by Maggie Fitzgibbon
David MooreStonebridge Secret is a story fueled by revenge, deceit, and opposition. The main characters are filled with angst as they wrestle with moral dilemmas and the story line is filled with conflicts in faith, friendship and love. Written by David Moore, Stonebridge Secret is set in a small village in upstate New York and begins in the 1960s. Moore fabricated the village of Stonebridge based on his childhood memories of Spencerport. Without giving away too many details, readers will be delighted to find many familiar Spencerport names and places, as well as Rochester landmarks, mentioned throughout the book.
Moore graduated from Spencerport High School in 1974 and moved to Florida in 1985. He married another Spencerport native, Michele Lamirande, in 1989 and together, they have six children and four grandsons. His parents, Fred and Ruth Moore, still live in Spencerport and were part of Moore’s editorial review group during his writing process.
“I couldn’t wait to read the first draft. When he sent us the first 60 pages, I kept asking Fred if he was finished reading,” Ruth said. “We always knew he had creative talents, he’s always been interested in reading. He was very musical in high school, he even had a band,” Fred said.
Stonebridge Secret is Moore’s first novel; he began writing about ten years ago.
“I was getting my undergraduate degree in English and I wrote and self-published a small non-fiction book about a couple who served as missionaries in Cuba during the Castro revolution. While writing that book, I found that the parts I enjoyed writing most were those where I had to fill in the gaps with my imagination. I think I decided then that I would like to try writing fiction,” Moore said. On a lighter note, Moore added, “I joke that I first realized I could be an effective writer when, as a single father raising three daughters, I began writing letters to Michele from 1,400 miles away, and enticed her to marry me.”
Moore’s book takes many twists and turns through the life of the main character, Alex Spencer. The story begins when Alex discovers a horrible secret about his beloved parish priest. When Alex learns of this, he is faced with a shocking reality and spends his life plotting revenge and justice. The story follows the life of both Alex and the narcissistic, wayward priest Father Francis and how the two lives are intertwined. While much of the story is based on Spencerport, “This priest is not based on any true-life person. I’ve never known anyone like Father Francis,” Moore said.
Moore developed this book out of a desire to write. “The idea to write a novel was just ‘in’ me. I studied character and novel development and started organizing, outlining and drafting. As I was writing, I got to a crossroads of where I wanted the characters to be and the characters pulled me. That’s when the story took on a life of its own,” Moore explained.
Moore added Spencerport family names and places to his story as a way to entice the reader. “I did this out of a need to create a regional feel to the story,” and he also made sure that “it did not restrict the story,” Moore explained. And by doing so, he captivates the reader’s interest and makes the reader move further into the story to find out what and who will be featured next.
“Many of our family names are included in the book,” said Fred.
Two years later, seven drafts, pounds of paper and plenty of ink, and the final draft of Stonebridge Secret was born. Moore has many hopes for his readers, mostly, “I hope readers enjoy this book and it entertains but I hope it makes people think. This is a revenge story filled with collateral damage. It is a sobering thought when you put those forces in action,” Moore said.
An autographed copy of this book can be purchased at The Unique Shop in Spencerport. It’s also available online in paperback and Kindle versions at www.Amazon.com; and in Nook version at www.barnesandnoble.com.
For those interested in reading more of Moore’s work, his second novel is set to be published soon. Gold Mettle takes place in Stonebridge in 1917, at the time of WWI and follows Jake McCleary, a young man working on the Erie Canal.
For more information about any of Moore’s work, visit his website at www.davidmooreauthor.com or find him on Facebook at David Moore – author.
