The “mildly catastrophic misadventures” of Vancouver Island ne’er-do-well Tony Vicar continue in The Vicar Vortex, the third novel by Errington’s Vince Ditrich.
Vicar lives in the fictional town of Tyee Lagoon, an amalgamation of different Vancouver Island communities, Ditrich says, where he’s become a celebrity after overblown news reports about his “miraculous” power in reviving a car crash victim.
The character is introduced as a failed rock star at the start of the series, whose life changes drastically in the wake of his “miracles” and a fire which devastates his hotel and pub.
“I built this little world in a fictional town on Vancouver Island,” said Ditrich, also known as the drummer for the legendary Canadian rock band The Spirit of the West. “I’m getting lots and lots of excellent comments from people who think it’s their town. Up and down the Island. ‘Is this Cumberland’ or ‘is this Qualicum’?”
Tyee Lagoon may not be a real town, but Ditrich’s books include Easter eggs that Islanders will recognize, like a nod to the Goats on the Roof.
Ditrich describes Vicar as complicated and “just another guy with delusions of grandeur.”
Vicar’s name gives a touch of religious tonality, since he is a miracle worker of sorts, Ditrich said.
“Like every else to do with these so called miracles, I wanted to be left with a little irony — a little bit of doubt and a little bit of deeper understanding of what’s going on. Because he’s obviously not a holy man,” Ditrich said with a laugh.
Vicar, as with the other characters, is a pastiche of people Ditrich has known over the years. He found that after tweaking an archetype several times, he would be reminded of a person who acted in a similar way.
“Suddenly you’re just combining them all into that one character,” he said. “Who serves that purpose as representing a whole slice of the populace that you’ve met.”
Similar to his approach to Vicar’s so-called miracles, Ditrich brings a skeptical eye to the series’ paranormal element.
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The book hints that Vicar may have been aided by a ghost while rescuing people from his burning hotel, or perhaps it was a hallucination.
“The older I get, the more open I become to alternate states of reality and this was a comedic way to demonstrate that that’s part of my thinking,” Ditrich said. “Most logical, clear thinking people, you always keep it at arms length, and that’s being represented in the story too.”
He returned to his old love of writing in 2017, the year after The Spirit of the West retired. Ditrich also wrote short stories, poetry, humor articles for magazines, as well as liner notes and biographies for the band’s albums.
“I wander around staring at the walls and muttering like a real goofball,” he said. “Until my wife banishes me from the house or into office, and then I just start to write.”
He compared his writing process to his musical process, with him starting off “like adlibbing in jazz. You just start with a motif and you start building from there.”
Ditrich said he will take a short break from the series, and hopes to adapt the books into a TV show. He added there’s nothing to announce yet but he intends for it to be filmed on Vancouver Island.
“I know it pretty well and I know many people who know it very, very well,” he said. “So we’ll be able to find little places to film and little hotels and shops and things that we can put into the scenarios.”
As far as writing goes, he said the third book feels like a good time to stop for the time being, and from the beginning he planned to turn the books into a TV show.
“I just wanted it to be like an expanded elevator pitch of what the show could be like.”
The Vicar Vortex is published by Dundurn Press and is available to buy online.
