LIGONIER VALLEY
WRITERS
About John Negich
John Alan Negich was born in Export Pennsylvania, a small coal mining town in the south western part of the state. Coming from a very poor family in a small town was certainly a character building experience and he chose to occasionally escape that world of poverty and find adventure in novels by H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Jules Verne and Ray Bradbury. After a successful career in architecture and business, he has embarked on the career he always wanted as an author of novels, short stories and poetry. Since he holds the memories of growing up in Export Pennsylvania so dear, his first novel "Retribution" the first book of a trilogy, as well as two other books "Why I Hunt and Fish" and "My Life in Rhymes" take place, at least in part, in that little town.
RETRIBUTION is a multi-layered tale about John A. Stanic, who, in 1942, was a member of the first Army Ranger battalion during WWII. He is now ninety years old and spending his last remaining days at a nursing facility in Pennsylvania. John, on the surface, is a dying, vulgar old man who shuns relationships, but has a past that is intriguing, mysterious, as well as fantastic. He spends his days staring out of the window in his room, resigned to his fate and awaiting death. His life is now devoid of highs and lows, with little to look forward to or dream about, until the day he gets an unexpected visitor. He is befriended by SHAWN O’DONNELL; a young and ambitious small town Catholic Priest determined to save his soul from hell’s fire and damnation.
My Life in Rhymes is a collection of poems, musings and songs. Poetry has been described as a verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way. It is characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter: a unit of measure or a pattern of beats, metaphor: a figure of speech which is not literal, and rhyme: corresponding sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry. Robert Frost simplified the definition of poetry by saying “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” My Life in Rhymes documents, in poetic form, my life story and my emotions, in which I have indeed, found thought, and with the words that I found to express that thought, I hope will take the reader on a journey through the many aspects of this man’s very existence with me as the guide.
Why I hunt and Fish is a series of short stories that chronicle the people, places and experiences that have contributed to making me the avid Hunter and fisherman I have become. I hope it will help bring back memories of special times in your life and rekindle those experiences in the outdoors and put a smile on your face.