NUTLEY, NJ — In “1984,” acclaimed author George Orwell writes, “Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else.” A lot of literary critics have spent decades debating this quotation, pulling in philosophy, religion, psychology and other literature. A new component has recently been entered into the debate: Nutley author Steve Terrebush’s debut novel, “Beyond the Midnight Shadows.”
The themes and ideas of the four-part novel draw heavily from Terrebush’s college background in psychology and philosophy.
“In college when I first started I was majoring in chemistry, but after taking the introductory classes in psychology and philosophy, I fell in love with the theories and being able to question everything. I fell in love with all of the ways that people look at the world and became amazed at how powerful the mind can actually be,” Terrebush told the Nutley Journal. “The first time I read about Socrates, Plato, Sartre, Rand and Camus I knew that I wanted to learn more and hopefully one day be able to use stories to help other people want to learn and question more about themselves and the world.”
Living in Nutley has only elevated Terrebush’s craft, giving him the time and space to continue thinking philosophically and to put his thoughts to paper.
“I have lived in Nutley for seven years with my wife; we actually got married in Nutley when we moved here,” he said. “I have actually been more focused in my writing since moving to Nutley, as settling into the town has allowed me to become more comfortable in my work. Plus we have some great neighbors!”
With its unique interpretations of our world, this novel does more than just entertain — it makes the reader think. “Beyond the Midnight Shadows” comprises four stories; each story forces the reader to confront what they think they know about the world. The first story, “Under the Willow Tree,” strikes the perfect balance between exciting and discomfiting. Subtle inconsistencies and a childlike naivete from the main character make the reader question everything in the story.
“The hardest story to write was definitely ‘Under the Willow Tree.’ That one was more emotional, as well. I felt drawn into the story and wanted to keep discovering more about her, so the ideas would be more twisting as I wrote it,” he said, adding that the second story “pretty much wrote itself from the start.”
“Somewhere in the Middle,” the second story in the novel, takes the reader to the future, where our world has become something unrecognizable, a world where figures from the Bible, Japanese lore and science fiction all cohabitate. While the first story takes a hard look at what is real in the here and now, this story explores what reality may look like in the future, especially if humanity expands and grows beyond what other beings think is wise.
While combining the Bible, Japanese myths and science fiction may sound difficult, Terrebush’s weaving together of the three is fluid.
“I have always been fascinated with all three and how, like the title suggests, there is always a middle ground, so all elements can exist to a degree in the same story because they all overlap in the human experience just from different points of view,” Terrebush said. “In trying to tie them all together it actually felt natural when I was writing it. Especially bringing the elements of light and dark and kind of letting them exist in a kind of state of flux.”
At the outset of the story, it seems that the Seraphim, the angels, are agents of the light, performing miracles, while the Shinigami, Japanese spirits, are agents of the dark, bringing death.
“I liked using the Shinigami as the shadowy figures of death because of their more active nature. They are more like some of the biblical angels in that they get involved, not just waiting to shepherd souls around,” Terrebush said. “That was why I really liked the scene where the elderly man is being followed by the Shinigami in that story. Science and faith coming together is a very appealing concept for me; it makes me feel like together they are a much more complete story than by themselves.”
The third story, “My Diary from Hell,” is exactly what it sounds like: one man’s honest account of his afterlife in hell. This story is a real page-turner, with an aura of mystery and a definite sense of humor. While a story about someone being destined to hell could be depressing or frightening, Terrebush approaches the topic with wit, insight and just a fun story. The author’s description of hell as a resort with really strict rules — and a glaring absence of chairs — makes the reader consider what their hell would look like and whether they could cut it in Terrebush’s imagining.
Ironically, the writing of this novel began with its final story, “One Hour and Fifteen Minutes.” The shortest entry in the novel, “One Hour and Fifteen Minutes” offers a fresh take on the Faustian bargain — perhaps a good place for any author to start a debut novel.
“It started out years ago, as the fourth story, ‘One Hour and Fifteen Minutes,’ was actually written over 20 years ago, with a few tweaks here and there over the years, of course,” Terrebush said. “It was the first story I actually wrote, and I wanted to include it more for sentimental reasons than anything. To be honest, these stories were all written just as an outlet for me to get some ideas that would pop into my head on paper for my own amusement.
“It wasn’t until I finished the second story, ‘Somewhere in the Middle,’ that I thought about putting it together in a book. That story was written pretty much in like two days as the ideas just kept coming for it, where ‘Under the Willow Tree’ was written and rewritten many times as I would discover something new that I would want the character to experience,” he continued. “Then we have ‘My Diary from Hell,’ which was purely a fun, twisted and tongue-in-cheek story. I just wanted to see if I could bring another view of someone experiencing the afterlife in a somewhat cheeky manner.”
Just as Terrebush wrote each story at different points, with different energies and exploring different concepts, each story evokes a different response in the reader, causing a different question to form.
“I just want people to enjoy reading it, and if I can bring a chuckle out, a tear in an eye or even a ‘Hey, I never thought about it that way,’ I would consider it a success,” Terrebush said of his novel.
Despite the whirlwind of having “Beyond the Midnight Shadows” printed and embarking on various promotional activities, Terrebush is already working on his next projects, including a currently untitled short novel.
“It follows the path of a female serial killer from her point of view as she goes about her life and struggles with her choices and methods,” he said. “It is a little dark, but I found it very interesting trying to look at it through her eyes and her justifications of doing what she was doing.
“And the other project is one that I have just started, but one that I have wanted to explore for a long time,” he continued, explaining that this story is “about a young boy who gets to meet his favorite baseball player, who is at the end of his career. As they get to know each other they find that they have an odd connection that neither one could think existed.”
“Beyond the Midnight Shadows” was published by Austin Macauley Publishers and is available on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and in other bookstores throughout the country.
Photos Courtesy of J.P. Pressley
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