When Eric Walker set out to uncover his family history, he didn’t expect to find the inspiration for his first novel. Once he heard a story about his great-grandfather who had fled a plantation after a deadly accident, however, he knew he had struck narrative gold for what would become Lost Souls Recovered.
Walker has always been fascinated by history and has been uncovering information about his ancestors for about 30 years.
The television miniseries Roots helped inspire Walker to take the first steps into genealogy, starting with discussions between his family members. He had what he says is a “fantastical delusion” that he would find a slave manifest like the one that inspired Roots.
He did not find the documentation or trail that he was looking for, but his grandmother told a story of her grandfather that would stick with Walker as he worked to fill out his family tree, which now connects over 1,000 people.
“I talked to ancestors, thankfully I did, in the ’90s and they would tell me the story about my great-grandfather, John Davis, (who would become) the protagonist of the book,” Walker says.
Walker’s grandmother had told him the story of how Davis fled the plantation he was forced to stay on in Post-Reconstruction Era Virginia after accidentally knocking over the plantation owner’s mistress, a story that she had heard from Davis himself.
“That’s very little to go on, but I took that and I built my story,” Walker says.
Lost Souls Recovered follows John Davis through a pivotal choice in his life, wherein he leaves the only home he has ever known to find a cousin that he isn’t even sure exists. He also leaves behind his mother and his work, but after his mishap with the owner’s mistress, he knows staying is not an option. He must find himself a new home and identity elsewhere.
Walker had always wanted to write a book, and he had a knack for writing ever since grade school. Historical fiction had always been his favorite subject, so writing Lost Souls Recovered using his own family history was fate.
“The idea of historical fiction is to blend true events and people who actually existed and somehow weave that into a story,” Walker says, “so I decided to bring this story to life because it was inspired by my family.”
Walker says that many people have great novel ideas, yet so few truly commit to writing and finishing a book. Walker feels that this story is important for people to read, particularly for Black Americans who, like Walker, have near or entirely untraceable ancestry.
He says that many Black Americans still hold the trauma of their ancestors today, and hopes that discussions of this generational pain may help relieve it for current generations and those following.
“If we can understand the fact that our history as African Americans, we carry this trauma. Why is that trauma still there today?” Walker says. “And through my book, I try to explain how people are traumatized and what people can do, in this particular case John, the protagonist, did to overcome years of traumatization by the effects of slavery.”
In order to tap into the mindset of his characters, Walker traveled to the South, particularly Alabama and Virginia, where he found a great deal of inspiration and connected deeply with the various settings from his great-grandfather’s past that would end up in Lost Souls Recovered.
“Getting out there and actually going in the field and visualizing what I’m writing about helped me bring my words into focus about how I characterized the feeling of those events,” Walker says.
This experience was Walker’s favorite part of the process, as it not only helped him write but helped him understand where he came from.
Though Walker is a natural and lifelong writer, writing a book was no simple process. Getting your words to a final, published version takes many revisions and a good deal of resolve.
“If you want to be an author getting published you have to be patient and you cannot have an ego, especially if you’re doing it for the first time,” Walker says, “because you’re going to give up like I did a few times, but you need a support system.”
Walker made many sacrifices to get his book out. Missed vacations and canceled plans can be necessary to persevere and keep working through what Walker calls the “drudgery” and “toil” of revising and completing a book.
He says he is grateful that his work has paid off, however, and he has been appreciative of all the support he has gotten since Lost Souls Recovered published in October 2022.
Courtesy of Eric Walker
He was especially grateful for the Lifetime Fitness in Pickerington, who let him display a banner promoting the book, as well as Grace Fellowship Church, where Walker has received a great deal of support from members of the fellowship.
Walker says he does not take any criticism of Lost Souls Recovered too personally, as he believes it is part of being an author to put yourself out there. He is proud that he did his best work and he believes in the power of his novel.
“I’m a lawyer but I also wanted to be an author, which I think is even more important than being a lawyer because your book will live forever … It has many universal things that apply today,” Walker says.
Lost Souls Recovered is available at the Pickerington Library and multiple local bookstores.
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
