Bergfeld Park inspires scene in Tyler resident’s book

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Supernatural science, the history of Louisiana, and Tyler’s Bergfeld Park inspired the story for a Tyler resident’s science fiction novel.

When Walt McKenzie attended high school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, his favorite subject was English. He excelled in poetry writing and short story writing. With the help of teachers who encouraged his interests in literature, McKenzie developed a passion for writing.

At the same time, the Vietnam War was underway. McKenzie felt a pull to volunteer to serve since there had been a scarcity of soldiers. He walked into the Marine Corps office to join for two years in hopes of fighting for his country.

Although he was never selected to go to Vietnam, McKenzie served in the Marine Corps for two years. When he returned, he pursued another passion, music, and started his own band, and began recording records in Nashville. His country music band traveled the road, writing and performing songs together.

After enjoying his time as a musician, McKenzie settled down to raise his family. He entered corporate America and worked for a telecommunications company for 18 years. McKenzie is now retired and has begun exploring his hobbies.

“I just want to do fun stuff, do creative stuff,” McKenzie said, adding the only thing he doesn’t do is art.

So McKenzie began writing more.

His creative venture led to his recently published novel, “The Caster,” and a screenplay.

McKenzie had always been interested in things that stretch the imagination, such as science fiction, which led to the plot of his book.

Since Louisiana, McKenzie’s home state is rich in history, many of the locations in the book are geographically factual, such as Jackson Square, where the Battle of 1812 was fought, and the French Quarter.

The book begins with a child who was raised by his parents in a lower-income area of New Orleans. The father of the child works at the local water company, and his mother stays at home. The parents encourage the child to be creative and to be anything he wants to be.

The child suffers a tragic incident. As a result of the trauma, he blocks out the memory of the incident completely, and wakes up in the foster care system, where the only thing to do is fight to survive. When the child ages out of the system, he injures his head while working as a laborer, and wakes up with a special ability, or possibly a curse, to plant images and experiences into other people’s minds.

Later in the book, Michael, the main character, consults with a person at a voodoo shop. The person says that they’ve heard of people with the same special ability, called “casters.” This inspired the title of the book.

Going down a road of crime and survival, Michael begins to use his special ability for evil. Because his special ability has a limitation, he gets noticed. Detectives see the trend in the crimes and become interested in the man with a black hood and a gun.

Through the series of crimes, detectives conclude that either Michael is using a form of black magic to commit his crimes, or logically, what they are seeing him do to others is not possible. They decide they’re in a race to save the criminal from himself.

In one of the book’s scenes, Michael is at Jackson Square, and a couple is walking in his direction. The woman is shot. To protect a child from seeing what happened, Michael transmits an image to the child’s head to protect him.

The child saw an image of a beautiful beach and was too distracted to see what was happening in front of him. As Michael sees the tragic incident, he instantly remembers a moment he had blocked out of his mind for years.

That is the moment he decides to use his power for good. The book continues to tell the story of how he turns a dark, mystic and unknown power into something positive.

In another scene, Michael is sitting at a park, the setting inspired by Bergfeld Park in Tyler, when he meets a young woman who is at the end of her rope, having experienced multiple failures in life.

With the scene narrating the scenery of Bergfeld Park, with cars passing and people walking by, Michael projects an image to the woman, helping her realize that she has a purpose and that she is important.

McKenzie said he was inspired by Bergfeld Park because his wife works nearby, and the couple has lunch there together every day.

Through writing the novel, McKenzie experienced times where he had writer’s block.

“I’d just put it aside for a week or two, and usually I’d wake up in the middle of the night or something, and think, ‘That’s cool’ and hopefully I’ll remember (that idea) in the morning,” said McKenzie.

McKenzie hopes readers take away the world is unique.

“There are things that we don’t understand and we don’t necessarily have to be afraid of them. You just have to choose how we use them. And secondly, no matter what you’ve done, you can always turn yourself around,” McKenzie said.

Through research for his book, McKenzie found information on methods in which a functional MRI is used to replicate images in a brain. Since he enjoys learning about real science that seems almost supernatural, he aimed to tell an interesting story of supernatural ability, while keeping as much as he could factual and realistic.

McKenzie said he and his editor have sent a screenplay of the novel to a content hub to possibly be picked up to become a movie. The book is told in the third person, and is divided into five parts.

“The Caster” is available on Amazon for purchase at $2.99 on Kindle and $7.99 on paperback. He hopes a publisher picks up his book, and also wants to see the story in theaters or in short films.

“I like what I’ve created. It’s not something that’s cheesy, I didn’t do it halfway. It just makes you proud and when you see it in print, that’s when it hits you,” McKenzie said.