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Are you a reporter covering Seneca Wood and Gary Clites? You're in the right place. Look to the left to find links to press releases about the book. Look below to find an in depth Q&A with the author. Look to the right to find images you are welcome to use in your coverage.

Author Q&A

Q:            What kind of book is Seneca Wood?

A:            The book is a thriller about an ordinary guy hiding out from the world in a cabin in the mountains of West Virginia whose world is intruded upon when criminals who want his property try to frame him for murder. The Baltimore mob is using the state to dump bodies and launder money. When their bodies are found, they decide to try to pin the murders on him as a way to get him out of the way. When his friends are threatened, he realizes he has to fight to defend them. I wanted to take the traditional elements of a thriller, and move them to a less traditional setting in an oddball situation to develop a story that was a little more quirky and unusual than the traditional novel in the genre.

Q:            How did you come up with the idea for the novel?

A:            My publisher has been telling the story for a while. When I was in college at West Virginia University, my friends and I spent a lot of time at Cheat Lake, just a few miles outside of town. There was an old disused road there that ran to an old abandoned bridge to an island where a bunch of bikers used to party. One day, the school scuba team went diving in the area and found a dead body. I don’t remember what the situation was, whether it was a suicide, a murder, or what? While the police were investigating, they found a stolen car in the water near the bridge - then another car. Then they found a bunch of illegal slot machines, and other things. It was nothing as extreme as what happens in the book, but the idea of criminals using that backwater of the lake as a dumping ground always stuck with me. What would happen when the police discovered it? What might that push the bad guys to do?

Q:            What about the characters, where did they come from?

A:            Most writers will tell you that their characters start out based loosely on people they know or have known. But while you may start out thinking of a character as being like someone specific, once you start writing, they always take on a life of their own. In short order, they become their own people, and very real to the writer. Eventually, they are nothing like the people you started out thinking of. My characters are pretty unusual, from Wood Garrett, the reporter hiding out from the world in the mountains, to Stephanie Harden, a nudist grad student fighting for the animals she loves, to Roarke, a biker fighting to make sure his biker friends aren’t blamed for crimes they didn’t commit. As a writer, your characters become people you care about and, eventually, become very committed to.

Q:            Thematically, there’s a lot in the book about the food supply and the environment. Was that intentional?

A:            I think I’m interested in how people see their place in the environment. The story involves a crooked meat packing plant, but it’s less about animal rights than it is about how people relate to the food chain. We tend to think we are in control and that we are on top of things, but we’re not. In the novel, nature asserts itself in some ugly ways.

Q:            Does that mean the novel would qualify as an eco-thriller?

A:            I wouldn’t go that far. I think “eco-thriller” implies super-villains trying to destroy the world with a weather manipulating machine. I am much more interested in ordinary people, both good and bad, dealing with situations that are beyond their experiences. The book thinks about what happens when a normal man’s world is invaded by forces beyond his control and he is driven to defend it.

Q:            You set the novel in the mountains of West Virginia. How realistic is your portrayal of that place?

A:            I grew up in West Virginia, and have always loved the state. Most of the novel is set in the Monongehela National Forest, in the area around Seneca Rocks, a rock climbing mecca. This is an area I particularly love, and a location which I consider one of the most beautiful places in the world. I was visiting there a few years ago when the novel fully formed in my mind. Honestly, it was the place that drove my ideas to coalesce into a clear plot. That said, when the time came to write the book, I intentionally fictionalized the location. I did not want people to feel that this scene or that was set on their land or in their store, etc., so I reimagined the locations in a somewhat made up version of the area. When you read the book, you’ll understand why.

Q:            That said, you teach writing to young people. Is the book appropriate for all ages?

A:            Definitely not. Seneca Wood is, essentially, a crime thriller. The characters include murderers, mobsters, and crooked politicians. The book contains adult language, adult situations and violent action. Parents should think twice before buying it for their underage readers. I’ve already talked about it to some of my students, and I’ve told them it’s more Sookie Stackhouse than Twilight. That they understand. I think it’s a good book that I’m proud of, but that doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for everyone.

Q:            Speaking of which, the book has a number of violent scenes.

A:            When my publisher signed me, they said they liked the “Tarrantino in the mountains” attitude of the book. It’s funny, the story is about violent criminals coming to a peaceful place and creating all this havoc. To me, the action is driven by the criminals, and the book is about a group of people forced to fight back against them. Yes, the situations are violent, but I think my main characters have the violence thrust upon them, they don’t initiate it.

Find our more at www.garyclites.com or contact gclites@verizon.net.

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