Father's lessons helped influence book

This Father's Day is particularly poignant for part-time Whitefish resident John Zaiss.

He'll spend it with his three teenage children, but it also is his first Father's Day as a published author of a book that, in part, stemmed from his experiences with his own father.

Synergy Books of Austin, Texas, released "A Dedication" this month. It is the author's first published work but his second completed manuscript.

Zaiss, the president of a Las Vegas investment advisory firm, began writing his first novel in 2000. It was what he calls a plot-driven "stock-market thriller."

"And I jokingly acknowledge that's an oxymoron," he says.

The book focused on an investment group that manipulated global situations to increase its profits. It was a page-turner in terms of plot. But when he met with Flathead Valley authors during a workshop, they told him he needed to let the characters guide the story.

And when rejection letters for the first manuscript piled up, he let their advice lead him to "A Dedication," a coming-of-age story about a teenage boy who forms a unique friendship with an older man who's dying of cancer.

After he finished the stock-market thriller, Zaiss, 51, noticed that ideas for a second novel weren't coming readily. Rather than sit down to write, he'd make coffee, straighten his pencils - he'd procrastinate.

That triggered an image of a teenager putting off homework. And that picture evolved into Quinn, the main character of "A Dedication."

With his first book, he had the plot outlined, then filled in the gaps to get the characters from one point to the next, he said. This time, he let the characters drive the action.

"All I'm trying to do," he explains, "is be a conduit for the characters to tell a story."

The plot developed by about 15 pages at a time, based on how the characters took shape, he says. The author noticed that many of the characters and events were similar to his own experiences.

Joe, the older man whom Quinn befriends, dies of cancer. Zaiss lost his father, Sam Zaiss, to cancer shortly after Zaiss graduated from Creighton University in Nebraska. The two were close if not overly warm and affectionate, he says.

Zaiss remembers shopping for a Christmas present for his father.

"I didn't know what to get him, knowing he was only going to live another few days," he says. "I think I bought soap on a rope - it was absolutely pathetic."

Quinn, however, shows a little more maturity and thoughtfulness when he gives Joe a birthday gift that symbolizes the lessons he's learned from his mentor, Zaiss says. That's an example of how an experience with his father blends with fiction in the book.

Another example of reality and fiction intersecting is a lesson Joe imparts to Quinn. That people should always trust your word is what his father instilled in him, and it's something he's tried to pass on to his own three children, Zaiss says.

Zaiss' daughter, Becky, 15, lives with him during the week in Las Vegas and stays with her mother while Zaiss is in Whitefish on weekends. Mike, 19, is a sophomore in college, and Steve, 16, lives with his mother. Zaiss and his former wife divorced three years ago. He now lives with girlfriend, Joanne Jackson, when he's in Whitefish.

The book has numerous examples of lessons from or similarities to Zaiss' father.

But bits and pieces of the story come from his other experiences and people he's known, the author says.

He credits his father with inspiring him while writing the book. His father, who was a marketing director, was an avid reader and wrote frequently for his job. He had rows of books and encouraged Zaiss to write nothing less than his best for academic papers.

"It felt really good for me to finish this book and know that I appreciated him," he says.

Zaiss' first book signing took place near his high school in Omaha, Neb., which is where his father is buried. He visited the grave after the event, and for the first time in years didn't cry, he says.

"It was just a regular conversation," he says, "and a 'Thanks for being with me when I wrote the book.'"

Reporter Camden Easterling can be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at ceasterling@dailyinterlake.com.