Back in November 2023, we covered local writer and musician Adam Snyder who was publishing his novel, Kingston 76, to his Substack page, with each chapter coming out incrementally. Fast forward a year (and a few weeks) and Snyder was spotted recently at the Made in Kingston expo — selling paperback versions of his book.

Published under the curiously named “Wheelie Press,” which Snyder coined as his attempt at an “artist-run publishing company,” Kingston 76 was read and enjoyed by Kingston Wire and we had a chance to speak to Snyder in anticipation for his upcoming book launch at Rough Draft on Tuesday, Jan. 7 at 6 p.m.

The novel chronicles the life of 10-year-old Timothy Miller as he transforms from a baseball-playing elementary school kid into a fully-fledged detective trying to solve a precarious — and potentially life-threatening — mystery that impends the city around him. This coming-of-age novel takes the reader back to what life was like during the mid-1970s for a child quickly learning the harsh realities of life. We see directly the socioeconomic disparities in his community which astutely reflect Kingston’s makeup during this era, as well as the struggles and triumphs of Timothy maneuvering his mother’s new relationship with a woman after his father left. Also depicted are Timothy’s deep passion and battle for justice and his quirky yet relatable attempts at being seen as a young man when he has yet to reach puberty.

“It’s definitely a reflection of my own childhood,” Snyder said about the novel, “even though it takes some twists that weren’t exactly the way my childhood happened. Some of his adventures are things that happened but didn’t happen in the concise ways [I wrote them] but rather because me and my friends did knucklehead things.”

Snyder also commented that “even though Timothy is going through challenges, in my mind the sun is shining in most of the book.” He said he couldn’t have written his book a few decades ago, when it would have been less acceptable to write about certain topics such as a gay relationship.

“Thankfully our culture has evolved to the point that I felt not only could I tell this story and have it find a friendly audience, but I actually wanted to remind people that the ’70s were a very challenging time for people with different kinds of relationship,” he said. “I’m trying to remind people that our current society is resting on other people’s shoulders that took chances earlier on when it wasn’t easy to take chances.”

Kingston-based readers of the novel can relish in its references of real street names, classic businesses like Terri’s Deli, and even a clever play on the bygone Kingston industrial giant, which Snyder refers to as “IPM,” and is the source of much of the mystery that transpires in the story. But, just like any great novel, there is no real drawback to reading this as a non-Kingston resident or previous resident; it stands alone reflecting on the times of this city during its heyday without appropriating the “Kingston experience,” or creating a bubble around the setting that doesn’t let those not “in the know” in.

There are also, of course, the occasional fictionalizations of places that never existed in Kingston, such as a bar where a certain brutal scene takes place and a storage unit off of Greenkill Avenue.

The purpose of keeping the locale true to the times was, according to Snyder, “to broadcast Kingston to a broader world. It’s a cool enough place that people would like to know about it,” he said, also noting that he’s always enjoyed authors who write specifically about places they live or have lived.

As Snyder reflects on his writing process and what it was like to publish this novel on his own dime, he noted that the whole process, from Substack to print, was “done by the seat of my pants,” which, he said, “was not necessarily a good business model, but it’s better than not doing anything. I’m learning as I go.”

The book, Snyder said, was always meant to be in print, but after difficulties getting it published, he took a chance with the online platform Substack which allowed him to serialize his book. “The book reads quickly,” Snyder said, “enough that some readers would want to keep going. I like to leave cliffhangers, but it wasn’t my intention that people would have to wait [for each new chapter].”

Thus, getting Kingston 76 in print seemed like a no-brainer, and with the help of his wife Jen, who designed the book’s cover, and his cousin Jason, who helped design the rest of the book, the reality seemed much more achievable. Snyder also thanks Rough Draft, Kingston Barnes and Noble and new store Curious in Uptown for all carrying his book on their shelves already.

We also caught wind that there is a sequel to Kingston 76 in the works, though it’s still in the brainstorming stage. “How about Kingston 77?” was Snyder’s initial response, adding, “My thought was the '80s, jumping ahead to another decade where Timothy would be older and Charles [his friend in the novel] would be coming back from college.”

Currently, Snyder is working on another novel, which he’s putting up on his Substack as he’s writing it, as opposed to Kingston 76, which had already been completed before he published it incrementally online. Ghost Tour is the working title, which Snyder describes as “A story about a band that goes out on tour in ’98 and paranormal stuff happens. I was inspired because I was in a band called Mercury Rev and over the summer I got a notification that it’s been 25 years since we toured with R.E.M. … I thought to myself, ‘I want to write a tour novel.’"

Snyder is currently 12 chapters in, and the novel can be read through his Substack page here: https://adamsnyder.substack.com/.

In the meantime, catch Snyder at his upcoming book release at Rough Draft, where he said he will read excerpts from his book along with playing some songs he wrote a few years back that were a part of an album he released that has Kingston stories in it. There will also be a conversation between Snyder and Rough Draft’s manager, Drew, where they will talk about the book. Finally, Snyder is starting a show on Radio Kingston, which will start the following day on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 11 p.m., where Snyder will once again be reading from his book and playing songs from the ’70s.