Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JUNE 28- JULY 4, 2023 UCW 15 Local author publishes third book in magical realism genre by HANNAH LEE Shane Wilson has been a full- time resident in Fayetteville since moving to the city in 2014. After almost a decade here, he calls the Can-Do City his home. Wilson is a professor in the English depart- ment at Fayetteville Technical Community College and is active in the local arts scene. "It's nice that there's a space here for artists where artists and artists of all varieties like visual arts, poets, all that. It's been, I think, really nice to be able to be a part of a community like that," Wilson said. Wilson has published two novels so far, "A Year Since the Rain" and "e Smoke in His Eyes." e novels are part of Wilson's "World of Muses." ey aren't sequels to each other, they are stand alone novels, but they both take place in the same world. "e world feels pretty much like our world. It's not set in sort of like middle earth, fantastical ideas. ere are no elves and things like that. It's mostly just regular people and regular places. But there are these magical people in the world. It's like a reimagining of Greek muses, is how I'm explaining it. It's called e World of Muses. ese people are brought up in a school where they're taught how to inspire people to change or grow, and all of the users have their dif- ferent focuses," Wilson said while describing his series of novels. His book, "e Smoke in His Eyes," won two awards at the Spring 2022 edition of e Book- Fest's Book Awards. It received second place for Contemporary Fantasy, and third place for Com- ing-of-Age Literary Fiction . He suggests people read his second novel, "e Smoke in His Eyes," before "A Year Since the Rain," in order to fully immerse in the world, but they can be read in any order. His upcoming novel, "e Woman with a ousand Faces," is the final post-apocalyptic chapter of this world. e novel follows newspaper reporter Sean Forrester, who was convinced that Troy Gideon, the CEO of Pure Elemental, had nefarious plans for the top-secret Project Skylight. He needed only to find proof. But that was before a globally cataclysmic event, and Forrester lost everyone he ever loved in an instant. He is alive, emotionally traumatized, and questioning everything he can remember. He ends up staying with a wom- an he doesn't know. She's a muse and is able to access Sean's past if he wants. at's where the bulk of the story takes place. "It's a post-apocalyptic, dysto- pian kind of world that the novel opens up into a sort of on the other side of some globally cata- clysmic event. Even though it's post-apocalyptic and dystopian, it breaks that tradition from a lot of those kinds of stories because it's not exploring the entire world. It really is just focused in on these two characters that are locked in- side of this house to try to stay safe because they don't really know what's going on," Wilson told Up & Coming Weekly. e inspiration for the story came from a memorable night of talking and drinking with a close friend from college. "I had one of those nights where you get a couple of bottles of wine, and you just like hash out your entire life story with somebody," Wilson said. Despite the book sounding like it was written during or after the COVID pandemic with its theme of locking down and being stuck in a house with someone, Wilson wrote this well before mandates and masks. However, Wilson did say that during COVID, he started to write more short-form escapist stories. e book, "e Woman with a ousand Faces," is expected to be published on July 20. ere are no scheduled events at this time, but Wilson expects to do local signings and readings, as well as digital conversations when the book is released. Wilson's books are available on Amazon. For more informa- tion about Wilson and his previ- ous works, go to https://www. shanewilsonauthor.com/ HANNAH LEE, Assistant Editor. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com. 910-484-6200 LITERATURE make your Radio sound funny. Mornings 6am to 10am on WFAY. Bud & Broadway Shane Wilson, a professor at Fayetteville Techni- cal Community College, is set to release his third book in July. (Photos courtesy www.facebook. com/thatshanewilson ) Wilson's other books include "e Smoke in His Eyes" and "A Year Since the Rain." His stage play "e Boy Who Kissed the Rain" is also set in the World of Muses.