Steve Hallock book signings set for May 13

Southeastern Idaho and New York City may not sound like a natural connection, but throw in a murder mystery, a love story and a local reporter, and hopefully it all comes together.

To find out, you’ll have to read the book: “Remembering Toni,” by former Idaho State Journal editorial writer Steve Hallock.

You can pick up a copy of the novel at the Walrus and the Carpenter Book Store and get it autographed by Hallock May 13, at 4 p.m. He’ll also be doing book signings at Buddy’s Italian Restaurant beginning at 6:30 that evening. The book is also available on the Amazon web site.

“I have such fond memories of Pocatello,” said Hallock, who served two stints as an editorial writer at the Journal back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. “It was my second home, even though I was there for a short time. I have a son in Idaho, my former wife and I were married there. Pocatello has a special place in my heart.”

It will now also provide a special place for the characters in Hallock’s book, which centers around a reporter for the local paper, and one of his co-workers, who decided to leave Pocatello and pursue her passion in the theater in New York City. There she meets her demise, and the subsequent investigation leads a New York City police detective back to Pocatello.

“It’s a murder mystery, but it’s more than that,” said Hallock, who is a retired journalism professor and lives in Pittsburgh. “It’s also a love story… The relationship between this guy and his girlfriend, it never goes away. It also captures the theme of the victimization of females.”

“Remembering Toni” is Hallock’s fourth novel. His first three — “The Silent Treatment,” “Some of Doc’s Blues,” and “Sweet Cherry Sunday” — were published through small publishing houses. He’s also authored six academic text books over his time as a journalism professor. He actually found the academic work more rewarding than his fiction.

“I wrote my first novel when I was 21. It was never published,” he said. “I continued to write novels the rest of my life. When I went (to academia) mid-career, I turned my research and writing to academic books. It was actually more rewarding than fiction writing. I really got to enjoy research and writing up my research in those books.”

Now that he’s retired from academia, Hallock has returned to fiction writing. He’s always been a fan of mysteries in the noir genre.

Many folks aspire to write the great American novel. Hallock says getting academic books published is relatively easy — with good topics and good research — compared to getting fiction in print.

“Getting a novel published is really hard,” he said. “But the Amazon process is so simple, so professional. They just made it really easy. They give the writer the bulk of the royalties, they put it on the web site, and you do all the marketing.”

Hallock makes it clear he didn’t get rich through his published fiction, but he also made it clear that he never started writing with money in mind.

“I didn’t make a ton of money from book writing — I do it because I like it,” he said. “I just like to write. I’ve written all my life and I will probably write for the rest of it.”