When he is not wielding a camera on the sidelines of West Virginia Wesleyan College’s athletic contests or crafting an endless stream of press releases, WVWC Sports Information Director Pete Galarneau may just be working on an idea for his next novel.

Two new books were published in time for the spooky season: “A Coupla’ Cool Cars” and “The Trash Man and The Legend of Ashbury Creek.”

In the novella “A Coupla’ Cool Cars,” Galarneau spins a story of a man returning to the West Virginia hills to handle family business during the COVID-19 pandemic. On a bike ride one day, an encounter with some people on a back road leads to an adventure.

“It was inspired by me being out riding and seeing a drift car where a drift car should not be,” Galarneau said. “The story is really about COVID. Anytime I write something, there is something about me that has to do with how I handle struggles in write. I write novels. I knew people who had died from COVID, including some close family members. I kind of encapsulate those feelings. People who know me well will recognize that. People who don’t will just get a really good story.”

In the novel “The Trash Man,” Galarneau sets the novel at a race track, an idea he first had in the early 1990s and had set aside until more recently. A man who picks up extra work during the summers at a local race track ends up making a deal with a shadow creature to save the life of a little girl who was very sick. However, the man pays a heavy price, as readers will discover.

Although a published author, this is the first time Galarneau wrote two stories simultaneously. He began writing “The Trash Man” when the idea for “A Coupla’ Cool Cars” came to Galarneau on a bike ride.

Galarneau will have a book signing at Argo Books, Main Street, Buckhannon, on November 1 from 4 to 6 p.m. The book will be available exclusively at Argo Books and at petergalarneau.com.