Hinckley author welcomes buzzards into historical fiction piece

by Emily Canning-Dean

Long before he sat down to pen his first fictional novel, Ernest Zore found inspiration while walking along Hinckley Lake.

“Back in 2015 or 2016, I would walk around Hinckley Lake pretty much every day,” said Zore, who has lived in the township for 20 years. “And when you are out walking by yourself, you kind of allow your mind to wander. I would often go on the less traveled portion of the path and I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be funny if I found something on my walk?’”

A modern day character finding a strange item on a walk is exactly how Zore’s novel, “Silver Light and Red: The Legend of the Hinckley Buzzards,” begins.

“It starts with me walking around the lake and finding this stone box and taking it home,” Zore said. “I open it up and find these pages, kind of a dead sea scroll type thing. Basically, I find this transcript from 1,000 years ago and the story is the transcript and then chapter one begins.”

The story revolves around Silver Light, a 15-year-old member of the Aloona Nation who lives in a settlement known as the City of the Circle Moon.

“Silver Light and Red are best buddies and Silver Light has this ability to communicate with animals in a way that normal people don’t,” Zore said. “He is held in high favor with the tribal chief, but not with the warrior captain who considers him an intrusion.”

Silver Light’s parents are part of a trading party that travels south to trade goods with another group, but the party never returns and the settlement learns there was a massacre. The warrior captain forms a party to go avenge their people, but Silver Light isn’t chosen to be a part of the party so he and Red set out on their own.

“On their way down south, they meet these three bandits who were originally just supposed to be a diversion, but these guys ended up being so funny and I had such a good time writing about them,” he said.

While the novel takes the main characters to different parts of North America, the area of Hinckley is very much present and the buzzards come into play near the book’s end indicating a possible reason that buzzards come to roost in Hinckley year after year.

“It was really kind of a blessing the way the plot came together pieces at a time,” Zore said. “It seemed the plot would just move one way or another.”

Zore is currently working on a second book that serves as a sequel to “Silver Light and Red.” The first book was released back in March and he said he hopes to have it ready for release by the end of the year.

“I would like to make it a series with multiple books, but I’m 73 so I’m not sure how many books I have in me,” he said.

With degrees in both law and science, Zore has written books before, but this is his first foray into fiction. He has been a storyteller his entire life though.

“I remember when I was a teenager and I would write little plays and the kids in the neighborhood would get together and all read their individual parts into a tape recorder and we would make these little skits,” he said.

“Silver Light and Red: The Legend of the Hinckley Buzzards” is available for purchase on Amazon.com. ∞