The best part of writing fiction is that you get to create your own world, Utica author Dan Long, Jr. told the Mount Vernon News.
"It's yours to manipulate as you see fit and as the story needs it to," Long said. "There is nobody really to tell you what's right or what's wrong, besides your peers, reviewers and your editor."
His first novel was "The Conflict Within: The Second American Civil War," about social unrest after the United States comes close to bankruptcy and the president suspends social programs.
He just published his second novel, "The Season of Change," which is about a 9-year-old boy from New York City who is forced to move to a farm in Ohio to live with his uncle and discovers that not everyone likes the new kid. The book is about the meaning of family, said Long, whose day job is a public safety officer at Ohio State University Newark campus and Central Ohio Technical College.
"I came up with this as part of the grieving process for my uncle, who I lost," Long said. "I used aspects of my uncle and my father to create the uncle character in the book."
One part of the novel is not autobiographical. Long never lived in New York City. Licking County has always been home.
"My parents lived in Utica. Then they moved out to a farm about a mile away from Northridge High School," he said.
He was an avid reader and in high school read a lot of novels based on comic book characters. He tried writing some of his own books in the genre, but publisher wouldn't bite.
"I figured that if I wanted something to be published, I'd had to come up with my own ideas," he said.
His advice to would-be writers is to stick with the craft and don't be discouraged by naysayers.
"I remember when I first submitted, some of the editors weren't too kind to me," he said. "Not everyone will like what you do. But take it as constructive criticism."
