North Carolina Writer Larry Rochelle
from FIFTEEN 501 Magazine
Summer 2010

His inspiration: For Rochelle, who lives in Pittsboro, creative writing began with a satirical poem about his high school's dress code. "My friends got it and passed it around," he says. "They called me the school's poet laureate." Since then, Rochelle has published three award-winning books of poetry in addition to several novels.

His first published work: His first novel, "Dance with the Pony," was published by Zumaya Publications in 2001. Set in Cincinnati, it was the first of his Palmer Morel series.

His latest creation: "Murder on 15-501," the tenth book in the Palmer Morel series, was published last year. In the book, Morel lives in fictional Deerington Village, a new, wild community near Fearrington Village. "The rivalry between the two villages leads to anger, deceit and death," he says. His next thriller, set to publish next year, is set in Savannah.

Local influence: Two of Rochelle's books use the Triangle as settings - referencing everything from the American Tobacco Campus to the Durham Athletic Park - while "Burnt Coffee" is a poetic novel about violence in a love triangle set in Chapel Hill.
    

Published in 2009: Murder on 15/501. PALMER MOREL MYSTERY #10
Excerpt:
MURDER ON 15/501
1
Nothing seemed wrong. Nothing out of place. But Palmer Morel, the big blond tennis pro, feeling his forty-one years today, his groin still hurting from a recent clay court injury, moved gingerly, cautiously, and pushed against the slightly-open, wooden door to Sara Jensen’s pottery shop, “The Empty Gator.”
The red door was stuck. Morel pushed again, getting his 220 pound, six foot two frame a bit lower to the warped gray floor. He grunted, shoving hard now, the door frame groaning, but not moving.
Nothing.
“Anybody here?” he shouted again into the darkness.
Retreating down the gravel driveway, his shoes crunching loudly, he opened the hatchback to his little Scion XB, rummaging through his foot locker, picking up a flashlight.
He slammed the hatch down. He checked the light. The batteries were low with just enough yellow light to see inside the cabin.
A faded-white curtain blocked the dirty window panes looking out on the front porch and the meager door opening offered no view inside at all.
Off the porch now, Morel followed a path around back, a dog somewhere in the woods starting to bark.
What was he doing? It was after eleven, his girl, Cat Gallaher, was waiting for him back at the condo, and he’d left his cell phone at the tennis club.
Why not just call Jensen tomorrow morning? He’d still have time to pick up the pottery present in time for Cat’s birthday party tomorrow night.
But when he flashed the light on the old backdoor, he saw it was off its hinges, angling backwards into the small kitchen.
And only then he felt, rather than observed, the hot fire from Jensen’s kiln out near the line of pine trees some hundred feet away.
She must be working late, Morel figured, ignoring the broken door for a moment and walking slowly down the path toward the kiln.

1. 2007 Nelson Poetry Book Award: Larry Rochelle, District 2 Home Schooled Judge’s statement : The strongest impressions through Larry Rochelle’s Home Schooled are those of a writer connected to place. That awareness of being from a place, that sense of connectedness navigates through a landscape of hardware stores, tornados, or an old Kansas where sharks died near Salina. His observations are not Emerson’s floating “dissociated eyeballs” but an invitation to shared insight and to vistas cleared of distractions. Here can be found the whispering of people loved, hated or merely being witness to pancake syrup dripping off/ the edge of a platter. Impressions of experience remain like footprints in cement, or evoke smothered passions and resentments. Tales of families are found as in “Off Old Osawatomie Road,” where father and son contend within the breath of alcohol-impaired lives. Rochelle is a writer who delights in words and commands the vocabulary to construct concrete, tactile images, and to transform words and details into specificity: a scud of puffballs; or purple thistles/ rock gently spilling seeds into culverts. Metaphors can be found as well, such as in “Gestation” with its second stanza: your motives transparent, what/ did you expect, some/ twirling universe/ topped with morning glories? And that double entendre can be seen blooming inside those ‘morning glories.’ Words well done and delivered! 2007 Judge: David Leo Tangeman is a native Kansan. His volume of poetry and prose, Gathering Reunion, was winner of The J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award in 1996. Another collection of poetry, The Black Cow, was privately published. His career as an educator spans decades and includes high school students, severely multiply handicapped students, college students, and students with behavior disorders. He has also acted over the years in Topeka theaters, most recently performing with The Karen Hastings Players’ production of T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral. He has presented many programs at District 1 meetings.