Two quotes by Hunter S. Thompson sum up my youth and my writing: “Truth is weirder than any fiction I’ve seen” and “It never got weird enough for me.” I was fascinated with people, but I quickly grew bored with ordinary life. I went off exploring other worlds: criminals, gangs, commies, Birchers, hippies, drug dealers, murderers. I guess part of the intrigue was getting to know them inside and out without becoming one of them. I was casual friends with several murderers. Fortunately, all but one committed their murders after I left town or they left town.
When I was thirteen, I started writing poetry or short stories based on the things I had heard or seen out there. And yes, reality is often stranger than fiction. Even more so if dreams and nightmares are included in that reality. People like to talk about their dreams and nightmares. I miss the old smoking rooms. They were great places to get to know people and gather writing material. Over the decades I filled a file drawer with poems and short stories, mostly dark and weird. After I retired and returned to ordinary life, I used them to write The Mons Monkey Trilogy.
My work is fiction, but much of what I write is true. Much of what I write actually happened in real life, dreams, or nightmares. Not in the life, dreams, or nightmares of one person, but in the lives, dreams, or nightmares of myself and the people I have known, met, or talked to in my lifetime. The characters in the trilogy are composites in the same way. I’m not a genre writer. I think psychological thriller would come close for those who want a genre.
The Mons Monkey Trilogy is the continuing saga of John Harrison, but each book stands alone. I made the main character a slightly mentally ill conservative Christian baby boomer with serious sleep disorders. So half the people will identify with him and cheer him on, half the people will hate him and take pleasure in his suffering, and (per Yogi Berra) the other half won’t care one way or the other. Isalarasu Bose, an Asian Indian, is John’s psychiatrist. Danny and Joe are John’s friends. They are composites of the wildest and craziest people I’ve known. There was a Danny or a Joe in every town. And yes, ladies, there are heroines: Joyce, John’s wife; Talia, his first wife; and the mysterious Lisa Myers, who saves his butt several times.
Caught In A Dream is a different kind of murder mystery. If you commit murder in a dream, are you a murderer? If you no longer know if you are awake or asleep and dreaming, then how can you be sure it was only a dream?
Mons Monkey, author photo
Shattered Dreams is a prequel to Caught In A Dream. A different kind of divorce story. Divorce from a man’s point of view. Gritty.
Dream Police is dystopian. Death, doom, and gloom. The last days of John Harrison?
I’m on Google+, LinkedIn, Goodreads, and Facebook. I don’t have an author page on Facebook. I’m not into titles or publicity. I publicize my books, not myself. And I use a picture of the Mons Monkey for my Facebook photo. Somebody back there might still be looking for me…
Links:
Caught In A Dream
Amazon page: http://tinyurl.com/jsq44sx
Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/hkegnlu
Shattered Dreams
Amazon page: http://tinyurl.com/jcn5lja
Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/z7ctgvs
Dream Police
Amazon page: http://tinyurl.com/hjh3nm8
Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/gqcc3qe
Recommended Articles:
Ollie and Her Creation of Envisage: In Through the Mirror
R.L. Smith – My Experiences as a Writer
Matthew Williams – How my Weakness Became a Strength
Bradley Simpson – My World of Fantasy
Suzi Albrecht – The Queen of Scream
