback from readers will determine to what degree I have succeeded in my ‘tightrope’ quest for the type of author psychological invisibility that I have tried to achieve in my writings.
November 20, 2020
Psychological Aspects of Fiction Writing 1 -- The Author-to-Character Relationship
As someone who has spent a forty-year career as a psychotherapist and now writes novels, I find the psychological aspects of fiction writing fascinating. I’m considering writing a few blog installments on several types of psychological interplay that I have discovered in how I experience the writing process. I hope this might be interesting to others as well.
For me, a particularly interesting psychological dynamic relates to the ‘relationship’ of sorts that seems to develop between an author and her/his characters. To date, I have completed two novels, both with the leading player named Aubrey McKenna. I recall when Aubrey was a mere blank slate to me. At the start of writing the first novel, Murder at Mountain Tavern, I had a general idea of the storyline, but for my main character, I only knew that I wanted Aubrey McKenna to be a strong woman figure. As her character developed, I found myself visualizing Aubrey — age, physical appearance, personality traits. It was as if she developed somewhat effortlessly as I inserted her into one or another plot action. At times, I had the uncanny sense that Aubrey was informing me on some level of how she would behave in the situation that the plot called for. And before long, this interplay between us was the beginning of what I see now as my ‘personification’ of her in how I have come to perceive her.
I know from my reading experiences over a lifetime that in the process of reading (as opposed to viewing a character in a movie or TV show), one forms a mental image of a written fictional character as part of ‘observing’ the story as it develops. In addition to gaining that image of what the character might look like, one also becomes involved in her/his successes and failures, hopes and beliefs, values and goals. As readers, if the story and players are good enough, we become emotionally invested in those characters whom we like. It seems to me that there is an additional layer of psychological connection with a character for a writer.
Penning a character brings additional involvement over merely ‘reading’ that character in a written story; it adds the dimension of creating her/him. There is a particular ‘realness’ that I, as a writer, begin to attribute to my characters as their plot advances; they become less opaque and more defined. I listen to how they might inform me about their authenticity. How might they react in a given situation? How might they express themselves in dialogue? On another level, my writing effort is not just about creating what I hope will be a good story. It is also about giving the protagonists their ‘lives’ — periods of ‘existence’ that they might find worthy of them.
Of course, the therapist in me knows that Aubrey McKenna is purely fictional and has no objective reality other than what takes shape in the recesses of my mind. As I constructed her in the first book, I knew that I was giving her attributes that I had come to admire in the women that I have known throughout my life. For the most part, these women were feminist activist friends. One of note was a trail-blazing police officer who was the first female detective of the county Rape Squad in the district attorney’s office in substantial, metropolitan Allegheny County, PA, where I live. There was always a sharp crustiness about her that I so appreciated. I knew that Aubrey had to have that quality, along with the persistence, dedication, and commitment to principle that my friend brought to her real-life job.
Many of the women that I worked with during the 1970s feminist movement, without question, had the indomitable strength that I wanted Aubrey to possess. But many also came to that strength by way of their own personal pain — domestic violence, rape, employment discrimination, homophobia. So Aubrey, too, in my mind, had to have experienced and surmounted similar challenges on her path of resilience that forged her into a middle-aged, true-grit detective who is still actively working —struggling at times — with her own emotional demons — both current and past.
I wanted Aubrey to be unapologetic about her commitments, her point of view, and dogged in her quest for fairness and justice, not unlike her forebearers in my personal experiences. But I also wanted her to have the strength of character to be open to acknowledging her own mistakes and short-comings. She also needed to be one who would reasonably consider the merits of those who were unlike her in some way or disagreed with her. Yet, in the end, Aubrey McKenna needed to be a woman who would not suffer fools lightly, nor would she cower to any who would obstruct her quests for justice.
So in sum, I acknowledge that Aubrey McKenna, in all of her manifestations, is merely a configuration of all of the characteristics that I wanted to imbue her with — the product of my brain synapses working in some creative concert transformed into words on a typed page. Yet, on another level, I remain grateful to her for her very interactive participation in her own development. And she is a woman of note whom I am glad to have come to know.
