This Goldsboro writer says he gets inspiration from Down East characters | Raleigh News & Observer

Ted Miller Brogden says living Down East is one of the best places in the world for writers.

“Someone once asked if I have trouble creating characters,” he says. “I said, ‘heck no.’ When I need a character, I visit one of the small towns around here and walk around until I bump into one. I never walk very far.”

“Jigsaw Part II” (ME Publishing) is the second installment in Brogden’s Cape Thomas series. The story picks up with Capt. Cape Thomas having been shot in the head and hospitalized for five years. His new life comes with new terrors that remain a mystery.

“I’m often asked if Cape Thomas, the main protagonist in the Jigsaw series, is based on me,” Brogden says. “Nope, Cape Thomas is the composite of every person who, in spite of the consequences, does the right thing – usually at the wrong time.”

Brogden, a pilot, diver and author, lives in Goldsboro. About his simplified view of life, he has said, “I’ve always tried to face life like an oyster does. When given grit, give back a pearl.”

New titles

Padgett Gerler returns with “What Does Love Sound Like?” (Amazon), a novel about the sometimes messy relationships that make up a family. Gerler, who lives in Raleigh, will have a book launch from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30, at Talbots in Triangle Town Center.

Oxford native Joe Haskins Jr. used his hometown as the setting of his novel, “A Love From Away” (Amazon). The story follows Gabriel Ragland as he moves from North Carolina to teach at the University of Maine for a semester. Haskins now lives in Bangor, Maine.

Two new non-fiction books from the University of North Carolina Press offer different views on North Carolina.

Michael L. Walden, an economic professor at N.C. State University, has written “North Carolina Beyond the Connected Age: The Tar Heel State in 2050.” In it he looks at the challenges the state will face and predicts future trends.

“New Voyages to Carolina: Reinterpreting North Carolina History” is edited by Larry E. Tise and Jeffrey J. Crow, both former directors of the Division of Archives and History in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. The book’s 15 essays from historians trace the state from pre-settlement through its global expectations. Among the chapters that sound intriguing is “Linthead Stomp: Carolina Cotton Mill Hands and the Modern Origins of Hillbilly Music.”

Event

Page 158 Books in Wake Forest is hosting “Spooky Stories with Nicole Sarrocco” at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27. The evening will feature scary stories, murder ballads and tarot readings. It’s recommended for tweens and older. Page 158 has moved to its new location at 415B S. Brooks St. Sarrocco, who teaches at the N.C. School of Science and Math, is the author of the “Occasionally True” series of novels “Lit By Lightning” and “Ill-Mannered Ghosts” (both from Chatwin Books).

Award

Chapel Hill author and filmmaker Mark Spano has been awarded a month-long residency at Escape to Create in Seaside, Fla., to turn his mystery novel “Midland Club” (Thunderfoot Press) into a screenplay. “Midland Club” is a tale of corruption, love, lies and murder set in the Midwest in 1958. Spano will spend January at E2C in Seaside.

Bookwatch

Former Gov. Jim Martin will talk about his book “Revelation through Science” (XLIBRIS) on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch at noon Sunday, Oct. 22, and 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26. Martin, also a chemist, argues that belief in God and the findings of science are not incompatible. The book is written for the educated non-scientist who is struggling with the apparent conflicts between science and religion.