By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Tom Carroll wants to do more than write about feeding the hungry, he wants his book to raise money to help feed the hungry.
Former Bowling Green resident Tom Carroll was back in town recently and took time to discuss “Simple Sarah,” his novel that was released on Sept. 1.
The proceeds from the novel, which wraps an inspirational story into a technothriller all the while paying homage to the homespun values of the prairie, will all go to Feed America.
“It’s close to my heart,” Carroll said. “There’s a lot of hungry people out there and that shouldn’t happen in America. If I started writing a book to be rich and famous, I won’t be successful at that. I want to take what we can and share it with people. That’s the whole gist of the story – sharing abundance.”
Though he’s loved to write for a long time, Carroll said, that only after retiring from a career in project management three years ago did he have time to devote to his craft.
“It’s been something that’s been part of me for as long as I can remember,” he said. “Going to school and being a good citizen and having a good job and supporting a family, all that took precedence. I really believe in order to write well you have to devote the time to it. I feel really fortunate right now to be able to be able to pursue my avocation.”
This is his second novel. The first, “The Confession of Mason Young,” was written back in 2004, after he’d sold a business and devoted six months to writing. That book “needs quite a bit of cleaning up,” which he’s working on now.
Like “Simple Sarah,” it also had a spiritual theme. “I choose to do that because I look around our culture and I see so much darkness,” he said.
“For me these ideas come at night,” Carroll said. “I wake up and hear the whispering of my muse.”
For a long time, he envisioned “that our next great spiritual leader would be a woman. I started thinking about what that could look like, and the story developed out of that.”
The book introduces the reader to the Ellington family. Sarah is the matriarch. “She is a very calm, well-centered spiritual person who’s not going to make a lot of waves but has a strength, kind of the rock their house is built on,” Carroll said.
As he was writing he realized that she doesn’t change. Instead she changes people around her. “As the plot line and characters developed and deepened that came out kind of as an aha moment.”
The title comes from bestowed on her by the book’s villain, a spiritual charlatan, and was intended to be derogatory. But it sticks because it describes who she is.
Sarah provides the story’s emotional center, even when she’s not at the center of the action. That role often falls to her son, Tim, a highly gifted teen who invents an encryption technology that makes the farm family wealthy.
That abundance, and sharing that abundance, is the core theme of “Simple Sarah.”
Even when the farm is struggling because of a drought brought on by climate change, the family finds a way to share what they have.
“That’s a big deal with me right now, compassion and abundance,” Carroll said.
“Simple Sarah” is set in the near future, starting in 2023 and following the Ellingtons through spring, 2038.
“That was really for my own enjoyment,” Carroll said. “It was a rewarding part of the process.”
The writer wanted to consider: “What does your cell phone look like in 15 years? What does Alexis look like in 15 years? How do we get around? How do we communicate? I had a lot of fun doing that.”
Carroll, 64, was born at Fort Sill, Oklahoma where his father was stationed. His family settled in Bowling Green when he was in third grade. He attended Kenwood Elementary.
His mother grew up here. His grandfather was a police officer.
“I got my first haircut right across the corner,” he said while sitting at a picnic table behind Clay Pot.
“Bowling Green was a great place, a safe place,” he said. “It’s the kind of childhood experience you’d hope that everyone can have, and unfortunately few have anymore.”
He moved to Texas in the early 1980s to attend the University of Houston, and stayed. He now lives near Waco, Texas. “I don’t miss the winters,” said, though he returns several times a year to visit his mother.
“Simple Sarah,” with cover art painted by his brother Michael Carroll, was published through Amazon and is available there in both paperback and Kindle editions.
“We’re only a few weeks into it,” Carroll said. “Working our way through social media and trying to establish some word of mouth. It’s harder for an independent author, but I really believe in independent authors and musicians. There are so many talented people out there. We really have to support them.”