For me, a particularly interesting psychological dynamic relates to the ‘relationship’ of sorts that seems to develop between an author and her/his characters. To date, I have completed two novels, both with the leading player named Aubrey McKenna. I recall when Aubrey was a mere blank slate to me. At the start of writing the first novel, Murder at Mountain Tavern, I had a general idea of the storyline, but for my main character, I only knew that I wanted Aubrey McKenna to be a strong woman figure. As her character developed, I found myself visualizing Aubrey — age, physical appearance, personality traits. It was as if she developed somewhat effortlessly as I inserted her into one or another plot action. At times, I had the uncanny sense that Aubrey was informing me on some level of how she would behave in the situation that the plot called for. And before long, this interplay between us was the beginning of what I see now as my ‘personification’ of her in how I have come to perceive her.
I know from my reading experiences over a lifetime that in the process of reading (as opposed to viewing a character in a movie or TV show), one forms a mental image of a written fictional character as part of ‘observing’ the story as it develops. In addition to gaining that image of what the character might look like, one also becomes involved in her/his successes and failures, hopes and beliefs, values and goals. As readers, if the story and players are good enough, we become emotionally invested in those characters whom we like. It seems to me that there is an additional layer of psychological connection with a character for a writer.
Penning a character brings additional involvement over merely ‘reading’ that character in a written story; it adds the dimension of creating her/him. There is a particular ‘realness’ that I, as a writer, begin to attribute to my characters as their plot advances; they become less opaque and more defined. I listen to how they might inform me about their authenticity. How might they react in a given situation? How might they express themselves in dialogue? On another level, my writing effort is not just about creating what I hope will be a good story. It is also about giving the protagonists their ‘lives’ — periods of ‘existence’ that they might find worthy of them.
Of course, the therapist in me knows that Aubrey McKenna is purely fictional and has no objective reality other than what takes shape in the recesses of my mind. As I constructed her in the first book, I knew that I was giving her attributes that I had come to admire in the women that I have known throughout my life. For the most part, these women were feminist activist friends. One of note was a trail-blazing police officer who was the first female detective of the county Rape Squad in the district attorney’s office in substantial, metropolitan Allegheny County, PA, where I live. There was always a sharp crustiness about her that I so appreciated. I knew that Aubrey had to have that quality, along with the persistence, dedication, and commitment to principle that my friend brought to her real-life job.
Many of the women that I worked with during the 1970s feminist movement, without question, had the indomitable strength that I wanted Aubrey to possess. But many also came to that strength by way of their own personal pain — domestic violence, rape, employment discrimination, homophobia. So Aubrey, too, in my mind, had to have experienced and surmounted similar challenges on her path of resilience that forged her into a middle-aged, true-grit detective who is still actively working —struggling at times — with her own emotional demons — both current and past.
I wanted Aubrey to be unapologetic about her commitments, her point of view, and dogged in her quest for fairness and justice, not unlike her forebearers in my personal experiences. But I also wanted her to have the strength of character to be open to acknowledging her own mistakes and short-comings. She also needed to be one who would reasonably consider the merits of those who were unlike her in some way or disagreed with her. Yet, in the end, Aubrey McKenna needed to be a woman who would not suffer fools lightly, nor would she cower to any who would obstruct her quests for justice.
So in sum, I acknowledge that Aubrey McKenna, in all of her manifestations, is merely a configuration of all of the characteristics that I wanted to imbue her with — the product of my brain synapses working in some creative concert transformed into words on a typed page. Yet, on another level, I remain grateful to her for her very interactive participation in her own development. And she is a woman of note whom I am glad to have come to know.
October 26, 2020
The Loner - Publication Announcement
The Loner - the second Aubrey McKenna Detective Mystery is now available on Amazon.
https://smile.amazon.com/Loner-McKenn...
View the Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKbsh...
Aubrey McKenna, Chief Investigator for the Schuylkill County District Attorney, is approaching a ‘crossroads’ decision about her career when she accepts an invitation to evaluate strange middle-of-the-night activity on Graffiti Highway in deserted Centralia, Pennsylvania. A crime cartel’s sinister logo has unexpectedly appeared among the colorful mile-long smorgasbord of other drawings on the old, abandoned highway.
