North Smithfield’s Connell adds published author to long list of titles with first novel

NORTH SMITHFIELD – To the legal community, William Connell is an experienced attorney who works within the education and government sectors throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts. To his students, he’s an adjunct professor at the Roger Williams University School of Law, where he shares his real-world legal experience with aspiring attorneys. To the North Smithfield community, he is a long-serving member of the School Committee.

But readers will now get to know another side of Connell: The author. Despite his busy career, Connell has become a prolific short story writer and on Wednesday, Nov. 27, his debut novel, “Mask of Death,” was released by Wild Ink Publishing.

Set during Europe’s Middle Ages, the novel reexamines and expands upon the classic Edgar Allan Poe Short story “The Masque of the Red Death.” Prince Prospero. his wife, Elizabeth, and Clarinda, Prospero’s younger mistress, already face the real-life horrors of the black plague and widespread famine. Add supernatural terrors to that list in the form of “fleshers” – undead creatures who feast on the living – and you have the start of the novel.

The author said he has always enjoyed writing and even wrote a book while in high school, although he never published it.

“I’ve done e writing for law journals, but  I really like fiction,” Connell said. “When I’m writing, I’m in the moment, just thinking about the characters and plot. It helps me focus and I find it engaging. For example, I spent last Sunday working on a complaint for a client. It’s rewarding, of course, but it’s not as energizing as writing a story.”

Connell said the new release was inspired not only by the Edgar Allan Poe story, but also his love for Clint Eastwood westerns and old zombie movies.

“I also used to teach world history, and I’ve long been interested in the Black Plague period, particularly in Europe,” he said. “How did mankind survive?”

“I thought, ‘What a fascinating time to set a novel. You could tell a lot of stories set during that time.'”

In Connell’s book, Clarinda is Prospero’s mistress, and plants some of ideas that set the main action in motion.

“I take some elements from ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ and expand on them,” he said. “I also read fiction written during or shortly after the Black Death period, particularly ‘The Decameron’ by Giovanni Boccaccio. My novel tells about the events leading up to and beyond Prospero’s story. We also might glimpse what started this plague. The story is complete, but it also leads right into another.”

Connell said he first novel will be part of a three-book series, and he’s already working on the sequels. 

Asked how he balances his demanding career and other commitments with writing, Connell said you have to be committed.

“Sometimes, I feel like I’m spread thinner than I want to be,” he said. “But I want to write, and I enjoy it.”

His ideas, he said, come from reading, watching movies, and running outside.

“I see something I like, and I’ll take it in a different direction,” Connell said. “Some of my horror stories have come after reading Poe or Lovecraft—I’ll take an element from one of those stories and flip it around. I try to create the stories I’d like to see and read.”