Billy McCoy's Blog: Billy McCoy, page 8

excerpt from Strange Fruit, a novel

“Here is how it works,” Jason explained, “you are, say, a peaceable black or Hispanic citizen on your way home from work. A police sergeant like Foster, detecting you on the bus or at Walgreens, approaches you, jacks you by the collar, and informs you that you are under arrest for throwing a dead cat into the front door of the VFW sometime back in 1997. Frightened and amazed by the accusation, you decide to turn on your heels. He pursues you along with a half-dozen of the department’s finest. You continue to run. Steen draws and discharges his Glock 9mm. He misses and is now doubly mad. You are caught by his younger partner despite her hangover. They fall upon you but they are merciful and instead of emptying their extra clips in your brain, she fetches her Taser and he, his pepper spray; today, luckily, they aren’t interested in medals and decorations for murdering an unarmed fool, or could care less about turkeys the local Chamber of Commerce dole out to those risking their lives in pursuit of dangerous criminals. No, not this time! You prepare to resist their maniacal assault. The beat you insensibly with night sticks and the butts of their Glocks, and drag you off to a waiting patrol car.
Arriving at the jail you are locked in a room with twenty sour detectives, and for twelve hours they question you with their subtle art. You grow angry---perhaps robbed of your usual politeness by the throbbing in your head and aching red eyes---and answer tartly. They beat you some more, off camera of course. You are then carted downtown to the county jail where they leave you. You are there for a week, your job is gone, your credit is ruined, your wife leaves you and your picture is in the local paper for violating the rights of the late cat, and you are hence forced to move from Richfield. You remain in jail until the bartender from the VFW is rounded up to identity you. After a month he astonishes the Richfield police by saying you are not the cat-thrower, it appears that it was a group of jolly teenagers out for kicks. After another month of holding you, in order to examine your rear-end for contraband, audit your tax returns and report your sister’s premarital chastity, they let you go.
You are naturally somewhat irritated by your experience and perhaps your mother urges you to seek redress. Well, what are your remedies? If you are a firebrand, you call for the instant jailing of Pa’ Hathaway, the release of O.J., the dismissal of the mayor, for Best Buy to move its headquarters to China and free trade with North Korea. But you respect the law and consult a lawyer---and at once she shows you just how far your rights go, and where they end. You can’t jail Papa Hathaway for incompetence, for you resisted his officers when they attempted to arrest you, and when you resisted them they acquired an instant right to take you by force. You cannot proceed against Reed or Browder for accusing you falsely, for they have a right to make summary arrests for felony animal abuse, and the courts have many times decided that public officers, regardless how odious, are not liable for their stupidity, ignorance, or errors of judgment, and therefore cannot be charged with malice made in the execution of their sworn duty. And the madam mayor will not resign nor will O.J. be released. These are your inalienable rights, and no man or woman on earth can deprive you of them.” This is how my cousin explained the inter-workings of the police department.

Strange Fruit

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Billy McCoy

Second Chance Sister, a review from Penn Book Review

McCoy has created a most refreshing addition to women's literature with this anthology featuring second chances, love, and loss.

In this sharp collection, McCoy has created two engaging stories of second chances. The first story, Second Chance Sister, chronicles 20-year-old Ashley, and her coming of age story. Ashley's mother, Rachael, shares both her displeasure and pleasure in her daughter's wish to become engaged to Neal Markham, a successful man five years Ashley's senior. Naturally, her mother and sister believe she is too young, but Ashley is confident in her ability to make her own decisions. Much like any 20-year-old, Ashley changes her mind quickly when she meets Brandon, a captivating young man with an engaging personality; the opposite of Neal. Ashley chooses to marry Brandon, despite her mother's lack of support. Then, for a while, it feels as if her life is spinning out of control. With an unwanted child on the way, money in short supply, and pressure to become the sole breadwinner of the family--Ashley is miserable. She gets a little help from an idea and summerwear.com and is miraculously able to turn her life around for the better--but will she remain happy? The second story, Online Dating: a Memoir, gives a detailed account of Peyton's online dates. As the son of an ambitious, accomplished man, and an absent mother that, after his father's suicide, gave herself over to "God and the bottle"; Peyton falls into a darkness that he doesn't even realize he must overcome. With his own feelings of inadequacy, Peyton believes most of the women he has met online are beneath him. Pool-of-singles.com introduces Peyton to Adrienne, a rather erratic and eclectic woman; Mildred, a messy, deranged woman in need of money, fast; and the beautiful Amanda, who appears to be "genuine and interesting." Although his dates seem quirky to say the least--he finds something he didn't expect. And not a wife or girlfriend--rather something deeper and rooted in religion; a subject he had once turned his back on.

