Local author uses cartel-connected father as inspiration for new book, available now

“I want people to walk away knowing that these things happened in this area, and nobody knew. I also want them to know that you don’t have to let the things that you have witnessed define who you are now. Instead, you can use it as motivation to not be that way. You can be better.” This is what Corbin’s Dakota Havens had to say when asked what he hopes readers will take away from the experience of reading his new book, Shadows of San Miguel.

Havens, a 2022 graduate of Corbin High School, has worked through AmeriCorps as an aide in the family resource center at Corbin Middle School. He will soon be transferring to Lynn Camp middle/high school, though, where he will still be working through AmeriCorps, but as a college coach for the students there. He is currently attending classes at Eastern Kentucky University, where he is studying to become a middle school social studies teacher.

You might assume that somebody who has managed to build this kind of life for themselves has had the luxury of not being exposed to a lot of dangerous situations involving crime and drugs, but in Havens’ case, you’d be wrong.

In fact, when Havens was 13 years old, he first learned the truth about his biological father, a man that he did not know at that time.

“At around the age of 13, I started figuring things out with my father, and why he wasn’t involved in my life,” Havens explained. “I learned about him having connections to the drug cartel.”

At this time, the exact details of Havens’ father’s involvement in the illegal drug operation was not known. The two were able to connect, but only for a brief time before his father vanished.

Soon thereafter, Havens learned that his father’s role in the cartel was much more than just being a lowly drug dealer on the streets.

“He was big in the tri-county,” Havens said, meaning his father dealt with some high-level bad guys, regularly handling large amounts of cash for them.

Since then, Havens has had limited contact with his father, who he says has been in-and-out of jail. Despite the difficult circumstances, he knows that keeping distance is ultimately for the best.

“His activities would put me in danger, so I don’t go around it,” Havens said.

So, how does someone process and deal with all of the emotions that surely come as a result of learning that your own father leads such a life, and that you will have to be separated from him as long as that life continues? In Havens’ case, he put pen to paper and came up with Shadows of San Miguel, a tale of “realistic fiction” that is part biographical and part made-up drama.

This is an impressive feat for any recent high school graduate, but especially so when considering the fact that Havens struggled with dyslexia when he was younger. He said that, while it is not as much of a problem now, it was still something that he had to contend with throughout the process of writing the book.

As for moral support, he drew much of that from one of his former teachers at CHS, Cheryl Steele Tinsley, whose own book, Wave by Wave: A memoir of survival, faith and how God works, has managed to find a wide audience with readers all over the country since its release in 2022.

“I had thought about doing my book before, but when I realized that she had published her book, I went and talked with her about it,” Havens said of Tinsley. “We talked for an hour-and-a-half about it. Three-or-four months goes by, and she contacted me asking if I had gotten started yet. I had gotten busy with work, so I said no. I hadn’t even thought about it, but I decided to write the first few chapters and email them to her. She sent me a message back saying that she loved it, so after that I just took off writing.”

The book’s main character, Mateo, is based on Havens himself, and while the Mexican town of San Miguel is fictional, many of the occurrences in the story were inspired by real life events that the author says have happened right here in the tri-county area.

This includes a scene involving a drive-by shooting that Havens said happened near his own house.

“While people will probably come away wondering which parts are true and which aren’t, I want them to know that, even if your past may look something like this, and even if you have had to deal with something like this when you were younger, that doesn’t mean that you have to grow up and out like that,” Havens said.

As part of his job, Havens has had the chance to interact with students who are displaying certain destructive behaviors for various reasons. Because of his own background, he said that he has been able to connect with many of these young people, and let them know that there is a better path forward, and that he is living proof of that. It is work that he says he is looking forward to continuing in his new position at Lynn Camp starting next year.

As for Shadows of San Miguel, Havens said that he plans on writing a follow-up at some point in the future. In the meantime, copies of this first book can be found online at Amazon.com and Booksamillion.com.