Greg Dillensnyder's Blog: My Novels, page 2
August 19, 2017
Prologue to Murder - Blog Post #5
Here's the Prologue of my novel Murder at Mountain Tavern:
"The Pottsville Republican, evening edition—Thursday, May 23, 1985
County residents were stunned today by the brutal slaying of seventeen-year-old Lena Howles, the daughter of construction magnate Wallace Howles, of Mountain City. The girl’s nude body was found early this morning in a remote, wooded location known locally as the Mountain Tavern, along the historic Reading–Sunbury Conestoga Turnpike on Broad Mountain southwest of Mountain City. The once heavily traveled wagon trail is now a maintenance road for one of the region’s main electrical power arteries. While details are sparse at this point, it is reported that the victim was stabbed multiple times with a hunter’s knife. The local authorities are not ruling out a sexually related offense. The family has refused comment.
The Shenandoah Evening Herald— Wednesday, November 6, 1985
This morning, after a ten-week trial that has dominated both print media and airwaves locally, the jury returned a guilty verdict in conviction of Christopher Ostrowski, eighteen, of Mountain City, for the brutal, slashing murder last spring of Lena Howles. The victim was the daughter of construction tycoon Wallace Howles. The murder occurred in the remote area on Broad Mountain known as the Mountain Tavern. Deliberation lasted less than two days. It was noted in court testimony that Ostrowski, a high school football phenom, recognized for his aggressiveness on the playing field, was widely known for his volatile temper off the field as well. A spokesman for the Howles family expressed the parents’ gratitude for the verdict and satisfaction that 'justice has been served.'"
"The Pottsville Republican, evening edition—Thursday, May 23, 1985
County residents were stunned today by the brutal slaying of seventeen-year-old Lena Howles, the daughter of construction magnate Wallace Howles, of Mountain City. The girl’s nude body was found early this morning in a remote, wooded location known locally as the Mountain Tavern, along the historic Reading–Sunbury Conestoga Turnpike on Broad Mountain southwest of Mountain City. The once heavily traveled wagon trail is now a maintenance road for one of the region’s main electrical power arteries. While details are sparse at this point, it is reported that the victim was stabbed multiple times with a hunter’s knife. The local authorities are not ruling out a sexually related offense. The family has refused comment.
The Shenandoah Evening Herald— Wednesday, November 6, 1985
This morning, after a ten-week trial that has dominated both print media and airwaves locally, the jury returned a guilty verdict in conviction of Christopher Ostrowski, eighteen, of Mountain City, for the brutal, slashing murder last spring of Lena Howles. The victim was the daughter of construction tycoon Wallace Howles. The murder occurred in the remote area on Broad Mountain known as the Mountain Tavern. Deliberation lasted less than two days. It was noted in court testimony that Ostrowski, a high school football phenom, recognized for his aggressiveness on the playing field, was widely known for his volatile temper off the field as well. A spokesman for the Howles family expressed the parents’ gratitude for the verdict and satisfaction that 'justice has been served.'"
August 11, 2017
A Woman of Strength - Blog Update #4
Aubrey McKenna, the main character in my novel, Murder at Mountain Tavern is an amalgam of the many strong and courageous women I have known in my life. In my biographical information in the book, I note that I have had a life surrounded by strong women. This is no exaggeration.
My mother, a woman with only a 5th grade education, was a “housewife,” and all that that entailed, before it became clear to most of us that houses don’t have spouses. She managed all of the cooking, shopping, laundry, house cleaning, budgeting, religious training, social agendas and most of the discipline and child-rearing of three children.
Her work days usually started at sunup and continued far beyond sundown. She never worked for pay outside our home nor had any labor union to ensure reasonable limits on effort, endurance and expectations, and worked longer and harder than anyone else I knew. I’m sure I’m omitting tons of the odds and ends required to keep a family of six functioning day to day. She was our moral compass, unwavering in her emotional commitments to others; like many women of "the greatest generation" the rock that grounded the family.
