Spirit of the West drummer returns to writing with new Tony Vicar book

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Former drunken DJ, now slightly psychedelic and always funny local hero Tony Vicar is back in his new novel, The Vicar’s Knickers.

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Vincent R. Ditrich’s book of Nanoose Bay reveals Vicar’s potential to become a civil servant and a father.

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Postmedia caught up with Ditrich, who spent nearly 30 years behind the drums of Canadian folk/rock icons Spirit of the West, to ask him about the second book in his Vicar trilogy.

Q: This is the second book in your series. Was it easy to get to?

A: yes and no. I knew the process, but the summaries of Volume 1 proved to be very difficult to speed up the reader. There’s no shortcut to “previously he was seen in Liquor Vicar…” but for a TV series… (Ditrich says he has his TV development deal with Sugar Skull Films).

Q: When we left Tony Vicar, he was having a lot of fun with what you call ‘power’. How is the rest of the world treating him these days?

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A: The Reverend’s unwanted fame is skyrocketing at an alarming rate, but at least people are coming to Reverend Knicker’s Pub to meet him and shake his hand. Knickers is a major tourist attraction. Business is good, but the pressure is mounting. The pastor finds being a celebrity to be a very tough job.

Q: Are the small town people of Tyee Lagoon still behind Tony Vicar?

A: Sure, they love Liquor Vicar, but like any small town, there are those who think his extravagant pub attracts the bad stuff.

Q: A nasty Hollywood gossip columnist has come to town. what is he looking for

A: His name is Richard X Dick and he is responsible for the story of “This Pastor’s Man”. All stories about him are incredibly exaggerated. Dick wants to unravel the pastor’s “fraud” and turn him into a sleazy weekly magazine character. He’s a bad-mouthed merchant relegated to the backwoods of Vancouver Island, far from Hollywood. He’s a wounded and cruel man who wants to see his pastor go up in flames.

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Q: How is Tony Vicar doing as a hotel owner? How is the renovation progressing?

A: Vicar’s Knickers Pub is located in the old Agincourt Hotel, a rundown structure undergoing extensive renovation. The Reverend and his girlfriend Jackie O are starting to get sick of all the construction. It’s ridiculously expensive and Vicar finds himself losing momentum. The Reverend begins seeing ghosts and other illusions in the hotel that no one else can perceive. he doubts his sanity.

Q: Children complicate my life. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

A: At the end of the first volume of The Liquor Vicar, Vicar manages to save his girlfriend, Jacquie O, from the clutches of a very dangerous woman named Serena. In Volume 2, Serena finds herself pregnant and she is about to be imprisoned, presumably for Jackie O’s kidnapping. She panics and leaves her newborn baby on the vicar’s doorstep in the middle of the night in a blizzard. When he wakes up, he finds himself in charge of the newborn. The changes that occur are massive.

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Q: Will you appear as a parent in this new novel?

A: Everything seems like an emergency at first, so I’ve found my ability to be an all-hands-on deck in an emergency to be honed enough. My protective instincts also surged like a pastor. By the time my sons were teenagers, my protectiveness was a little lessened.

Q: Is a third book in the works?

A: yes. I’m churning it. Title TBD. The story is still vague and ambiguous. But I do enjoy some of the madness I create. I think it will be released in the fall of 23.

dgee@postmedia.com

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