Dresden author returns to roots
Nate Kenyon to attend book signing

BY AARON MILLER

BRUNSWICK — Nate Kenyon remembers writing his first book when he was just eight years old, using carbon paper and a typewriter to sell copies of “The White Horse” to family members for 25 cents apiece.
His passion for reading and writing continued past his graduation from Wiscasset High School, beyond Trinity College and into today as the director of communications and marketing at Boston College Law.
In January, the Dresden native published another book. And at the age of 35 Kenyon has swapped his boyhood stories for a darker sort of thrill ride. On July 8, Kenyon will attend a reading and signing of his book, “Bloodstone” at Bookland Cafe in Brunswick (1 p.m.)
The story tells of a recovering alcoholic on the run from his past.
Plot synopsis: All Billy Smith wants is to be is left alone. But the visions that torture his every living moment will not let him rest. Commanded by the voices in his head to commit acts of violence he does not understand, he kidnaps a prostitute known only as Angel and heads north to a bucolic little New England town called White Falls. There, the two strangers try to blend in while they struggle to understand the bizarre circumstances that have brought them together. But in this town all is not what it seems. Something monstrous has taken root in White Falls, and has waited centuries for the right time to awaken.
During his teen-age years, Kenyon received an awakening of his own. He grew up reading the Hardy Boys mysteries and eventually graduated to the horror of Stephen King.
“His books really opened my eyes to adult fiction,” Kenyon said. “I thought, this is really intense emotional stuff.”
And Kenyon is no stranger to those feelings.
When he was eight years old his father was killed in a car crash and at the age of 13, his mother died of cancer.
“There’s no question that those events shaped the way I view things,” he said. “Looking back at ‘Bloodstone’ it has references to cancer and sickness that I didn’t really know was in there at first.”
Kenyon and his sister, Amanda, were raised by their aunt, Jenni Brown, of Newcastle. He admitted to feeling isolated after losing his parents and spent his time reading and writing.
“I always wanted to be a writer and right out of college I started writing,” he said.
He had a close call with a novel, but his publisher went belly up, he said. He wrote a few other books and had some close calls with agents and in spite of financial and moral support from his grandfather, Edward Kenyon, he moved on to other interests.
“It’s not like getting a lottery ticket and all of a sudden it happens,” he said.
He caught a break when he contacted editor and author Ed Gorman and Kenyon landed a contract with Thomson Gale, a publisher who specializes in mainly textbooks based in Waterville. About 1,500 to 2,000 of his books were printed in January, an experience he called “surreal.” But he wasn’t over the hump yet and needed to focus on promoting his novel.
“I knew this would be a real battle,” he said. “There was a lot of work involved promoting on line, creating a trailer, pens, bookmarks and flyers. There wasn’t a heck of a lot time to sit back and appreciate it.”
Publishing “Bloodstone” has changed Kenyon’s life, he said. He’s traveling more to attend book signings and networking to promote the possibility of a movie. Kenyon currently lives with his wife, Nicole, and three children in Newton, Mass., and enjoys coming back to Maine when he has the chance.
“Maine, I think, gets in your blood,” he said. “I’ve been away for a while and it will always be part of me.”

Aaron Miller may be reached at amiller@courierpub.com

Book review: Lincoln County Weekly

Author’s ties with Maine bring novel close to home

By Rachel E.A. Greene
Reading “Bloodstone,” Nate Kenyon’s debut novel, is a lot like taking a vacation inside a pressure cooker. From the prologue to the final pages, the reader is drawn through a scary, intense world full of damaged but redeemable characters, disturbing imagery, a cursed amulet, the living dead and forbidden love. For Maine readers, the book may be particularly scary, as they will recognize many locations described by the author, himself a Maine native. This familiarity brings the horror that much closer to home.
In the classic tradition of such horror greats as Stephen King and Peter Straub, Nate Kenyon has created the fictional town of White Falls, Maine, one of the prettiest villages you would never want to call home. White Falls is a town with a secret, which is only completely revealed to the reader in the novel’s climactic ending. The novel spans centuries, starting with the terrible corruption of one of White Falls founding fathers. Drawn to Maine by his own nightmares, Billy Smith is a pawn in an ancient game over which he seemingly has no control. His partner in this adventure is a West Coast drug addict, a beautiful but lost girl named Angel.
Kenyon’s true gift lies in his ability to terrify readers without resorting to graphic gore. While there are a few bloody messes over the course of the novel, by and large it is in Kenyon’s subtlety that the real horror lies. Kenyon’s characters seem like real people, fragile, flawed, but most of all loving. “Bloodstone” is a horror novel, but it is also a novel about love and redemption, about letting go of the past and becoming the hero of your own life.
Nate Kenyon may not be a household name yet, but if “Bloodstone” is any indication, he is on his way. Horror fans everywhere can look forward to Kenyon’s next effort. Let’s hope he doesn’t keep us waiting for too long.