Let's Begin
I'm not perfect, but I am something.
It is time to make an introduction. I am Andrew H. Palmer. My debut novel, Jasper Hatchworth, is coming out in early 2027. It is a historical fiction novel about how much a man can endure and his attempt to forestall becoming like his father as his world falls apart.
I started the novel in 2023. It first took shape as a short story in a collection of 13 short stories. These stories were part of a YouTube channel I had created to showcase my efforts at transitioning away from a career in data science to a career in writing. Those videos were failures. This was due primarily to my own ignorance about the modern YouTube viewer. I wrote and recorded the narration for the stories at a pace of one 2,000-word short story a week. The turnaround made the stories inferior, and the format made them unappealing to viewers. Lessons were learned. But one of these short stories, The Tale of Jasper Hatchworth, had promise. My wife wanted more. She wanted the novel.
Over the next year and a half, I wrote that novel. It has become Jasper Hatchworth. Bookended with a revised version of the original short story, the novel contains two parts. The first, set in 1931, explores the childhood of Jasper Hatchworth when he arrives in the fictional town of Clemency, Nevada. His father’s abuse and alcoholism leave an indelible mark on Jasper, not to mention the social stigma that follows from accusations that he and his father killed a man. But the drive to escape his father’s influence is made stronger when he glimpses the possibility of living a stable life.
The second part, set in 1941, details the unraveling of everything Jasper holds dear. He bungles his chance to enlist after Pearl Harbor alongside his friends. He loses people he cares for deeply. His potential father-in-law shoots his toes off. And desperate to afford a house for the love of his life, he unwittingly falls in with his father’s cohort of outlaws. When everything falls apart, Jasper has to choose which road to damnation he will follow.
The novel required hundreds of hours of research that I can no longer access. Actions by political individuals cut funding to free resources and archives that I used to build my fictional world. This troubles me deeply because I wanted to write articles for this substack about my research. Many of the newspaper archives are now placed behind paywalls that didn’t exist when access was grant-funded. Recordings I used as inspiration have been deleted or removed. Foolishly, I believed that these resources would always be available and free. I wish I had downloaded more. All I have now are the few clippings and pictures I saved, but they are incomplete and without context. Maybe one day, these resources will receive funding again and open their archives to the laymen, though I fear permanent damage has befallen these collections.
I am only a researcher as much as my writing requires. I respect the education of professionals and rely heavily on their expert views to expedite my understanding of a topic. First and foremost, I am a writer. Stories are my main concern.
What kind of stories do I write? Well…sad stories. Naratives without happy and tidy endings. Happily ever after is not my style. Though Jasper Hatchworth is a historical drama, the next novel won’t be. The connective tissue that binds my work together is the dark tones and tragic characters. I don’t know if I would quite call it Gothic, but that might be close.
There was a day job before I decided to throw everything into my writing, but I don’t like introducing myself this way. I am more than my computer science career. I would rather say I am a father, outdoorsman, and lover of books. These are the things that matter most to me.
This writing career I am embarking on sure does look like it will be a wild ride with many, many bumps and turns. Come connect with me and allow me to draw you through the darker aspects of the human condition.