Joe’s Late Great American Dream

I don’t mean to have a favorite book of mine that I’ve written – it’s like having a favorite kid.
But it’s true, I have a novel that I love more than the others.
That’s Joe, as I refer to it. “Joe’s Late Great American Dream” is its full name.

This novel came out just before the pandemic hit in 2020 and missed getting the attention I think it deserved.

One of the last social events we had before the pandemic was a soup party to celebrate the publication of Joe.

 

Earlier that day I had a reading at Space Cowboy Books – what a windy day!

While I read from my dystopian-tinged speculative fiction novel we (the whole world) were about to enter a real dystopian future. We had no idea!

Jean-Paul Garnier from Space Cowboy Books edited the novel. We spent a whole day together while he read it aloud. Hearing it read out loud makes mistakes just jump out. Along with that I think I read this novel about 25 times before I let go of it and sent it to the printer.

“Joe’s Late Great American Dream” tells the story of Joe, a muscular built mid-thirties guy who feels like life is slipping by and he was missing out on the great American dream. Like most of my stories there are aliens that arrive at one point. Also there is a prophet of the Most High predicting the end of the world… and he looks like he might be pretty accurate. Peppered throughout the story are various interesting characters with their own subplots.

Here’s the description on Amazon

Once upon a time in the U.S. of A. there lived a man named Joe. Joe had a dream, an American dream, but somewhere along the way he got lost in the city. Now he’s on his way to the desert, trying to find his dream girl in that elusive search for love during a countdown to the end-of-the-world. This story includes spoon-benders, ex-cheerleaders, bike riders, love, the richest man in the world, private islands, asteroids, prophets, The Man Upstairs, grocery stores, underground bunkers, aliens, psychics, the desert, a Bruce Springsteen concert and the American Dream. Just so you know.

Published February, 2020 | Available on Amazon.com

 

Funny side note about the power of fiction

Before I wrote this book I didn’t care for Bruce Springsteen, but Joe unexpectedly turned out to be a Springsteen fan. Just popped up one day while I was writing the story.

I figured I better listen to some of Bruce’s songs for the sake of the novel. The more I listened the more I liked what I was hearing. Long sections of the book were written with “Nebraska” on repeat. I think I listened to the whole Springsteen catalog by the time the book was finished.

By that time I was a fan and I wrote the intro and outro for the book, sandwiching the story inside a Springsteen concert.

Excerpt

Here’s the first few chapters…