An unlikely Centralia informant reports strange night lights related to the logo’s location, and he has alarming premonitions that predict an impending catastrophic event to befall eastern Pennsylvania. The ominous gang symbol, if genuine, could portend that a new, perilous threat might be looming from an infamous drug and human trafficking syndicate making its way into the area.
While McKenna is considering whether these vague reports are even worthy of investigation, she gradually uncovers evidence suggesting a convoluted threat to her eastern Pennsylvania county. But is it real or just a figment of her informant’s imagination? Can she figure all of that out in time to avert disaster…if there really is one coming?
Confronting her innate skepticism about the ‘other-worldly’ aspects of her informant’s source of clues, she must transcend her own preconceptions of human differences to get to the root of what is really happening on Graffiti Highway. With her true-grit, no-nonsense style, she has to muster everything she’s ever learned about forensic psychology and investigation to keep ahead of what might become a horrendous cataclysm.
https://smile.amazon.com/Loner-McKenn...
View the Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKbsh...
Aubrey McKenna, Chief Investigator for the Schuylkill County District Attorney, is approaching a ‘crossroads’ decision about her career when she accepts an invitation to evaluate strange middle-of-the-night activity on Graffiti Highway in deserted Centralia, Pennsylvania. A crime cartel’s sinister logo has unexpectedly appeared among the colorful mile-long smorgasbord of other drawings on the old, abandoned highway.
An unlikely Centralia informant reports strange night lights related to the logo’s location, and he has alarming premonitions that predict an impending catastrophic event to befall eastern Pennsylvania. The ominous gang symbol, if genuine, could portend that a new, perilous threat might be looming from an infamous drug and human trafficking syndicate making its way into the area.
While McKenna is considering whether these vague reports are even worthy of investigation, she gradually uncovers evidence suggesting a convoluted threat to her eastern Pennsylvania county. But is it real or just a figment of her informant’s imagination? Can she figure all of that out in time to avert disaster…if there really is one coming?
Confronting her innate skepticism about the ‘other-worldly’ aspects of her informant’s source of clues, she must transcend her own preconceptions of human differences to get to the root of what is really happening on Graffiti Highway. With her true-grit, no-nonsense style, she has to muster everything she’s ever learned about forensic psychology and investigation to keep ahead of what might become a horrendous cataclysm.
July 12, 2020
Author Interview - Western PA Book Festival
Thanks to the Western PA Book Festival for featuring my interview with them on their website today:
http://www.westpabookfestival.com/202...
http://www.westpabookfestival.com/202...
June 13, 2020
The Loner - Pre-publication Trailer
Working hard on the final edits to the new Aubrey McKenna Detective Mystery, "The Loner." I hope to have it out by August. In the meantime, here is a teaser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYP6c...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYP6c...
January 4, 2020
The Loner - My Novel in Progress
After many years of evacuation of the residents of Centralia, PA, in 2009 Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell ordered the final eviction of the town’s few remaining occupants. Besieged by smoldering underground mine fires, the small, former anthracite mining town was deemed unsafe for human habitation. The air had become toxic, and unpredictable cave-ins swallowed large chunks of property, almost killing a young boy playing in his backyard. Smoke and flames pierced the ground surface during the day in many places and created eerie illumination of the landscape by night. Due to sink holes, the main state highway through the town had been closed and traffic rerouted through a bypass around the town.
The seven remaining die-hard residents successfully sued the state to save their family homes, many of which had been handed down through several generations of those who worked the surrounding coal mines. Today, the closed section of State Route 61 is a mecca for graffiti artists who have painted a mile-long, interactive mural on it’s fissured, macadam surface; it is known as Graffiti Highway.
In my upcoming novel, expected in 2020 (locations are real but all character and stories are fictional), Ned Harper has survived on his own for his entire life amid the desolation of Centralia. In 2019, strange drawings appear on Graffiti Highway near his home. Dreams and premonitions which portend much greater devastation to befall the region that he loves wrack Ned’s sleep. His adopted Irish Setter, Rusty, seems to sense something sinister in those who are meeting under the cloak of night and leaving the symbols on Graffiti Highway.