Lucid and intelligent. Second Chance Sister delves deeply into the most natural of emotions and the most wrenching of choices; each event detailing twists of fate and turns with grace.Second Chance Sister

excerpt from Second Chance Sister, a novel.

“Mom,” Ashley began decidedly, drawing her attention back from faraway thoughts, “here is the deal: Neal is wonderful, he’d always love me and provide for us. And all that kind of stuff.”
She put her head on the kitchen table for a few moments and her mother, troubled and surprised, imagined that Ashley was crying.
“But Mom,” she continued on, talking in a sort of angry desperate way, yet humble and controlled.
“I don’t want to depend on him. I have my own ideas about life and some of them are very different from Neal’s. I—I don’t want him to take care of me. I want to have a career, to make my own mistakes, to travel, to help others. I want to do those things before I become someone’s wife. I want to live a little---not stagnate in the kitchen. What’s the matter, mom? Why are you looking at me
like that?”

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Second Chance Sister

excerpt from Second Chance Sister

"She was desperately, deeply lonely in Milwaukee. Except for her husband—and she was only beginning to discover how little she knew of him—she had no one to consult, no one to complain to and no one to listen to her."

Second Chance Sister, a novel by Billy McCoy

Second Chance Sister, a novel by Billy McCoy

Second Chance Sister is a deeply emotional and mesmerizing novel of youthful passion, wealth and the fateful events that lead to heartache and pain then the miracle of a second chance.
Ashley Edmundson, a serenely attractive and restless young woman hits upon a magnificent idea which she then builds into a booming enterprise…but the sudden success is a double edge sword…her husband's excess extravagance quickly destroys and breaks Ashley's spirits. Divorced, Ashley discovers redemption in devoting her life to saving her daughter and sister from a similar fate.
Filled with tenderness, passion and resilience, Second Chance Sister is a novel to treasure forever.Second Chance Sister

Review of Strange Fruit a novel by Billy McCoy

Strange Fruit is a captivating story of two very different cousins, who, in a series of absorbing scenes spanning twenty years, despite their mutual differences, grow ever closer to, and more dependent on, each other. The story of Jason Ayers is told by his cousin whom he met in childhood. Claudia Adams, a spirited girl from Reading, PA., never forgets the summer spent with her little cousin Jason who so profoundly influenced her life. A poor child of illiterate parents, Jason’s boyhood is spent avoiding his dad and protecting his mother who tries to wrest a living from the cotton fields of Mississippi. Though in later years Jason suffers betrayal and desertion, through all the hardships of his life he preserves a valor of spirit that no hardship can daunt or break. However, when Claudia sees him again after many years, she finds him overwhelmed by life. Strange Fruit is a deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope. Claudia, perhaps because she has grown, learns to let go, just a little, and that friendship—and forgiveness—can sneak up on you like a sudden winter storm. She reminds readers to open their eyes to the wonder and the miracle found in the simple act of forgiving.
Strange Fruit http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos...

