Vince Nakovics is currently living in Shkoder, Albania, he and his wife moved there in 2012.  You will hear what the blacksmith scene is like there in the interview.  Prior to moving to Albania, he lived in Virginia Beach VA, which is where he began to blacksmith and eventually became the Tidewater Blacksmith’s Guild’s newsletter editor for 6 years.  With his renewed interest in writing he ended up publishing 65 monthly newsletters (during his time as editor), conducted over 100 interviews of blacksmiths and has written and published 5 books about blacksmiths, 2 of them are suspenseful fiction books.  In the interview you’ll hear that I was awaiting the arrival of one of his books, the Blacksmith Murders, I have since read the book and it’s a suspenseful, fast easy read, I recommend reading it, there’s not a lot of books out there that are about fictional characters that are blacksmiths! It’s a fun book.

Before I get to the interview I wanted to tell you who the guest will be for the next Blacksmith’s Pub podcast, that’s Eve McClanahan, I’m excited to hear this one, I know she studied dance at New York University and is a blacksmith as well, tune in this Friday, May 26th for Jesse Savage and Rick Barter’s  9th episode with Eve.

What We Talked About

• Vince was in the Navy for 24 years before retiring in Virginia Beach. The retirement didn’t last long, in 1999 he was hired on with the National Park Service and he stayed there for 15 years.
• The National Park Service hired him to do research and restoration projects on 1781 canon carriages. This is where he was introduced to blacksmithing, he was looking for a blacksmith to make the straight nails that are part of the wheels of the carriages.  The prices Vince was getting from local blacksmiths for the work turned out to be too high for the restoration budget, so the Park Service decided it was less expensive to set Vince up with a blacksmith shop so he could make them on location.
• He ended up getting a lot of help from Peter Ross who happened to be the master blacksmith at the historical site Colonial Williamsburg.
• Vince became very involved with his local blacksmith guild, the Tidewater Blacksmith’s Guild and eventually became the newsletter editor.
• Due to the local guild moving its main gathering site farther away from Vince and a few other blacksmiths, Vince and a friend decided to start up another blacksmith guild called the Artist Blacksmiths Guild of Tidewater. Another major reason for doing this was to teach blacksmiths how to work with other blacksmiths on art projects.
• Vince and his wife moved to Albania in 2012 and the blacksmith scene is “dismal at best”. He ended up bringing his propane gas forge and had to find an anvil there.
• When Vince became the editor for the Tidewater Blacksmith’s Guild he started to include interviews with blacksmiths around the world as articles. This led him to publish two books of all the interviews called “American Blacksmiths” and “Horses Need Not Apply”.
• His latest book, “Rozafa’s Secrets” is in its final editing phase. Here is the blurb about the story “American blacksmith John Reid is invited to be a guest demonstrator and speaker at the First Annual Rozafa Castle Ancient Skills Fair in Shkoder, Albania. While in route an Inspector Buchari of Interpol Albania requests his assistance in combating his country’s international criminals.  John’s strong sense of justice will not allow him to turn his back. He agrees and confirms criminal involvement with the event. Unknown to John, Rozafa Castle has secrets of its own. Secrets capable of toppling corrupt members of the Albanian Parliament from their pedestals of power. When he is discovered by his host Victor Glasser and unable to escape his only hope lies with his Albanian friend and Victor’s kept woman.”

 

Guest Links

• Vince Nakovic’s Website for his books - https://vincenakovics.com/
• Vince’s blog - https://happyhavenforge.wordpress.com/
• Amazon link to all of his books - https://www.amazon.com/Vince-Nakovics/e/B00J94J220
• Rozafa’s Secrets book - coming soon, still in the final editing process

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