Ned solicits the help of famed crime investigator Aubrey McKenna, since the graffiti suggests that it may be the work of a crime syndicate known for drugs and human trafficking. Perhaps they are gaining a foothold in the county, and that would be a major crime threat to the region. McKenna and her cohorts never expect what they discover, with Ned’s help, in their investigation of this possible, impending threat. Uncovering a circuitous plot of international proportions, they rush to prevent catastrophic harm which is about to befall the residents of eastern Pennsylvania.
The seven remaining die-hard residents successfully sued the state to save their family homes, many of which had been handed down through several generations of those who worked the surrounding coal mines. Today, the closed section of State Route 61 is a mecca for graffiti artists who have painted a mile-long, interactive mural on it’s fissured, macadam surface; it is known as Graffiti Highway.
In my upcoming novel, expected in 2020 (locations are real but all character and stories are fictional), Ned Harper has survived on his own for his entire life amid the desolation of Centralia. In 2019, strange drawings appear on Graffiti Highway near his home. Dreams and premonitions which portend much greater devastation to befall the region that he loves wrack Ned’s sleep. His adopted Irish Setter, Rusty, seems to sense something sinister in those who are meeting under the cloak of night and leaving the symbols on Graffiti Highway.
Ned solicits the help of famed crime investigator Aubrey McKenna, since the graffiti suggests that it may be the work of a crime syndicate known for drugs and human trafficking. Perhaps they are gaining a foothold in the county, and that would be a major crime threat to the region. McKenna and her cohorts never expect what they discover, with Ned’s help, in their investigation of this possible, impending threat. Uncovering a circuitous plot of international proportions, they rush to prevent catastrophic harm which is about to befall the residents of eastern Pennsylvania.
January 30, 2019
Recollections of the Mahanoy Plane
Recollections of the Mahanoy Plane
When writing Murder at Mountain Tavern, I relied on childhood memories of growing up in Frackville, Pennsylvania, the namesake of the town Mountain City, which is the site for most of the story’s plot. In describing Aubrey McKenna’s (main character) explorations of the town, I refer of points of interest such as the Mountain Tavern, a real site on Broad Mountain where the novel’s fictional murder takes place.
One other significant geographical reference in the story is to the Mahanoy Plane, an actual site in historic Frackville where anthracite coal was hauled in the late 1800s to early 1900s from the Mahanoy Valley below up the side of Broad Mountain to Frackville for distribution to market.
During the 1950s my friends and I spent many hours exploring the ruins of the buildings at the head of the incline which had been an engineering marvel in its heyday. Unknown to most, other than Frackville locals, the site was designated as historically significant by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission with a historical marker in 2007.The attached link is to a current video exploration of the ruins of the original buildings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSXvV...
When writing Murder at Mountain Tavern, I relied on childhood memories of growing up in Frackville, Pennsylvania, the namesake of the town Mountain City, which is the site for most of the story’s plot. In describing Aubrey McKenna’s (main character) explorations of the town, I refer of points of interest such as the Mountain Tavern, a real site on Broad Mountain where the novel’s fictional murder takes place.
One other significant geographical reference in the story is to the Mahanoy Plane, an actual site in historic Frackville where anthracite coal was hauled in the late 1800s to early 1900s from the Mahanoy Valley below up the side of Broad Mountain to Frackville for distribution to market.
During the 1950s my friends and I spent many hours exploring the ruins of the buildings at the head of the incline which had been an engineering marvel in its heyday. Unknown to most, other than Frackville locals, the site was designated as historically significant by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission with a historical marker in 2007.The attached link is to a current video exploration of the ruins of the original buildings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSXvV...
October 22, 2017
Mountain City (Frackville) Memories – Blog Update #6
Mud Run Dam - Featured in the novel Murder at Mountain Tavern
Mud Run Dam, about a mile south of Mountain City (Frackville), was one of the town’s prime impromptu recreational areas during my childhood there in the 1950s. I say ‘impromptu’ since few of the activities at the dam were organized or planned. Each trip there, usually by hiking out the Snakey Path from town, was its own adventure. Older friends were apt to tell stories to the youngsters about the path getting its name from the numerous snakes on each side of the trail. The adult version was that the name derived from the trail’s circuitous curves up the mountain. I never saw a snake in my many trips so I guess the latter explanation was more accurate.
