To say Berlin resident Jeff Smith is a busy guy is something of an understatement.
Originally from Farmington, New Mexico, the 45-year-old has a new book coming out this month. He’s also developing several others, acting in a new play, helping to raise his 7-year-old daughter, Miralena, and pitching in at Salt Water Media in Berlin.
Smith started writing when he was 14, then penning, as he describes it, “crappy little short stories that a 14-year-old would want to write.”
Three decades later, he’s graduated to headier stuff.
“I really started dedicating a lot more time to it when I became a stay-at-home parent and could actually work almost full time on it,” he said. “That’s when I discovered that I enjoyed writing historical fiction, so that’s mostly what I do now.”
Smith’s first published work, “Mesabi Pioneers,” told the true story of a 19th-century team of American businessmen and European immigrants on the hunt for iron ore in northern Minnesota.
His latest, “Mona Lisa Missing,” will be released this month through Zoozil, a mobile-based publishing platform aimed at younger readers.
“It is a book for sort of middle-grade kids – fifth and sixth graders – that is about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. It’s a little-known fact of history, but if it hadn’t happened, no one would know that the Mona Lisa even existed,” Smith said.
Smith said Zoozil intrigued him because the publisher focuses on uncovering “intriguing bits of history” that is aimed a young audience and delivered in a way that makes sense to modern, tech-savvy kids.
“It gives kids the power to explore history from an alternative-facts viewpoint,” he said. “The idea is that kids can change the story – the stories are told with multiple endings, and throughout there are choices that the readers can make and sort of change history.
“In my story’s case, rather than steal the Mona Lisa, the thief could’ve stolen a different painting and the alternative history then would be how that would’ve changed history,” Smith continued. “If that happened, it would’ve been that the Mona Lisa would remain an obscure, small painting by an obscure Italian guy who really didn’t paint very much – and no one would know it existed.”
The book will be available soon through www.zoozil.com and can be read online or on mobile devices.
Smith also recently helped Salt Water Media, after an accident in Ocean City last year seriously injured one of the owners, Patty Gregorio.
He met Gregorio and Salt Water co-owner Stephanie Fowler during a writing festival and later appeared as a guest author on Fowler’s “So, What’s Your Story?” podcast.
Last summer, after a motorist struck Gregorio and Fowler while they were crossing Coastal Highway, he offered to fill in as a repair technician.
While Salt Water primarily focuses on printing books and offering services to writers, it doubles as a certified Apple repair and retail store.
“Before I was a stay-at-home father, I worked at a university in New York City for 11 years,” Smith said. “One of the things I did there was serve as the onsite Mac technician. I installed all the computers they had and I did the repairs, and I really enjoyed that.”
He earned various certifications during that period and would later become licensed as an iCracked technician, specializing in mobile-device repairs.
“When Patty had her accident, I came in here one day and said, ‘Look, you must need help and I can repair phones – let me do something to help,’” Smith said. “Steph said ‘yes’ and just started throwing phones at me.”
“If it had not been for [“Ape” author] Ben Beck and Jeff Smith, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through September and October,” Fowler said. “They were literally life savers.”
When Gregorio was well enough to return to work, everyone decided Smith would stay on. Heading into the busy summer season, the expectation is shop will be able to take on even more work.
“Last July, some days I had seven or eight phones that would come in during a day, so I’m hoping that this year we will be able to repeat that and Jeff will be able to help,” Gregorio said. “Maybe we can do 16 a day.”
Along with raising his daughter, writing historical fiction books for adults and children and helping a local business, Smith is writing a new musical based on the King Arthur legend.
“The take that I have is slightly different – King Arthur is sort of a bad guy more than a good guy,” Smith said. “Also, Lancelot is black and gay.”
Last year, Smith made his acting debut in “1776: The Musical” and “Breathing Under Dirt.”
From April 20-23, he can be seen in a Lower Shore Performing Arts Company production of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” at Washington High School in Princess Anne.
Signed copies of “Mesabi Pioneers” are available at Salt Water Media, on 29 Broad Street in Berlin. For more information, visit www.saltwatermedia.com.
