Local author releases second book, ‘Under the Dogwood Tree’

The stories always seemed to come from unexpected places.

“It really just starts really with a thought. “I call it the ‘What if?’ and then I fill in the blanks,” Lockport resident and author, Kari Wirth explains.

The unexpected is what drove Wirth to pursue a career in writing in the first place and served as the inspiration for her second book, “Under the Dogwood Tree.”

She said the romance suspense story details a female police chief who works in the same department as her ex-husband. As a new love interest enters her life, she must deal with the dangers of the job, along with a mysterious antagonist who is seeking revenge.

“There’s a little bit of that danger along with it. In a field where anything can happen, it just seemed to fit the storyline to have them in law enforcement,” she said.

Prior to writing her second book, Wirth’s unexpected career in writing was sparked during her second year English class at Genesee Community College while she majored in fashion merchandising.

Just like several college students, she was looking forward to getting the class out of the way while working toward her degree.

“I really was kind of dreading it because I didn’t like writing and I didn’t like English. I really had no interest in it at all,” Wirth recalled.

After writing her first research paper for the class, she was surprised that she received an A. As the semester went on and more high marks followed, Wirth becoming increasingly fond of the subject.

“By the end of the semester, I was a little conflicted because I was going for fashion, but I really enjoyed writing. I had no idea what to do to marry these two different areas,” she said.

Wirth subsequently transferred to Buffalo State College. It was at that time she switched her major to journalism to explore the possibility of writing as a career path.

“That one English class really opened my eyes,” she said.

While at Buffalo State, Wirth said she pursued writing news and feature stories and was an intern at the Union-Sun & Journal in 1999.

After graduating with her masters from Ball State, she would work in several different areas of the media, including WIVB-TV and Town Square media. Wirth is currently an executive producer and writer for WDCX-FM in Buffalo.

Throughout her career of writing for various types of media, Wirth said it was the need to fulfill the creative thoughts that she carried around with her. The COVID-19 pandemic gave her the opportunity to sit down and flesh out those thoughts into a full-blown story.

“I just had stories in my head and wanted to get them on paper,” she said.

That resulted in her first fiction book, “Return to Garrison,” which was published in 2020.

Throughout that process, she learned that the elements that go into writing a book differed significantly than news writing.

“Newspaper writing is all about stating the facts. Whereas, writing a book, there’s character development, dialogue, scenes and point of view. It’s really a different animal and something you have to constantly work at,” she said.

In both books she has written so far, Wirth said she has strived to write stories that are emotional and relatable.

“Even though it’s a fiction book, it’s real in the sense that these things happen and people can relate to that,” Wirth said. “It’s simple, real life people dealing with real problems.”

Now with two books under her belt, Wirth said is in the process of stoking up new ideas for a third book that she would like to write in the near future.

“Under the Dogwood Tree” is available online through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and blackrosewriting.com.