'Be noble': New Mexico State alumnus publishes epic fable 'Legacy: The Saga Begins'

LAS CRUCES – New Mexico State University alumnus Michael Pietrack recently published his first fictional work, “Legacy: The Saga Begins,” inspired by a childhood bedtime story told by his father.

“Legacy” is a modern epic fable, or a long-form narrative written in verse. Popular examples of epics include Homer’s “The Odyssey” and “The Illiad,” Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy,” John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and the Old English poem “Beowulf.”

However, none of these famous pieces are fables.

Pietrack is an executive recruiter in his professional life, and a lover of literature. He grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada before his family moved to Colorado. He attended Colorado Mesa University for his undergraduate degree in English Literature and later lived in Las Cruces for three years while he completed his master’s degree in Education at New Mexico State University.

While working on his degree, he also served as an assistant coach for the NMSU baseball team. Part of his work was to recruit talent to the university. That led him to his current work in recruiting for the pharmaceutical industry in Grand Junction, Colorado.

He said his initial intent was to become an English teacher.

Pietrack's lessons in being noble

Pietrack said he and his brothers were raised largely by a single dad. While lying in bed at night, David Pietrack would make up all sorts of stories for his kids.

“He's the world's best storyteller, my dad,” Pietrack said. “One of the stories that really stuck with us was about a little bee that was scared to enter a race, but when he entered the race, he won. And I think my dad's intention behind that was just to teach us that … you can't succeed unless you try.”

David Pietrack said he doesn’t remember how his Buzzy the Bee story came to be, but it resonated with his sons and they have all remembered it into adulthood.

“Every day when Michael would go off to school, I'd leave him at the front door with a lunch pail or something, and I'd say ‘Mike, be noble.’ And all through their adult life, the boys would always joke around and when they’d leave they’d say ‘be noble’ to each other,” David Pietrack said. “‘Be noble’ is a major theme in the book and it's how the bees say goodbye to each other and how they salute each other. So, (Michael) took that little family tidbit of our family and he developed it into something special.”

Years later, Michael Pietrack said he set out to write a poem for his dad based on the bee story, but the poem was just the start of something much larger.

“It just kept going and going and going. So, I put it away, I’d come back to it and it just kept growing,” he said. “I kept thinking, ‘why are they having a race? And what happens after the race? And why is he scared to enter the race?’ And all these different things.”

He suddenly had a chapter completed, written in iambic pentameter with running couplets. Pietrack said he shared what he had written with his father and the project took off. They collaborated and worked together to develop plot lines and characters.

“Legacy” follows the story of Abelbee – a bee who, despite being young and inexperienced, is chosen to take on the journey that will save his queen and civilization.

“There's no magic in this. There's no superpowers, because none of us have those. We have to get by on character and we have to get by on brave choices,” Pietrack said.

Pietrack said it took over a decade to finish the book, which included periods of time when he put the the writing away to focus on family.

He said he finished the book around 2014 and thought it was done. But he pulled it back out in late 2020 and the story doubled in length during the COVID-19 pandemic when he and his dad both had much more free time on their hands. His day typically starts by writing while on the elliptical machine.

He added that there are several parts of the book that he wrote with New Mexico in mind and his experience with borderland culture. He said he hopes to bring his family to southern New Mexico so they can see some of what he experienced while in college.

Self-publishing ‘Legacy’

Pietrack finished the book in early 2022 and decided to pursue publishing. He said the process was difficult because his work is unique and does not fit into the parameters publishers typically look for.

“It’s almost a genre unto itself,” he said. “It’s not entirely poetry, it’s not really entirely fiction. It’s like a mix.”

He decided to self-publish “Legacy.” The book officially launched January 2023 with e-book, hardback and audiobook versions. Illustrations are by Catrina Odom, a recent graduate of Colorado Mesa University.

Pietrack said he is particularly proud of the audiobook, for which he narrates and does all the voices for the characters – he has experience in theatre performance too.

David Pietrack said readers can sometimes be turned away by poetry, thinking it might be hard to read and understand. In contrast, he said “Legacy” is simple to comprehend and is very descriptive, “like watching a movie when you’re reading it.”

“I believe that ‘Legacy’ is the fable of the 21^st century and it'll go down in history. I believe it'll leave a legacy of its own,” David Pietrack said.

“Legacy” just recently launched, but Pietrack said he is already working on the sequel. He anticipates there being at least two additional books following “Legacy.” He’s also working on another completely different story.

“Honestly, when I read through it, there's times where I can't believe I wrote it … It really blows me away,” Pietrack said. “But for me, this particular book, this story, is me solidifying my dad’s legacy.”

“Legacy” is available for purchase online on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Behind the scenes information and videos about “Legacy” are available on Michael Pietrack’s website, michaelpietrack.com.

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Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.