It’s no surprise then, that in finding the woman to live my life with I was drawn to someone who had a profound sense of fairness, a passion for righting injustice, and an affinity toward social justice causes. She opened my eyes to the rampant and pervasive societal discrimination against women and opened doors to my involvement in the Women’s Movement of the 1970s and 80s.
In demonstrations, organizing, lobbying, and marches for women’s equality then and since, I met the real women prototypes for Aubrey McKenna.
In creating her character, it was important to me to demonstrate in her the qualities of strength that I have admired in those who have guided me in my participation on behalf of women’s rights. However, in noting McKenna’s strength, I found it equally important to not encumber her with the unrealistic expectations which are the “other face” of gender discrimination - the “superwoman” and “wonder woman” mystique that does not allow women realistic human frailty, uncertainty and even failure. These are the very human "imperfections" that combine with resilience, commitment and persistence to provide the real strength to surmount life’s challenges.
So… Aubrey McKenna knows the challenge of addiction. She finds herself disillusioned and uncertain when unjustly fired from a job. She struggles with the uncertainty of relationships with men, born of her life experience that men can sometimes be unworthy of trust. She harbors her own prejudices that color her expectations of those in small towns whom she perceives as less sophisticated. Yet, in all of this, she persists to gain justice for a man who may have been wrongly convicted of murder.
She learns, she grows, she overcomes.
In my mind, that truly makes Aubrey McKenna a woman of strength.
My mother, a woman with only a 5th grade education, was a “housewife,” and all that that entailed, before it became clear to most of us that houses don’t have spouses. She managed all of the cooking, shopping, laundry, house cleaning, budgeting, religious training, social agendas and most of the discipline and child-rearing of three children.
Her work days usually started at sunup and continued far beyond sundown. She never worked for pay outside our home nor had any labor union to ensure reasonable limits on effort, endurance and expectations, and worked longer and harder than anyone else I knew. I’m sure I’m omitting tons of the odds and ends required to keep a family of six functioning day to day. She was our moral compass, unwavering in her emotional commitments to others; like many women of "the greatest generation" the rock that grounded the family.
It’s no surprise then, that in finding the woman to live my life with I was drawn to someone who had a profound sense of fairness, a passion for righting injustice, and an affinity toward social justice causes. She opened my eyes to the rampant and pervasive societal discrimination against women and opened doors to my involvement in the Women’s Movement of the 1970s and 80s.
In demonstrations, organizing, lobbying, and marches for women’s equality then and since, I met the real women prototypes for Aubrey McKenna.
In creating her character, it was important to me to demonstrate in her the qualities of strength that I have admired in those who have guided me in my participation on behalf of women’s rights. However, in noting McKenna’s strength, I found it equally important to not encumber her with the unrealistic expectations which are the “other face” of gender discrimination - the “superwoman” and “wonder woman” mystique that does not allow women realistic human frailty, uncertainty and even failure. These are the very human "imperfections" that combine with resilience, commitment and persistence to provide the real strength to surmount life’s challenges.
So… Aubrey McKenna knows the challenge of addiction. She finds herself disillusioned and uncertain when unjustly fired from a job. She struggles with the uncertainty of relationships with men, born of her life experience that men can sometimes be unworthy of trust. She harbors her own prejudices that color her expectations of those in small towns whom she perceives as less sophisticated. Yet, in all of this, she persists to gain justice for a man who may have been wrongly convicted of murder.
She learns, she grows, she overcomes.
In my mind, that truly makes Aubrey McKenna a woman of strength.
August 2, 2017
Mountain Tavern - Historic Roots - Blog Update #3
The plot of my novel Murder at Mountain Tavern makes use of historical aspects of Frackville, PA – the namesake of Mountain City, the town where most of the novel’s action takes place. Frackville is referred to informally by most locals as Mountain City – the name of one of it’s historical sections.
In the mid 1800s a Conestoga wagon trail traversed the Broad Mountain on which Frackville is perched, connecting trade routes between Philadelphia and Sunbury, PA to the northwest. Along this trail were several way-stations which provided rest, nourishment, lodging and, of course, spirits to stagecoach travelers and their drivers.
