Author David Campiche smiles next to a stack of copies of “Black Wing” during a reading at BOLD Coffee, Art and Framing in Long Beach.

“Cinematic” may be the most fitting description of the British Columbia wilderness and family connections readers are introduced to in Long Beach Peninsula artist and author David Campiche’s debut novel, “Black Wing.”

The book opens with a pair of men on the run, closely pursued and clinging to a cliff face high in the mountains. The nature is raw, the back story mysterious and at least one man longs for a life he left behind.

Good cinema is rarely simple, and Campiche paints his chase scenes with poetic descriptors and meticulous attention to dialogue. An action movie may play out in readers’ heads, but it is a one-shot through an innovative lens.

Like the book he created, Campiche is comprised of myriad elements that form an approachably complex whole. A lifelong resident of the peninsula, he is a man of many titles. Able to honestly introduce himself as a potter, forager, art collector, writer or retired innkeeper, he has chosen ‘poet’ as the lead occupation listed on his website’s biography page.

“I am a poet at heart, sometimes too much so,” he said when asked about poetry’s influence on his fiction writing. “Lately I have tried and cut back on some of the poetic prose, but not too much.”

Examining Campiche’s upbringing and family history offers clarity into the vastness of his interests. His father, a prominent local physician, also held titles of painter, boat builder and jazz musician. “Being engaged in the pursuit of art seems to be a family trait,” he said. “Poetry was on my agenda from an early age.”

Nature was also a core component of his youth, with time spent hunting and hiking. This early affinity for the outdoors continued to shape several themes within the novel.

Relevant to the story of the man and the work in question, Campiche spent some memorable time visiting the Kitlope Heritage Conservancy, a remote area of coastal British Columbia and the ancestral home of the Haisla people.

Black Wing

A novel by David Campiche

Available online and in local bookstores

FriesenPress — 420 pp — $32.99

There, Campiche spent time with a tribal elder. “My ears and eyes were engaged,” he said. Elements of “Black Wing” are rooted in Indigenous history and geographies of its setting, though its author is quick to point out that the novel is a work of fiction. “I take some elements,” he said, “but I am not capable of knowing the whole story.”

A portion of that time in British Columbia was professional. Campiche worked with Portland-based nonprofit EcoTrust in an effort to protect areas of the province’s wilderness. Asked if this passion for conservation influenced the themes of his novel, Campiche stated, “Absolutely, nature races through my veins.”

Understandably, it takes time to develop a story so rich with detail, action and thematic elements. Campiche estimates the book was developed over as many as 12 years, much of that time while he and his wife, Laurie Anderson, ran a historic inn in Seaview, Washington.

“Laurie and I were running the Shelburne Inn, which was a 60 or 70 hour week. That slowed the process,” he said. “Also, I was learning more and more about writing.”

Campiche continues to focus on his various art forms — that includes contributing cooking columns to Coast Weekend — and is thinking about more potential publications rife with local history, lore and nature.