Christmas Lake Press Publishes Gripping Debut Novel Power & Way by Award-Winning Screenwriter Paul Locander

Paul Locander's Power & Way, adapted by the author from his synonymous award-winning screenplay, is nothing short of a literary thriller.

WESTPORT, CT, UNITED STATES, October 2, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Connecticut-based independent book publisher Christmas Lake Press has just released Power & Way, a major debut novel by award-winning screenwriter Paul Locander. Power & Way is the 26th title published by Christmas Lake since its inception in 2021.

Power & Way is a story of fathers and sons, secrets and lies, love and lust, sacrifice and redemption.

Author of The Vanishing Moon, Joseph Coulson, calls Power & Way "a gripping account of Americas's fall from grace—a story of runaway violence and the salvaging of broken dreams."

For Paul Locander, storytelling began at a young age with a highly cinematic imagination. Vivid scenes would appear to him in fragments—sometimes sparked by music or conversation—forming disconnected moments. He began weaving those fragments into full narratives, leading to a prolific period of storybuilding that has produced 17 completed scripts to date. One of those stories, Power & Way, drew on his own father-son struggles and went on to gain widespread recognition, including two turns as an Academy Foundation Nicholl Fellowship semi-finalist. Power & Way began as a spec screenplay, but Locander wanted to give his characters a fuller voice, leading him to reimagine the work as a novel with encouragement from Julia Bobkoff, Christmas Lake Press Editor-in-Chief and also a screenwriter. In the process, Locander discovered new dimensions of the fictional town of Granite Point and its people, uncovering deeper themes of legacy, redemption, and the resilience it takes to reconcile and bridge emotional rifts created long ago.

The book's main characters—Kevin Campbell, his father Frank, his wife Trisha, and federal investigator Andrea "Andy" Mayland, along with the sheriff everyone loves to hate, Hollis Peete—slug it out, metaphorically and sometimes physically—as they navigate both a devastating railroad accident (or was it?) and the emotional train wreck of their interconnected lives.

Power & Way is a heart-wrenching reckoning—where sacrifice becomes salvation, and love, long denied, is finally realized. Rich in atmosphere and deeply human, Power & Way is a journey of legacy and the strength it takes to rewrite the past.

Says Paul, "Power & Way grew from my own experiences with my father. I didn’t realize the seeds of a story were being laid out right before my eyes. He and I never reconciled before he passed away, and if you were to ask him, he would probably dismiss all of this and simply walk away if alive today. The screenplay touched nerves, some of them surprising, in everyone who read it, telegraphing the need to go deeper with the story. Through the novel I was able to create the moment I had always wanted to have—but never got—with my father. This closure, found through fiction, was enough to allow me to set down the weight I’ve been carrying for most of my life. My hope is that readers of Power & Way will find their own solace in the words of the book.”

Paul's wife Karen, who has accompanied her husband on his writing journey as sounding board and support, comments, “I have watched Paul develop and live with these characters for years. To witness their growth from screenplay to novel has been amazing. It’s been fun to be a part of the world he has created and to spend time with characters we’ve grown to love. I hope readers will be moved by their story and realize that it’s never too late to stop repeating the past."

Bobkoff adds that "working with Paul on adapting his screenplay to the novel was great fun. It also enabled me to draw on not only my screenwriting and book writing background, but also my training as a director. With the script in play as a potential film and me as a producer on the team, I was thrilled to see Paul develop the story and add elements of the novel back into the script."

Power & Way is available on Amazon and in bookstores by request.

Thomas Fiffer
Christmas Lake Press
+1 203-293-8337
email us here

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