Book signings with local author/freelance journalist Jack Rightmyer

New coming-of-age novel threads together several of the author's personal passions — teaching, running, and cycling

The roles have flipped for freelance journalist Jack Rightmyer. After years spent interviewing scores of authors and attending bunches of book signings, now he will be on the other side of the table -- fielding questions and signing with Sharpies -- following the publication of his debut novel.

The new book, On Your Left, is a coming-of-age story that draws from several of his lifelong passions -- teaching, running, and cycling -- woven into a narrative about adolescence, connection, and self-discovery. Rightmyer will be appearing at events in Albany and Saratoga Springs.

Book signing event dates: 

1 p.m. Saturday, May 17 

The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza

1475 Western Avenue

Albany, NY 12203

Phone: (518) 489-4761

6 p.m. Friday, June 13

Northshire Bookstore

424 Broadway

Saratoga Springs NY 12866

Phone: (518) 682-4200

Books are also available at Market Block Books in Troy and I Love Books in Delmar.

Jack Rightmyer

A familiar name to many in our NYS Writers Institute community, Rightmyer is a regular contributor to the Albany Times Union, where he he has profiled a long list of literary figures over the years, including E.L. Lawrence Doctorow, Doris Kearns Goodwin, William Kennedy, Jennifer Egan, and Colm Tóibín.

His work has also appeared in Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, Adirondack Sports, the NYS Writers Institute's Trolley magazine (in 2018 and 2020), and Highlights for Children, where one assignment led to a memorable sit-down with Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. (More on that below.)

He has also authored two nonfiction books — A Funny Thing About Teaching, a memoir on using humor in the classroom, and It’s Not About Winning, a reflection on sports, coaching, and parenting.

In 2019, Rightmyer retired as an English teacher from the Bethlehem Central School District, where he taught for 32 years. He was also an adjunct professor of English literature at Siena College from 2019 through 2024.

In the Q&A below, he reflects on the inspirations behind his debut novel, his years in the classroom and on the track, and what’s next on his creative journey.

What was the spark that led you to write On Your Left, and why did a bike trip from Lake Placid to Albany feel like the right setting for this story?

I got the idea for writing this book back in 2013 when my wife and I biked the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany with more than 500 cyclists. It was an 8-day event covering more than 400 miles, and we loved it. During the ride I kept encountering a 17-year-old boy biking with his mom, and I kept thinking, “That’s the last thing I would ever do when I was 17.”

Every day on the ride I thought of that kid and his mom and a story began to emerge. Who was this kid? Was there a dad? Why was the dad not on the trip? What if the kid fell in love but it’s only an 8-day ride? What if the mom fell in love? Every day I looked forward to the ride so I could get back to inventing my story, and when I came home I began working on it.

I was originally going to set the route along the Erie Canal ride, but then I thought it might be more fun to create my own route and because I’ve done a lot of biking in the Adirondacks I decided to do an Adirondack ride. That was part of the fun to pretend I created my own 5-day bike ride from Lake Placid to Albany.

As a former high school English teacher, how did your experience in the classroom influence the characters or themes in your novel?

Jack during his high school teaching days.

I wanted this book to capture the fantastic feeling of first falling in love and also try to capture how scary it can be and how insecure so many of us are when we find our first love.  

As a high school and middle school English teacher for 39 years and a track and cross country coach for 29 years, I’ve encountered so many remarkable kids along the way who rarely get in any trouble, always do what is asked and try their very best every day both athletically and academically.  These are usually characters who are not the main characters, and in this book I wanted them to be the protagonists.

I taught and coached so many wonderful young people like Kevin and Taylor, and they may appear to have fantastic lives but we all have worries and fears and I wanted to show that. I also wanted to write a story that was realistic and hopefully still a bit uplifting at the end.

This is your debut novel, but you've been a freelance writer for years. What surprised you most about the process of writing your first novel?

What kept me going in writing this book was how the characters would not let me put it away. They continued to surprise me which meant I had to keep going. I’ve interviewed so many writers through the years who have said how they had no plan but would sit down and have the story take them along where it wanted to go. I can better understand that now.

I knew the route these characters were biking, and I knew they were going to fall in love, but they continued to still surprise me with some unexpected twists.

The characters in On Your Left navigate both physical and emotional journeys. What themes were most important for you to explore through their experiences?

Running is such an important activity for both characters just as it was for me. I was a five-foot, 97-pound freshman who was the slowest and smallest runner on my freshman track team. Running gave me friends and helped me gain confidence in myself. By the time I was a senior I was the school record holder in the 2 mile, felt like I was well-known in my school and had many friends. Running has had a similar positive effect in different ways for both Kevin and Taylor.  

Some themes I hope are apparent in this story are to believe in yourself, and have confidence in your abilities. Friendship and connection are vital to all the characters in this story and they ultimately become a sort of family as the bike ride moves along.

I loved my years in high school primarily because of the friends and the family I formed by joining the track and the cross country team. Those four years in high school are so vital to our emotional well-being, and I know I would be a very different person if I had not wandered into the indoor track meeting back in 1972 as scrawny freshman.

You've interviewed scores of authors. Which one do you hold as your favorite?

Of all the authors I’ve interviewed my in-person interview with Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel is my all-time favorite. I did the interview for Highlights for Children magazine and we met for 45 minutes at his office at Boston University.  

He made tea and he had two chairs across from each other where we sat. Before I could ask him a question he wanted to know how I had become a writer and why I wrote for the magazine. He was warm and genuine, and when I left I felt like we were friends. He also discussed in detail with remarkable candor his experience at  Auschwitz and why he felt education was so important. I left that interview moved and inspired.

What's next for Jack Rightmyer?

What’s next for me is a nonfiction book about Revolutionary War hero Henry Knox who carted 60 tons of cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston to drive the British out of Boston. My wife and I have biked most of the 300-mile Knox Trail. The book is part history about who Knox was and part travel book. I hope that one day the states of New York and Massachusetts could make a walk/bike trail along the way.

I just came back from a 6-day bike trip through the Netherlands, and I was impressed with how that country has bike trails everywhere. It’s something that can be accomplished if enough people see merit in it.

I’m about half-way through this book and hoping to complete it this winter or next spring.

About On Your Left

Seventeen-year-old Kevin Walsh, is an accomplished high school distance runner but he has never kissed a girl and rarely ever talked to one. Reluctantly he agrees to join his mother on a five-day 200-mile group bike tour from Lake Placid to Albany, New York, and for the first time in his life he falls madly in love with a fellow cyclist Taylor Lewis. This should be a very good thing, but as the days go by Kevin begins to suspect his mother may also be falling in love but with someone who is not his father.

On Your Left is a coming-of-age story told from Kevin’s point-of-view as he learns some history along the way, what it’s like for an African-American teenage girl to navigate her way through modern America, and how wonderful and painful it is to fall in love.