While Jay's been neglecting this blog he's been hard at work procrastinating loads of other work and getting one of his novels ready, at last, for publication. It's actually his second novel, but the first one to see print.
Jay has four non-fiction titles to brag about, all of them moldy old and out of print. Obsolete, if you must. He's been crafting fiction on the sly all these decades, stashing the completed works. Available imminently, The Naked Ghost, spent decades in development. Jay first put typewriter ribbon to paper for it in 1982. That was before he owned a word processor, or even a computer. Ahhh, those were the days.
Besides moving, sometimes with some difficulty, through several brands and types of computers and multiple incarnations of word processing software, the novel has gone though much revision over the years. Jay inflicted readings from it on his local writers' group, The Twisted Scribes, from whom he derived much assistance in polishing the humor and honing the characters.
The revision for publication entailed bringing it up to date once again. The story takes place in "current" time, with but one flashback and a flash-forward to fracture the flow. What was "current" in the mid-Eighties, well, isn't very with-it now. So Jay revisited the manuscript and brought many references into the present while proofreading, checking and editing. He also tightened a few places that didn't move quick enough for "current" time, though they ticked along just fine back in the Eighties. Jay's had a wonderful time with all this, and looks forward to finishing the sequel.
You noticed, of course, that this whole discussion fails to answer the question: What's the story about? So glad you asked. Here's a fresh promotional synopsis destined for the back cover:
The piano plays torch songs and the fluffy house cat has mischievous habits that transcend even the paranormal. And then there's that little wet dog... Atlanta gay couple Whit and Casey find the country home they dream of, but find out it's haunted. After a spat and some scary adventures they buy the place anyway, but can't decide whether to move in. The sexy ghosts turn out to be pre-incarnations of themselves, and a good time is had by all.
Unless disaster strikes, the book will be available in paper and electronic editions before the end of May 2011. The ISBN is 978-1-879211-01-8. With any luck it'll be banned in Boston and burned in Concord, North Carolina. All the better for sales.