Author Event: Olathe Native, Charles Farley
Date: Saturday, Sept. 7, 1-4 p.m.
Location: Book Warehouse at the Great Mall of the Great Plains, 20321 W. 151st St.
Charles Farley, also called Joe, is a 1963 graduate of Olathe High School who has found success in recent years as a mystery novelist. His second novel is due out Sept. 1 and he will sign his books on Saturday, Sept. 7, at the Book Warehouse in the Great Mall of the Great Plains in south Olathe, the same weekend as the 50 year reunion of his high school class.
Farley, who has lived in Huntsville, Alabama for the past 15 years, has worked as a high school English teacher, librarian, and salesman. He wrote in short forms in college and for library publications, but about four years ago he wrote his first book, a biography of blues music great, Bobby "Blue" Bland. That book, “Soul of the Man”, was published by the University Press of Mississippi in 2011. His second book was a mystery novel, “Secrets of San Blas,” that was published by Pineapple Press in 2012. It is based on events surrounding an actual murder that occurred in the Spring of 1938 at the Cape San Blas Lighthouse near Port St. Joe, Florida.
“I’ve always enjoyed reading mysteries, and my family and I like to vacation in the Port St. Joe area. I wanted to do a book that told readers what it was like to live there before it was so developed. And then I read an article in a newspaper that told about a murder there in 1938, so I thought it would make a good story and setting for a novel. When I visit somewhere, I always try to find a fiction book that is set in that town. I think fiction books can tell even more than a straight historical book about an area.”
The sequel, “Secrets of St. Vincent,” set for release Sept. 1, is also set in the same location. Farley’s website describes the story this way: “Things are not always as serene as they seem in the little Florida Panhandle village of Port St. Joe. When bluesman Reggie Robinson is wrongly arrested for the gruesome murder of Sheriff Byrd “Dog” Batson, old Doc Berber and his best friend, Gator Mica, a half-breed Seminole Indian, mount a quixotic search for the real killer on savage St. Vincent Island. If they survive the frightening adventure, they’ll return with the shocking secrets that will shatter the town’s tranquility forever.”
Farley was recently awarded First Place in the Fiction Category of the Alabama Writers' Conclave's 2012 Writing Competition. He enjoys the writing process greatly. “I usually do a rough outline of the story before I write, but then it changes considerably as the characters and story goes on,” he said.
His writing schedule varies. “I’ve got three kids here in Huntsville (ages 15, 13, and 11), so life is pretty busy and I write whenever I find the time,” he said. He also has two children, ages 39 and 36, who live in the Olathe area.
Farley says he has good memories of Olathe High School, where he played football, basketball and ran track. “Ed Compton, an English teacher at OHS and the town’s librarian, started me reading good books, and J. T. Craig, our senior English teacher, taught me how to write. We had to write a paper every week, and he corrected every one of them. I got interested in blues music in high school too. There was a teen club in Overland Park called the Soc Hop, and a blues singer named Little Jimmy Griffin used to play there. There was also a place called Barry’s Barn near Olathe.”
After high school, Farley attended Ottawa University and graduated with a degree in psychology. He then went to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he taught high school English. He then attended graduate school for a degree in library science, and returned to Kansas City to work in the KCMO Public Library, and later became director of the Ottawa Library. After that he worked in sales for computer systems for libraries. But his interest in writing always remained and continues to be strong.
“I’ve completed the third novel in this mystery series. It will be published next year. And I am now working on a young adult novel set in an 1892 hotel. After that’s done, I’m not sure what my next writing project will be. I love baseball and may do a biography about somebody in baseball.”
For more information about Farley and to order his books, see his website at http://www.charlesfarley.com/index.html
Story by Steve Baska, Johnson County Gazette