Jim Jacobs decided he wanted to a write a novel before he left this earth, and nearly 30 years after he started the book is done.
The retired Galesburg teacher says that in 1974 he wrote a teacher’s guide for Matin Litvin’s Voices of the Prairie Land.
“I guess I was kind of an author,” Jacobs says. “But really, this is my first real venture into writing a novel.”
“No Ordinary Season” is set to be released early next year.
His inspiration came from his daughter running cross country in 1986, a year when Galesburg High School won the conference championship.
That inspired him to write a story about a young female runner.
At some point Jacobs realized that this was more than just a sports novel.
“It was also a novel about race and about class and about standing up for what is right,” Jacobs says.
The story is about a young girl who lives in a fictional Indiana town who believes she’s mediocre, but shows an aptitude for cross country running.
From her point of view, the novel delves into themes of tolerance, race, class and xenophobia.
Jacobs says he sees sports as a metaphor for life, in that to get something accomplished cooperation and collaboration are needed.
Jacobs will be discussing his work on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Galesburg Public Library.
“No Ordinary Season” won’t be released until after the new year but Jacobs will be taking pre-orders at the events.
