By Ken Mammarella
Contributing Writer

Chesapeake City resident David Healey has built multiple careers on his writing skills – journalist, professor, essayist and novelist – that all started with extending adventures he read when he was young.

“When I was a kid, one of my favorite authors was William O. Steele, who wrote frontier adventure novels,” he said. “The first book I read was ‘Winter Danger,’ and I just loved the story. I would write stories using his characters and settings. Now we would call it fan fiction.”

Those feats of derring-do helped inspire his desire to be a storyteller, and “Winter Danger” led to something else. Its hero is a boy named Caje Amis, and Caje Cole is the protagonist in Healey’s longest series. “Righteous Sniper,” the 10th Caje Cole book and Healey’s 30th book, is out in December.

In addition to the Caje Cole series, set in World II, he plans in 2025 to release the sixth novel in the Pacific Sniper series, starring Caje’s cousin Deacon Cole. 

On davidhealeyauthor.com, he lists the rest of his creativity so far: four mysteries and thrillers; three Civil War novels; two books for young adults set in an alternative history in the Napoleonic Wars; three books about Delmarva history; and two more books. “I’ll never live long enough to write all the books in my head,” he said. “I work only on one at a time, but I have the idea for the next one percolating.”

“I am not in any of these stories,” he said. “They’re all tough guys.” In contrast, he’s a nice guy who  enjoys quiet pursuits like walking, bicycling and otherwise exploring quaint backroads.

History in his backyard

“David’s ability to put words to his imagination grabs readers right from the start,” said Tracy Miller, manger of the Cecilton Branch Library. “Many patrons have commented that they are hooked within the first sentence.”

Michele Chynoweth, a writer based in North East, is equally enthusiastic. “He does a lot of research, and his characters and settings are really authentic,” she said. “He just makes us feel we’re right there.”

Healey believes that one reason that the books resonate with readers – besides being gripping stories, well-told – is pride in their ancestry. “It reconnects them to their father or grandfather,” he said, adding that “they like to share their own stories with me, and I’m humbled. They lived it.”

As if he’s not juggling enough already, he’s also contemplating creating a website where fans can share stories and photos of their ancestors’ military achievements.

Healey has lived his whole life in areas near important wartime events. He grew up on a small farm in Howard County, an hour’s drive today from Gettysburg and near Cooksville, the site of an 1863 Civil War skirmish. He recalls hearing stories passed down through the generations about families hiding their horses and livestock in the woods so they would not be confiscated by soldiers in transit.

Chesapeake City, his home for more than 30 years, is a few miles from Head of Elk, famous for the 1777 arrival of 17,000 British troops shipped from New Jersey. With the 250th anniversary of that event in mind, he’s thinking about crafting a novel set in Cecil County during the Revolutionary War.

His research for his novels goes from war college reports to Google Street View, but even so, some readers will nitpick. “You get artistic license, don’t you?” he asked rhetorically.

Behind the scenes

He is a disciplined writer, “slow and steady,” with a goal of writing a thousand words a day, about the length of this profile. When walking, he often dictates a scene or even a chapter. He also exercises by climbing the 27 steps up to his writing studio on the top floor of his 1913 American four square.

His first books were traditionally published, and he switched to self-publishing because it’s more lucrative. Plus, “I really enjoy everything about the process,” which includes hiring graphic artists, editors and beta readers.

“Sharpshooter,” a what-if historical thriller about an attempt to assassinate Union General Ulysses S. Grant., was in 1999 his first published book, although it was probably the fourth he had completed. 

One of this early books was reworked significantly to become “Beach Bodies,” a comic thriller set in coastal Sussex County. In a 2014 News Journal interview, he called the rest “training exercises. They didn’t turn out that well, but that’s OK because I learned from them.”

Healey has learned a lot about writing since he became absorbed in Steele’s novels. He worked in journalism, mostly at the Cecil Whig, until his job was eliminated during the 2009 recession. He taught as an adjunct at Cecil College and now, after earning a master’s in fine arts from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program in 2007, he works full time teaching introductory composition for Purdue Global.

He has also been active in local workshops, nurturing future writers, Chynoweth pointed out.

“I’ve written different things, but a lot of it does focus on history, because our past matters,” Healey said. “Although what I do is really entertainment, in some way I hope that it sparks interest in history and keeps history alive. And I really do believe that it’s kind of my guiding light while I’m working on my books.”