Deb Bartlett
Staff Writer, Kawartha This Week
By day he writes manuals. But at home, in his Woodville-area schoolhouse-turned-home, J.A. Aarntzen writes poetry, fun stories and novels.
His third book accepted by PublishAmerica, is now available. Daughter of Thunder is "not exactly a sequel," he says. "It stands on its own."
It is a follow-up to his book, The Little Boy of the Forest, which was written in 2003 and released in 2005. Thora, Daughter of Thunder's main character, was introduced in The Little Boy of the Forest.
The other book he's had published through the American publishing company is Corman the Carp, about a fish whose wives disappear when zebra mussels invade their lake.
Mr. Aarntzen says he got hooked on creative writing when he read Lord of the Rings. "That really inspired me," he says of the trilogy.
He says he's written about 20 books, not all of which were published. He says he learned that if you wanted to get published, you needed an agent.
Married in 2004, Mr. Aarntzen says his mother-in-law read his work on his website and told him he shouldn't be writing for free; he should try to make some money.
That prompted him to contact PublishAmerica, which bills itself as America's largest publisher. Mr. Aarntzen says PublishAmerica requests a synopsis of the story then lets the writer know whether they're interested in the book or not.
"It's a very fast turnaround," says Mr. Aarntzen.
PublishAmerica is not a self-publisher, he explains, but publishes on demand. The company publishes the number of copies that are ordered.
"They're not self-published and they're not traditional," says Mr. Aarntzen. "They're somewhere in between."
He sold about 250 copies of Little Boy of the Forest and about 100 copies of Corman. He's ordered about 40 copies of Daughter of Thunder, which are all spoken for.
Locally, Daughter of Thunder will be sold at Country Corners in Nogie's Creek.
In Little Boy of the Forest, Thora's parents get in an argument with a set of aunts and uncles at the family cottage. Her family leaves the lake and the family patriarch dies. That's where the book ends.
In Daughter of Thunder, the book starts with the funeral and follows her life from 1920 to the 21st century.
"This is a ghost story," says Mr. Aarntzen, pointing to Little Boy of the Forest, "and this is a ghost story too," he says pointing to Daughter of Thunder.
Thora always wanted to return to the lake, but never did. "It's a story of insanity," he says. "She sees things, but other people read in her that she's insane. I leave it vague. It's up to the reader. She thinks she's seeing these things versus she's seeing these things," says Mr. Aarntzen.
He says his books were inspired by true stories. He says he heard of a family on his lake whose son drowned in the early 1900s. The family left and never came back. Rumour has it that the cottage was left abandoned with food and dishes still on the table.
As for the title, Mr. Aarntzen says a boy used to live on one side of the Aarntzen's cottage. The boy used to cut through the woods, across the Aarntzen's property and over to a friend's cottage. His nephew once asked him who the boy was, and Mr. Aarntzen said it was the Little Boy of the Forest.
Daughter of Thunder took about nine months to finish. Mr. Aarntzen says he wakes up at 4 a.m. (he sleeps in until 5 or 6 a.m. on weekends) and writes for about an hour every day. "I'm surprised it ended up being 722 pages," he says of his latest book.
Mr. Aarntzen moved to the schoolhouse in November. It was built in 1875. He fondly points out that the walls are the old blackboards and says there are initials carved into the outside walls.
"These are original floors," he says. "It's kind of cool."
He's heard the school was in use until 1965 as SS9, and known as the Glenarm School. Mr. Aarntzen says he'd love to talk to anyone who went to school there. They can contact him by email at joe@storytelleronthelake.com.
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