Reno author’s Holocaust novel optioned for film

In 2018, shortly after a mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Reno author David Michael Slater penned a personal piece for the Associated Press. He’d grown up in the neighborhood where 11 people were gunned down.

“Now I know what far too many Americans know — not that it can happen anywhere, but the visceral truth that it happened in a place I consider home. This isn’t knowledge. It’s a wound,” he wrote in the article.

From that wound emerged a book. Jump ahead to June 2023, when Slater announces perhaps the biggest news an author can get. A production company tied to film director Chris Columbus — 26th Street Pictures — optioned his novel about Nazi Germany, “The Vanishing.”

“Got the news by email from Chris Columbus' partner, Michael Barnathan,” Slater told the Appeal by email. “I've had books optioned before, and in each case, they did not pan out, so I am now well-practiced at not celebrating too early. That said, I've never had work optioned by folks on the level of Chris Columbus, who's been directing and producing blockbusters for 30 years, including ‘Home Alone,’ ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ ‘The Help’ and several Harry Potters, so it's impossible not to see this as the opportunity of a lifetime. I'm cautiously optimistic!”

Slater, 53, has published upward of 30 books, from children’s and teen titles to adult reads. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, he attended the University of Michigan before teaching middle school and high school in Portland, Oregon.

“My family moved to Reno in 2012 when my son was admitted to the Davidson Academy, a unique school for gifted students,” Slater said. “Since then, I've been teaching English at Pine Middle School and we've come to love Reno.”

Slater said he generally writes at home but sometimes at coffee shops or at Barnes & Noble.

“As a full-time teacher, I have to grab writing time whenever (and often wherever) I find it,” he said.

Besides writing and teaching, Slater manages and plays goalie for the Reno Jazz floorball club.

“Floorball is modern floor hockey, and it's the second fasted growing club sport in the U.S. (behind pickleball). I'm always trying to spread the word about it,” he said.

Writing, however, remains a source of magic for the author. He described what he likes most about his chosen artform:

“For sure, because I'm the type of writer who does not outline books before writing them, it's the experience of arriving somewhere at the end of a book that I didn't see coming,” he said.

Slater described “The Vanishing,” published by Library Tales Publishing last year, as a blend of history, fiction and magical realism. Geared toward older teen and adult readers, the novel is set in Nazi Germany and chronicles a young girl who turns invisible after witnessing a murder and tries to save her best friend from the Holocaust.

“The Holocaust plays a role in many of my books, but I began ‘The Vanishing’ shortly after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh,” Slater said. “I grew up directly across the street, so it couldn't have hit closer to home. I recall feeling despair, rage and helplessness in the face of the alarming rise in bigotry and antisemitism happening right now. Writing this book was one way to deal with that.”

Slater talked openly about his Jewish heritage, having grown up “surrounded by Jewish culture,” attending Hebrew school and Jewish summer camp.

“I also grew up exposed to Holocaust education, which informed a lot of what I wrote about in ‘The Vanishing,’” he said. “While I'm certain I have ancestors killed in the Holocaust, I don't have any direct knowledge of any. Both sides of my family came from Russia/Russian territories.”

Slater noted the novel is fiction but attempts to capture “the emotional realities of the time.”

“I was pretty nervous about how this approach would be received and so sent a draft to a host of Holocaust scholars and authors and was gratified that virtually all of them found it to be profoundly moving,” he said.

Slater said the novel’s film adaptation is being done by Jay Lender, who got famous working on shows like SpongeBob Square Pants, Phineas & Ferb and Hey, Arnold.

“That might seem like an odd choice for a book about the Holocaust, but I've worked with Jay on many projects. He adapted two of my previous novels, ‘Fun & Games’ and ‘Sparks,’ and he's an incredible screenwriter,” Slater said.

Slater said he can’t wait to see “The Vanishing” developed for film.

“I know it will be out of my hands, so I can only hope and trust that the filmmakers will do the book justice,” he said. “Regardless, the book was published by a very small press without the wherewithal to do significant marketing, so this option alone is doing wonders for the book's visibility and I'm grateful for that.”

For information about Slater and his work, visit http://davidmichaelslater.com/.