Look out, Stephen King; there is a new suspense writer in town. Saint Louis University alumnus Eddie Gresham (class of ’92) has released his first novel, Footfalls (23rd St Publishing, Dec. 15, 2007). Achieving this, however, is a far cry from the aspirations of Gresham’s youth.

For a review of Footfalls, see “Footfalls proves to be suspensful thrill ride” below.

Growing up in Springfield, Ill., the idea of becoming a writer never crossed Gresham’s mind.

“I was going to be a professional baseball player. That’s why I went to SLU, to play [Division I] baseball,” Gresham said. “I’ve always been an avid reader . and had several ideas for stories of my own, but never had a chance to put them down on paper.”

The idea of writing remained a distant thought to Gresham as he pursued a degree in computer science during his time at SLU. In 2005, the time finally was right to get his stories out of his head and on to the page.

After graduating from SLU, Gresham found work in the computer science and information technology field, where he worked after graduation. Three years ago Gresham and his wife, Stacy, moved to Dallas. Between consulting jobs, Gresham decided it was time to see what he could do with the stories in his head.

“I just sat down one night and started writing, and it just snowballed from there,” Gresham said.

Gresham decided to take time off from work in order to fully commit himself to his writing, and, over the course of the next five months, that’s exactly what he did.

“The hardest part was figuring out a routine to write each day,” Gresham said. “I set a goal to write 10 pages every day, and if I didn’t get those pages written during the day, I’d make sure I wrote them that night.”

After those months, he finally had a draft of his first novel and was ready to start looking for a publisher.

According to Gresham, the writing process isn’t the hard part; finding someone to publish what you’ve written is.

“You have people close to you read it and have them tell you what they honestly think, and all the feedback I was getting was really positive,” Gresham said. “Then you send out letters to as many publishers you can . and you get rejection letters. That’s where you test your self-confidence.”

Gresham’s persistence, patience and confidence in his work paid off when 23rd St Publishing agreed to take on his book. Now, Gresham and his wife are working on getting the book circulated.

“When you’re a first-time author, you get sold on reviews and word of mouth,” Gresham said. “We’ve gotten a good review and are doing well locally, so hopefully it’ll get out there.”

Gresham praised his education at SLU as a platform that now supports his writing career.

“My degree from SLU allowed me to get various jobs for 15 or 16 years, which provided me the affordability to be able to take months off to write,” he said.

Stacy Gresham has been by her husband’s side throughout the writing, publishing and, now, publicity phases of Footfalls.

“I completely supported him taking the time off to write,” she said. “He had always been into computers, but, when I saw him start writing, I could tell that he had found something he was really passionate about.”

Gresham advised students to keep in mind that “when you’re in college, what you’re studying isn’t necessarily what you’re going to be doing 10 years down the road.”

While he has high hopes for Footfalls, Gresham said that he already feels accomplished, and has already begun work on his second novel, Suicide Watch.

“While I was writing, I kept saying that, even if nothing comes from it, I’m proud just to finally get all these ideas down,” he said. “The fact that it’s all worked out so far is great.”