Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times

Scott Sanders novel, “The Hanging Woods,” is a murder mystery told from the viewpoint of a 13-year-old boy named Walter.

What’s next?

• After finishing his first year of teaching at New River Community College, Scott Loring Sanders was awarded a Camargo Fellowship, a residential grant with a stipend given to only 13 writers worldwide this year. It will let him head to Cassis, France, to work on his second novel for several months. Although he will miss the fall session, Sanders said he expects to be back in the Dublin classroom. His second novel does not yet have a title, but it does have a plot. After pitching three ideas at his agent, Scott Miller, and fouling each one, he finally hit a homer. His novel will be based on the Beale treasure, the legendary Bedford County story of cryptograms that point to more than $30 million in gold stored in iron pots somewhere six feet under the ground. Sanders still remembers his agent’s reaction when he told him of the idea. “Yes!’ he said. “That’s the book!”

A year from now, you will recognize the name Scott Loring Sanders.

It will appear a thousand times over -- in bold letters -- underneath the title of his first book, "The Hanging Woods."

But Sanders knows better than anyone that he could have remained unnoticed, obscure and profoundly unhappy had he not taken that proverbial flying leap.

In 2003, the now 36-year-old Sanders had been working at Roanoke's Verizon as a sales consultant for five years. The money was good and he was winning sales awards.

But.

There was, of course, that big "but."

"I wasn't happy," he said. "I wasn't fulfilled."

Sanders realized his only way out was to write a book, a book like the one that had stuck with him since his youth.

"In the seventh grade, I read 'Of Mice and Men.' When I finished, I said, 'I want to be able to do that. I want to write a book like that.' "

So Sanders -- who spent six years at Virginia Tech and came out with a bachelor's degree in English -- started burning the midnight electricity.

After a few months of coming home from work and going to work on his novel, it was done.

"Then I attempted to get it published," he said. "It was rejected immediately."

Although more books are now being published than ever before, it's harder than ever before to get published. New book titles -- about 160,000 each year -- are double that of two decades ago, but the bulk of them sell only a few hundred copies. Barry Turner, editor of "The Writer's Handbook," points to the changes in publishing and book selling as being "commercially led."

Sanders, a "no name" in the publishing world, didn't stand a chance.

"I knew I needed to go back to school and learn how to do this," he said.

When his wife, Jocelyn, told him about the excellent writing program at Hollins College, Sanders applied for a spot and was shot down again.

"They were full," he said.

But in June 2003, an aspiring writer dropped out of the program, and Sanders was invited to fill the vacancy.

"That's when my life changed. I accepted, immediately quit my job and spent two years full time at Hollins. It was a major leap. Our income was cut by more than half. It was a struggle, but I've never looked back."

Sanders -- father of 12-year-old Mason -- says his age and maturity made him take his second college experience "very seriously."

While at Hollins, he received a 2004 honorable mention in fiction from Atlantic Monthly and sold short stories to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. He also began work on "The Hanging Woods."

"It wasn't really in my head," he said. "It just happened, to be honest. It was a short story to begin with. One of my peers said, 'This feels like it could be a novel,' so over Christmas break, I started thinking about it. I had some ideas but, really, it sort of developed as it went along."

Set in rural Alabama during 1975, the murder mystery is told from the viewpoint of a 13-year-old boy named Walter. In John Grisham-meets-William Faulkner style, Sanders uses black comedy and suspenseful twists to engage the reader.

He's the first to call his book a page-turner.

"My instinct tells me how to get people to a point and leave them hanging," he said. "I don't read a lot of mystery or suspense, but my instincts go that way. I like a good story. You can have all the pretty language you want, but if it's not a good story, people are going to lose interest."

Sanders quickly found an agent who wanted to represent him. Scott Miller of New York's Trident Media Group got Sanders' manuscript via e-mail on a Monday morning in 2005.

"On Friday, he called me," Sanders recalled. "I was thrilled beyond belief. I went to New York and met with him on Madison Avenue. I felt like a big shot for a day."

Miller, who represents such writers as Joel C. Rosenberg ("The Last Jihad") and Cesar Millan, the author known as "The Dog Whisperer," knew he had a winner in Sanders.

"He's just a natural writer," the agent said. "He's got a real penchant for words. He knows story really well. When I got his manuscript, I knew there was something special there.

"It's incredibly tough to get published right now," Miller added. "I get probably 100 queries a day."

Miller was able to sell "The Hanging Woods" to Graphia, a division of Houghton Mifflin, as a young adult novel geared toward male youths.

Although the novel does have violence, Miller said that's the trend with books for younger readers.

"Young adult novels are now very edgy," he noted. "What's important to me is that it's tasteful."

The violence in Sanders' book even leans toward the comical at times, as evidenced by the character Mike, a friendly fowl who's vying for the Guinness World Record as the longest living headless turkey.

"All my friends who have read it, their second-favorite character is Mike, the turkey," Sanders said.

Their favorite character?

You'll have to read the book, set for release next fall.

A bit from the first book

“The Hanging Woods” is being marketed as “Stand By Me” meets “To Kill a Mockingbird. Here’s an excerpt:

“The fox’s eyes locked on me and never strayed. The yipping continued, and I felt an overwhelming urge to let it go, but I saw no way of doing it. In order to open the jaws of the trap, I’d have to step on the release prongs, and there was no way to do that without being attacked. I thought maybe I should run back to the house and get Papa to come with his .22, but I didn’t want him to think I was a coward.

“The moment I’d been dreaming of had come, and I realized it had turned into a nightmare. One part of me kept saying to let it go. The fox hadn’t done anything to anyone; the only thing it had done wrong was to have the bad luck of stepping into my trap. But the other part of me, the stronger part, said that I had to kill it. And I always seemed to listen to my stronger part.”