I'm on a summer journey of some 5,000 or 6,000 miles and I forgot to update the First Exit blog! Well, I won't try to catch up everything in one post. Suffice it to say that I've spent time with the family in Seattle, visited friends in Minnesota, done research in Iowa for a story that I've already completed--but I might as well find out how good I did--researched another story through northern Illinois and Chicago, visited my sister in Ohio, and am currently creeping westward back to Las Vegas. Current location is just slightly east of Kansas City where I camped so I could eat a Porterhouse Steak and some great Barbecue.
Yes, that 30oz Porterhouse is bigger than my head.
But in all fairness, it will make three or four meals.
The Porterhouse is from Jess & Jims Steakhouse in Martin City, MO. I remembered it from when I was training in Kansas City a couple of weeks a month. Served with a twice baked potato with all the fixin's, Texas Toast, and pickled beets. Yum!
What would Kansas City be without barbecue???
This rib lunch (and tomorrow's breakfast) from Zarda's Barbecue.
UIndy Class of 1972 Homecoming Reunion
Okay, now on to two important bits of news. First, I've bought my tickets and reserved a room in Indianapolis for my UIndy 50-year class reunion the first weekend of October. It's going to be an expensive weekend, but I figure it might be the last time I get a chance to visit the alma mater and I'll possibly see some friends and classmates. David? Are you going to meet me there?
Full Frame is about to release!
Second, I'm getting ready to release what will probably be my biggest Devon Layne book ever. It will be the first in the Photo Finish Trilogy and is titled Full Frame. The release date is October 2, 2022.
This is the Web edition cover for Full Frame. A story set in the 1960s.
Nate Hart,
class of 1968, has just been uprooted from his lifelong home in Chicago by his
mother’s new career: Methodist minister. Moving to a small town in northwestern
Illinois just before his junior year in high school, is going to mean starting
over in life. But Nate’s passion for photography will lead him to other
passions as he becomes his new school’s official photographer. It seems the
girls in his school think it’s okay to expose themselves more than current
standards would allow, because he’s just the photographer. No one else will see
them, right? What Nate sees in the full frame of his photographs, however, will
change the town. This story contains explicit sexuality as experienced and related by a teenage boy in the 1960s. Adult audiences only.
Oh! That sounds autobiographical! No, it really isn't. The setup probably sounds like me in my teens, but I assure you, there is no character or actual action in this story that bears more than a passing resemblance to just about everyone in the 1960s. But you have to start someplace and as I looked back on what it was like to move to a new town in the mid-sixties, it seemed like a fertile field for me to plant a completely fictional story in.
Please don't assume that either my life or the lives of any of my classmates or relatives are the basis for anything in this story. You'd only be insulted.
I'm looking for reviewers for the massive tome (260,000 words!) In fact, I have an Advance Review Copy eBook (ARC) ready to send to reviewers now. (Officially September 1, but it's ready now.) If you are a reviewer on any platform that reviews adult content, please let me know and I'll get you a copy. If you know such a reviewer, please put us in touch.
Why is this book so long???
Well, I write for a market that reads serials. They get two chapters a week and demand that those chapters contain a sufficient amount to keep them satisfied for three days between chapters. They want long stories that will get them emotionally involved with sympathetic characters. They want a hero who has some great talent or skill on which to build his life. And they want love interests that develop beyond the point of holding hands. Well, beyond.
What I find interesting is that the five to ten thousand readers in this format also want something that truly tugs at their emotions and I assure you, this story has moments that will make you laugh out loud and moments that will bring you to tears. In all, it is an uplifting story of coming of age in an uncertain era. We were dealing with racial tensions and civil rights, the war in Vietnam, the draft, presidential elections that had no good choice, and an era in which women were just beginning to discover they had equal rights with men--a battle that continues today.
- In the 1960s, pantyhose first became affordable and popular. They did not exceed hose in sales until 1970!
- Birth control pills were first approved by the FDA in 1960, and the Supreme Court affirmed the right of MARRIED WOMEN to have access to them in 1965. Birth control access was not affirmed for all Americans until 1972!
- Passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 followed protests like the Selma to Montgomery march led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, who was assassinated in April of 1968.
- The Supreme Court in 1967 finally ruled that people had the right to marry people of different races.
- 2.2 million American men were drafted between 1964 and 1973. 58,220 died there and countless others suffer the continuing death of Agent Orange yet today.
- Riots broke out during protests in Harlem, Watts, New Jersey, Detroit, and Chicago (where police rioted during the 1968 Democratic National Convention).
- Beatlemania hit in 1963 and we had good music for almost ten years!
I had a lot of great material to hang a story around. I'm looking forward to this release!
Well, that's the extent of my ramblings for this August afternoon. Tomorrow I'll be moving my camp westward to Salina, KS for the weekend. Whoopee!
