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Stuart Fabe finds avenging vigilante alter ego in his novels
Thriving in the bucolic countryside that is Putnam County, six miles north of Greencastle, mild-mannered Stu Fabe captures fine-art photography, creates intricate woven creations that have been fashioned within colorful gourds adorning even the local museum, and simply enjoys writing.
Finding a mean or even angry bone in the man’s body would be a fruitless search. Violence and bad language only aren’t in his vocabulary, they’re not remotely on his radar.
Yet when Fabe writes these days -- and he writes well, as witness his third novel, “After Evening” -- it’s with an avenging vigilante, character Clay Arnold (perhaps his alter ego), in mind and a little adult dialogue, although he says he thinks he got that out of his system in his previous novel, “Evening Comes,” which was “a pretty violent book,” the author says.
“After Evening,” he said, “is sanitized a bit” with no bad language and no violence.
Interestingly, he casts Arnold as a world-class photographer who calls a renovated 19th-century brewery along the White River near Indianapolis home.
“I love the Clay Arnold character,” Fabe says as he prepares for two upcoming events -- a 10 a.m.-noon book signing Saturday, March 3 at Eli’s Bookstore in Greencastle and a 7 p.m. Author’s Talk Thursday, March 15 in the Kiwanis Room at the Putnam County Public Library. “But no, I’m not an avenging vigilante,” he’s quick to add.
Fabe leaves that for his leading man -- “my hero,” he says -- who is an avenging vigilante and has even executed several domestic terrorists and right-wing racists who he felt deserved it.
“Yes,” Clay Arnold says on the book jacket, “if I were totally honest, I would agree that I’ve felt a bit self-righteous about terminating bad people. And again, honestly, I’m generally comfortable with being someone who chooses to even the score.”
But the plot thickens as Arnold realizes that secrecy can come at a hefty price. A recurring theme is “everyone has secrets,” Fabe notes, explaining the Arnold is torn that his secrets might be a deal-breaker if his new love interest finds out about his activities.
Character development is what drives Fabe’s writing. In fact, in an author’s note on the third page of the book, he creatively states, “Plots are the vehicles on which stories ride. Characters are their pilots and passengers.”
Fabe adds that he “loves creating believable characters and creating villains that are people you love to hate.”
Saying he writes for the pure pleasure of it and harbors no misconceptions about commercial success, Fabe thoroughly enjoys the research that helps make his stories authentic and calls it “a good way to entertain myself.”
He also enjoys sprinkling in local settings, names and people.
“I use Putnam County and Greencastle as the milieu, the environment. It’s basically the second half of the book,” he said.
Instead of DePauw University, he refers to the college in the story as Kissinger College “after the late Dr. Paul Kissinger and his wife, Joanne, who is a good friend of mine.” McKim Observatory is redubbed Von Timm Observatory for Vicki, Barbara and Steve Timm. In making Dr. Hannibal Murray president of Kissinger College, Fabe said he uses the Murray name “to honor Sue and Dave Murray.”
The new Bridges restaurant is also mentioned in the story, while Wagoner Tree Farm is called the Wurster Tree Farm in honor of Fabe friends Chris Wurster and Lynne Tweedie.
“The villain of the story is the chairman of the Astronomy and Physics Department at Kissinger College,” Fabe said. “It’s a great fun romp.”
“After Evening” revolves around Arnold being invited to Greencastle by the Kissinger College president to receive an honorary doctorate, “and that’s when a large part of the drama occurs,” the author adds.
The story is a “bit of a treasure hunt,” Fabe says, “not unlike the Dan Brown books (“The DaVinci Code,” et al).”
As a novelist and photographer who has been living and working in Putnam County for nearly 13 years now, Fabe resides in the Brick Chapel countryside “with his partner, Marla Helton, two dogs, one cat and 11 chickens,” his bio notes.
It’s no mystery why he mentions Marla. He smilingly recalled encountering a beautiful woman at an art show in Cincinnati, where he spent the first 55 years of his life and enjoyed a fundraising career which included work for the Cincinnati Zoo and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Smitten, Fabe remembers that just to keep talking with her, and perhaps laying the groundwork for what would become a future together in Putnam County, he bought eight of Marla’s signature creative gourds at the show.
“Yes, I was definitely out of my gourd,” Fabe admitted.
Perhaps, but definitely not an avenging vigilante.