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NEWBERRY — Two Newberry College professors have joined the ranks of published fiction authors.

Associate Professor of English Dr. Warren Moore’s novel “Broken Glass Waltzes” will be published later this month, while Assistant Professor of English John Carenen’s book “Signs of Struggle” was published in October.

Moore characterizes his novel as “sex, violence, and rock-and-roll, but not necessarily that order.”

Its inspiration about 20 years ago, when Moore, then in graduate school, was driving in Lexington, Ky. The song “Die, Die My Darling” by The Misfits came on the radio. Suddenly, Moore says, a murder scene popped into his head.

“I immediately turned the car around, drove back home, and began to write the scene down, which was only four pages long,” he remembers.

Moore then had to construct a beginning and an end for the story.

The process took several years, and it took years to get the book published. Moore says writing the book itself wasn’t hard, but finding the time to write it was difficult.

“I think if my own story teaches anything, it would have to be persistence,” he says. Moore’s book, which he dedicated to his wife, his daughter and his late parents, will be available on electronic reader this month, and will later become available through Amazon.com.

Carenen’s novel, “Signs of Struggle”, tells the story of tough guy Tom O’Shea, who loses his family in a car accident. Intending to move back to his Iowa hometown to live alone in peace, O’Shea runs into a beautiful, bloody woman one day in the countryside. Although he doesn’t want to get involved, O’Shea begins to unravel a plan to sell tens of millions of dollars’ worth of Iowa farmland.

Carenen says he was inspired by novelist Stephen King, who often started his stories with a “what if” scenario.

Thus inspired, Carenen asked himself, “What if his wife and daughters were killed?” and the story followed.

He says the writing process had difficulties, and that he had to revise the story several times as unexpected things came up with the characters and storyline. Carenen hopes readers will take much from the book.

“I want them to be entertained, but also see that there is redemption in the end,” he says.

Carenen adds that he dedicated the book to his “long-suffering” wife.

Carenen’s book is available at Amazon.com, and is also available for the Kindle. Copies will also be available at a March 27 Fine Arts and Lectures event, which will feature a book signing and a question and answer session.

Both professors are working on their next books. Moore’s next project has the working title “A Safe Distance,” and Carenen is working on a sequel to “Signs of Struggle”, to be titled “Far Gone Night.”