Originally from Farmington, New Mexico, the 45-year-old has a new book coming out this month. He’s also developing several others, acting in a new play, helping to raise his 7-year-old daughter, Miralena, and pitching in at Salt Water Media in Berlin.
Smith started writing when he was 14, then penning, as he describes it, “crappy little short stories that a 14-year-old would want to write.”
Three decades later, he’s graduated to headier stuff.
“I really started dedicating a lot more time to it when I became a stay-at-home parent and could actually work almost full time on it,” he said. “That’s when I discovered that I enjoyed writing historical fiction, so that’s mostly what I do now.”
Smith’s first published work, “Mesabi Pioneers,” told the true story of a 19th-century team of American businessmen and European immigrants on the hunt for iron ore in northern Minnesota.
His latest, “Mona Lisa Missing,” will be released this month through Zoozil, a mobile-based publishing platform aimed at younger readers.
“It is a book for sort of middle-grade kids – fifth and sixth graders – that is about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. It’s a little-known fact of history, but if it hadn’t happened, no one would know that the Mona Lisa even existed,” Smith said.
Smith said Zoozil intrigued him because the publisher focuses on uncovering “intriguing bits of history” that is aimed a young audience and delivered in a way that makes sense to modern, tech-savvy kids.
“It gives kids the power to explore history from an alternative-facts viewpoint,” he said. “The idea is that kids can change the story – the stories are told with multiple endings, and throughout there are choices that the readers can make and sort of change history.
“In my story’s case, rather than steal the Mona Lisa, the thief could’ve stolen a different painting and the alternative history then would be how that would’ve changed history,” Smith continued. “If that happened, it would’ve been that the Mona Lisa would remain an obscure, small painting by an obscure Italian guy who really didn’t paint very much – and no one would know it existed.”
The book will be available soon through www.zoozil.com and can be read online or on mobile devices.
Smith also recently helped Salt Water Media, after an accident in Ocean City last year seriously injured one of the owners, Patty Gregorio.
He met Gregorio and Salt Water co-owner Stephanie Fowler during a writing festival and later appeared as a guest author on Fowler’s “So, What’s Your Story?” podcast.
Last summer, after a motorist struck Gregorio and Fowler while they were crossing Coastal Highway, he offered to fill in as a repair technician.
While Salt Water primarily focuses on printing books and offering services to writers, it doubles as a certified Apple repair and retail store.
“Before I was a stay-at-home father, I worked at a university in New York City for 11 years,” Smith said. “One of the things I did there was serve as the onsite Mac technician. I installed all the computers they had and I did the repairs, and I really enjoyed that.”
He earned various certifications during that period and would later become licensed as an iCracked technician, specializing in mobile-device repairs.
“When Patty had her accident, I came in here one day and said, ‘Look, you must need help and I can repair phones – let me do something to help,’” Smith said. “Steph said ‘yes’ and just started throwing phones at me.”
“If it had not been for [“Ape” author] Ben Beck and Jeff Smith, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through September and October,” Fowler said. “They were literally life savers.”
When Gregorio was well enough to return to work, everyone decided Smith would stay on. Heading into the busy summer season, the expectation is shop will be able to take on even more work.
“Last July, some days I had seven or eight phones that would come in during a day, so I’m hoping that this year we will be able to repeat that and Jeff will be able to help,” Gregorio said. “Maybe we can do 16 a day.”
Along with raising his daughter, writing historical fiction books for adults and children and helping a local business, Smith is writing a new musical based on the King Arthur legend.
“The take that I have is slightly different – King Arthur is sort of a bad guy more than a good guy,” Smith said. “Also, Lancelot is black and gay.”
Last year, Smith made his acting debut in “1776: The Musical” and “Breathing Under Dirt.”
From April 20-23, he can be seen in a Lower Shore Performing Arts Company production of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” at Washington High School in Princess Anne.
Signed copies of “Mesabi Pioneers” are available at Salt Water Media, on 29 Broad Street in Berlin. For more information, visit www.saltwatermedia.com.