By THEA RUTHERFORD

FN Features Editor

thea@nasguard.com

Writing a book can be a plunge into the unknown. As words tumble forth from one's mind onto paper, as they force fingers to feverishly tap keys on the keyboard, spelling out sentences that collect into paragraphs and bunch themselves into chapters, a bit of the author's mind, his persona leaks out.

In reading, the readers become unwitting judges of his truth. The author is bare before them as they ingest the text.

For local author, Dr. Keith Russell, who resurfaced from this plunge wearing a broad smile when he learned that practically an entire school had read and enjoyed his first novel, The Disappearance of J.D. Sinclair, the moment was a wonderful one of validation, an audible sigh of relief.

"You're writing in obscurity," he remarked of the process, "and then you see the enthusiasm of people who read the book."

His reading of the text at C.V. Bethel Senior High School in Nassau was one of his most memorable public readings. The school held an open forum, where students, teachers and custodial staff, all of whom had read the book, joined in analyzing it with the author.

"It was a marvellous discussion," Russell said. "The depths with which they began to analyze the book sort of rejuvenated my desire to continue writing."

Russell, also pastor of Fellowship Union Baptist Church, received similar reviews for his second work, When Doves Cry, a look at how drug trafficking affected one Bahamian family.

Both The Disappearance of J.D. Sinclair, (published 1999) and When Doves Cry, (published 2000) are used as literature texts in classrooms around the country. The Disappearance of J.D. Sinclair, has also been selected for the Minister's Book Club.

Swimming in the success of his first two moderate length novels- the author consciously writes shorter works to entice a wide range of readers- Russell now introduces the public to his third work, Hezekiah's Independence.

Hezekiah's Independence, was published last month by Russell's own company, LaVonkeish Publishing.

Russell shared a little about the novel in an interview with The Freeport News.

'Hezekiah,' "is a story of three generations of men," said the author. It is primarily about "the business of finding oneself and being true to what one feels is one's calling despite obstacles."

The book, with what the author deemed as the more adult theme of fighting conformity, begins in The Bahamas of the 1930s.

The author hopes that it will enjoy the same success as his previous works.

Russell was born in Grand Bahama but grew up between the island and New Providence. The author first fiddled with words as a self-conscious high school student. He wrote short stories.

Eventually he went off to college, putting aside his fiction-writing aspirations while he studied for his degrees. He returned to the craft as a graduate student with a few hours to spare during his night-shift job at school. It wasn't long before he completed what was to be the springboard for his first published work – Passage of a Native Son, a collection of stories that was published in 1985.

Russell delved into novel writing in the mid- '90s, as he foraged through the Bahamian landscape for homegrown novels.

The author, who described the period from the late '80s to the early '90s as a "vacuum" where local novels were concerned, although local poets had thrived, said that his first novel was inspired by a need for more Bahamian novels.

"I thought that the only way we can have them is if somebody begins to write them," he said.

Since then, a number of local authors have joined Russell in filling that vacuum. The author now looks forward to the emergence of more young novelists.

"We need to encourage the young generation to see writing as a possibility," he said. "If young people don't see the community valuing writing then they're not going to look at it as a possible career, and therefore are not going to produce anything.

"A lot of our culture dies with the older generation," said the author who sees writing as a form of cultural preservation, and whose own works have centred on life in The Bahamas. "We need to do something about that."

PUBLISHED WORKS — Local author and pastor, Dr. Keith Russell, published his third novel, "Hezekiah's Independence," last month in May. His first two works "The Disappearance of J.D. Sinclair" (published 1999) and "When Doves Cry" (published 2000) have enjoyed success.