Former journalist trades headlines for novel writing
At 65, William Loving knows he isn’t a typical debut novelist. The Pasadena resident — and former Connecticut Post reporter — spent much of his life working in newspapers, but always harbored dreams of becoming a novelist.
“Later in life, after I left the newspaper business, it started to nag at me,” says Loving. “‘You wanted to write novels.’ ”
So he decided to revisit his dreams, with the full knowledge that it could be an uphill battle. “I wouldn’t call it scary exactly,” he says. “I would call it ‘knowing it’s a longshot.’ It’s hard enough to break in as a first-time, unknown novelist. It’s probably doubly hard later in life.”
Yet Loving persevered and the result is “City of Angles,” published in September. The novel tells the story of Homer Virgil Innes, a college-educated journalist who loses his job in the Great Recession of 2008. Innes winds up homeless and sets off on a voyage through Southern California.
Loving says, as someone who lived through the recession, and lost a job during it, he remembers what a frightening time it was.
“(At that time) it occurred to me that the homelessness crisis in Southern California was getting really bad,” he says. “I started to see a lot of homeless people (who) only recently looked like they had become homeless. These were people who looked like middle-class or working-class people who were on street corners and holding signs and begging.”
Loving says telling his story from the point of view of one these people appealed to him, and, he hopes, offers a fresh view on homelessness.
“I hope (the book) makes people a little more aware of the homelessness crisis in this country, and maybe a little less judgmental and more sympathetic,” he says. “Working people who are not wealthy are just a few paychecks away from poverty, and even homelessness. I wanted to show what that would be like for somebody.”
Once he decided on what story he needed to tell, Loving says sitting down and writing it was somewhat easier than expected. “I had the training and discipline from newspapers just to sit down and start typing,” he says, adding that the deadline culture of the newspaper business doesn’t allow for writers’ block.
Loving spent more than 25 years in the newspaper business, and says his first job out of college was actually at the Connecticut Post. At that time, he says, a lot of Connecticut newspapers were hiring, and he knew multiple people who got journalism jobs in the state.
“It was just through some happenstance,” Loving says. “I had no connection to Connecticut.”
He worked at the Post from 1983 to 1986, covering first Fairfield and then Bridgeport, and lived in both communities .“Those were the days when (many) newspapers had two editions,” he says. “It made for long days, but it was fun.”
Loving also worked at the Providence Journal, Minneapolis Star Tribune and Los Angeles Times. Though he loved working in newspapers, Loving has some regrets about not taking the leap into novel writing sooner.
“This is probably what I should have been doing,” he says. “I am really glad that I finally did get around to writing a novel 45 years after I originally planned to write a novel.”
However, Loving acknowledges that his book came out at an odd time, as the COVID-19 pandemic has made book tours and in-person author events difficult, if not impossible. But, he says, he has done what he can to promote “City of Angles,” hosting virtual events.
His main hope is that people find the book and connect with it. “It’s a personal journey of loss and grief and recovery and the learning of empathy,” Loving says. “I hope people get something from that.”