Edwardsburg resident Colin Knapp can spend any given day walking through a foggy forest, killing time in a country cafe or riding through an amusement park.
Of course, he does not physically do these things. Instead, Knapp creates his own worlds through writing.
Earlier this year, Knapp, 40, printed his first collection of short stories titled “Shady Trails in a Light Fog.” The stories in the collection range wildly in subject matter from romance to crime thriller.
“Shady Trails in a Light Fog” is Knapp’s first piece of work to be physically published. In 2014, Knapp published an ebook, titled “Sweetwater Dreams: A Mystery Thriller.” He has also published two ebooks of poetry, “Dragon,” released in 2013, and “Oasis,” released in 2015.
“I was trying to write something that would stick with somebody,” Knapp said. “I wanted to write something that would get them thinking about their own lives. I would describe the stories as more literary.”
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Knapp’s family moved to to Edwardsburg when he was 3 years old. After he graduated from Edwardsburg High School in 1995, Knapp spent four years at the Naval Academy, where he began to realize writing was his passion.
After graduating from the academy with a degree in English and serving five years as a naval sailor, Knapp moved west to Los Angeles to try his hand at screenwriting. Though he ultimately decided that screenwriting was not the business that he wanted to be in, Knapp described the experience as educational.
Instead of staying in LA to screenwrite, Knapp came back to Edwardsburg in 2011, an experience which has influenced his writing.
Though the collection of short stories does not specifically mention Edwardsburg, it does contain many references to Michigan, such as characters who attended Michigan State University.
“Some of it was inspired by the small town feel,” Knapp said. “I kinda fashioned that around the place where I grew up.”
Knapp is currently trying to raise more awareness and hype around his collection in the Edwardsburg community, something he hopes will be aided by reviews of the book in big-name publications.
Recently, the book received a positive review from Kirkus Reviews, a famous and reputable review publication. The review speaks highly of Knapp’s use of literary techniques, such as the use of a second-person narrative, and and calls the collection, “a respectable first outing by Knapp.”
“It’s one of the best respected review sites out there today. It’s totally anonymous, so they can be objective,” Knapp said. “It just meant a lot.”
“Shady Trails in a Light Fog” will also be reviewed in New York Review of Books’ summer edition, coming out in August.
Knapp’s next project will be a self-published duo of “horror-humor” novellas that he hopes will be released around Halloween. He also hopes to publish a novel through a publishing company next year.
“I wanted to do something fun for Halloween,” Knapp said. “So many of [the stories from “Shady Trails in a Light Fog”] are so intense, I wanted to do something with a little humor kneaded into it.”
His longer-term goals include making enough off of his writing that he is able to do it full-time. Though Knapp says the sales for his latest venture have been going well, he is not by making enough to support his two children, aged 6 and 3 years old, by writing alone.
Knapp is currently between jobs.
“It’s the dream of every writer to be able to live off it,” Knapp said. “I believe that a writer can make a difference and that a good story can change the world.”