Marshall Scott Shields.JPG
Fairmont author Marshall Scott Shields will sign books at the Marion County Public Library at 321 Monroe St. in Fairmont on Saturday from 1-3 p.m. He will also discuss the writing process he used to pen “Time Capsule a Covington Mystery.”
PHOTO BY EDDIE TRIZZINO     
FAIRMONT – While digging a hole to plant a tree in his yard, Marshall Scott Shields speculated on the thought of finding a time capsule buried right outside his home.
Ideas fluttered and unfolded within his mind over the next several years. Being a former journalist, he used writing as a form of expression to expel the thoughts from his head onto the page.
“About 15 years ago, I thought ‘I am going to write a book,’” Shields said. “So the book is basically about a man and his wife, they’re both reporters, and they find this time capsule, open it up and there is all kinds of things inside.”
After years of writing and re-writing, Shields has self-published the substance of his thought process as his first book, “Time Capsule A Covington Mystery.” The story is a culmination of 15 years worth of mentally diving down the rabbit hole Shields developed from his experience in the early 2000s.
“I’ve been a writer most of my life, and I challenged myself,” Shields said. “I thought ‘If you’re a writer, then you should be able to write a book.’ So that’s how the whole idea came about.”
On Saturday, Aug. 10, Shields will be at the Marion County Public Library in Fairmont for a book signing where he will talk about his writing process and the development of the “Time Capsule” story.
“He came to us and was talking about how he published a book,” said Connie VanGilder, a program coordinator for MCPLS. “What I found really interesting was the process of how he went about writing his book and everything. We try to do them when the opportunity arises, and this was a good opportunity.”
On this topic, Shields discussed his writing career, which he worked in as a journalist in the 1970s and 1980s in West Virginia. He translated this experience into the story, and took literary influence from some of his favorite authors such as Kurt Vonnegut and Hunter S. Thompson to fill in the writing technique.
The process of developing the characters in the book was somewhat of a mirror to Shields’ own, delving into the mystery of the capsule in the best way he knew how, through critical thinking and writing.
“Being reporters, they have natural curiosity,” Shields said. “They set about to find out ‘What does this clue mean, what is the crime how did it happen,’ so that’s basically what the story is.”
Having completed the book, Shields discussed the possibility of writing more, which he has technically already done, at the request of a previous publishing company he worked with. And now being a retiree, Shields said he feels his writing career won’t be over.
“After spending 15 years on ‘Time Capsule,’ I wrote the next book in three weeks,” Shields said. “I got an idea and I followed the thread wherever it took me, and three weeks later I had another book, so right now I have four total. But on;y one has been published.”
Shields also said he believes more people could be authors, but the prospect of writing a book intimidates people out of even trying, which is a point he will discuss at the signing.
“Not everybody can, but I think a lot of people who could don’t because they don’t think they can,” he said. “Until you try, you don’t know if you can or not. I wasn’t sure”
Book signings and libraries are a perfect match, it’s just that it’s not everyday that people get to meet an author and have them talk about how they wrote their book.
“We like to support local authors and artists and things like that,” VanGilder said. “We’re excited to work with him to share how you go about writing a book. It’s not just what his book is about, but how he came to write it.”
Shields is anticipating the signing event because it will allow him to talk about the story behind the book. His aim was to write for writing’s sake, and now being able to hold a book filled with a story he made is the biggest accomplishment he can claim.
“It wasn’t that I wanted to become a famous author or I wanted to make a lot of money selling books, I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it,” Shields said. “When I picked this up and held it in my hands I said ‘Look, I wrote a book, that’s great.’”
Shields will be present from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday at the Marion County Public Library in Fairmont. His book, “Time Capsule A Covington Mystery,” is available on Amazon, as well as some book stores in West Virginia.
Email Eddie Trizzino at etrizzino@timeswv.com and follow him on Twitter at @eddietimeswv.