Partial manuscript on dead computer led to author's first novel

John De Lorenzi graduated post-secondary with a masters in industrial relations and went on to have a successful 28-year career in human resources.

But there was something creative deep inside him that made him repeatedly apply for his university’s creative writing course as an elective while studying for his bachelor of commerce.

Unfortunately, the course filled up quickly and he never was able to secure a spot.

But the urge to write continued.

Then one day many years later, a radio program spurred him on to pursue writing more seriously.

“One day while driving I was listening to an NPR podcast featuring professionals who left their field in their early to mid-fifties to pursue something new,” says De Lorenzi.

“They had retirement savings, their children were moving on to the next phase of their lives, and their circumstances changed.”  

De Lorenzi himself had recently bought a small business and turned it into Allora Espresso Imports.

“My new circumstances afforded me the time necessary to do what I really wanted to do, which was to write a fiction novel,” he says.

“I finally got to live as a starving artist, life in reverse.”

While he was still working as an HR professional full-time, it was too difficult to think of completing a novel.

“With a demanding career, younger kids, and a busy life, writing was confined to short stories, poems, and song lyrics,” he says, noting he also now plays in local band Man Feelings.

“Writing a novel is a whole different beast.”

De Lorenzi tells a story of a once-abandoned novel, he began in 1998.

“I had written about 50 pages of what has now become my first full-length fiction novel, Take the Front Seat,” he says.

“I knew those fifty pages contained the seedlings of character and plot development and a series of mini-stories which would find their spot in the novel. The problem was those pages were stuck in a dead Compaq laptop, and I really did not want to start from scratch.”

He hired a local company to try to extract the document from the laptop, but they we unsuccessful.

“They referred me to a company in Mississauga who could likely retrieve it for a price. So, it became a game of ‘How much are you willing to pay for those 50 pages?’”

The company was successful.

“Once I had the document in my possession, I went on a writing rampage for several months and completed the first draft,” he says.

He then enlisted the help of an editor and the “tough work” began.

“There is a set of rules for writing, and while knowing them is one thing, consistently applying them is another. Editing is a different skill set and I say, ‘All hail the editors,’” he laughs. 

“Original ideas, nifty words, variable sentences, conflict, success, disappointment are all required elements for fiction.”

De Lorenzi says he finds “immense pleasure” in writing.

“You do, however, need the support and understanding from those close to you,” he says. 

“I was very fortunate in that respect. It was truly blind faith support because no one knew if I could actually write, not even me.”

Set in the mid-90s, Take the Front Seat centres around a character named Boris Bonch, a welder who recently emigrated from Russia to Canada.

Boris accepts a contract welding bridges in Ottawa, which forces him to ride share back and forth to his home in Toronto, thereby setting the stage for an intimate, recurring ride that explores what can happen when total strangers are sandwiched together in a car for five hours. 

At the centre of the story is an exploration of who we are.

De Lorenzi’s mobile world of characters, who are at times “vulnerable and unsure,” find the courage from one another to take that daring step forward. 

“Ultimately, the story is about identifying your happiness, discovering tough truths, making difficult decisions, and relying on others along the way,” he says.

“We have one life.”

De Lorenzi found inspiration for writing in the quirky characters developed by authors like John Irving and Tom Robbins.

“I would finish their books and find myself thinking about the characters for weeks afterwards,” he says.

“I would miss them and would imagine them coming to my door. I’d open it up and say, ‘Hey, there you are. Oh, a bit shorter than I pictured.’ The point is, what matters to me in a book is creating characters that come to life, whose lives you become engaged in, for better or worse.” 

Take the Front Seat is being published by Tagona Press.

“It’s not easy getting published and I am eternally grateful to Tagona for taking this on. Bryan Davies and his team are top notch.”

With Take the Front Seat soon to be on shelves, De Lorenzi already has a first draft of his second novel completed.

“I completed the first draft recently and I am now in the editing phase. Ugh,” he laughs.

The eBook version of Take the Front Seat is now available at Tagonapress.com and Amazon.

The book can be pre-ordered here. 

Printed copies of the novel are scheduled to be available through local stores like Allora Espresso Imports, Stone’s Office Supply, The Artisian, with plans for wider distribution in the coming months. 

There will be an in-person book launch at Forty-Five Social, 117 Spring Street in Sault Ste. Marie, April 4, 2024, from 6:30 to 9 p.m.