One such establishment was run by Nicho Allen, an early settler of the area whom some credit with the discovery of anthracite in Schuylkill County. The story has it that one night while camping in the area he fell asleep next to his campfire only to awaken to find surrounding black rocks having caught on fire and burning, hence the discovery of “stone-coal,” later named anthracite.
Nicho Allen’s tavern was located approximately 2 miles southwest of Frackville atop the peak ridge of the Broad Mountain. During my youth my father and I used many of the trails south and west of the town for hiking, hunting and training our hunting dogs. One of the trails known as the Snakey Path wove from the Frackville Water Authority’s pumping station south of town to the Mud Run Dam (also featured in the novel).
On one of our hikes, I was able to talk my dad into taking me to the Mountain Tavern, a location that he and relatives often referred to, almost mystically, in their hunting stories. On this trek we went beyond our usual hike to Mud Run, following the access road - the Lokey Track - beyond the dam about another mile where we came to an another access road perpendicular to the one we were on. After a short distance on this new road my father pointed out a site of which I now have only hazy memory, “There’s the tavern.”
My recollection is that all one could see were some foundation stones and some rose bushes that appeared to be growing wild. I recall feeling totally underwhelmed. However, as I researched the area before writing Murder at Mountain Tavern, I gained a new respect for the site and its history. And I believe it fit well as a somewhat mysterious site for the novel’s murder.
In the mid 1800s a Conestoga wagon trail traversed the Broad Mountain on which Frackville is perched, connecting trade routes between Philadelphia and Sunbury, PA to the northwest. Along this trail were several way-stations which provided rest, nourishment, lodging and, of course, spirits to stagecoach travelers and their drivers.
One such establishment was run by Nicho Allen, an early settler of the area whom some credit with the discovery of anthracite in Schuylkill County. The story has it that one night while camping in the area he fell asleep next to his campfire only to awaken to find surrounding black rocks having caught on fire and burning, hence the discovery of “stone-coal,” later named anthracite.
Nicho Allen’s tavern was located approximately 2 miles southwest of Frackville atop the peak ridge of the Broad Mountain. During my youth my father and I used many of the trails south and west of the town for hiking, hunting and training our hunting dogs. One of the trails known as the Snakey Path wove from the Frackville Water Authority’s pumping station south of town to the Mud Run Dam (also featured in the novel).
On one of our hikes, I was able to talk my dad into taking me to the Mountain Tavern, a location that he and relatives often referred to, almost mystically, in their hunting stories. On this trek we went beyond our usual hike to Mud Run, following the access road - the Lokey Track - beyond the dam about another mile where we came to an another access road perpendicular to the one we were on. After a short distance on this new road my father pointed out a site of which I now have only hazy memory, “There’s the tavern.”
My recollection is that all one could see were some foundation stones and some rose bushes that appeared to be growing wild. I recall feeling totally underwhelmed. However, as I researched the area before writing Murder at Mountain Tavern, I gained a new respect for the site and its history. And I believe it fit well as a somewhat mysterious site for the novel’s murder.
July 26, 2017
Town In Turmoil - Blog Update #2
Like many small towns in eastern Pennsylvania, summer days were usually splendorous in Mountain City, where clear, azure blue skies were traversed by ponderous, white, marshmallow clouds whose slow journey seemed to reflect the casual pace of the town below.
But the deceptive daily calm often brought warm, quiet evenings peppered with surprise, intense lightning storms, whose electrical spears performed their ballet over the surrounding Broad Mountain.
June of ’85, (in my fictitious novel, Murder at Mountain Tavern) found this small, Pennsylvania town torn with grief over the brutal slaying of one of its teen daughters and then challenged with disbelief over the arrest of one of its favorite sons – her boyfriend - for the slaying.
