Ned Bachus next up in Author Talk Series

Ned Bachus. Courtesy of Ned Bachus

Maine writer Ned Bachus is scheduled for an Author Talk at the South Portland Public Library on Thursday, June 22 at 6 p.m. He is the writer of the novel “Mortal Things.”

“I’ve been interested in stories since I was a kid,” Bachus said. “But I never imagined I would be devoting myself, devoting a large amount of time, to making stories, to writing stories. Because I felt like, ‘Well, geez, I have to have a job, I have to have a career.’ I never saw myself, and still don’t see myself, as one of those full-time professional writers. It’s just something that has been in me all along.

“And as I know a lot of other writers have said in answer to the question ‘Should I write? Is it a good idea? Should I get involved in writing?’ and my answer would be the same as I’ve heard other people say, which is, ‘Well, probably only if you really feel like you have to.’”

“Because it’s hard and it’s a shot in the dark in terms of getting a response that translates into any kind of tangible reward, tangible like money or whatever,” Bachus said. “Very few writers get that. And those, of course, are the ones we know about, for good reason, they’re generally good writers and have found a way to make a living. I always saw the magic of stories, the importance of stories. And the more I learned things in life, in school and then in teaching, the more I realized that they are central, stories are central in the way that people understand life, the way people get through life by sharing stories that mean something to them. It’s a way that humans try to understand things.”

Bachus has been a teacher at Community College of Philadelphia for almost 40 years. “I got an MFA in writing years after I had been on the faculty at the Community College of Philadelphia as a counselor, and then transferred into the English department after I got my MFA,” Bachus said. “So I had a dual purpose in getting my MFA. One was very practical: I wanted to teach. And the other was purely sort of soul driven: to really take writing seriously and work on that.

“And then I taught for many years, a lot of teaching writing, teaching fiction, teaching creative writing, teaching academic writing mostly, and teaching literature and other things as well. So that MFA program was really lifechanging for me, it was a real turning point. And I’m glad I did it.”

“Mortal Things” is about three characters in Mount Airy, Philadelphia, in 1989. The novel is about college professor Sarah Goins and her boyfriend Mike Flannigan, a groundskeeper at a local seminary. Sarah wants to bring Mike deeper into her life while Mike is reluctant to do so as he struggles to deal with a past touched deeply by loss. Mike meets neighborhood barber Domenic Gallo, and create a friendship built around understanding each other’s grief. Sarah meets Domenic as well and the three become intertwined in a powerful story dealing with family and relationships.

“It’s a novel really about the importance of the families that we are given and also the families that we create out of nothing. In other words, out of friendships, out of connections with people who are not related to us who might as well be related to us because those relationships take on that kind of importance,” said Bachus. “So that’s a lot of what the book is about and it focuses on three point of view characters. They take turns sort of telling their part of the story. Each one has a complete character arc, and the reader follows their three storylines as they become increasingly interconnected, intertwined. What happens to one person implements the other.”

“Mortal Things” began as a short story Bachus worked on in the 1980s in his MFA program.

“It goes way back and it morphed through being several versions of it in a story to it being eventually in a novella, and it just wouldn’t be contained and it morphed into being an entire novel,” Bachus said. “And it’s something I worked at over the course of many summers while teaching. Never could work on it during the year. I was just much more involved in my teaching. It didn’t fit into my life. So I let my characters get a break during the academic year, then they were waiting for me when I came back in the summer. So it took a long time. Many, many, years. But for me it was worth it because I felt like I had to do it. I had to finish this and figure out the way it was going to go and I’m glad I did.”

A sense of place and setting is incredibly important to Bachus, both in fiction as well as in real life.

“One of the things that I’ve been thinking about a lot is the importance of place,” Bachus said. “And a number of people have spoken about how they thought in ‘Mortal Things’ the setting became kind of like a character. Because the setting is fully developed, a neighborhood in the city of Philadelphia at a certain point in time. And people have commented about the effect that has in the book and I think a great deal about the importance of place… place matters so much and I think it does to people … Just ask someone about Maine and they get very particular. Their Maine is usually tied to certain places.”

Bachus said that libraries have been some of the most important places in his life, especially in Maine. “It’s one of the things we are very fortunate to have: libraries that are very open to letting Maine writers come in and meet readers,” he said. “The libraries in Maine are true crossroads for towns, for communities, and places that draw residents in for many reasons. I feel very very fortunate to be able to visit writers and get to meet people. Whether they buy a copy of the book or not, it’s the closest I get to being in the classroom which I miss. I don’t miss grading essays but I certainly miss the interactions in a room with people that are interested in words and language and stories. And I really look forward to going down to South Portland library and getting another chance to do that with a fresh group of people.”