Farmer, speaker, writer releasing first novel

INDUSTRY – A local-area man is expanding a wide range of disciplines this Thursday, with an introductory event for his first work of fiction.

William Bonsall, perhaps best known locally as the director of the Scatterseed Project and as a farmer practicing sustainable agriculture, will be at Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers on August 26 at 7 p.m. He will be reading from Through the Eyes of a Stranger, the first book in a series titled “Yaro Tales.”

Set 500 years in the future, after the apocalyptic “Calamitous Times,” the book focuses on a society known as Esperia, which has developed as a community based around sustainable practices. The main character, Yaro, arrives from Anagaia, an ambitious civilization seeking control the continent, and acts as a guide of Esperia. Readers have pointed to the detail in the story, which paints a vivid picture of sustainable life in Esperia, from barter systems to the operation of windmills.

Bonsall is no stranger to the book’s central themes. His farm operates with as little irreclaimable or wasted energy as possible, and Bonsall has written several articles and given lectures on sustainable practices. The Scatterseed Project, of which he is the director, seeks to preserve genetic variability in agriculture by maintaining samples of seeds.

Bonsall’s Esperia is labeled by many readers as a sort of paradise, or utopia, but that isn’t what he sees as a central theme of the story. Utopias, Bonsall notes, are perfect and generally unchanging. Instead, Esperia is held up as a model of a sustainable existence, where issues arise but are dealt with through the society’s ability to overcome problems.

“A sustainable society can make all sorts of mistakes, and survive,” Bonsall said. “It has time on its side.”

While Bonsall sees the setting of the book as the important part, he believes the storyline will appeal to a variety of readers. He’s already working on a second book, a sequel, and has plans for a third as well.

“I don’t really see myself as a writer who farms,” Bonsall said. “I see myself as a farmer who writes.”

Copies of the Yaro Tales Book 1: Through the Eyes of a Stranger will be available at DDG Booksellers.