Author Tory Gates has written a new fiction novel called How the story ends. The inspiration of the book was born out of a trip he’s taken to Chambersburg about 6-7 years ago.
“I was driving down I-81 to get there, I was looking at the fields, looking at the hills and that kind of thing. And I'm from Vermont originally, and there's certain parallels that Vermont and Pennsylvania have that make you feel kind of home.”
The Main character Jhana is an NPR reporter and is loosely based on Gate’s experience in the media field and meeting people along his journey.
“I think there is always a bit of an element of me. And for Jhana, she is a person who has tried to be the different one, not necessarily in an outrageous way, but she is the person that she found people turn to because she walked her own path, and she was fortunate enough to have parents that were there going to let the kid run, let her figure out for herself. And as she's done that, she realizes that she has to go some other place other than this semi-idyllic hometown to find her life.”
Gates hopes that readers see themselves in the characters in ‘How the story ends.
“Everyone has a story, and I hope that people get to like them. They get to identify with them and maybe see themselves. And the other thing too, is no matter what you put the characters through, and I put my characters through an awful lot because that's just how that is. I look at it as maybe you see something in yourself, and if you see something in yourself that maybe you're wondering about and you see what these people go through, it's like, I want these people to be as real as possible. You can be that person. You are that person. Where do you go from here? What do you want to do next? And that's important. There's no such thing as can't. There's no such thing as cannot. It's. It is not what you can't. It is what you can and what you will. And Jonah was a great example of I. I can and I will.”