Boyhood exploring local quarries is setting for new novel by McFarland
Photo by Tom Rivers: Mike McFarland, who writes under the name Thomas McFarland, holds a copy of his fourth book, The Quarry. The story is set in Albion in 1959.
ALBION – Mike McFarland has written a fourth novel, and this one is more of an homage to a childhood in Albion where children would roam in the neighborhoods, including exploring some of the old quarries. He would swim in the Peck’s quarry on Keitel Road, a site “that was packed on the weekends.”
McFarland, who writes under the name Thomas McFarland, has written “The Quarry.” It is set in the summer of 1959 when a 14-year-old is killed headed home from Peck’s quarry.
McFarland writes about a kid who overhears two men from West Virginia on a lunch break. The men are discussing the murder. A local police officer is able to piece together the clues and solve the crime.
McFarland names the officer Nowak. He is based on a Nowicki who McFarland knew on Knapp Street, where many Polish immigrants and their descendants lived.
McFarland, 83, is retired from a career in sales and also in managing hotels in Rochester. He wrote three historical novels previously.
The Horns of the Buffalo: A Novel of the Zulu War of 1879 highlights a tragic six-month war between the British and the Zulu in 1879.
In Rivers to Cross, McFarland’s book is set in the Civil War and features Tomas Corliss, who is wounded in battle and comes home to find his dreams shattered. He heads west to recover and somehow finds himself in post-war Texas where the great cattle drives to Abilene are just underway.
Donnybrook is a novel set in New York City during the draft riots of 1863.
With his latest novel, McFarland enjoyed reminiscing about growing up in Albion and the summer when he worked for the Kirby Brothers on their tomato farms. It was a dry summer, McFarland recalled, and he was busy moving irrigation pipes, cutting hay, and picking cherries and tomatoes. He was paid 10 cents a basket.
He picked with migrant workers and some local residents. The tomatoes were a huge crop locally back then with the tomatoes destined for the canning factories in Albion.
“They were hard to pick,” McFarland said about tomatoes. “You had to bend way over to get them. The best pickers were on their knees and then went along. It was the one year I worked all summer on a farm. I realized I didn’t want to do that again.”
McFarland now lives in Brockport. He worked about a year on the latest novel, which is about 200 pages. He includes cultural references from the 1950s.
“I do it for the fun of it,” he said about writing. “It’s a story. It’s fun remembering this stuff.”
He is working on his next novel, this time about a serial killer and the troubles in Northern Ireland during the reign of Boston gangster Whitey Bulger.
