About Troy

Troy began writing The Weight of a Second more than thirty years ago, after losing a job and looking for something to occupy his time. He started in WordPerfect for DOS, researching at local libraries and, later, through the growing internet.

Kentucky became the setting through an unlikely bit of research: a dart thrown blindly at a wall map of the United States. Troy had never visited the state. What began as a chance selection eventually led to research trips to Kentucky, where he explored and photographed places that helped him imagine the world of the novel.

For many years, Troy served as a youth leader, taking boys on mountain hikes and river adventures. He hoped they would discover the same wonder he had felt growing up, build friendships, and return with memories that would last a lifetime. Reflection and prayer were part of those experiences, many of which they still talk about today.

Some of those memories found their way into the novel. A spring Troy explored as a teenager and a remote cabin he unexpectedly discovered during a trip on Idaho’s Salmon River helped inspire places in the story. The adventures also brought moments of real danger—experiences he has never forgotten.

The manuscript stayed with him through the years. Education, career, and raising a family often came first, but he returned to the story whenever he could—during getaways in the Utah mountains and in hotel rooms on business trips. The book went through professional editing and many revisions along the way.

More recently, AI tools helped him regain momentum, offering editorial feedback and helping generate and revise passages as he worked toward completing the manuscript. Troy selected and edited the resulting work and made the final creative decisions.

The Weight of a Second is his debut novel, more than thirty years in the making.