My guest today is Chad A. Cain. Hello, Chad! Welcome to Writing in the Modern Age! It’s great to meet you. :)
Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book? When did it come out? Where can
we get it?
One Night In October is my debut novel from Solstice Publishing. The basic story involves a man who hasn't seen or spoken to his alcoholic father in fifteen years. Near the end of the father's life, the two will reunite for one last evening of watching Cardinals baseball (their one shared passion) and rehashing their troubled past. It was released on April 14th, 2015 and is currently available on Amazon, BN.com, and the Solstice Publishing website.
Is there anything that prompted your latest book? Something that inspired you?
I was inspired by stories from both sides of my family, specifically the exploits of my two grandfathers. I like to say that the book was "inspired by true events," though it is not biographical or meant to be a memoir. It was also fun to work in my love of Cardinals baseball. The backdrop of the story, game six of the 2011 World Series, is one of the most dramatic games ever played and serves to ratchet up the tension.
So, when did you know you wanted to write? Or has it always been a pastime of yours?
I have enjoyed writing fiction since I was a kid, and I wrote my first book (a novella) when I was a freshman in high school. My "day job" as a high school history teacher keeps me busy, but it also provides me with summers off so I can focus on writing. I wrote One Night In October over the summer of 2013, and I'm planning to write my second novel this summer.
That's great!
Do you have any favorite authors?
I fell in love with Stephen King's storytelling in middle school and have been a huge fan ever since. His recent book 11/22/63 is probably my favorite King novel. In recent years, I have enjoyed the suspense/thrillers of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Their series featuring FBI Agent Pendergast is fantastic!
So, do you write in a specific place? Time of day?
I found that I did my best work during the late afternoon (3-6 pm), but I never forced it. If I'm not feeling it one day then I don't write. If I wake up ready to write immediately, then so be it! My house has a front room that we use as an office, and that was where the majority of the work on the book was done.
Great!
Are there any words you'd like to impart to fellow writers? Any advice?
After spending nearly a year attempting to find an agent and/or a willing publisher, I was getting discouraged. A novel involving baseball isn't the easiest story to sell! But, my persistence and faith paid off and I'm now a published author! My words of advice would be to stay the course and believe in your story. There are lots of agents and publishers, and sometimes it takes a while to find the right match.
I agree. A little patience and perseverance never hurt anyone. ;)
Thank
you so much for stopping by to visit us today here at Writing in the
Modern Age. It was such a pleasure having you! :)
Readers, here is the blurb for One Night in October.
Fifteen years. That’s how long Paul Gibson
stayed away from his father, Johnny Ray, after he tried to wreck his son’s
wedding in an alcoholic stupor. But on this crisp late October night, Paul is
coming back to his childhood home. He’s got one final chance to reconcile with
a dying father who devoted his life to whiskey and horse betting instead of his
family.
Paul
has chosen the night of game six of the 2011 World Series to face the man he
has never understood or connected with. Their one chance at reuniting as a
family is linked to their only shared memory: a love of St. Louis Cardinals
baseball.
As
they watch the Cardinals attempt to save their season against the Texas
Rangers, Paul and Johnny Ray will rip open the wounds of the past and struggle to
find a way beyond them. The grudges and fears of their past will resurface, but
so will the forgotten need to accept and forgive.
One
Night In October is a touching story of a father and son spending one final
evening searching for a way to bridge a chasm built on years of anger and
bitterness. The outcome for both their beloved Cardinals and their relationship
will hang by a thread until the very end.
Here is an excerpt from the book.
I thought it was
gone. When I saw the baseball fly off David Freese’s bat in the bottom of the
ninth of game six against the Rangers, my first thought was that it was going
to leave the park. I wanted to believe it was possible, though hits like this
when your team is down to their last strike in the World Series just don’t
happen in real life. He had just swung through the same pitch (a fastball on
the outer half of the plate) on 1-1, but now I watched the ball heading toward
deep right field. I had seen Freese do this a lot during the 2011 season.
Hitting to the opposite field for power had become his trademark…but how could
it possibly happen in this moment of desperation?
I leapt from the chair next to my
father’s bed. When the TV camera angle switched to Nelson Cruz in right field,
my heart sank for a moment. He was going to catch it. You could tell from his
reaction…he knew he was going to snag it. But then he kept drifting backward,
and drifting more still. He was near the wall and jumping, but the ball caromed
off the wall and rolled away. I began instinctively jumping and shouting for
Lance Berkman and Albert Pujols to haul ass toward home. I nearly separated my
shoulder doing the windmill along with third base coach Jose Oquendo.
Seeing
the ball rolling away from Cruz, I thought perhaps there was a chance that Freese
could have an inside-the-park home run. He didn’t make it home, but easily slid
into third and looked dazed and triumphant as he peered into the Cardinals’
dugout. He had just delivered a game-tying and season-saving clutch hit for the
ages. And that wasn’t even his most memorable at-bat of the night!
My dad would have gladly joined me
in my gleeful hysterics if this had been a typical night of baseball watching.
Johnny Ray Gibson’s roaring voice at one time was enough to drown out crowds at
bars and raucous softball games. He had once been a physical specimen with a
real gift for playing baseball and softball. He had once been the most
intimidating man I had ever known. Now he lay old and withered in the house
that I grew up in. He watched this game through a fog of medication and
emotion. He was perfectly capable of following the action and talking about it,
but he could no longer afford to expend energy on things like cheering for a
game-saving hit.
