HOWELL — Township resident Bruce DeSilva has 40 years of experience working with some of the most prestigious institutions in journalism.
He has written or edited pieces for news organizations including The New York Times, the Dallas Morning News and The Associated Press, and along the way he has received numerous awards, including two Polk Awards, and edited works by two Pulitzer Prize finalists and helped in the editing process of one winner.
Yet, DeSilva, who recently retired from his post as writing coach with the Associated Press, decided to leave the world of writing stylebooks and fact checking to try his hand as a crime fiction novelist.
His first work, “Rogue Island,” was published on Oct. 12, and if the early reviews are any indication of how the book will be received by readers, Howell may soon be home to a bestselling author.
And while he is proud of his accomplishment, DeSilva said he is stunned at the sheer amount of time and energy he has expended simply promoting his work.
“I’ve been unbelievably busy. You know?” DeSilva jokingly lamented during an interview. “I thought the work of being an author was writing the book. That’s the easy part.
“The hard part is all of the promotion,” he said. “I’ve spent hours and hours and hours blogging, and social networking, and doing events. It’s just wild. I had no idea authors had to work this hard.”
DeSilva, who read portions of his novel during a book signing held at the Barnes & Noble bookstore, Freehold Township, on Nov. 4, said that when he retired to take up writing, he imagined he would spend his days either relaxing, working on his novels, or both. To his surprise, however, that has not been the case.
“When I retired from the Associated Press, I pictured this leisurely life of an author. I would write a book, and when it was done, I’d give it to my agent. And then she would sell the book, and my publisher would get it in bookstores, and I would wait and hope that some royalties came in while I was leisurely writing my next book,” he said.
“Well, it didn’t work that way. All of the promotion, especially for a first-time author, it’s sink or swim. You are on your own. All of the promotion work is up to you, because people don’t know who you are.”
That promotion work may have become considerably easier recently with positive reviews from the likes of “Mystic River” and “Shutter Island” author Dennis Lehane and organizations including The Washington Post.
Set in Providence, R.I., where DeSilva had worked for the Providence Journal, “Rogue Island” follows newspaper reporter Liam Mulligan as he tries to uncover who the arsonist is behind a series of fires targetingMulligan’s childhood neighborhood.
The story is a work of fiction, but the characters, DeSilva said, are all influenced by people he met throughout his career.
DeSilva was first inspired to write a novel 14 years ago when he received a note from a reader suggesting that he could turn a “cute little story” he had written into a book.
“Back in 1994 when I was working for the Hartford [Conn.] Courant, I got a note from a reader in the mail,” DeSilva explained.
The note, DeSilva said, was a response to an article he had written. The reader called the article a “nice little story” and encouraged DeSilva to begin a career as a novelist.
According to DeSilva, the note was written by famed novelist Evan Hunter, who also wrote crime novels under the pseudonym Ed McBain.
Encouraged by Hunter’s words, DeSilva wrapped the note in plastic, taped it to his computer screen and began working on his novel. But it wasn’t until years later that he would be able to dedicate his life to it.
“At the time, I had a simpler life. I was living just 10 minutes from work, so I would get up in the morning and write before I went to work,” he said. “I was a few chapters into that book back in 1994 and then my whole life turned upside down.
“I got divorced, I got remarried, my new wife had a 2-year-old granddaughter that she brought with her, I switched to a very demanding editing job in New York City and suddenly I had 25 people that worked for me,” DeSilva said. “I went from a 10- minute commute to a commute that was an hour-and-a-half each way, and so there wasn’t going to be any novel writing.
“For years after that, every time I got a new home computer I would take that note from Evan Hunter and peel it off the old computer and tape it to the new one, thinking that some day I’m going to get back to this book, and I never did,” he said.
It wasn’t until DeSilva was introduced to and befriended Otto Penzler, the owner of the New York City-based Mysterious Bookshop, a bookshop focusing on crime and mystery novels, that DeSilva began working on his book again.
DeSilva said that one evening over dinner, he casually mentioned to Penzler the note he had received from Hunter.
Penzler, DeSilva said, was shocked to hear that the novelist had praised DeSilva’s work.
Penzler, believing that a vote of confidence from Hunter was as good as gold, told DeSilva to work on his novel whenever he had a chance, and that when it was completed, he would read it.
“So I started writing after work at night and on weekends, and six months later I had a book,” DeSilva explained. “[Penzler] read it and liked it and got me one of the best agents in New York City.”
It was perfect timing, DeSilva explained. It was around that time that he was beginning to become discouraged by the state of journalism, and he did not want to continue working in the field he feared he would eventually come to resent.
While he may have left the world of journalismbehind him, DeSilva said he still finds himself drawing from the skills he developed over his 40-year career.
“The skills involved in writing a novel are surprisingly similar to the skills [used by] a journalist. You just have more liberty with the way you write — and being able to make things up, obviously,” DeSilva explained.
“If you weren’t a good observer, which a journalist needs to be, it would be awfully tough, I would think, to write a good novel,” he continued. “You have to be a really keen observer of people and details and places and things. So the skill set is pretty similar.”
DeSilva recently put those skills to the test again while writing his second novel, a sequel to “Rogue Island.” DeSilva said he spent six months working on the book.
In the time it took him to write his two novels, DeSilva said he also found the time to move from Westchester, N.Y., to Howell.
“It’s a nice town,” he said. “It’s deceptive because you go down Route 9, and you think the whole [township] is that way. And then as soon as you leave Route 9 it’s suburban developments and then beyond the suburban developments, it’s all woods and farms.”
DeSilva said he and his wife, the awardwinning poet Patricia Smith, moved to Howell because they wanted their then 14-year-old granddaughter to get an exceptional public high school education.
“The places that looked the most appealing to us in terms of the towns and the qualities of the schools were Howell and Freehold,” he said. “That’s why we zeroed in on this town and found a house that was right for us here in Howell, and here we are.”
And while he may have to cross the country to promote his books, DeSilva said he looks forward to coming home to his wife and granddaughter in Howell.
“We’ll be here for a while,” he said.