This week I’m hosting David Bond with The Attache, Deanna Klingel with Bread Upon the Water, Jill Williamson with Replication, and Rebecca Price Janney with Who Goes There? A Cultural History of Heaven and Hell. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (February 5th) evening.
Interview with the hero from The Attache by David Bond:
1. Zach Brenner, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I never knew quite what to do with my life. I inherited 300 acres in north-central Pennsylvania, including a wood products business, a 4-car garage with an apartment over the garage, and the house I grew up in. When I say I inherited the wood products business, I mean I’m the boss. The thing is, I didn’t want it. I tried over the years to learn to enjoy the business, working there over the years from my late teens, but it never really interested me. So when I lost my eyesight in Iraq, where I’d gone to earn some big money to help save the business—I felt I owed the company something, if not my loyalty—I was really lost.
2. What do you do for fun?
I used to do a lot of hiking, a good bit of it on the trails on the mountains spread around the 300 acre Brenner property. I also spent a lot of time restoring a 1964 Ford Mustang. Now that I’m blind, well, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do much more restoration work, but I was able to climb my mountain again. This was a great achievement.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Domestic duties. I’ve been single for a good many years, but never caught on to vacuuming and dusting. As a blind man, it’s really unappealing.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
I didn’t used to think much about the future. After losing my sight, and well, meeting Jessie, my attitude changed. The business was in trouble, and even though I couldn’t see myself running it the rest of my life, I felt sympathy for it—that is, the employees. Mostly, Warren, a man who was like a father to me.
5. What do you want out of life?
Contentment. Involving myself in a job where I find satisfaction. And now, of all things, to be part of a family, to have a wife, and even children.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
Pretty much as I just stated. To be content with my family, living a quiet life, perhaps doing something, besides my career, where I can help others. Jessie has this attitude, and it’s admirable. She’s been the best thing to ever happen to me.
7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I love historic fiction, and most westerns. Louis L’amour novels are great, as well as some of James Michener’s epics. I’m a sucker for a good romance also, as long as it’s not too predictable or shallow.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Not to be blind? I guess that doesn’t count. Strangely, losing my sight turned out to be a good thing in my situation. Sure, it’s a pain in the neck sometimes, but life is still good. IF I could change one thing, I’d like to see my brother, Joel, once in a while. He’s known as the wanderer, or nomad. I think he’s in Iraq, perhaps working in the oil industry in some capacity. So, yeah, probably I’d change this one area of my life if I had the power.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No, no pet. People ask me if I’ll ever get a guide dog. Sometimes people tell me I should get a dog. I’m comfortable using a cane in all truth. I am able to touch the ground, my surroundings and “feel” everything. When using a guide dog, a blind person is putting a lot of faith in the dog. Not that Seeing Eye dogs aren’t capable, they are, but I am the kind of person who needs to have total control. Yeah, I guess that’s it. Control. Maybe it’s one area of my life as a blind person where I feel I have complete control.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I’d go back about 60 or 70 years to be with my Irish grandfather, who ran a saw milling business here at Rocky Glen, before my father turned it into a wood products business. He was a man full of life and energy. I have a feeling if I could spend time with him, as he was back then, he’d pass on some of his vitality and enthusiasm. I’m finding some of that again, perhaps because it’s in my genes. As Jessie tells me, she’s finally starting to see some bounce in my step. It’s been a long climb up, but I’m getting there!
