When English Professor Chet Frederick first wrote the story of Petir, a man living in an unnamed Eastern European country, Frederick had no idea the short story would become his first published full-length novel. But that novel, Country of Memory, is scheduled to be released by Permanent Press Nov. 15.
The novel has already been met by critics with applause, like the Publisher's Weekly review that concluded by calling Frederick, "a writer's writer."
Frederick has a hard time describing the story he says developed as he wrote. In the end, he calls it a novel about awakening and discovery. "It came chapter by chapter," he said. "The circumstances determined what was going to be there in front of me... When it was over, it seemed like the only place it could go."
It's partly the mystery that keeps Frederick writing.
"I always think of it as a dialogue between you and the work of fiction," he said. "One minute you're talking to it and then it's talking to you and you have to listen."
Frederick has written, and published, several short stories in the past. He wrote "Country of Memory" first as a short story in 1992. The next year he returned to the work and decided to try lengthening it.
"In some sense it's never over," he said. "You write something and come back a couple years later and look at it in a different way."
Frederick, who is on leave from UMass Boston but plans to return next semester, hopes to set up book signing events. He already has a reading planned in New Orleans in January.
Still, he's not letting the dust collect under his word processor. Frederick is already working on his next novel, a story about three refugees learning to live in a new culture. He hopes to finish that work soon. "I keep saying it's weeks away - it could be three weeks or 300 weeks."