Heights' DeSessa Authors First Novel

Mike DeSessa has taken his passion for writing and turned it into a published novel.

The Hasbrouck Heights native just recently had his first book, “Chapter One – The Villain” published and is already working on the second part in what will be a five part series.

DeSessa started writing for fun back in college when he took a few writing courses to break up the monotonousness of the businesses courses he was taking. He’d write short stories and poems and it’s something he’s continued to do for fun.

A few years back he made a bucket list and set out to cross writing his first novel off his list. As he was writing the book the only goal he had was to finish but once it was done he set out to see if he could get it published. He’s happy to say that the first  publisher he reached out to took interest and soon thereafter was able to see his work become a finished product.

He thought it’d be interested to tell a story the eyes of the “bad guy” instead of the hero’s perspective and from there the idea for his book was born. As he was halfway through writing this first book he decided to expand the story further telling the story of other characters in different books.

The next book will be “Chapter Two – The Hero” and as the series continues, readers will learn more about each characters back story as the story continues to develop, he explains.

Other than his wife and one or two people who took part in helping him with the art and editing, he didn’t tell many people about his writing project. When the book came out, it took many by surprise, DeSessa says. The publishing company let him design the cover so he brought in an artist friend Justin DeCarlo to do the artwork.

Although he loves what he does for a living, he enjoys exploring his creative side was well. He says writing at night is a nice balance to work with numbers all day as an analyst. 

With one novel now under his belt, DeSessa hopes each one that follows with serve as a foundation to grow and become a better writer. He hopes that maybe this is the start of something bigger.

Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Alana Quartuccio at alana.quartuccio@patch.com, or follow Hasbrouck Heights Patch on Facebook or Twitter. For news straight to your inbox sign up for the daily newsletter.