Pfeiffer Brewery

Stumbling around the web this morning, I found an article about the old Pfeiffer Brewery in Detroit.  This is the setting for the final scenes of the novel City of the Dead.  I'm not sure how many readers figured that out, but now you know. If you are interested in what the brewery looked like then and what it looked like for Donald Fordyce when he got there, take a look. The one picture of the interior should be of special interest.

Heroes Now Available in Paperback

I am happy to report that if you are one of those old-fashioned readers who still likes to have a book to hold and flip pages, you can get a copy of Heroes in paperback.  It is available now on Amazon through their Create Space imprint.  Due to the size of the book, Create Space had a minimum price. I wish I could have made it available for less.  In any event, it is available to order.  I am working on a paperback version of Smoke right now.  I hope to have that available within a couple of weeks.  Paperback versions of Exile and City of the Dead should follow over the summer.  Then I have to start work on getting Harvest out in both Ebook and paperback versions.  Don't look for that to happen until the fall.


I want to thank Teddi Black for her outstanding work on the paperback cover of Heroes.  She will be doing the other paperback covers as well.  If you need any sort of design work, be sure to find her on Elance.  I would also like to thank Donna Robbins, a dear friend from childhood. Donna helped me with the process of getting Heroes into the proper format  for Create Space.   She just published a fine romance novel on Amazon called Hope For All Seasons. Go and get a copy of it. I'm sure you will enjoy it.  Not only that, you will be aiding an outstanding charity.


http://www.amazon.com/Heroes-Detroit-William-Theodore-Clemmons/dp/149939361X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1402506981&sr=8-5&keywords=william+theodore+clemmons


http://www.amazon.com/Hope-All-Seasons-Donna-Robbins/dp/1496118979/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402508669&sr=1-1&keywords=hope+for+all+seasons

City Of The Dead Cover

I am so delighted that Teddi Black agreed to work with me on the City of the Dead cover.  We are finishing up what I think will be a really outstanding example of graphic art.  I don't want to say too much, but I think the cover will really be integral to readers understanding the book.  I hope to have City of the Dead up on Amazon within a month or so.  I will post here when it is available.

City of the Dead Approaches

I have sent City of the Dead to the proofreaders. I asked Teddi Black to start working on cover design ideas. I am waiting word from Farrar, Strauss to see if they will give me permission to use John Berryman's Dream Song 29.  All this means that the publication of City of the Dead is not far off.  I hope to have it up on Amazon within thirty days or so.  Meanwhile, I have put Heroes, Smoke, and Exile on Wavecloud. Exile is now available on Smashwords.  Don't say you can't find me.

The Persistence of Hope

I met a man yesterday who tells me that he wrote songs with a famous Pop Diva. They have a secret arrangement that no one knows about. He also wrote some of the dialogue for a well-known war movie of recent vintage. Very interesting, to be sure. But neither of these things happened. It is a fixed delusion.  Then I spoke with a woman today who many years ago wrote a book about bereavement.  She has now made contact with a literary agent many states away. This women is certain that acclaim and wealth are inevitable now.  She spoke of winning the Nobel Prize. Her book is available on Amazon. It currently ranks about 12 millionth in sales. Why does anyone dare think that greatness has alighted upon them? What is the source of such audacity? I once read a quote along the lines of "The greater the talent, the greater the doubt." Perhaps there is something in that.  Every child swimming on a Saturday afternoon in front of  a somnolent gathering of grandparents is bound for the Olympics. We all cling to the notion that we are just one break away from our great genius being made patent for the world to behold. All of us are wrong. None of us is great. But the hope persists. Why?

A New Idea?

When I finished Home, I said I was done writing. I think that is still true. For some reason, however, new ideas seem to be percolating up and announcing themselves.  As I have said before, most of these are just old ideas in slightly different forms. But now I have this notion starting to take form. I envision the story taking place in some near-future vision of Detroit. The actual city has shrunk to just the downtown area and the corridor out to the New Center and Wayne State University. Everything else has gone back to nature. From the I-94 north to 8 Mile is nothing but land slowly erasing what remains of the urban past.  In this large tract, two families have established estates, or Kingdoms. Woodward remains the dividing line. It is now a river instead of a street. Bursting water mains caused the concrete and pavement to give way. Then water began to trickle up until a river formed.  One the west side of the river is one large estate. On the east side is another. These two estates have an uneasy peace. That peace is broken when a woman from the east side falls in love with a man from the west side. The leaders of the two estates would be based on Macbeth (west) and Hamlet (east). The two lovers are, of course, Romeo and Juliet.  All four, of course, end up dead. I think it would be interesting to take the Shakespeare characters and place them in the wilds of what used to be a major city. The action might be driven by a Lear-like division of the Kingdoms.  Beyond that, I don't know much.  I suspect this idea will die aborning, but who knows?