INPERSON
Ultimate Baseball Road Trip
Norwin grad Craig Labuskes pens young adult fiction novel.
By Jennifer Brozak
As a physician assistant who’ s always had a penchant for math and science, North Huntingdon native Craig Labuskes never intended to become an author.
That all changed last year when Labuskes self-published his first novel,“ The Best Seat in the House”, a young adult tale about a 12-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates fan who reconnects with his estranged older brother following a family tragedy.
The project began when Labuskes, 23, was an undergraduate at Saint Francis University. As part of the university’ s honors program, Labuskes was required to complete a senior thesis. He could choose from either a factual, research-based project, or opt to write a more creative manuscript. He chose the latter.“ At the time, I was pretty laid down with science courses, so I thought this would be a unique opportunity to take a creative route,” says Labuskes, who graduated from Norwin High School in 2011.“ I knew I might never have the chance to do this again, so I embraced the challenge.”
The 180-page novel follows the story of Ryan Shepherd, who, by all accounts, has a“ great life” until a family tragedy forces him to confront his strained relationship with his much older brother, Dennis. The two try to repair their relationship by embarking on a cross-country road trip to visit Major League Baseball stadiums.
The plot was inspired by his family’ s summer vacations. Labuskes, who played on the high school tennis team, is a self-described“ sports nut” and has traveled with his family to numerous MLB stadiums throughout the country.
“ I definitely had plenty of real-life experience to draw upon while writing,” he chuckled.
When he graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree in 2015, the project could have ended there. However, he already had a completed manuscript in hand, so he decided to pursue publication.
“ I realized I had come this far with it— I thought, why not go the extra mile and publish it?” says Labuskes, who earned his Master of Physician Assistant Science from Saint Francis University in 2016.
During the master’ s phase of his schooling, he worked on revising the draft. It took approximately three years of revising and editing to reach the final product, which was published in October. The cover was created by his cousin Stephanie Labuskes, a graphic designer.
“ I wasn’ t going to publish something I wasn’ t happy with. I wanted it to be worth all of the effort and frustration that went into it,” he says.
He was surprised at how tedious the writing and publishing process could be.
“ The writing did not come easily. I easily went through dozens and dozens of revisions. It’ s fun to come up with the plot and the characters, but doing that in words that make sense to other people is a highly different task,” he laughed.
While he appreciated the process of taking a novel to publication, Labuskes has no immediate plans to work on a new book, choosing instead to focus on his medical career— for now. He recently moved out of the area to start a new job as a physician assistant for a health care system in Hershey, Pa.
“ Down the road, once I’ m more settled, who knows what awaits,” he says.“ I’ ll leave the door open.”
“ The Best Seat in the House” retails for $ 12.99 and is available on Amazon. com and Lulu. com. n
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