Book Review and Author Interview: Vengeance By Eric Prochaska

Eric Prochaska was a homebody, but on the weekends he spent most of his free time as a kid at the comic shop. He dreamed of being a comic book artist until Mrs. Bach, a teacher at McKinley Middle School, assigned her class to write a short story instead of a report. Mrs. Bach and another teacher gave him feedback and encouraged him in his writing. Mrs. Bach moved over to Washington when the Cedar Rapids School District restructured the grade levels and she continued to encourage Prochaska in his writing. He continued to write short stories and that, as they say, is history. Prochaska has written several short stories that have been published and has finally had his first novel published, VENGEANCE.

VENGEANCE is loosely based on his life growing up in Cedar Rapids. In the novel, the main character, Ethan, loses his brother. Over twenty years ago, Prochaska’s brother, Eddie, died. Even though this event and some of the circumstances inspired the book, Prochaska states, “I filled in the blanks and created the world of the book by following the adage of writing what you know.” He says close friends may find similarities between him and Ethan, but he mostly had fun writing some of the side characters and exploring their specific dynamics. Prochaska does admit that surprisingly, writing the book was healing in unexpected ways. “To have a chance to say goodbye vicariously through Ethan in this novel released something I wasn’t even aware I was still carrying.” Said Prochaska.

  

Prochaska states, “The writing process for this book was different from writing short stories, mostly in the planning process and checking for continuity. I didn’t write from beginning to end, so when it came time to write the scenes in between what I had, it was often difficult to dovetail scenes together.” In all, the writing process took Prochaska 30 months, but that included some time where the story sat idle for a bit. Most of the story was in his mind, but he did make a few trips back to Cedar Rapids to walk and drive around the city to remind himself of the feel and smell of the place. He worried that readers who didn’t personally know Cedar Rapids wouldn’t get the context of it. He tried to portray it in a way that people familiar with the city would understand as well as those who could relate to it.

Prochaska’s goal in writing this book was to “tell a story that I had been carrying around”. “VENGEANCE is more about asking tough questions and facing hard truths…telling a story that is more real than just exciting.” Prochaska is currently plotting a sequel to VENGEANCE because he really wants to explore more of the characters. The early success of his novel has surprised Prochaska with VENGEANCE reaching “Top Five” in its category on Amazon already in the first month of it being published. He is thrilled stating, “I’ve poured so much time and passion into something to finally see people getting their hands on it and enjoying it.”