He
was dying, and watching the last game of his life.
I went to my father’s house that
night for the first time in nearly fifteen years. I went there because I knew
if there was any chance of reconciliation, it would have to happen as part of
watching a Cardinals game together. When they made that improbable run to the
World Series in October of 2011, I took it as a sign that it was time for my
return. When they came back home from Texas down three games to two, I knew I
could no longer put it off. The St. Louis Cardinals were the only thing that my
dad and I ever really connected on. When all else failed, we could always talk
about the Cards.
That night I had a lifetime of
things to say to the man, but without the Cardinals as a backdrop I would have
had no idea how to begin. Most Cardinal fans will remember game six as the
“Freese game” or even “the greatest World Series game ever played.” I’ll
remember it for being the last night I ever saw my dad. I’ll remember David
Freese for giving us a couple of extra innings together and for giving my dad
one last winner.
* * * *
Southern Indiana, and in particular
the city of Evansville, is mainly Cardinal country. I was born into the Gibson
family in 1975, but I was also born into the Cardinals family. Johnny Ray was a
lifelong devoted fan thanks to his dad. Had I said to him at any point that I
wanted to root for the Cubs, I believe dad would have seriously considered
kicking me out of his house. Thankfully I grew to love the Cards, and that was
convenient because it gave me something that I could always talk to dad about
without fear of an argument or, even worse, an awkward silence.
My name is Paul, which surprises me
because dad probably wanted to name me Lou, Stan, or certainly Bob since Bob
Gibson was his favorite player. Mom must have vetoed those in favor of a
Biblical name because I can think of no famous Cardinals named Paul. My mother,
Doris, was the only person who had the power to get her way when dealing with
dad. He was six foot four and close to two hundred and fifty pounds of mostly
muscle. Doris was about five-two and around a hundred and ten, but she never
once seemed scared or intimidated by him.
Their marriage, which was still
intact on the day he died, was in one sense very healthy because it was based
on love. However, it could also be described as a textbook co-dependent
relationship. Johnny Ray was a drinker, and as years passed he allowed it to
overwhelm everything else. I found it difficult as a child to relate to the
man, and nearly impossible to do so in my later years. Until the night of David
Freese’s heroics, I had spent the last fifteen years avoiding him entirely.
I never understood how mom could
stay with him through so much turmoil. Love is, of course, necessary in a
marriage, but there has to be more than that. One part of me admires her for
“sticking it out” all these years, but there’s also a large part that blames
her for the manipulation and pain that dad so frequently doled out.
I
suppose she was scared of raising two children, me and my sister Megan, who is
six years younger, on her own. Or maybe she just got used to the version of
“normal” in our lives and accepted it as good enough. I found it easier to get
out when I had the chance, and I have lived with the fallout from that decision
ever since.
One day in the spring of 2011, I got
the usual weekly call from mom with an update on things in Evansville. I had
left there to attend Southern Illinois University on a basketball scholarship
in 1993 and never came back. My wife, Karen, whom I met at SIU, and I settled
in a small town called O’Fallon, Illinois after college. It is a short commute
to downtown St. Louis, where I work for an ad agency (of course half the reason
I wanted to work there was because it was convenient for seeing lots of
Cardinal games). My contact with mom consisted of weekly calls on the phone and
three or four in-person visits a year, which normally involved us meeting at a
restaurant or mall. I hadn’t set foot in my parents’ house since I left for
college.
I could tell this call was different
from the beginning. She called me Paul, which was a tell-tale sign because mom
almost always liked to call me “Pauly.” She was the only one who called me that
and I secretly relished every time she said it. Her voice, which usually
reflected her calm and soothing demeanor, was shaky and frightened.
“Paul. It’s your mother. I…I don’t
know what else to say so I’ll just say it. Your father has liver cancer and
he’s dying. We just found out today. Paul, did you hear me?”
I didn’t speak for a few seconds. I
had always assumed that dad would pay for his heavy drinking someday with
cirrhosis or something, but it still stunned me. The man was only sixty-five.
Author Bio
Chad A. Cain has a bit of an addiction to baseball. He is a lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, and he attends at least one game each year. He grew up in Southern Indiana, listening to the Redbirds on the radio with his grandfather and uncle. Nowadays, Chad rarely misses a game on TV.
Chad's "day job" is that of a high school history teacher. He has taught U.S. History, World History, and AP European History for the past twelve years. Chad is passionate about teaching history, and he especially enjoys discussing the events of the Cold War with his classes.
In his personal life, Chad is blessed with an amazing wife named Heather. Chad and Heather share a love of all things related to the 1980's (especially the movies, TV shows, and music). She puts up with Chad's obsession with Cardinal baseball, but has never fully embraced the sport (except when Lance Berkman was on the team). Chad also loves spending time with his family, and is actively trying to convert his two-year-old nephew Reed into a Cardinal fan. His father roots for the Cubs.
Chad hopes and prays that One Night In October will be a blessing to the reader. He believes fervently that it is a God-inspired story. Some of the episodes in the book are loosely based on real events experienced by Chad's family. Happy reading and Go Cards!
Author Links:
Website: http://www.chadacain.com/
Blog: http://www.chadacain.com/chads-blog
Blog: http://www.chadacain.com/chads-blog
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chad.cain.771
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChadACain
Amazon Author Central: http://amzn.to/1ceFndb
Amazon Author Central: http://amzn.to/1ceFndb
Chad's Book:
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