News of the murder, and then the arrest of Chris Ostrowski, the town’s football phenom, dominated the local newspaper and the evening news on the Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg television channels. Never subject to this level of notoriety since its founding as a mountain getaway village in the early 1800s, and even then through its heyday as a hub for the distribution of Pennsylvania’s “black gold” anthracite coal in the 19th and 20th centuries, Mountain City found itself abuzz with rumorous conversations over back porch railings and in its many taverns. The prevailing sentiment that “this kind of thing doesn’t happen here” was at sharp odds with reality of the gory details on every newcast.
While the evidence seemed a clear-cut indictment of the young man, few in the town, except for the victim’s family believed him capable of the crime. The upcoming trial in the dog days of August, would bring a miscarriage of justice that would claim thirty years of an innocent’s life.
But the deceptive daily calm often brought warm, quiet evenings peppered with surprise, intense lightning storms, whose electrical spears performed their ballet over the surrounding Broad Mountain.
June of ’85, (in my fictitious novel, Murder at Mountain Tavern) found this small, Pennsylvania town torn with grief over the brutal slaying of one of its teen daughters and then challenged with disbelief over the arrest of one of its favorite sons – her boyfriend - for the slaying.
News of the murder, and then the arrest of Chris Ostrowski, the town’s football phenom, dominated the local newspaper and the evening news on the Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg television channels. Never subject to this level of notoriety since its founding as a mountain getaway village in the early 1800s, and even then through its heyday as a hub for the distribution of Pennsylvania’s “black gold” anthracite coal in the 19th and 20th centuries, Mountain City found itself abuzz with rumorous conversations over back porch railings and in its many taverns. The prevailing sentiment that “this kind of thing doesn’t happen here” was at sharp odds with reality of the gory details on every newcast.
While the evidence seemed a clear-cut indictment of the young man, few in the town, except for the victim’s family believed him capable of the crime. The upcoming trial in the dog days of August, would bring a miscarriage of justice that would claim thirty years of an innocent’s life.
July 17, 2017
Justice and Second Chances - Blog Update #1
On May 23rd in 1985, a quiet, secluded campsite near small town Mountain City, Pennsylvania became the scene of a brutal, bloody, slashing murder - in my newly released novel from Page Publishing: Murder at Mountain Tavern.
In the days that followed the murder, the young female victim’s teen lover, who had been found covered in the young woman’s blood, was arrested and indicted for her murder. What could have gone so wrong for this idyllic couple who seemed to all who knew them to be committed soul mates?
Now, thirty years after conviction and imprisonment, the man serving a life sentence for that murder has new hope for reprieve when, with advances in DNA science, the murder weapon reveals the presence of DNA from an unknown party.
This suspenseful plot is a gripping quest for second chances and long overdue justice through a reopened murder investigation as celebrated investigator Aubrey McKenna brings persistence, grit, human compassion and her own search for self and recovery to bear in navigating the surreal twists and turns of small town intrigue – an investigation that ultimately leads her far beyond the confines of Mountain City, reaching into the depths of Pennsylvania’s centers of political power - and corruption.
In the novel I patterned Mountain City, PA after Frackville, PA - the town in which I was raised - following that old writer's maxim: "write what you know best."
In the days that followed the murder, the young female victim’s teen lover, who had been found covered in the young woman’s blood, was arrested and indicted for her murder. What could have gone so wrong for this idyllic couple who seemed to all who knew them to be committed soul mates?
Now, thirty years after conviction and imprisonment, the man serving a life sentence for that murder has new hope for reprieve when, with advances in DNA science, the murder weapon reveals the presence of DNA from an unknown party.
This suspenseful plot is a gripping quest for second chances and long overdue justice through a reopened murder investigation as celebrated investigator Aubrey McKenna brings persistence, grit, human compassion and her own search for self and recovery to bear in navigating the surreal twists and turns of small town intrigue – an investigation that ultimately leads her far beyond the confines of Mountain City, reaching into the depths of Pennsylvania’s centers of political power - and corruption.
In the novel I patterned Mountain City, PA after Frackville, PA - the town in which I was raised - following that old writer's maxim: "write what you know best."
