"Ian Rupe’s Unsung Heroes really drew me in once I reached the dialogue. It was the cover that first caught my attention. A real 'Oooh, shiny!' moment. The story begins with a mysterious man named Tribe who is seeking employment at a school for troubled boys. However, Tribe and the school itself are far more than they first appear. The school houses an ancient and corrupting darkness and Tribe has come to fight this darkness. To this end, he has sought out a young woman named Teagan to help him. Teagan is a sensitive person, an empath in the extreme. She works to heal violence and the scars it leaves behind, yet the work and the sheer weight of violence and hatred in the world leave their own wounds on Teagan's soul. Like Tribe, there is a bit more to Teagan than meets the eye, and there is steel beneath the gentleness. Together, Tribe and Teagan work against the threatening darkness, facing their fair amount of personal and interpersonal challenges.
I loved the dialogue and the interplay between the characters. Once you get into the meat of the story, the character and world building really take off. Teagan’s journey of development is a great one. I also really loved the chapter titles. Very creative! Unsung Heroes is a good beginning to what seems to be a promising series. As a first novel, there is certainly room to grow. I look forward to seeing Rupe grow as a writer, and will certainly be on the lookout for the next in this series. Overall, the story was marvellous."
While enjoying my almond croissant at the Bun Appetit Bakery last week, I was privileged to meet Ian W.V. Rupe, who is not only an alumnus of Groton High School’s class of 1999, but also a recently published author. The story behind Rupe’s inspiration to write is poignant and heart-stirring.
Many may remember his late wife, Courtnie Rupe, who died in January of 2015 after a valiant fight against the chronic pain caused from the rare and debilitating disease reflex sympathetic dystrophy. I had written about her in this column the previous November, as our Groton community rallied support for a benefit that was held to raise funds to obtain a special prosthetic device for her recently amputated leg. Her sudden decline in health and subsequent death was devastating for Rupe and their two young children.
Now, almost a year later, Ian Rupe shared the story with me of how he ultimately turned his sorrow into a creative way to honor Courtnie and others who have meant something to him throughout his life.
Born and raised on Sykes Street in Groton, Rupe left immediately after his graduation to pursue his dreams and education at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where he earned his bachelor's degree in multimedia and science in 2002. He then returned to his roots in Groton with the hope of starting up a major animation studio, but with all the other things in life clamoring for his attention, he instead ended up working as a teaching assistant at George Junior Republic, where he remained for nine years before Courtnie’s disease, and raising their two children began to require most of his time.
For six years, Rupe spent what he estimates as thousands of hours in various hospitals by Courtnie’s side, as she fought off one medical mystery after another until the unfortunate end.
“What she didn’t know was what I did to pass the time as she slept," Rupe said. "At first, it was reading. Soon, I was killing three books a week. Then I wrote little stories and designed characters on any piece of paper I could find. I kept all those notes to hopefully show my kids one day when they grew up. Shortly after Courtnie received her prosthetic leg, we found out that she needed a very special one specific for her condition. It cost over $30,000! So in secret, I started writing a book that I was going to surprise her with right around now, and we were going to go get that leg.”
As is often the case when someone loses a spouse, particularly in such a tragic way, Rupe felt that a big part of him had also died; so for a while, he struggled a great deal, feeling physically and mentally broken by his adversity. But after running the gamut of emotions, he made a choice to become a new person, and to be the parent his children needed him to be.
“I unburied all those notes and stories and wrote a little more every day," he said. "It wasn’t long at all before I was typing the last few characters on my fully edited final copy. I even designed the cover myself. I had written every single bit of my book to mean something to me, and dedicated it to Courtnie,” Rupe said. “The title of my book, 'Unsung Heroes,' is actually a play on those unsung heroes I have met throughout my life, like the people at George Junior Republic UFSD. They will always be my unsung heroes, as they were a huge inspiration to me. I even used Ithaca as a final battleground for my characters.”
In essence, Rupe considers his book “Unsung Heroes Chronicle I: The First Paragon” to be his creative interpretation of everything he has dealt with turned into an action-packed science fiction book.
The book was released Dec. 19 in e-book and paperback formats, and is available at Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, and numerous other sources. For more information, visit Rupe’s website at ianwvrupe.com.