Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest, Roger Stark, author of They Called Him Marvin.

Roger Stark, by his own admission, is a reluctant writer. But there are stories that demand to be told. When we hear them, we must pick up our pen, lest we forget and the stories be lost.

Six years ago, in a quiet conversation with his friend, Marvin, he learned the tragic story of his father, a WW2 B-29 Airplane Commander, shot down over Nagoya, Japan, just months before the end of the war.

The telling of the story that evening by this half orphan was so moving and full of emotion, it compelled Roger to ask if he could write the story. The result being They Called Him Marvin.

Roger Stark’s life has been profoundly touched in so many ways by being part of documenting this sacred story. He prays that we never forget, as a people, the depth of sacrifice that was made by ordinary people like Marvin and his father and mother on our behalf.

Bee: Welcome to BookPleasures.com Roger.  Thank you for taking part in this interview.

Roger: Thanks for having me.

Bee: What is your favorite scene in They Called Him Marvin? Why?

Roger:  Hmmmm so many choices...I love scenes that involve Therill Hanson, "mailman extraordinaire and relative of some sort." and also Riku and his adventures. 

But the clear choice is the final chapter "A Visit from Lt Sherman." The story is based on Connie's account of a late-night visit from her husband long after his passing.

Bee: Tell us about your cover. Did you design it yourself?

Roger: I played a part. I found and gained permission to use the picture of a B29 "Returning Home." I provided that picture and the picture of Dean and Connie to Kathy Campbell who actually did the creative work. Kathy is amazingly talented.

Gaining permission to use the visual of the B29 "Returning Home" was a little miracle. I had seen the picture on Pintrest and several other places on the internet but the creator/owner was never identified.

My searches to find him were unsuccessful. As we neared publication, I was brainlessly wandering the internet when I came across a blog thread talking about how the image was created but was 10 years old.

On a chance I messaged the blog and to my great surprise got a quick reply that led to permission and a suitable image copy. Thank you, Kenneth Walker.

Bee: How much time and effort went into your research for the book?

Roger: Research stretched over six years. Information trickled in. One source often led to another. some of the military requests for information took over a year to be fulfilled. I spent a week at the National Archives in Washington DC.

I went to Japan to visit and was thrilled to see a picture on the fourth floor of the rebuilt Nagoya Castle of B29s bombing the castle on May 14, the date of Mission 174 that Dean and his crew were part of.

Bee: How long did it take you to write this book from concept to fruition? 

Roger: I am going to say 8 years from the night of my conversation with Marv Sherman, the Marvin mentioned on the title to printing.

Partly because I write by re-writing, and partly research would come in that contradicted what I had written. In creative non fiction, we fill in the blank places in documentation with our best guesses.

 Late in the process a here to fore unknown family history written by Connie's hand about Dean and their courtship and marriage.

Unaware of that document I had already written my version of their beginning. I was not even close to the truth with my creative words. I started writing over from the beginning.

Bee: How did being a father impact your writing?

Roger: Well, I am seven times a father. I think the part they played in my writing skills was listening to my bedtime and campfire stories.

I developed the ability to tell a story by practicing on them. Not an intentional outcome, just a by product of how we lived.

Our favorite story was about a young Indian boy who had lost his father and had to assume many of the roles his father played in their family's lives.

My children (all grown adults with families of their own now) love to tease me about my falling asleep half way through the story of "Two Trails", they like to say their never knew how the story ended because I was the one who fell asleep during the bed time story.

Bee: What writers have you drawn inspiration from?

Roger:  David Carr, "Night of the Gun." Alexandre Dumas and Charles Dickens for just about everything they wrote. Anthony Doerr "All the Light We Cannot See."

Bee: What was your first job?

Roger: I reckon that to be a strawberry picker. All of my siblings were involved in harvesting things like strawberries, raspberries and beans from local farm in my youth. I think I started at age 10.

I never mastered strawberries, my sisters could pick four or five times as many as I could, but I excelled at beans. For some reason I could pick beans. I could pick a lot of beans.

We all outgrew the farm work and soon children weren't used in the harvests anymore.

My first job that involved signing a W-2 was milking cows, which I still love to do but don't get many opportunities any more, the family dairy farms don't exist now a days.

 I spent a good deal of my life working and contracting in construction, perhaps my really first job was as a framer, helping build houses in our rapidly growing area. 

Bee: What book/s are you reading at present?

Roger:  Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott.

Bee: What do you do when you are not writing?

Roger: I am now nearly 75 years old, have had both knees and recently both hips replaced, so each day has some form of physical therapy.

I am trying to get back on my bicycle which is one of my favorite things to do.

 My wife and I love to travel, Covid has made a mess of that, but we are hoping to return to Europe soon and maybe South America. (South America is the last continent that my wife has not been on, excluding Antarctica, kind of a bucket list thing.)

Bee: Thanks again and good luck with They Called Him Marvin!

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