St. John winter resident Wilson Roberts has a new novel out, a mystery called “Incident at Tuckerman Court.”
It follows “The Serpent and the Hummingbird,” published in 2009 with one of the scenes set at Skinny Legs Bar and Restaurant in Coral Bay. That book came on the heels of the supernatural thriller “The Cold Dark Heart of the World,” published in 2008.
“And I just sent ‘Shadows and Acts’ to the publisher. It explores the career of a 19th-century actor, George Berell,” Roberts said.
Berell was a distant relative, and Roberts said he was lucky to find a manuscript in which Berell outlined his life. It was handed down through the family, and Roberts said he had somewhere to start when he began the fictionalized account of Berrell’s life.
He also has a trilogy waiting to be published. One book is set on the fictional island of St. Ursula, which Roberts said resembles Tortola. Another is set on St. John.
“It has a highly fictionalized account of what is now VIERS,” he said, referring to the V.I. Environmental Resource Station.
In addition to the three published novels on his resume, Roberts recently had a short story, “Against the Dying,” published in the prestigious Massachusetts Review.
“It’s like if you’re a painter and getting hung in a New York gallery,” he said.
He’s currently working on a book called “Poet’s Seat,” which is set in Greenfield, Mass. He and his wife, Diane Esser, live there when they’re not at their Coral Bay, St. John home.
Roberts and Esser first visited St. John in 1975. Like so many others, they fell in love with the place. In 1984, he had a sabbatical in nearby Tortola to explore the possibility of a link between Greenfield Community College in Massachusetts and a proposed college education program in the British Virgin Islands. The project never went any further, but it fostered more interest in a Caribbean life. In 1988 they bought land, building their house in 1989.
“It’s kept me broke ever since,” he said, laughing.
Writing novels is Roberts’ retirement job. Now 73, he retired from a teaching post at Greenfield Community College in 2001 after a long career teaching English at a variety of colleges up and down the eastern seaboard. At Greenfield Community College, he also served as a union organizer.
He now has space in his wife’s law office, which he said provides the discipline he needs to write.
Born and raised in Newtown, Penn., he graduated from Drew University in Madison, N.J., with a bachelor’s degree in religion. After teaching high school for a year, he went on to get a master’s degree in English from Appalachian State University in Boone, N. C.
At Appalachian State, he developed an affinity for traditional mountain folklore, which influences the storytelling he does at Greenfield area schools and in the guitar music he likes to play in his spare time.
“I usually play in the living room, but I’m playing at an open mike tonight,” he said.
He’s also a mediator, working with small claims court cases and in situations where children were removed from their families.
“The whole goal of the project is to reunite families,” he said.
Along the way, Roberts and his first wife had four children. Additionally, he parented a stepchild. One of his sons, Micah, and his wife Rachel, previously lived on St. John but now live near Greenfield. Chuck, Ben, Jabo, and Wesley are also in the area. His daughter, Leah, is in Leesburg, Va.
As for his future, Roberts plans to keep writing books.
Those interested can shop for Roberts’ books at www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, on Kindle, or they can be ordered at any bookstore.
