Fiction writers can never truly retire, especially if they are still holding stories yet untold. Case in point: 88-year-old author John Rolfe Gardiner has added a new title to his portfolio of award-winning novels and short stories.
In North of Ordinary, a parcel of 10 stories bound together by subtle threads of human commonalities, longtime NoVA resident Gardiner packs his writing with casual mentions of towns and villages between Washington, DC, and the Blue Ridge. His characters, too, embody people we may have encountered during our comings and goings in the region, including two social misfits who forge an unlikely friendship on an Arlington cul-de-sac, suburban families with an annual tradition of vacationing together on the Outer Banks, and a Winchester tree trimming crew that struggles to relate to a college-age summer hire.
In all cases, Gardiner nudges the reader to consider hidden facets of ordinary places, people, and events that turn out to be not so ordinary after all. We caught up with the author to learn more about his background, career, and inspirations.
How has your life in NoVA influenced your writing?
From age 5, I grew up in rural Fairfax County at the corner of Spring Hill Road and Old Dominion Drive. Most of my fiction is rooted in Northern Virginia. After an Army tour and time spent working for Broadcasting Magazine, I moved to Waterford in 1972. My wife, Joan, and I lived in a 275-year-old cottage in nearby Unison. We lived in that little stone house for 40 years before moving to a larger place nearby. My first book caught the eye of an editor at The New Yorker magazine, who began to publish a series of my short stories in 1977. My stories cover the period of time from the mid-20th century to present times, where now a cloud of steam from data centers floats over land once plowed for corn.
How has your writing career evolved?
To supplement a meager publishing income, I began working as a carpenter for a small contractor restoring houses in Loudoun’s countryside. My publishing career eventually fell off after my New Yorker editor left the magazine and my agent died. After that, I wrote more sporadically. I actually began two of the North of Ordinary stories 15 years ago, and most were published previously in different magazines as they were written. When large trade publications turned their backs on my last novel, I tried self-publishing in 2017. That’s why I’m thankful to have been rediscovered by Bellevue Literary Press. It’s truly like a rebirth for me.
How and where do you do your writing?
When I first started writing fiction, I worked in a small cabin in the back of our Unison lot. I typed my manuscripts on an old standard Underwood and refused for many years to use a computer until my brother gave me one around 2000. I’ve drawn much inspiration and material from observations and conversations overhead in local coffee shops. So, yes, real life does blur with fiction, as it should.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Feature image courtesy Bellevue Literary Press
This story originally ran in our February Issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
