Have a Cigar!!

Pass out the cigars! We’re celebrating! Celebrating what?  The birth of a new book!

What book? My second novel, Leaving Mark.

 

I have spent the last three days formatting, editing, reviewing, editing, reviewing, editing, until there can’t possibly be a typo anywhere in the text. In fact, I’m so sure of it, I’ll send $15 to anyone who finds a typo.

Leaving Mark has been a fun book to write. Like its cohort, Willard Manor (of which this is a spinoff) there was a lot of fact checking to do. Granted, I lived in the fifties and sixties but I still had to double check such facts as when Carvel Ice Cream started its first store, or Howard Johnson’s. I couldn’t have my characters going to a store that didn’t yet exist, now could I?

President Kennedy’s assassination is burned in my mind—day, date, time (I was folding diapers and watching Gale Storm on an ancient black and white console TV when the news broke), but I had to check other events like when the Titanic sank (no, I wasn't around then!) and when Sputnik was launched. I further had to check the distance between New Haven, Connecticut and Sturgis, South Dakota, to see how long it would take two guys on motorcycles to get from one place to the other, without today’s highways. Thank heavens for MapQuest!

If you read Willard Manor (and if you didn’t, you should, it's a fun and painless way to learn US history through the generations of the Willard family), you know that a young couple, Tony and Shelley McGuire buy an old house and renovate it to make a home for them and their future children.  Shelley’s father is Mark Fortier. Leaving Mark is her father’s story, moving forward from catastrophe as a young boy to discovering who he is and what it means to be a man (with a few more good history lessons thrown in).

Leaving Mark is self-published through CreateSpace and will be available in a few days on Amazon, in both print and ebook.

 

Quote of the Day:  Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.  Francis Bacon

The Start of a New Book

By  now you've all heard about my novel, Willard Manor.  Probably more than you ever wanted to!  Well, for the last few months, I've been working on a prequel to that novel, meaning it's the back story of one of the book's characters. 

The new novel is called Leaving Mark and I want to give you a taste of it by giving  you the prologue.  Here is how the book starts:

Leaving Mark

Prologue

July 16, 1957.  Shots were fired.  The peace and quiet of the New Haven Green was shattered as people scurried in all directions desperately trying to find a place to hide.  The bearded hot dog vendor cried out then crumpled to the freshly-cut grass, relish dripping into his puddle of blood.  A woman, dressed in a navy blue suit and heels, fell backwards, her briefcase scattering its contents on the Green.  Attorney Leonard Fortier, who left his office in the Fisher Building to grab a quick lunch, was shot as soon as he stepped outside.  The wild-eyed gunman then aimed the gun at himself and pulled the trigger.

Survivors waited until no more shots were heard before cautiously emerging from their hiding places.  They looked in stunned silence at the carnage.  The New Haven Green quickly came to life as a building security guard put in a hurried call for help and onlookers came to the aid of those who were dead or injured.Flashing lights of ambulances and police cars, their sirens screaming, ascended on the grizzly scene and, as if out of nowhere, television and newspaper reporters appeared, rushing to get the scoop only to be shooed away by the police.

When the shooting began, Eleanor Rawley had been sitting on a bench enjoying her hot dog.  After the first shot, she crouched behind the bench  and from that vantage point saw her boss, Attorney Fortier, exit the building and collapse on the grass.  When it was all over, she ran to her boss calling his name, but when she saw his blood pooling on the walkway, she let out a scream and collapsed next to him.

Eleanor came to in the arms of a New Haven policeman.  He checked her for any visible wounds while an EMT tended to Len.  In a shaky voice, Eleanor said, “We have to call Mabel . . . his wife!”

The Green was buzzing with first responders, ambulances and gurneys.  Cries and wails were loud enough to be heard over the sirens.  Inside the lobby of the Fisher Building, people lined up at the two pay phones.Ten minutes ago the Green had been a peaceful refuge from stuffy law offices; now, four people lay dead. 

And Mark‘s life would be forever changed. 


Stay tuned for more to come.

Quote of the Day: Books cannot be killed by fire.  People die, but books never die. Franklin D. Roosevelt