About the Author

About the Author

Curt Kaltsukis, writing as Jackson Tel, is the author of The Chestnut Point Stories. After a career in media production and architectural design, Curt turned to his true passion, writing historical fiction. The genre is best described as being in the style of classical literature but with a folksy twist. Inspired by the rich history and lore of the Chesapeake Bay region, the writer spends his days researching and exploring the Mid-Atlantic area. Late at night, when the ghosts are about, and his imagination can run free, he ‘puts quill to parchment,’ so to speak.

Email chestnutpointstories@gmail.com for more information.

Kaltsukis is pronounced Kal-sue-kiss – the t is silent.

Forays into the Past

Although the world’s complexity was not the same as now, the knots of human nature certainly were. Some knots untangle easily, while others proved to be quite difficult. So it was in the Chestnut Point Stories.

     Standing in a field under an ancient cedar, the author runs his hand over the illegible name on a weathered gravestone.
     He follows a narrow fishermen’s trail winding through the brush along the shoreline of a harbor once bustling with tall ships, now silted and unnavigable.
     He pokes through the dusty cardboard boxes of discarded possessions heaped in disheveled piles ahead of the auctioneer, who rides on a covered golf cart ahead of his sunburned entourage.
     He puts his reading glasses on in a tiny used bookstore and kneels on the hardwood floor to look better at the tattered titles on the bottom shelf. A black cat jumps down from the front display window to rub up against his thigh. Although the reusable shopping bag beside him bulges with old books, it might still hold one or two more.
     A historical marker causes him to brake suddenly on a winding country road and back up cautiously along the narrow shoulder.
     What is the author looking for; forgotten lives, dog-eared recipes, discarded tools, hidden secrets, ghost stories, torn love letters, lost treasure? And why?
     Perhaps he knows that those remnants of the past, when puzzled together, may conjure up the characters living in the bygone days of The Chestnut Point Stories.

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