Автор из Астории рассказывает о том, как его жизнь и путешествия вдохновляют новые книги

Everyday People: Astoria indie writer takes readers through time and space Published 5:04 pm Sunday, July 5, 2026 Since 2009, Astoria author Calvin Cahail has published 12 fiction books, ranging in genre from thrillers, to fantasy, to picture books. Like other writers, Cahail said he bases many of his stories and characters on his lived experiences. It just so happens that his life has taken him all over the world. Cahail has been a roamer since the beginning. He was born in Osseo, Wisconsin but his family moved to Anaheim, California when he was 6 years old. “We tried to escape the snow,” he said. “That was a little tough for Mom.” The Cahails traded snow for sunshine, and Cahail said he was spoiled by the SoCal climate. It was one of the first instances he remembers appreciating the unique assets of a new place and community. A 40-year career in the restaurant industry brought no shortage of special moments, Cahail said. Managing four-star restaurants, his work took him all over the country and the world, from Hawaii to Australia, and everywhere in between. Cahail said he always recommends spending a year in another country, especially for young people. “I think it gives you information that will help you evaluate your life here and say, ‘Hey, what’s good about this country as opposed to other countries?’’ he said. “Also, it may help people to appreciate what they do have here.” While Cahail was in the Lone Star State, he had another sort of open-ended revelation, one that came to him in a dream. “I was in Plano, Texas, and I had a dream where I was standing in line at a coffee shop, and I’m waiting for my turn with the barista, and the world around me rippled and blurred, and then all of a sudden, I disappeared,” said Cahail. He said the dream nagged at him, demanding an explanation, but the restaurant industry didn’t allow any time to unpack one. It wasn’t until he retired at 59 and moved to Costa Rica that Cahail said he had the freedom to sit down and explore the possibilities of what could have happened to him in his dream. He started to write a story, one that stretched the boundaries of space and time and involved fantastical dragons and alchemy. Around the same time, Cahail said he reconnected with one of his older brothers, Jerry, who lived in Salem. Over Skype, the brothers would update each other on their lives, and Calvin Cahail, of course, shared about the book he was writing. “(Jerry) was critiquing aspects of it — good, solid critiques. And so we just collaborated on it,” said Cahail. “It was good for us to bond and spend time with one another.” In 2009, Cahail published the book, titled “The Jumppoint Saga.” Not long thereafter, Cahail and his wife, Mariana, who he met in Costa Rica, were looking to move to Salem to be closer to Jerry, whose health was declining. But Jerry passed away before they could get back to the states, making the brothers’ collaboration on Cahail’s first book even more meaningful. Although Jerry wouldn’t be there, the couple decided to move forward with relocating to Oregon, said Cahail. They wandered the state’s streets virtually through Google Maps’ street view feature and settled on a beautiful city with hills and Tudor-style homes. The Cahail couple moved to Astoria in 2015. Here, Cahail continued to write, bending genres and building worlds to prompt questions about real life in his readers. Cahail’s next book was “Covert Power,” a fictional story about a black ops agency that “takes care of business that legal channels can’t. There’s a great little twist at the end,” the author said. Next came “Edge of Darkness,” the idea for which Cahail said he got at a local emergency management meeting for the Cascadia Subduction Zone. When he heard about the potential of an earthquake or tsunami to destroy local bridges, he said he immediately thought about his wife. Mariana worked across a bridge from their home, where he wrote during the day. “With communications out, and for weeks, we wouldn’t know if one another survived or not,” he said. “That hit me personally, obviously. And then after a while, I said, ‘Well, that will make a good book.’” The idea for the sequel to “Edge of Darkness” — “Wrath of Rainier,” Cahail’s newest book — came to him at the Ilwaco Market, he said. “There was a gentleman … he didn’t say, but I believe he was a special ops agent,” Cahail said. “He said when they’re training in special ops, they take four or five of them and they drop them off on the side of a mountain, and they have to survive with no equipment, nothing for five days on their own to prove their skills.” After thinking about it for a while, Cahail said he wondered what would happen if special ops trainees had to survive on the side of Mt. Rainier when it erupted. “Now it’s not a training session anymore,” said Cahail. “Now it’s life or death.” The local markets don’t just serve as a place to harvest ideas for books. Cahail said they primarily function as a venue to get his books in front of the community and sell them. Cahail self-publishes his books through Amazon, he said, which prints his books for him. It’s an option he said many indie writers like himself use. “In the past, the market was dominated by the big five publishers, and they wrote the rules,” he said. “(Amazon) gives an author a chance to get his book out there.” Now, Cahail said anyone can publish a book, and he tries to help other indie writers do so. “There’s a lot of talent out there, incredible amounts of talent, but to get visibility is hard,” he said. “And so, the ability to get these indie writers in front of people where the readers can find them is a big change for our industry, and I’m pretty excited about that.” With more books being produced by a greater and more diverse number of people, readers, by proxy, experience more places and perspectives. Like traveling, it’s another way to connect people across the world and grow appreciation for different ways of life. And perhaps that’s Cahail’s point.