“If We’re Breathing, We’re Serving,” by Long Beach author Ferrell Hornsby.

The girl asked, “Would you do it all over again?”

Facing a crowd of teenage readers at his alma mater, bestselling author Karl Marlantes, a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer who earned the Navy Cross and Bronze Star, recalled that he paused before replying.

“It feels good to talk to people about the writing,” he remembered. “I find it interesting. If you write it down, and no one reads it, it is just blotches of black on paper. It’s not art yet. … It’s the completion of the process.”

Marlantes, a 1963 graduate of Seaside High School, interrupted his schooling at Yale and Oxford universities to serve in the Vietnam War, then went on to a career in international business consulting before becoming a renowned writer.

He is preparing to face more questions Saturday at a Pacific Northwest Authors Book Fair. It takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Peninsula Church Center in Seaview. Marlantes will speak during a Q&A session at noon.

The event, organized by Long Beach writer Jan Bono, features 30 regional authors, including Jennifer Nightingale, Jim Hallaux, and Anita Schacher from Clatsop County; and David Campiche, Mandy Schimelpfenig, Jim Tweedie, Peter Adams Young, Gregory Zschomler, Ferrell Hornsby and Steffi Thomas from the Long Beach Peninsula.

Reflection

Marlantes is the author of two recent novels, drawing on his fascination with the Finnish heritage of his maternal grandparents.

“Deep River” highlighted a family that fled Finland to settle in lower Columbia logging communities in the early 1900s. The just-published “Cold Victory” highlights a family in Finland immediately after World War II.

Marlantes lives in a rural town near Seattle and spends considerable time on the North Coast. He grew up in Seaside where his father, Leo Marlantes, was the principal of Seaside High School and a founder of Clatsop Community College.

His two prior publications, the novel “Matterhorn” and nonfiction work “What It Is Like to Go to War,” offer perspectives drawn from his combat experience.

The New York Times called “Matterhorn” “one of the most profound and devastating novels ever to come out of Vietnam — or any war.”

While acknowledging that writing must be a solitary activity, and he concedes he’s not an extrovert, Marlantes said he enjoys the feedback. The Seaside teenager’s query prompted self-reflection.

“It is a very provocative question. It caused me to do some real thinking. What I realized was these experiences are a huge amount of who I am,” he said, alluding to surviving Vietnam, where he earned two Purple Hearts. “Given that I came back alive, I would do it again … I would take that chance.”

He said experience allows a writer to provide accurate detail.

“I grew up in a logging town and went fishing with my grandfather. It would be very difficult to ‘imagine’ what it’s like to be on a gillnet boat in the Columbia River.”

He had a similar discussion with a poet who didn’t envy people whose only activity was writing books. “He said, ‘If I didn’t have real work and real jobs, what would I write poetry about?’ It is a different kind of writing when you write about experiences, you can say something about the world we live in with more authenticity.”

Rewards

His creative process has matured from when “Matterhorn” appeared in 2010.

“I had 3-by-5 cards all over the floor,” he recalled. For “Deep River,” he typed 54 pages to guide his path. He describes himself as an “outliner.”

“I don’t stick to a schedule, but I know where I am heading,” he explained. “I like to keep control of the storyline.”

Marlantes said his next novel, reflecting the heritage of his other European grandparents, is about Greek merchants and revenge killings. It has the working title “In the Shadow of Saddle Mountain.”

He said the rewards can take on almost a spiritual quality — “If you are doing it right.”

Marlantes has just returned from Kyiv, Ukraine, as part of a bipartisan Congressional study group researching recommendations about U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Writers may have influence, but they don’t have any power. I feel that culture is the Queen Mary or the Battleship Missouri — tons and tons going in one direction and writers are on the bow helping to turn the ship,” he said.

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Peninsula Church Center, 5000 N Place, Seaview. Free admission. Featuring more than 30 regional authors.