Reading leads to writing books

Larry Trapp served in Vietnam as an air traffic controller, and during breaks he had time to think. He thought about his high school years and how he enjoyed classes at Bakersfield High School. However, he admitted that he just got by in many of his classes.

He did not take advantage of all that was available to him. He decided to make up for that wasted time and vowed to read more. When he was home on leave, he bought a big stack of books, which he took back to Vietnam. In his words, he became a “book junkie,” reading in every spare moment.

After his service was complete, he wanted to further his education. He attended several different colleges and universities, but he also married, worked to support his family and got on with his life. He eventually earned a bachelor’s degree at The Master’s University. He said, “I crammed four years into 20.”

Trapp was born and raised in Bakersfield before moving to Tehachapi. He taught for 20 years at Heritage Oaks Academy before retiring in 2020. Now there was time to fulfill his lifelong dream of writing a story about the challenges life presents: a story of faith, hope and courage.

It took about eight months of writing six to eight hours per day to complete his first novel, “Sara’s Legacy – The Harlin Saga,” which was released one month ago. It is the first of a trilogy. The subsequent books have now been written and are in the hands of the editor and publisher.

Trapp’s trilogy tells a story of an often-forgotten period of our past. He writes as if he lived through the late 1800s. When questioned, he admitted he had not been to the historic places mentioned in the books, but wrote realistically because he read and studied history for years. He uses the internet for fact-checking and makes sure everything is accurate.

“Sara’s Legacy—The Harlin Saga” is available on Amazon and worth reading. Arrangements have begun to produce it as an audiobook. It tells a story about faith, hope and courage in a demanding and often forgotten period of our past.