A trip to the Houston Zoo over 14 years ago led Bill Broun to publish his first novel. \u201cNight of the Animals,\u201d which will be on sale beginning July 5, follows a homeless man named Cuthbert Handley who, over the course of the night, works to release the animals of the London Zoo.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first spark for a tale about a mentally ill old man\u2019s interaction with zoo animals came from a very close friendship with a schizophrenic man whom I once spotted \u2018talking\u2019 to a troop of howler monkeys during our visit to the Houston Zoo,\u201d Broun said.<\/p>\n
After over a decade of writing and research, Broun\u2019s story is set to hit the shelves this summer. Landing on both the Wall Street Journal\u2019s anticipated books list and the Huffington Post\u2019s summer reading list, the East Stroudsburg University associate professor of English is eager to share his novel with readers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels super exciting and I am really looking forward to the next step,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNight of the Animals\u201d explores the boundaries of reality, the ghosts of love and trauma, and the power of redemption, while vividly capturing the emotional, physical, and spiritual bonds between humans and animals.<\/p>\n
Broun admits that writing the novel was challenging at times. Teaching full time at the university, he spent most of his vacations and holiday breaks with his fingers on his keyboard in front of the computer screen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took it very seriously and learned that if you work really hard and focus, you can accomplish just about anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Broun is often inspired by the students in his classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see students juggling full-time jobs while pursuing a degree, it\u2019s hard to feel sorry for yourself when they are doing so much work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Before his teaching career at ESU, Broun worked as a journalist in both the United Sates and the United Kingdom. In 2002, he was appointed a resident fellow at Yale University.
\nBroun is grateful to be spending his life with two of his greatest passions: writing and teaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been encouraged at ESU through this whole process,\u201d he said. \u201cThe university is incredibly supportive of me being a writer and a very busy teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n