Idlewild Released

Earlier this year I completed and had A Kiss After Dying professionally edited. I spent a considerable amount of time working on another story, Idlewild, as well as A Once Distant Memory and Molon Labe.

Idlewild is pretty special to me for a lot of reasons. The first, it takes place in my home town, and second, it was inspired by one of my favorite novels, The Sun Also Rises. Along with that book, The Great Gatsby, and On the Road, I set out to write a story that satire not just the idle rich men or Hemingway and Fitzgerald, but the idle poor, as well. I know a few women who have five or six children from five or six fathers; what amazes me is how they are able to pawn them off to their grandparents to ‘get on with living life.’ One was extremely irate that her parents refused to babysit. The mother had a doctor’s appointment, and her daughter felt she could change it. In actuality, the mother had cancer, and the daughter was a spoiled brat who didn’t care her own mother was dying.

I think the same four guys sit at every coffee shop across the nation. At the Dunkin’s in Wakefield, the majority are wealthy guys who are now retired. Most of the time they complain about the Democrats, who are giving away this country to those who don’t deserve it. In Wilmington, the adults my age complain about the Republicans who are hording all the money. In other words, each one thinks they are right and the other is wrong.

What I wanted to do in Idlewild was create a satire that lampooned both sides. This included making fun of myself as a college professor who doesn’t have to work a forty hour work week. Nothing would be off-limits, except race. I really didn’t want to focus on race, especially in light of the merciless killing of African Americans down south.

The end result was a 67,000 word novel that took me roughly two weeks to write, and another month to edit. I had wanted to release A Kiss After Dying in September, but I have decided against it, since it is still at two publishers for consideration.

So, Idlewild will be published first, and then, perhaps, A Once Distant Memory. Both of these novels focus on the town of Idlewild, but at different times.