Johnston resident Louis B. Ribezzo Jr. recently published his first novel “Roadkill,” a horror-suspense thriller following the haunting adventures of Daniel Lewis, a truck driver and former U.S. Marine grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism. Lewis is trying to get home to see his 10-year-old cancer-stricken daughter Jenna but winds up in Firelake, a mysterious town full of strange people and sights.
“In all of his experiences, there was a cruel unfairness between life and death,” Ribezzo’s main character reflects in the book’s first pages. “Again, pessimistic thoughts entangled with loose threads of hope. Too much time had passed without being there for his family.”
Ribezzo’s lifelong love of writing first surfaced when he found his sister’s collection of Stephen King books, as well as a short story she’d written herself. Ribezzo holds a B.A. in Creative Writing and Journalism from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his work has previously been published in horror anthologies.
“I have wanted to write a book for quite a while, but similar to my main character, there are certain detours that take you far away from where you really wanted to go in life,” Ribezzo said.
Between driving trucks for a living and raising a family with four children, Ribezzo found it difficult to be “disciplined and selfish” with his time to work on his book. He also struggled with typing on a laptop — “if two fingers was a contest, I would easily come in first place” — choosing to write his entire book on his phone.
“It’s a bit surreal since the vast majority of my story evolves as soon as my fingers hit the keyboard,” Ribezzo said of his process. “I start off with an idea and everything else enters my mind without any plan or scheme.”
Ribezzo hopes readers “get just as lost and determined as my main characters in discovering what and where they are or have been by the end of the book.”
The book is available for purchase on Amazon as an e-book or paperback.
Joshua Ribezzo, the author’s son, hopes to see “the local community support one of its own as my father has been diligently writing away, all the while working a full-time job and being a loving husband and dad.”
“I have always wanted to set an example to my kids to follow their dreams no matter how off script or difficult the challenges become in life,” Louis Ribezzo said.
Editor’s Note: Anisha Kumar is a Beacon Media editorial intern this summer.
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