Once getting to the dam, I recall often scouring the breast of the reservoir at its north end for quartz crystals. The large stones we found there rivaled anything I had seen in science books at the time. It felt like a jewel quest to find the perfectly formed, six-sided glassy gems just lying in the open.
On each side of the dam’s breast were berry bushes – some huckleberry and another variety that my dad called ‘stoners.’ This name was due to the seeds inside being larger and more prolific than those in the huckleberries. I’m not sure if these were a variant of blueberry or another fruit altogether. In season, it was common to skip lunch and make a meal of the berries.
At the base of the dam's breast was a swampy pond with runoff water from the dam. It featured small fish, frogs and swarms of dragon flies. Access to this area was via a small dirt road branching off the larger road to the dam from Route 61 before reaching the dam. A traveler to the dam from the Route 61 area could take this turn before getting to the dam by the main access road, and meander past the runoff pond, then continue on to the south end of the dam breast by climbing up from below, giving direct access to the south side of the dam from the base of the dam.
This pond area had a different eco-culture from the higher terrain surrounding the dam. The latter was primarily populated by yellow pine in dry, sandy and rocky soil. Peppered among the pines were scrub oak shrubs, both small and large huckleberry bushes, birch and white birch trees and the occasional chestnut. By contrast, the wetter pond area had a stand of larger deciduous tree varieties growing out of a floor of mosses and ferns – and a proliferation of mosquitos, as I recall. On this fecund floor of the forest was a berry that grew on a very small plant close to the ground that we called teaberry. It had a mild wintergreen flavor and provided dessert on many hikes. I understand that the leaves could be used to brew a flavorful tea, although I never tried that.
Recreation at the dam was by no means limited to the summer months. In winter both the larger dam and the pond below froze solid. Amateur and younger ice skaters tended to congregate at the pond below while those more experienced or daring chose the dam. Even when thick ice covered the vast expanse of the dam, one could hear the ice groan with fissures forming in the ice as the water below expanded and contracted. Given the thickness of the ice, I never witnessed any of these cracks actually opening, but I do recall being a bit unnerved when feeling the ice ‘jump’ under my skates when out in the center of the dam. But this always felt like a small risk to chance for the pure joy of skating the vast expanse of ice that was available nowhere else.
An evening of fishing on the south shore of the dam was common for my family during the summer, when I was younger. The shore on the north side of the dam was steep and wooded usually to the water’s edge, while the south shore had a gradual drop into the water with twenty feet or so of shallow water. However, it was clear to anyone casting a line out beyond this that water was quite deep. A fishing line sporting a lead sinker cast out into that area would pull additional line from the reel as the bait and sinker dropped into the abyss. But in this abyss were the largest perch that I had ever seen. Once one felt the initial strike as one of these monsters took the bait, it was clear that one was dealing with no puny sunfish. I don’t recall ever keeping and eating these fish, although they were plenty large enough for that; it was always catch and release.
I, with a cousin and another friend, camped overnight once near the south bank. There was no more beautiful sight than waking to the morning mists rising from the surface, radiating in the early sunlight and obscuring the opposite shore.
For some reason, the dam was usually our end destination on hikes. There was always enough there for whatever activity we desired. Sometimes, if feeling energetic, we took the trail from the Mud Run Dam over the next southern ridge to the Pottsville Dam Reservoir. However, that smaller dam never held as much interest as Mud Run.
In Murder at Mountain Tavern, Bryan Farnsworth, the Mountain City police chief who investigates the murder with the main character, Aubrey McKenna introduces her to the spectacular vistas of Mud Run Dam. As they do in the story, one can continue on from Mud Run, taking the access road from Route 61 another mile or so to an area called Mountain Tavern, the site of the fictional murder in the novel. See my earlier Blog Update #3 for a discussion of the historical background of the real Mountain Tavern.
