Longtime Long Beach Island resident Joe Egles passed away in 2010 at the age of 60, yet his passion for astronomy and storytelling lives on. The Kabrini Message, a science fiction novel written by Egles more than 25 years ago, was recently published by Etopia Press through the efforts of Egles’ younger sister, Marie Carhart, and his widow, Gwen Egles. The story features an archaeological dig in Greece where Jeffrey Driscoll stumbles upon ancient crystals with celestial coordinates that will connect humankind with the Kabrini, a highly advanced alien civilization. Readers are taken on a quest all over the world and finally to the deepest depths of space.
Carhart said she was searching for photos for her son’s wedding in 2011 when she found the book’s typed manuscript in an old box in the attic.
“I found a manila envelope, and in my mom’s handwriting it just said, ‘Joe’s Book.’ It was all loose pages. So I read it, and I thought it was really good,” Carhart recalled. “Even though sci-fi is not my favorite genre, I still liked it. It had enough of an action-adventure crossover, kind of like an Indiana Jones story. It sounded like Joe’s sense of humor with quick wit and sarcasm. I thought it was a shame it had been sitting in the attic for 25 years,” she added.
“I could always tell when the rejection letters came. (Joe) was never in a good mood when that happened. After a while you start to feel defeated, which I certainly understand. There didn’t seem to be any more avenues to pursue because we had done everything that we knew how to do. So we just gave up.”
Carhart said she was searching for photos for her son’s wedding in 2011 when she found the book’s typed manuscript in an old box in the attic.
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill After finding her brother's book manuscript in the attic, Marie Carhart of Absecon, NJ had The Kabrini Message published posthumously. |
“I found a manila envelope, and in my mom’s handwriting it just said, ‘Joe’s Book.’ It was all loose pages. So I read it, and I thought it was really good,” Carhart recalled. “Even though sci-fi is not my favorite genre, I still liked it. It had enough of an action-adventure crossover, kind of like an Indiana Jones story. It sounded like Joe’s sense of humor with quick wit and sarcasm. I thought it was a shame it had been sitting in the attic for 25 years,” she added.
Carhart said she had no idea her brother, who had published only a few freelance articles for the local papers, had written a book. Gwen Egles later told her that the couple had tried to have the story published during the 1980s, when they lived in Loveladies.
Egles had worked on the book for about eight months while he acted as his grandfather’s caretaker, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. He spent a year trying to publish the story before he put it away.
“Back then, it was before email,” said Gwen. “So you actually had to print out hard copies and mail them to publishers. It was a whole different process than it is today, and it was much more difficult.
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill Carhart had a picture of her brother's book made into a necklace charm. |
Gwen said the book’s original manuscript, along with a number of Egles’ short stories, was ruined during Superstorm Sandy. Fortunately, Carhart still has the copy.
Hoping to publish her brother’s story posthumously, Carhart spent a year searching for a literary agent. She hired an editor, Amy Bell of WritePunch, to polish the story.
“It took a while. We went through one chapter at a time,” said Carhart. “We added a couple of chapters and had to kind of expand the story. We didn’t really change too much, but we had to update the technology – laptops and cell phones, instead of pay phones,” she added.
After seeking out more than 100 agents and receiving numerous rejections, Carhart, who was also working as a self-employed interior designer, decided to seek out a royalty-paying publisher. The Kabrini Message was picked up by Etopia Press in September 2012. The book launched in January in electronic format and became available in print edition at the end of April.
“It’s very hard to sell fiction right now, even more so for a first-time author that’s deceased. I knew it was going to be an uphill struggle, but I wasn’t worried,” said Carhart.
The Kabrini Message is available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Print copies will be available for purchase at The Cedar Garden in Ship Bottom.
Carhart also hopes to turn the book into a screenplay.
“Hopefully the book takes off and producers will come to me so I don’t have to go through all the searching again. Hopefully it’s a big blockbuster movie, like ‘Star Wars,’ and I can retire,” she said with a laugh. “A lot of the agents that turned me down said it had great visual potential. I thought about turning it into a screenplay first, but thought Joe would really want it to be a book first.”
For more information about The Kabrini Message, visit https://www.facebook.com/kabrini.message?ref=hl%22.
--Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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