“If only you’d remember before you ever sit down to write that you’ve
been a reader much longer than you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world [you] would most want to
read…” - J.D. Salinger.
All About Me
A student of the American Civil War since visiting Gettysburg more than 50 years ago, T.F. Troy has an award-winning journalism career spanning more than 40 years. He currently serves as Executive Editor of Cleveland Magazine’s Community Leader as well as the Editor of Ohio Business Magazine. He also writes features for Northern Kentucky Magazine and Dayton Magazine, among other regional publications. His work with those publications has won him numerous awards, taking first, second and third place in Ohio for Magazine Feature Writing. Troy’s work has appeared in major metropolitan daily newspapers including the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
In addition to the previously mentioned publications, Troy also held positions as a Senior Editor for both ABC/Capital Cities and ICD Publications in New York. His work has appeared in numerous national consumer and trade periodicals throughout his career. In his first book Cleveland Classics: Great Tales from the North Coast, Troy interviewed local and national Cleveland celebrities such as: Jim Brown, Bob Feller, Patricia Heaton and Arsenio Hall among others. The Absolution of Mars, set just after the Civil War, is his first novel.
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"The
Absolution
of Mars"
The very first paragraph of "The Absolution of Mars" draws the reader in, setting a playful scene, and invites you to learn more. Immediately I wanted to know who these children were, who the Captain was, and why they were talking about fighting monsters. I love the way we learn more about the children through dialogue and the things that Boyd says to them. The storytelling has a nice flow and pace to it.
The intriguing opening phrase of the book establishes the mystery and rich historical detail of the narrative. With its intriguing and thought-provoking opening paragraph, the first paragraph successfully grabs the reader's attention and promises a captivating read.
Author T.F. Troy plunges us immediately into the action with the first chapter of "The Absolution of Mars". And in this story, we get the ending before the explanation. Chapter one speaks of our main character’s demise and then chapter two bounces us back to twelve days prior.
This writing style creates mystery that keeps you intrigued, waiting to find out what happens next. We are then introduced to a new character, Jemm Pender. Jemm is a slave, owned by the Pender’s. Through him, we also learn of Marnie and her gifts, and a great deal about the times in which they are living.
The book handles really difficult subjects surrounding racism and at times, it’s difficult to read, especially when racial slurs are used. Readers should be aware going into it that this book deals with some very real, very painful parts of America’s past and the days of slavery. That said, from a historical perspective and a human POV, it’s done very well and accurately. - HFC Review
BOOK EXCERPT
A single distant scream pierces through the misty night. Down U street and up 10th the lamplighters have done their job as they had done the night before for the Grand Illumination, kicking off a weekend of celebration. Flickering gas lamps shrouded in a halo of pulsating golden light—lining the streets — the city alight with the potential for an all-night celebration.
But something has gone terribly wrong,
Jemm doesn’t know how he knows, he just knows. And he feels a pit in his stomach, his arumbo, as his ancestors called it, a sixth sense that tells when trouble is coming. Marnie had predicted something like this. But Jemm thought himself above her predictions, which seemed childlike, denying even his own arumbo.
A man of science and observation, Jemm has no time for tribal shibboleths and superstitions. But Marnie does have a knack for things like this. And she does have the Ovambo talent for reading people. It not only commands Jemm’s respect, sometimes it scares him.
Jemm sits in the window of the fourth floor of his dwelling in what the whites call “darkie town” where Marnie has made a home. Early on in the Great Conflict, even before the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln freed more than 3,000 slaves, most now working as servants. Many live in this neighborhood, which is attracting more freedmen and women heading north to freedom every day.
From his perch above the city, Jemm sees the trouble moving its way across town, fanning out in a concentric circle; moving from house to house, from street to street, to neighborhood and neighborhoods beyond. The town reacting to desperate news in the middle of the night.
It was just as his Aunt Cordelia said: You could see trouble moving, through nature, or through men, not by the trouble itself, but its effect—just as you couldn’t see the wind, but you could see how it would bend and sway trees—or how birds would fly or small animals run away from danger.
A foggy night with cold and rain in the offing, Jemm can smell it in the air. The stove by the window, takes the chill off. Marnie is still asleep in the ondijungo, but Jemm knows she will soon travel back to the living.
Jemm spots a single lantern in the spire of St. John’s on Lafayette when he hears the first bell. Then a light from behind throws flickering shadows on the wall in front.
It’s Marnie.
“Here it comes, just like I told,” she says, grabbing his shoulders.
The night before she had one of her dreams. Aunt Cordelia had taken her hand and walked her in a strange shape.
“Dis the way it got to be Marnie. Dis here da way it is,” Cordelia says to her from the ethereal.
When she waked the next morning, Marnie realizes she’s been walked in the shape of a coffin. Someone important to her is dead or going to die.
