Small-town Culture, Big-time Thrillers

Local Author: Joe MacNabb

Written by BLUE COLE | Photographed by BETH NEELY

Since the publication of “The Closet,” retired judge and Coweta native Joe MacNabb hasn’t slowed down – he’s finished a second novel, “The Shed,” which takes place in Catalpa, Ga., the setting of his debut novel. 

“The Shed” centers around a writer who’s recently moved to Catalpa, and buys a property with a history. His second novel is currently making the rounds of the finer publishing houses in New York as his agent searches for the perfect publisher.

He’s hard at work on his next novel, writing in the early morning.

“My father always said ‘early morning is the jewel of the day,’ and I’d have to agree. I’ll write for about four hours in the morning, and a couple after lunch,” he says, but concedes, “Most of my words slow down by then.” 

MacNabb’s wife, Patty, a retired English teacher, helps him with the initial edits. “‘The Closet’ went through five rounds of rewrites,” MacNabb says.

Tall and lean, MacNabb speaks in a classical Southern cadence. “My mother wanted me to be a preacher when I grew up,” he says, noting that his great grandfather, who lived beside him, was a retired Methodist minister. “As a teenager, I was actually a lay preacher with the Methodist church and would fill in for ministers who were sick or unavailable.” 

He says he finds comfort in writing minister characters.

Writing has always been a family affair for the MacNabbs. In the 1930s, his father, George, ran The Newnan Herald, one of three newspapers in Coweta County, and later became a speechwriter in South Carolina. His mother, Ella, worked for 30 years with The Newnan Times-Herald, doing everything from bookkeeping to editing the Society pages. 

Growing up just a block or so away from Newnan’s Court Square provided plenty of interesting characters to draw from. “I could walk to the (Carnegie) library,” he said, and reading mysteries had him hooked at an early age.

“I have a reflection of Newnan in my mind,” he says. “It’s the Newnan that existed 30, 40 years ago, but it’s a starting point.”

Writing isn’t always about putting words on paper, and MacNabb says he enjoys reading Joe Nesbo (Detective Harry Hole series), David Handler (The Cold Blue Blood series), and Michael Connelly (Detective Harry Bosche & others). Most recently, he read “East of Eden,” the seminal classic by John Steinbeck. He tends to write in his office, “but sometimes I’ll move out to the back porch,” he says. Butter, his tan, 3-year-old cockapoo, often supervises from a sunny spot on the floor.

“I enjoy writing. I can get lost in the world of my book and characters,” he says. 

Writing three novels over the last few years has taught McNabb several things about the publishing industry, including “gracefully accepting rejection, even if it’s a one-line form letter.” 

Other skills that have grown as he’s written include pacing himself and “writing better, more succinctly.”

For aspiring writers, he points to “On Writing” by horror master Stephen King. “It had a big impact. It’s a book every writer should read.” 

Another lesson, one shared by other writers, is publicity. “The publisher might publish it, but that doesn’t mean they’ll market it,” MacNabb says. “Don’t write if you want to be rich,” he adds. 

His work certainly adds to the tapestry of local writers.

“We sure do seem to have plenty of them,” he says, and he’s right. Coweta’s rich stories are told in many ways, both by those who are native and newly arrived. NCM