By Katherine Fawcett
Photos by John Johnston
As “wing commander” for the test flight of a speed-of-light spacecraft, Canadian astronaut Scott Reid is set to become part of the greatest human accomplishment known to mankind. Despite internal jealousies and personal politics, take-off is successful and Mission Control is jubilant. That is, until Reid’s SOLT-X1 enters the Hoodoo Sea, formerly known as the Bermuda Triangle, where everything changes.
Hoodoo Sea, a gripping new science fiction novel by Rolf Hitzer, is a tale of space travel, terror, alternate realities and haunting visions. It was written at a small desk in a 10 X 10 “cubby” in Hitzer’s basement, and reflects years of discipline, creativity and vision.
Nothing in the book hints that its author has a full-time “day job” as one of Winnipeg’s most well-known real estate professionals. Hitzer is broker/owner of the busy Century 21 Carrie.com. He got his start as a scribe preparing training manuals and website content for the company.
Hitzer was inspired by a Discovery Channel program on anti-gravity almost a decade ago. He started writing, not with the intention of becoming a published author, but simply to cross “writing a novel” off his personal to-do list.
“I wanted to finish it as a keepsake for the kids,” the poker-playing fisherman says.
Although he made notes and an outline, much of the plot simply flowed, unplanned. “I had no idea I was going to write sci-fi. There were days I couldn’t keep up with my own thoughts, and days when I was just staring at a blank page. But the story took on its own life, that’s when the flow happened.”
His days were filled with realty-related business obligations – Hitzer manages a staff of 90 people in two locations. During the evenings, he’d make the time to write. “I was very disciplined in terms of writing. Five days a week, for one to three hours per day. I’d start at seven, eight, nine at night. It was a lot of long days. I’m very full-on, very full-time.”
Amazingly, the entire 150,000 word novel was written longhand, on pads of legal paper. “Yeah, I wrote it all by hand. Penned the entire manuscript. I started out with typing, but I’m a two-fingered typist and it was just not fast enough. I got too frustrated.” The entire project took about 20 pads of paper. “Each (pad) was a little victory when it was done.”
The novel took two years from conception to completion. Once Hitzer had written the last word, he handed the stacks of paper to his wife, Irma. She was immediately drawn in and read the Hoodoo Sea manuscript in a day.
“She said, ‘I can’t believe you wrote this. You’re an idiot! You’ve got to send this out!’” Hitzer says. As someone who admits he skipped school as much as he could get away with when he was younger and never read a book as a teenager, Hitzer was hesitant. But, trusting his wife’s judgment, he decided he had nothing to lose and began looking for an agent.
Why not simply send the manuscript straight to a publisher, and skip the addition step – and expense – of a middleman?
“Being an agent myself made me aware that they know the inner circle. They know the contacts. They know what to look out for. Besides, I’ve got a full-time job.”
Irma typed up the novel and together they started searching for the right person to represent him. The decision turned out to be a wise one. Although it took several years, the Calgary agency that picked him up eventually found an American publisher willing to take a risk on a first-time novelist with a fast-paced story to tell. The publisher is based in Florida, and felt that the Cape Canaveral angle to the story would be popular in the Southern U.S.
Hitzer is currently working on a second novel. It’s a murder-mystery set in the Canadian Shield and based on poachers who kill black bears for their gall bladders on the black market.
Although neither Hoodoo Sea nor his current project has any element of real estate in it, the industry has been part of Hitzer’s life for over two decades. He’s been with Century 21 since 1996. He was awarded the Franchisee of the Year Award in 1999, and under his leadership, Century 21 Carrie.com has achieved Centurion Office status 10 times and Double Centurion Office status seven times.
Hitzer says he finds the stimulation of the real estate sales environment invigorating, but he gets a different kind of buzz from writing. “I enjoy seeing where the story’s going. I’d go to bed and think about it.”
Hitzer has no plans to retreat from his real estate career. “It scares me to think of becoming a full-time writer. I don’t know if I’m good enough, honestly. When I’m ready to hang up the shingle, I’ll do more writing. But at 50 years old? To give up real estate?”
He pauses and cautiously adds: “Mind you, if it turns into a blockbuster…”
