By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
A Houlton High 1951 alumnus, Bob Fields, has not strayed far from the stories of his hometown and maybe even what a rascal he may have been as a youth.
Inspired by the birth of his two great-granddaughters, Savanah and Lyla, Fields began his quest to introduce himself to them.
Bob Fields
“They are not stories of my success in the military or business world,” he said. “But rather, my own childhood where the foundations of my character were formulated. At age 12 when presented with this unique legacy, they will come to know the boy and understand the man he became.”
“I sat down to write [my great-granddaughter Lyla] a letter to tell her how life was back in the 1940s and ‘50s. I was 80 at the time and figured I would not be around to tell her stories when she was 12,” he said. “The book wound up being 30 letters, which became chapters in the book. Each letter told a story, games, relatives, family connections, hobos and more. Then I had another great-granddaughter born, so I told her some stories in the form of a book.”
Fields is the author of three printed and eBooks — “Letters to Lyla”, “Letters to Savanah Belle” and his most recent publication, “Rendezvous with Destiny” — as well as short stories “Ghost of Evergreen”; “Kilroy was here”; “Albert the Horse Swiper”; “Native American Herbal Remedies”; “Terror at the Mausoleum”; and “The Devil Tree”.
All his books are available on Amazon and Daniel’s Florist in Houlton will be making them available to the community, as well.
The author has transformed his letters to his great-granddaughters into chapters and takes readers on a guided tour of his early life.
Fields’ stories describe family life, playing with friends, sports, unusual adventures, and aspects of the town of Houlton where he grew up in northern Maine. Readers will come to know him as a risk-taking, fun-loving, carefree, imaginative youngster. They will also discover major differences between their culture and the way of life in the 1940s.
The author’s first two books set him on a recollection of memories and research.
“I talked to friends, read the Houlton Pioneer Times archives and surfed the brain of Susie at Cary Library,” he said. “This was a new experience to me. I enjoyed the hunt and the challenge of putting the research in a written form that would be fun to read.”
Fields has no formal training in writing other than an online course in descriptive writing from Ed2Go.
“The inspiration for all my books that followed was my friend Mary, a Maliseet Indian girl born and raised on the “Flats.” A substandard area adjacent to the town dump. We were good friends, kindred spirits you might say in my early teens. In writing about my life in ‘Letters’, I found myself thinking about hers as I knew it. She became Padgett Harvey, the protagonist in my current novel, “Rendezvous with Destiny”. The other protagonist is an Irish fellow named Sean Patrick McGuiness, also poor, born and raised in Patty Hollow which at the time was a place where poor whites lived. His character is a combination of three men I knew in business, plus a little bit of me.”
Fields, 82, is now writing several hours a day. He has several essays that appeared in ECHOES, a couple of stories were in the Houlton High School Alumni newsletter, along with his other publications. His work progresses into short stories about “Legends of Houlton” and “Heroes of Houlton,” a story of war heroes; and a mystery novel about an unsolved murder of a state trooper from Island Falls.
Fields possesses an exceptional talent for translating his broadly based life experiences to the written page. A veteran of two wars (three if you count Wall Street), his early hard scrabble life taught him real life lessons; the application of which propelled his success in a military career and numerous business ventures.
Upon retirement from the Air Force he entered the business world as a specialist in communications start-up companies. During this period he, his wife, two daughters and a son operated a nationally known quarter horse training and breeding facility at their farm in Westerville, N.Y. A friend once described him as part cowboy, part dreamer, part entrepreneur. His five eBooks are available on Kindle and SMASHWORDS.
