Oshawa senior publishes second novel of 2017

By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express

W.D. Frolick sits in the office of his Oshawa home, surrounded by his words.

The 77-year-old pulls out a booklet containing stock photographs of a wide array of people, ranging from the menacing to the attractive.

While these are simply stock photographs, as an author, they are much more for Frolick.

On every photograph, a corresponding name is written. Frolick explains he uses these images to mold and develop the characters he creates in his writing.

His second novel, Music City Murders, is fresh off the presses. Frolick self-published the book through his company WDF Publishing.

Music City Murders follows two detectives who have been assigned the task of catching a vicious serial killer terrorizing the Nashville music community.

Detective Mike McMahon must also deal with unrelenting pressure and criticism from Jeff Stone, an investigative reporter with The Nashville Star Daily newspaper.

The culture and lifestyle of Nashville is very familiar to Frolick, as he is also a country music songwriter and founder of Frozen North Music, a music publishing company.

Frolick has incorporated a number of elements of his real life into Music City Murders, as family, friends and colleagues influence the names of characters.

For example, lead character Mike McMahon is named after an old friend and neighbour of Frolick’s in Orillia.  The book also includes several references to Frolick’s experiences in the music industry and Frozen North Music.

Music City Murders comes on the heels of Frolick’s first novel, The Cabin – A Murder Mystery, which was released earlier this year.

Although the new novel was only released in the past few weeks, the author says he has received positive feedback thus far.

According to Frolick, in addition to songwriting, he dabbled in short stories and poetry as a youth, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that he considered the idea of writing a full-length novel.

“Last year in November, my wife and I got talking…and I mentioned I wanted to write a novel of some sort, and she challenged me to actually do it,” he previously told The Oshawa Express. “So I thought, OK I’ll give it a shot.”

Frolick says he hopes he can inspire other seniors to try something they’ve always wanted to.

“It’s a new career for me,” he says. “It’s never too late to become passionate about something.”

Music City Murders is available through Amazon. For more information on Frolick and his books, visit wdfpublishing.com.

According to Frolick, he is in the midst of scheduling book-signing events at the Indigo-Chapters locations in Oshawa and Ajax early in the new year.