With his first book, Split Track and Other Science Fiction Stories, young author McHale Cahill, a senior at Sunapee High School, exemplifies classic science fiction elements with a personal take. Each story includes an important message on the human condition and questions its involvement with the world.

McHale’s Andover connections include his mother, Tina Walker, who grew up in Andover and graduated from Proctor in 1986; and his grandmother, Donna Wiggin, who has lived her whole life in Andover.

Split Track is a quick read, yet every story contains descriptive imagery and detailed worlds that keep the pages turning. Through each story, McHale captures human themes, even if the characters aren’t completely human. 

“McHale’s characters struggle with human problems and resolutions in far-away times and places,” says Thomas Coverdale, an English teacher at Sunapee High School, “allowing him to scrutinize what it means to be an individual of today’s world, in bas relief against a culture or society that is constantly changing into what tomorrow might bring. 

“Kale’s nuanced fiction sets the standard in my classes – characteristically demonstrative, helping me instruct his peers to ‘put the audience into the narrative.’ He is undoubtedly one of the best student fiction writers that I have witnessed in 35 years of teaching.”

“I write because I like to create my own worlds and tell stories within those worlds,” McHale says. “Writing helps me live in worlds that can only be accessed through the imagination.” The stories, while each exploring different themes of science fiction, will certainly give readers a character or message with which to relate.  

Split Track was born out of McHale’s senior project and has won an award from the Center for the Arts Teen Writing Competition. He wrote and self-published Split Track by himself using Kindle Direct. He hopes to continue writing and publishing books in the future.

Split Track is 92 pages long and is now available in paperback at Amazon, locally at Artisan’s at 11 Pleasant Street, New London, or by contacting the author at yaknkvd@nullgmail.com.