Author releases 18th novel, ‘The Communion of Shadows’

It all began in a first-grade classroom in West Virginia. Gordon Bonnet wrote a hit story, “Crazy Bird Bends His Beak,” which has inspired countless stories since. 

Now, the Trumansburg resident has published a new novel, “The Communion of Shadows,” set in southern Louisiana. The latest book is Bonnet’s 18th novel.

“The story is set in the bayou country near Raceland, Louisiana, where my mother’s family is from,” Bonnet said. “I grew up hearing Cajun folktales from my uncle, and ‘The Communion of Shadows’ draws a lot of its inspiration from those stories I heard as a child.”

The ghost story takes place in the mid-19th century and follows four friends who are working in the fields when a thunderstorm strikes. As the friends retreat inside to wait out the storm, each tells a revealing story, with one confessing that his ghostly experience isn’t over and that he’s trapped in the middle of it.

Bonnet has been on a bit of a tour across America, spending some years of his childhood in Louisiana before attending the University of Washington in Seattle for graduate school. From there, he made his way to Trumansburg to teach science.

“I taught for five years in Seattle and then moved to Trumansburg for the job,” Bonnet said. “I wanted to teach in a small village school rather than in the big city, and Trumansburg was the first offer I got. I moved here in 1992 knowing no one, and it’s been home ever since.”

He taught for many years at Trumansburg High School in the science department. At times, teaching has provided him with inspiration for his writing.

“The main characters in my novels ‘Kill Switch’ and ‘The Hand of the Hunter’ are teachers in a high school that is suspiciously like Trumansburg,” he said. “They’re not inspired by anyone in particular, but setting a story in a familiar (if fictionalized) place, and having a career I know well, allows me to write the story more authentically.”

Bonnet has a theory as to why so many are lured toward horror and psychological thrillers as entertainment.

“I think we all are drawn to the unknown,” he said. “Not only do we want explanations for the big unknowns – things like death and the afterlife, the existence of a god or gods and so on – we have a need to explain commonplace mysteries like the creaking on the front porch in the middle of the night.”

When it comes to real-world horror, readers can find comfort in turning off the scary, according to Bonnet.

“I think there’s the comfort of being able to turn it off at the end and say, ‘Well, my life may be tough, but at least I’m not being pursued by monsters,'” he said.

Bonnet also revealed that life in Trumansburg has profoundly influenced his writing.

“Its people and natural beauty are definitely an inspiration,” he said. “I’ve set many stories in Colville and Guildford – lightly fictionalized versions of Ithaca and Trumansburg, respectively – because the Finger Lakes region is such a wonderfully evocative place.”

The local author is also a devoted blog writer, contributing six days a week to his project, Skeptophilia, for 12 years. The blog has a sizable reach.

“It’s always the first thing I do in the morning after I’ve had a cup of coffee. I’ve been phenomenally lucky with it; I’m approaching four million lifetime hits,” he shared.

Bonnet is a morning person, and after writing a blog post, he pivots to his fiction writing. As part of his writing process, he will play classical music, such as Bach, Stravinsky, Shostakovich or Vaughan Williams.

“It can’t be anything with words, because I’m pretty distractible,” he said of his music choices when writing. “My favorite place to write is my office, which is nice and sunny, with a big window overlooking our front garden.”

The writer shared that he usually fades out in the afternoon and is a big fan of afternoon naps. It’s also a time when he enjoys his hobbies, including ceramics and sculpture.

Bonnet uses his own pottery wheel and kiln to make sculptures of human figures, animals and masks in addition to functional pieces like bowls and vases. He’s also a musician and plays the flute and the piano,  and he makes room in his schedule to go running. 

“Physical exercise is a wonderful mind-clearer for me,” he said.

Despite his writing schedule, Bonnet still finds time to pick up a book and fall into another world.

“My current read is ‘The Sirens of Mars,’ by Sarah Stewart Johnson. She’s an exobiologist, currently part of NASA’s effort to find evidence of microscopic life on Mars,” he said. “When I’m done with that, I plan on revisiting an old friend – rereading ‘The Silmarillion’ by J.R.R. Tolkien. I never get tired of his complex and dramatic mythological worlds.”

Bonnet believes aspiring writers should write and read often and not get discouraged.

“Like anything, you get better by practicing, and by studying how others do it. But there’s no doubt getting published is a tough game,” he said. “I was 54 when I got my first publishing contract. So you have to be patient and have faith that persistence and practice will pay off.”

Bonnet’s books can be found in local bookstores such as Odyssey Books and Buffalo Street Books, as well as on Amazon.com.

His blog, Skeptophilia, can be found at www.gordonbonnet.com/skeptophilia-blog.

Learn more about Gordon Bonnet at www.gordonbonnet.com. 

Trumansburg Connection appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com or courtney.rehfeldt@gmail.com.