Mud Run Dam, about a mile south of Mountain City (Frackville), was one of the town’s prime impromptu recreational areas during my childhood there in the 1950s. I say ‘impromptu’ since few of the activities at the dam were organized or planned. Each trip there, usually by hiking out the Snakey Path from town, was its own adventure. Older friends were apt to tell stories to the youngsters about the path getting its name from the numerous snakes on each side of the trail. The adult version was that the name derived from the trail’s circuitous curves up the mountain. I never saw a snake in my many trips so I guess the latter explanation was more accurate.
Once getting to the dam, I recall often scouring the breast of the reservoir at its north end for quartz crystals. The large stones we found there rivaled anything I had seen in science books at the time. It felt like a jewel quest to find the perfectly formed, six-sided glassy gems just lying in the open.
On each side of the dam’s breast were berry bushes – some huckleberry and another variety that my dad called ‘stoners.’ This name was due to the seeds inside being larger and more prolific than those in the huckleberries. I’m not sure if these were a variant of blueberry or another fruit altogether. In season, it was common to skip lunch and make a meal of the berries.
At the base of the dam's breast was a swampy pond with runoff water from the dam. It featured small fish, frogs and swarms of dragon flies. Access to this area was via a small dirt road branching off the larger road to the dam from Route 61 before reaching the dam. A traveler to the dam from the Route 61 area could take this turn before getting to the dam by the main access road, and meander past the runoff pond, then continue on to the south end of the dam breast by climbing up from below, giving direct access to the south side of the dam from the base of the dam.
This pond area had a different eco-culture from the higher terrain surrounding the dam. The latter was primarily populated by yellow pine in dry, sandy and rocky soil. Peppered among the pines were scrub oak shrubs, both small and large huckleberry bushes, birch and white birch trees and the occasional chestnut. By contrast, the wetter pond area had a stand of larger deciduous tree varieties growing out of a floor of mosses and ferns – and a proliferation of mosquitos, as I recall. On this fecund floor of the forest was a berry that grew on a very small plant close to the ground that we called teaberry. It had a mild wintergreen flavor and provided dessert on many hikes. I understand that the leaves could be used to brew a flavorful tea, although I never tried that.
Recreation at the dam was by no means limited to the summer months. In winter both the larger dam and the pond below froze solid. Amateur and younger ice skaters tended to congregate at the pond below while those more experienced or daring chose the dam. Even when thick ice covered the vast expanse of the dam, one could hear the ice groan with fissures forming in the ice as the water below expanded and contracted. Given the thickness of the ice, I never witnessed any of these cracks actually opening, but I do recall being a bit unnerved when feeling the ice ‘jump’ under my skates when out in the center of the dam. But this always felt like a small risk to chance for the pure joy of skating the vast expanse of ice that was available nowhere else.
An evening of fishing on the south shore of the dam was common for my family during the summer, when I was younger. The shore on the north side of the dam was steep and wooded usually to the water’s edge, while the south shore had a gradual drop into the water with twenty feet or so of shallow water. However, it was clear to anyone casting a line out beyond this that water was quite deep. A fishing line sporting a lead sinker cast out into that area would pull additional line from the reel as the bait and sinker dropped into the abyss. But in this abyss were the largest perch that I had ever seen. Once one felt the initial strike as one of these monsters took the bait, it was clear that one was dealing with no puny sunfish. I don’t recall ever keeping and eating these fish, although they were plenty large enough for that; it was always catch and release.
I, with a cousin and another friend, camped overnight once near the south bank. There was no more beautiful sight than waking to the morning mists rising from the surface, radiating in the early sunlight and obscuring the opposite shore.
For some reason, the dam was usually our end destination on hikes. There was always enough there for whatever activity we desired. Sometimes, if feeling energetic, we took the trail from the Mud Run Dam over the next southern ridge to the Pottsville Dam Reservoir. However, that smaller dam never held as much interest as Mud Run.
In Murder at Mountain Tavern, Bryan Farnsworth, the Mountain City police chief who investigates the murder with the main character, Aubrey McKenna introduces her to the spectacular vistas of Mud Run Dam. As they do in the story, one can continue on from Mud Run, taking the access road from Route 61 another mile or so to an area called Mountain Tavern, the site of the fictional murder in the novel. See my earlier Blog Update #3 for a discussion of the historical background of the real Mountain Tavern.
