Two Hendricks County residents published books recently, but aside from both books being the products of Hoosiers, they couldn’t be more different.
Plainfield native, columnist and author Jeffrey Kamm’s book, Classic Restaurants of Indianapolis, is a chronicle of restaurants with staying power. The 35 restaurants featured all lasted more than 30 years. About 12 of them are still operating, including Plainfield’s Oasis Diner.
“I thought that was a really good example of something that looked like it was going to meet its fate – the wrecking ball – and the steps that can be taken to preserve it and for it to become popular and thrive,” Kamm says.
He began writing the “At Your Leisure” column for historicindianapolis.com three years ago. The column spotlighted historic restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, bars and more. It became so popular, a publisher approached him about doing a book a year later.
“My initial thoughts were, ‘I don’t think I could ever have time for that,'” Kamm says.
Then, he thought more about it. He was already writing a weekly column, and he’d already written about so many restaurants.
His book hit shelves the day after Thanksgiving two years later.
“I think it’s a good look back at some of the independent establishments that helped make Indianapolis unique,” Kamm says. “Hopefully, people will take a look at it and reminisce.”
Plainfield-based author R.S. Craig says his novel, The Innocent and the Dead, is inspired by a real-life event that occurred in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
One day, a woman in his paranormal study group told everyone her house was haunted. She saw an apparition of a man. Things vanished. When the man appeared, he was always in her periphery. And he was gone by the time she turned around.
“One night, she woke up out of a sound sleep in a pitch-dark bedroom,” Craig says. “She swore there was someone leaning over her. She screamed and her husband turned on the light. There was nobody there.”
Craig says that’s when the couple called the leader of their group to hypnotize her. She would channel the ghost so he could tell him to move on.
The ploy worked in real life, according to Craig, but in his novel, it isn’t the end.
He began the work around 1990. Between then and the book’s late 2016 release, he completed a nonfiction work titled Children With White Knuckles.
“It’s hard work,” Craig says. “It is hard work, but it’s fun. I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun.”
Proceeds from both of Craig’s books go to local charities, including Sheltering Wings, Suzie’s Place and the Hendricks County Fraternal Order of Police.
Originally published in Hendricks County ICON, 2016. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.