When it comes to the place of eternal suffering, John Toepfer isn’t afraid to call it by name: Route 666.
Originally from Long Island, the 58-year-old insurance underwriter has lived in western Prince William County since 1994.
Under the name J.D. Toepfer, for the past five years, Toepfer has been writing his popular “Highway to Hell” series, which he called apocalyptic and dystopian.
Despite the traffic nightmares on I-66, the horror novels aren’t about that interstate. Rather, Toepfer is giving a nod to the real Route 666, just outside Culpeper.
In the series, Route 666 is closed by the state due to an abnormal number of accidents, deaths and tragedies.
“The main character wants to use this as the basis of a fictional novel, which suggests that the cause is supernatural,” Toepfer said. “Any relationship with I-66 is unintentional and coincidental."
But Toepfer’s Route 666 is still a hellscape. Page Turners Podcast described Toepfer’s first book,“Route 666,” as “Stephen King meets ‘The Exorcist.’”
Toepfer doesn’t shy away from archetypal themes presented through the supernatural.
“A friend of mine is a former nun,” Toepfer said. “She told me she found the themes of good and evil in the first book an interesting interpretation of what she had been exposed to. She admitted that she could only read the book during the day and never at night. Something about it spooked her. I took it as a real compliment.”
The Third Release
Toepfer just released the third book, “The Gathering Storm,” which advances the nightmare of the first two, “Route 666” and “Sins of the Fathers.”
The series follows Jack Aitken, a family man whose personal dreams and ambitions have been altered, postponed or abandoned through a series of random twists of fate. He used to play it safe, but Aitken decides to throw himself into researching Route 666.
In “The Gathering Storm,” Aitken ignores the warning signs and the pleas of his wife and uses an ancient map provided by a mysterious museum curator to search for an unknown Native American burial mound.
The protagonist winds up interrupting a satanic ritual, which ignites a chain of events that place him in a life-and-death struggle with a malevolent being whose power rivals the devil himself.
It's a “breathless, wild ride,” said Toepfer’s editor, Emily Marquart. And it won’t be the last in the series.
Creativity and roadblocks
Toepfer’s writing drive runs deep, but his creative writing had ironic roots.
In 2013, he started writing gardening articles for Blooming Secrets, a personalized gardening service he and his sister started.
But Toepfer’s theme took a sharp turn with the “Highway to Hell” series, sending him from the garden to the underworld. He said the first novel was written as a personal challenge.
In the story, the main character decides to write a book to change the trajectory of his life, which circumstances beyond his control have significantly altered.
“Much of what happened to that character happened to me, so there are some autobiographical parallels,” Toepfer said.
Writing the book was cathartic, he added, and helped him put a lot of disappointment behind him. And although he did not plan to write a series, he said he is “delighted” it turned out that way.
Toepfer tries to have fun with his series, not just by playing off Route 666, but incorporating familiar settings in Prince William, Culpeper, Warrenton, Fairfax and Chantilly.
He also considers the historic significance of his settings. “History is something I am very interested in, and I try to weave it into my stories,” said Toepfer.
Most of the third book takes place in western Prince William and includes a healthy dose of local color. The novel references Manassas National Battlefield Park, Manassas Airport, the Manassas police station and Quantico National Cemetery. It also includes references to the Museum of Culpeper History and Frost Café, which are actually on Route 666. Other mentions include the Warrenton Hobby Shoppe and Deja Brew Café.
But the main character is ultimately chased from his Virginia home and flees to Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y., another area Toepfer knows well. “I often use places I have lived or visited heavily in my life as settings for stories,” Toepfer said.
Toepfer says he always keeps a pen and paper near him to write down thoughts. “Spending time in my garden or going for a drive often helps me come up with ideas.”
Toepfer’s high school sweetheart and wife, Christina, and his twin brother, George, assist in his writing process.
“They remind me of how far I have come and that succeeding is believing in yourself,” he added.
Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt is a freelance writer, an award-winning author and a poet with a 21-year history in western Prince William County. Learn about her at KatherineGotthardt.com.
Readers can follow Toepfer’s progress on social media and Amazon or can learn more about his work at jdtoepfer.com.
AUTHOR BIO
John “J.D.” Toepfer was born and raised on Long Island, N.Y. He graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, with degrees in history and political science. Toepfer has lived in Prince William County for the past 30 years, and currently lives in Bristow. Toepfer works as a risk management specialist, helping clients avoid potentially devastating risks, but at night, he writes paranormal thrillers, placing his characters in unspeakable danger.
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