A first-time novelist but veteran writer, Stephen Markley will discuss his debut novel, “Ohio,” at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Off Square Books.
“Ohio” is a murder mystery that follows four protagonists as they converge upon New Canaan, Ohio, carrying pieces of the story with them. Its themes tread heavily in the problems America ran into in the early 2000s and continues to wrestle with today: political gridlock, economic turmoil and an opioid epidemic.
“I’m of a generation that has seen some spectacular changes, events and institutional failures, from 9/11 to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the Great Recession to the opioid crisis,” Markley said. “All of that is packed into the narrative.”
“Ohio” is Markley’s third book. After a career in screenwriting, Markley published two memoirs: “Publish This Book: The Unbelievable True Story of How I Wrote, Sold and Published This Very Book” and “Tales of Iceland: Running with the Huldufolk in the Permanent Daylight.”
Taking a step away from his autobiographical stories, Markley said “Ohio” focuses on wider experiences that are distributed among several characters, with pieces of himself sprinkled throughout.
“(‘Ohio’) was a combination of things,” Markley said. “But it’s also a personal story. There is no character based on anyone real, but I wanted those characters to feel like people we all know.”
Markley took a little over three years to complete his novel, and it all began in June 2015, when Markley met with his soon-to-be agent, Susan Golomb.
“When I met (Markley), (‘Ohio’) had an entirely different title and was twice as long,” Golomb said. “I knew it was really good, but in order for me to sell it and (for) it to be published, it needed to be edited.”
From there, the manuscript would become one of just 10 approved for publication out of the over 14,000 manuscripts Golomb sees each year.
“It’s always hard because a publisher is taking a risk on someone who is not known, so it’s not like somebody publishing the next Stephen King book,” Golomb said. “It’s somebody nobody’s ever heard of, so the book has to be very good and very original and be well-written and have a page turning quality to it.”
Half a book’s worth of plotlines and characters were first dropped to streamline the story before Golomb applied the final editorial touches and passed the manuscript on to the publisher, Simon & Schuster.
“It really takes a lot of effort from a lot of people,” Golomb said.
In the few weeks since the release of “Ohio,” it has generated positive feedback from readers and critics and is already in its third printing.
Markley and his novel fell within the radar of Cody Morrison, a manager at Square Books, when a personal letter singing the book’s praises that was attached to a review copy arrived at the store. Carry Weinstein, Markley’s editor and Morrison’s friend, had sent the letter, which urged Morrison to read through.
This personal recommendation made the book stick out to Morrison, who said Square Books hosts over 150 author events per year.
“So many of (the books) look so good,” Morrison said. “But when somebody writes you a personal note saying, ‘Hey, I think you should check this out,’ it’s always something you want to get on.”
Well into his tour, Markley has described it as “exciting, rewarding and utterly exhausting,” as he bounces from one side of the country to the other. He was in Portland, Oregon, two days before arriving in Oxford.
Once the event is over, Markley will have just a few hours before he heads toward the Memphis International Airport for the next leg of his tour in Atlanta.
“Hopefully I can get (a) beer or two in somewhere,” Markley said. “One thing about a book tour is (that) it’s an interesting, frenetic way to see the country.”
