Thursday, July 26, 2007

When I first would describe the premise of my novel, I used to say this:

It's the story of a guy who decides to reinvent his life when he learns his wife is having an affair the same day the Big 6 accounting firm that employs him implodes due to some illegal tax shelters they set up. He decides to follow his dream to become a writer so he moves to Manhattan... Kansas, where his idol teaches writing. There he uses the skills he honed in business to succeed in the political atmosphere of Kansas State.

Universally, this was hated by those who had read the first part of my book. They, rightfully, said it was boring and did not describe any of the odd or funny qualities of the writing.

So lately I've been describing it this way.

Krauthammer 2.0
It's the story of a guy who decides to reinvent his life when he learns his wife is having an affair the same day the Big 6 accounting firm that employs him implodes due to some illegal tax shelters they set up. He moves to Manhattan, Kansas, where he begins to write about some of the odd things he encounters there, like an underground dairy that sells unpasteurized milk and a plot to derail trains carrying baby formula to third world countries.

But the problem here is that people think I have veered from the real plot and am making some kind of a joke.

Here is how I think I will describe it now.

Krauthammer 2.0
This is a comedic novel about Carl Krauthammer, a 38-year-old man who decides to drop everything and move to Manahattan, Kansas. His move uncovers the town's secrets, including an underground dairy that sells unpasteurized milk, a militant wing of La Leche League, and the reason why one of Carl's favorite writers has lost his mojo.

Would this description make you want to read the book? Give me your comments.

2 comments:

Annoynymous said...

yes, third logline is the most Pychonian, which is where it sounds like it's heading, genre-wise.

"Raw Milk from The Underground Dairy" popped into my head as an alt. title -- you might consider because the whole "2.0" thing has been a little abused by now (wasn't when you started, I imagine) and it has satirical echo of Notes from Underground. I see that you intend the title to signal that it is a novel of transformation, but that should be expected, and the weirder more comedic element is probably the more saleable.

Just some thoughts.

BTW, I came here after noticing on your Facebook that you were "eating and showering." Ah, the narratives of modern life!

Congrats on the MFA, did not know you had done that!

b

Steven said...

I tried out the new description and it worked famously. Thanks Bill for the thoughts on the title. I will no doubt go through many changes in that department if I get on the road to publication.

As long as the dost jacket has an enormous picture of ME, I don't care what the title is.