Former Lisbon native and Cornell College class of 1968 alum Jack Carbee has transitioned from teaching and coaching to writing novels and short stories.
The writing bug really bit Carbee nearly a decade ago when he finally retired from coaching and teaching roughly 13 years ago.
His first novel Trapped in the Inferno is inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, which he taught as part of the World Literature courses in high school English.
“We’d also tackle Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey before we’d get to The Inferno,” Carbee said. “I’ve always been interested in Inferno and the Divine Comedy.”
Carbee has also completed a sequel to Trapped in the Inferno that will be released in January 2022.
Alongside his novels, Carbee has also written a number of short stories which have been collected in two different books.
Carbee was an English and physical education major when he studied at Cornell College years ago, and went on to coach and teach at a number of schools.
Carbee and his ex-wife raised four children during their 35-year marriage, spending a great deal of time in Mount Pleasant, Mich. His last job coaching was at the high school level, coaching the girls basketball team at a school where he was a substitute teacher.
Carbee finds inspiration all around; many of his short story ideas are triggered by reading current events or other occurrences he has in his daily life. Seeing a man drinking wine in a cafe in 9 a.m. or a cat sunning himself in a window.
One of his stories was inspired listening to the radio during a lonesome, nighttime drive and hearing someone say everyone deserves to be mourned. Another, imagining the the thoughts of Rodin’s “The Thinker.”
After his retirement from coaching, Carbee and then wife moved to France, where he has been living for the past four years. The move was inspired after he watched the movie Chocolat in 2000.
“We started talking about visiting France and visiting the village where the film was set, Flavginy-sur-Ozerain in the Burgundy region of France,” Carbee said. “This was back in 2000, when the internet wasn’t as big as it is now, so with my rudimentary French I was able to book a Paris hotel room for our trek and we spent five days in that region.”
The couple also visited a former foreign exchange student, and the Loire Valley of France, where Carbee’s family has its roots. While Loire Valley is noted for its wines, Carbee noted he is not a big wine connoisseur.
The couple returned to France for months long stay in a house on a river, and eventually decided to move to a village in Quillan, France, at the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountain range.
“I much prefer the way of life in France compared to the way of life in America,” Carbee said.
Carbee noted when he returns, he’ll be relocating more towards the Mediterranean Sea when he returns to France later this year.
Even as he writes in France, Carbee keeps up with the monthly meetings of local writers in Mount Vernon, whose meetings happen on Wednesdays at 7 p.m.
“Those meet-ups happen at roughly 2 a.m. my time, so it gets to be quite interesting,” Carbee said.
That’s one of the times that Carbee finds that works best for him when it comes to writing.
“I usually get a few hours of sleep between 9 p.m. an 1:30 a.m., and then find after I’m up at 1:30 for a restroom break, I can’t get back to sleep,” Carbee said. “I’ll stay up for a few hours of writing whatever project I’m working on and then get back to bed.”
Carbee noted that he is a self-published author, and his books have had moderate success. His first collection of short stories saw a full café of friends in France clamoring for him to read the stories in the book.
He’s currently working on a story involving Lt. Paul Swank and his work with the Maquis, who were ambushed by Germans while putting up resistance to the Germans occupying France. Swank, an American citizen, asked to be buried in France.
If people are interested in purchasing Carbee’s books, they can be found on Amazon. He also maintains a blog at jcarbeeblog.com which has some of his short stories and links to purchase his novels as well.