excerpt from Online Dating: a Memoir, a novel Billy E Mccoy

I opened the door, waving a broken curtain rod and looked into the kitchen, under the refrigerator, behind the stove, in the cupboards, but nothing. Finally I quickly walked back to my bedroom cursing my shattered nerves and ashamed of myself.
The house was empty except for me. As I locked the door to the bedroom I again heard breaking glass and a door close.
“What the hell? Must be that bad weed I had as a teenager!”
I paused. God perhaps was tormenting me for the act I pulled on those feisty Church Hens several weeks back.
“Forgive me Lord, I apologize! I’m not living right!”
I raised the broken curtain rod, and asking for His protection and succor I looked around my house again.
I opened the door to the glass orangerie, and saw a dense foggy amalgam. Then suddenly, I saw, inside the glass orangerie, at the far end, between the orchids and birds of paradise, the dark motionless shadow of a woman.
“Holy shit, a Ghost!”
I turned to run, but where to? I dropped the curtail rod and hummed like a Jewish cantor.
The apparition moved toward me, my wobbly knees finally buckled.
“I’m sorry, forgive me Lord!”
Then in a flash the ghost looked familiar. It was that blessed Adrienne de Noalilles.
“Good morning, Peyton!”
I got the faint whiff of a foul odor coming from the back of my pants.
I’ve crapped my pants! I thought quickly digesting both the fear and relief, and rising anger.
“Peyton, my dear, you’re shaking all over and, boy, you smell like a baby’s diaper! What’s the matter, hum?
I felt hot and light-headed.
“What are you doing here?”
“Visiting, since you've forgotten me so quickly! Peyton, go change, honey, something is dripping from the back of your pants,” she said shaking her head and plugging her long nose.
“Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.” I cried, running to the front door.
“Peyton, let’s have coffee, or should I clean you up first?”
“What? Are you nuts? Have you lost your blind?”
Jesus, I stumbled over mind and said blind instead.
“Aren't you interested to know why I’m here, Peyton?”
“No, no and hell no! For Christ sake go home.”
“Peyton, your curious, I know.”
“No, I’m not! And stop saying my name!”
She moved closer holding her nose.
“I’m a part of your life now. I know you are surprised and scared shitless. It’s easy to frighten cowards and make cowards like you nervous. No wonder men like you flourish, because you can make women nervous and insecure.



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excerpt from Delilah Samson, a novel by Billy McCoy

"Being wholly dominated by the desire for money and power and believing those prizes the most pleasant and sweetest of possessions, Devon had no patience for paltry relationships or affairs of the heart. And only compulsion induced him to listen silently and grin. All the same, the hidden contempt flowed from the fact that Devon perceived Delilah and Earl’s petty concerns and idle chit chat as torture, an obstacle, a hindrance; he had little leisure for looking down on affairs of others, let alone participating." ----Delilah Samson, a novel by Billy McCoy

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Delilah Samson

excerpt from the Glass Orangerie, a novel by Billy McCoy

The overcast sky cleared and an effervescent mood of expectation filled me as Cassie Vassall, my first online date was due to arrive. I was in a state of excitement bordering on a nervous breakdown. I waited and waited, looked and looked at the clock; tearing and re-tearing a sheet of paper; monitoring the door, looking into the driveway and biting my fingernails until two of them trickled blood. I paced anxiously about the glass orangerie, under this intolerable strain, the echo of a gentle knock at the door sent a chill of delight through my veins and a leap of something in my chest; all at once, agonizingly, shamelessly, hopelessly, I should add, this frenzy worried me lest I should get entangled in another tedious affair which could only morph into lusterless disappointment.
“Have you found Jesus?”
“WHAT?”
“Have you found Jesus?”

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The Glass Orangerie

excerpt from Strange Fruit

'The only available rabbit at such short notice, she concluded, was to leave immediately. She staked all her hopes on a simple collections call she had, a Fingerhut agent told her that the company was hiring at its St Cloud, Minnesota headquarters. Aunt Edna had me write Uncle Aaron.
“We have parted ways; our buses are to different places.” And then she signed the obituary of their relationship.' Strange Fruit, by Billy McCoy

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Strange Fruit