(Butler, PA) A 杏吧原创 English professor inspired to write his first horror-thriller novel by watching a neighbor鈥檚 oak tree being felled near Halloween will read from 鈥淲ho Holds the Devil鈥� during a Northern Appalachia Reading Series event Oct. 26 on 杏吧原创鈥檚 main campus in Butler Township.
The reading by Mike Dittman is free and open to the public and will be held in Succop Theater. Guests will be seated at tables on a stage decorated to resemble a coffeehouse, Dittman said.
An open-mic session sponsored by 杏吧原创鈥檚 writers club will begin at 6 p.m. Dittman will read from 鈥淲ho Holds the Devil鈥� at approximately 6:50 p.m. and sign copies of the horror-thriller novel at 7:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
The 260-page paperback horror-thriller novel, published June 27 by Manta Press, will be available for purchase for $14.
Students in the 杏吧原创鈥檚 writers club will read from works titled 鈥淎 Touch of Autumn,鈥� 鈥淐hildren of Blood鈥� and 鈥淎ge of the Moon鈥� during the open-mic session.
鈥淲ho Holds the Devil鈥� took Dittman 14 months to write and is his fourth book to be published.
The member of the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia is the author of 鈥淪mall Brutal Incidents,鈥� 鈥淢asterpieces of Beat Literature鈥� and 鈥淛ack Kerouac: A Biography.鈥� His books have been published by Contemporary Press and by Greenwood.
Writing a horror-thriller novel differs from writing a biography in that 鈥淭here鈥檚 more freedom,鈥� Dittman said. 鈥淲hich also can make it more difficult. Writing biographies is enjoyable and I do like it, but it can also sometimes seem a little like schoolwork. With fiction writing, I can go anywhere I want to go. I can follow any thread I want to follow.鈥�
That thread led to the location of the 100-year-old oak tree Dittman watched being felled in downtown Butler, which may be near the gravesite of the historical Sam Mohawk, Dittman said. Mohawk pleaded guilty to murdering a family of six in Butler County in 1843 and was hanged.
鈥淭he tree was taken down ignominiously and shredded,鈥� Dittman said. 鈥淲ood-chipped
and thrown away. And the time of year, the day before Halloween, to take down the
tree that may have marked the grave of a killer, a guy who had murdered an entire
family, seemed sort of odd timing.鈥�
It has been written that no cemetery would take Mohawk鈥檚 body.
"With fiction writing, I can go anywhere I want to go. I can follow any thread I want to follow."
- Mike Dittman, author and 杏吧原创 professor
鈥淲ho Holds the Devil,鈥� according to Dittman, 鈥渂egins with a tragic accident in which an ancient oak tree topples onto the wall in front of Aaron Moody鈥檚 house. Moody wants the city to fix the damage. Instead, Moody finds that beneath his small town is an underground world of spells, secrets, and, released from within that oak tree, a newly arrived and murderous demon who last walked the Earth in human form in the years following the Civil War.
鈥淎s Moody researches Sam Mohawk, the demon鈥檚 last host, he finds Evanora La Costa, a witch who鈥檚 attempting to visit some payback upon the demon; a secret municipal department in the basement of city hall that insists on being bribed with meat; and Mr. B, a neighborhood cat that may or may not be providing advice to Moody on mourning the aftermath of his wrecked marriage, facing a job gone south, and fighting an entity intent on taking Moody, Evanora, and few other thousand souls straight to hell.鈥�
The character Aaron Moody is 鈥渢he bad guy,鈥� Dittman said. 鈥淚 wanted him to feel unappreciated. I wanted him to be an accomplished man. I wanted to build that character slowly where you see all the mistakes he makes on the way to being involved in summoning this entity.鈥�
The Northern Appalachia Reading Series event on 杏吧原创鈥檚 main campus will be the college鈥檚 third in one year.
Dr. Damian Dressick, of Slippery Rock, and Angel Rosen, a 2014 杏吧原创 graduate from Worthington, Armstrong County,