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Date: 12/30/2021
EAST LONGMEADOW – Author and East Longmeadow resident Gerry FitzGerald released his second novel, “The Last Mountain,” an adventure story about three female mountain climbers competing to be the first woman to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter mountains. The three expeditions converge on K2, the world’s most difficult and lethal mountain, the final challenge in this mountaineering sport. Through this quest, readers will discover each woman’s story of tragedy, courage, resilience and personal triumph.
“A novel should be entertaining,” said FitzGerald. “I want readers to be thrilled and at certain times be at the edge of their seat, but my overall goal is to have the readers become interested in the characters and care about what happens to them, otherwise, no one would care about what happens at the end.”
FitzGerald was born and raised in Springfield. He is a graduate of the School of Business at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where he majored in advertising. After that, FitzGerald moved back to Springfield where opened his own advertising agency FitzGerald and Robbins, Inc., then FitzGerald & Mastroianni Advertising – writing radio and television advertising, newspapers and brochures.
After 35 years in the advertising field, Fitzgerald retired in 2017. He now lives in East Longmeadow with his wife Robin and is a member of the adjunct faculty at Western New England University in Springfield.
“My literary writing really grew from the advertising business, which means the writer needs to stay out of the copy,” FitzGerald replied. “It also means that you need to get to the point, without wasting words. When you’re a copywriter, you develop a certain style of writing and a lot of people told me that they’ve really enjoyed the style of writing in my books. I write books like I write advertising, which is to take the author out of the equation, so the reader is invested in the story and not the creator.”
In 2009, FitzGerald published his first novel, “The Pie Man,” and was later republished by Henry Holt and Company and re-titled “Redemption Mountain.” The inspiration behind his latest book, “The Last Mountain” came to FitzGerald years ago when he began reading books about mountain climbing and high-altitude mountaineers. He was fascinated by the whole subject of mountain climbing and the challenge of summiting the world’s 14, 8,000-meter peaks, and was intrigued by the fact that no women climbers, at that time, had climbed all 14.
“I always thought that would be a good basis for a novel,” said FitzGerald. “Female mountain climbers striving to be the first to climb all 14 of the 8,000-meter mountain and that’s exactly how the book came about. I wanted to write about strong independent women and their tremendous accomplishment in the mountain climbing business.”
“The Last Mountain” is available at Booklocker.com/12076; Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com. For more information email FitzGerald at Gffitz1@gmail.com or call 495-2776.