Duane Hicks
District resident Mike Kemper, writing under the pseudonym “S. Wampman,” has just released a new book, “Reflections And A Slasher”—and it just might earn him a ninth fan.
The new book is comprised of two halves. The first half is a collection of 14 short stories about Kemper’s experiences in parts of Europe, including Germany, and Canada, including “Fort Frantic.”
The second half is a crime story with “sex and violence because that is what the people want,” Kemper said Friday during a book-signing at Betty’s here.
“I’m a hobby author,” he noted. “I’m saying that because I’ve got eight fans, and for those fans, and for hope, I wrote this.”
The “Slasher” half of the book is Kemper’s second foray into crime fiction. “The Long Winter” also was a tale of murder, with the tagline, “Even in a small border town, there are the good, the bad and the ugly.”
“There’s a crime story again and short stories again—no big surprises,” he remarked.
“The sex is a little surprising, I guess,” he admitted.
“I hope people don’t think of me differently after they’ve read it,” Kemper joked. “You never know.”
The former bush pilot also has written and self-published three other books since 2009, including:
•“Fort Frances: Getting to know the town the people and the region” (15 short stories and 30 aerial photos of Fort Frances and the region—available both in B&W and colour);
•“Bird on Two Sticks” (a collection of 19 short stories, impressions, an essay, a poem, and a prayer); and
•“All Bush Pilots Lie!” (an anthology of 38 little adventures flying the “bush” in a floatplane).
Kemper said he keeps writing for the fun of it.
“In the beginning, there was hope I’d be discovered or something,” he remarked.
“And when I put the first ones out, I thought it either works or it doesn’t.
“And then it didn’t work, but it worked in little ways that I hadn’t considered before,” Kemper added.
“I had little successes and that got me hooked, I guess,” he chuckled.
Kemper said those who have liked his work said they liked they way he wrote; how his way of speaking came through in his words.
“Most people you don’t hear anything from, and then I don’t ask because I assume they’re going to say something bad,” he noted.
“If they had something good to say, they’d say it without me asking.
“That’s my logic anyway.
“But when you do get somebody that, without asking, tells you they liked it, that’s my eight friends,” Kemper added.
“That’s enough for me,” he smiled.
“Some people ask me, ‘How many did you sell?’ I tell them, ‘Oh, numbers are just mirrors and smoke. If I can put one smile on a person, that’s great.’
“But in a way, it’s true,” he added. “Not that I’d mind the numbers, but. . . .”
All of Kemper’s books are available at Betty’s.
They also are available through his website at www.vg-m.de or through Amazon.com
