Young author self-publishes debut novel

By Walter J. Lyng, August 22nd, 2012

Connor McRae was determined to get his novel published. Completing his debut work Trespasses on his recent 21st birthday, The Montreal West resident was ultimately able to fast-track the process, with the help of some friends and co-workers, self-publishing the book on July 31.
“I was sending out all of these letter and I wasn't hearing anything back, so I was getting a bit discouraged on that front but I still felt I had a good-enough story that people would want to read so I just kept at it and I got a lucky break through a colleague of mine at work.”
He was put in touch with a more experienced writer who briefed him on the harsh realities of the publishing industry. Fortunately for McRae, two of his teammates on the Beaconsfield rugby team he plays for happened to own a printing company and were themselves fond of the novel, thus leading to a collaboration.
Trespasses tells the story of young teenager Keith Alistair who finds himself caught in the middle of a Montreal turf war between violent street gangs after trying to save his dog from one of the said gangs. He ultimately finds a measure of protection in Gordon Gallagher, a former gangster himself, now looking for redemption and revenge. 
McRae says the idea for the novel first came to him when he was a student at Loyola High School, which he depicts in a thinly-veiled form as St. Ignatius of Loyola. As he explains, however, the story became much more complex over time.
“It originally developed as a Welcome Back Kotter-esque story about a kid who went to this school and then came back later to teach,” he says. “As I grew older and became influenced by different     writers, I began to realise that there would probably be more to tell if I centered it around the students.”
While Trespasses deals with some lurid subject matter, McRae reveals that one of his main inspirations has very little to do with the world of crime.
“The biggest inspiration was probably the Harry Potter series,” he says. “There's a lot of parallels between the two. You take kids from an innocent background and then a series of events just brings them into a conflict bigger than any of them could have ever prepared for.”
Not planning to slow down anytime soon, McRae is currently working towards completing the novel's sequel, Crossings, by his 22nd birthday in November. Having sold out the first editions of Trespasses within the first two weeks of publication, his hard work is definitely showing results.
“The biggest payoff so far is the people that have come up to me saying how much they love it. I'm being hounded by people at work. Friends of mine and people I play rugby with have been saying 'Hurry up and finish the damn sequel already!'”
Copies of Trespasses  can be purchased at www. connormcrae.ca