It’s always such a privilege to part of an author’s journey and it gives me great pleasure today to welcome a new to me author, Dennis Roth, to Linda’s Book Bag to tell me all about his debut book. Let’s see what he told me when we spent an evening ‘in’ together.
Staying in with Dennis Roth
Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Dennis.
Thanks, I’m thrilled to be here with you. Coming across the pond electronically is easier than by boat or plane. A lot cheaper too.
It certainly is! Thanks for agreeing to stay in with me.
I love staying in and being with my wife whom I’ve known since high school. Part of that is having lived in very close quarters aboard a 30-foot sailboat for several years in the Bahamas and Caribbean. On board we learned the skills needed to be alone together.
I imagine so. And how lovely to be together after all these years too.
Tell me, which of your books have you brought along this evening and why have you chosen it?
I’ve brought my debut novel The Bastard’s Inheritance from my series The Bastard’s Trilogy. A prequel to it is coming out in late spring of 2022 and a sequel in 2023.
That’s certainly an attention grabbing title. As The Bastard’s Inheritance is your debut it seems unusual to have a prequel coming out after this one. How did that happen?
I didn’t realize I had a trilogy on my hands until I was just finishing The Bastard’s Inheritance. Though it is the first to be published, it is actually volume #2. Now I’ve filled my plate with deadlines for two more novels before the first is barely out the door.
That’s going to keep you busy. So, what can we expect from an evening with The Bastard’s Inheritance?
The Bastard’s Inheritance is a character driven novel, written from the points of view of the four most important characters.
I love character driven books. Tell me more. Who are the characters?
The legitimate son, the bastard son, the legal advisor to the family, and the son’s girlfriend. We explore their individual thoughts and feelings as the two sons, one a dreamer and the other a narcissist, grow through their coming-of-age years and find themselves thrust into a struggle of good versus evil in the guise of a fight over inheritance. We look at the advisor who is the catalyst for familial difficulties and we find a man too weak to accept the responsibilities of his actions. The girl friend grows from an orphaned childhood into the legitimate son’s guiding strength. In a complicated ending, the winner and the loser of the battle is decided only in the mind of the reader.
That sounds very intriguing indeed.
What else have you brought along and why have you brought it?
The Shore
From 36ON 81OW
I’ve brought two of my watercolor paintings.
Forget the books Dennis. Those paintings are simply wonderful.
You see, I believe we can live many lives. Not only have I completely re-made my life three times over, (from engineer/businessman to watercolorist to novelist) I have this feeling deep inside that centuries ago I was an Italian scholar/merchant from Siena. Donato Rossini feels like it would have been my name.
That’s such an interesting point of view. But how did the paintings come about?
After I retired (young) from engineering without an apparent direction for my life, my wife gave me an instant watercolor painting set. Just add water and stir! After producing a stack of ill composed and muddy paintings, something clicked inside and I found friends in the pigments and paper. Together we produced some lovely, thought-provoking pieces. These are two of them.
They really are stunning images Dennis. It has been so interesting hearing about The Bastard’s Inheritance. I wish you every success with it. Thank you so much for staying in with me.
Thanks Linda.
The Bastard’s Inheritance
In the 1970s, in western Pennsylvania, a multi-millionaire’s singularly selfish decision destines his two sons, half-brothers, to wage war in a winner-take-all battle for the family legacy. The father, wealthy Henry Molnar, shares a secret with his lawyer and best friend, Murray Applebaum; a secret so damaging and powerful that neither has ever dared to reveal its truth.
But the final whispered directives of Molnar set in motion a series of events with far-reaching consequences for his family. With his last breath, Molnar instructs Applebaum to disclose the existence of his illegitimate son, Phillipe-André Desforges.
The surprise revelation at Molnar’s funeral thrusts the family members onto paths of deception, corruption and blackmail.
Revenge infused hatred and contempt for his father and his empire permeate Phillipe-André’s daily thoughts. It compels him to employ an arsenal of devious strategies to wrest control of Molnar Enterprises from his benevolent brother, Jason Molnar.
With such high stakes, Jason as the bequeathed chairman of the board must garner the psychological strength to withstand his half-brother’s siege. The consequences of failure will deliver to Phillipe-André what he has long believed to be rightfully his.
The Bastard’s Inheritance is available for purchase here.
About Dennis Roth
After earning an engineering degree from MIT, Dennis Roth founded what has become one of the largest structural engineering firms on the east coast of the US. He retired young and lived with his wife on-board their 35-foot sailboat, Second Wind, in the Caribbean. After enjoying a thousand magnificent sunsets and then burying the anchor, he moved to watercolor painting. His innate skills blossomed into beautiful, nationally shown and awarded landscapes and seascapes that he exhibited and sold in his art gallery, Studio Phase 3. Since 2012 he has dedicated his creative energies to writing poems and stories which in addition to being published in journals and magazines, have been collected in his two chapbooks, Reflections & Other Musings and Harry & Other Stories. And now he has created The Bastard’s Trilogy anchored by the new novel The Bastard’s Inheritance.
Dennis Roth is a teacher at heart. Since high school, he has shared his knowledge, serving as a tutor of students in math and science, as an instructor and lecturer to architectural and engineering students at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, and as a teacher of his unique watercolor techniques to budding watercolorists.
On the side, Dennis Roth has learned Spanish and Italian to help him understand more fully the cultures of Mexico and Italy during his months-long visits to those countries.
For further information, visit Dennis’s website, follow him on Twitter @writedennisroth, find him on Instagram and Facebook.
Linda's Book Bag 