Paul Backalenick

 I have completed three books in the mystery/suspense genre (Development, Carrie’s Secret, and Empty Luck), called the Twisted Roads Series. All three are suspenseful moral tales. I am now working on a fourth book, a historical novel, not part of the Twisted Roads Series. It is the story of my ancestors on my father's side...which while it is definitely fiction (who knows what really happened in Ukraine 150 years ago?); it is all part and parcel of exploring who I am.  

All fiction is on some level autobiographical so there is something of me in every one of my characters, highly exaggerated in some cases, but some part of my personality is lodged in each. I became a writer for the same reason I studied psychology in college. Both were attempts to understand myself, as the product of a particular family, in a particular place and time.  Have I come to know myself better through writing? Maybe, but regardless, I believe drawing on my own traits adds believability to my characters and makes them more interesting for me to work with. And so, like all writers of fiction, I am really exploring my own motives, thoughts and behavior, my morailty, my beliefs, etc., through my characters. 

Nature is my first love. I am a New Englander, born and raised and a denizen of the rural landscape of my childhood. I still love the woods, ponds, and fields of New England. I was born in Boston and grew up in Westport, Connecticut. I went to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island for my Bachelor’s degree in psychology. After that came graduate degrees from Boston University and Boston College. It was all New England, until 1993 when I moved to Manhattan. One has to make a living and I supported myself there in Information Technology. Of course, I always wrote a little, a poem here, a short story there, occasional articles and even letters to the editor, but only since 2014 have I dedicated myself to writing novels.

I am married to Karen Loew, a wonderful artist, and life partner. We have a big apartment in Upper Manhattan, where she has room to paint and I have room to write. The parks, trees and wildlife nearby thankfully still allow me a glimpse of nature.