Bull and the Butterfly
ABSTRACT
The Bull and the Butterfly is a children’s book treating topics for all ages: tolerance, inclusion, friendship, and love. The Bull and the Butterfly, meet and strike up a friendship which is a scandal to others because of their differences. The tension of the book is ultimately resolved but not until the message is clearly made. The book is written in verse and illustrated in soft pastels and watercolors.
PUBLICATION STATUS:
I have a full publication ready version ready to go. This I will definitely self-publish.
SAMPLE
On a field of green, on a land so lush
There lived a Bull, a life quite plush
On that land the Bull called home
He was hearthed in splendor and free to roam
And roam he did, over hill and pond
Until one day when he stumbled upon…
Too Many Goodbyes
ABSTRACT
Too Many Goodbyes is currently a full length novel, but I am converting it into a play. It is a story about being the son of an immigrant, nerdy, very intelligent, but maladjusted. In time he learns the source of his maladjustment and experiences a genuine existential crisis, a touch of madness, and worse.
PUBLICATION STATUS:
A full length novel is completed, but I decided to make this into a play. That will delay publication (and in this enactment).
SAMPLE
I was sitting at my computer, I believe it’s called surfing the net, when my phone rang. It startled me. I picked up the receiver still concentrating on the computer screen. I heard the softest feminine voice and was prepared to hang up, thinking it was a wrong number. Then I heard, “Johnny?” I paused. I didn’t recognize the voice. I identified myself and felt my whole mouth and throat go dry. “It’s Jennie. Jennie Colby.” I’ll never forget that. She used her last name, as though I could forget her. Didn’t she know that I was already madly in love with her?
“Jennie, how are you?”
“I hope you don’t mind, but I got your number from Pamela. She said you wouldn’t mind.”
“Um, no, er, um, of course not.” I stammered so much that I almost bit my tongue.
“Good. Listen you go to Fordham, right?”
“Right. Yeah, great school…. Well, I mean… I like it. It’s good.” I had no idea why I was so nervous. But realizing that I was nervous made me more nervous and so it was getting worse.
“Are you going to be on campus next Tuesday? One of my professors is a guest lecturer and I want to come hear him read his paper, it’s philosophy. I thought maybe you would like to come with me?”
I almost dropped the phone. I couldn’t speak. My tongue had swollen to the size of a watermelon and my throat was the size of a mouse’s…. eye. I almost lost the whole damned show right then and there.
“Well, if you’d rather not…”
“No. Jennie, I would love to go. I would love it. Really, I would. I will love the lecture and the philosophy and your professor.”
“Johnny, all I want is for you to come with me and hear the lecture; you don’t have to become a fan.” She laughed and every cliché came true. I heard angels singing and bells ringing and suddenly became so aware of my erection that I wanted to hang up out of embarrassment. “Anyway, it’s in the theology/philosophy building. It’s Tuesday at seven, OK?”
“OK.” Mercifully she hung up after a brief goodbye. I was mortified. I placed the receiver gently on the cradle and thought about Jennie. She called me. She called me! She called ME.
Diva Rules
ABSTRACT
This is a whimsical work. The rules are meant to help Diva-trainees become full fledged Divas. The format is an image on the left page, the rule heading the right page, the rest of the right page being an explanation and examples of the rule and its effects. Not to give too much away but one rule is:
Never stand when you can pose
PUBLICATION STATUS:
This is in the conceptual stage, but will be fairly quick to execute, because I have the list of Rules the book just needs illustration.
A House Full of Strangers
ABSTRACT
In an unspecified time and place, this family drama revolves a young war hero who returns home to lay claim to his inheritance, only to find a family in disarray, overcome by the tyranny of their father and the ghost-like legacy of their loving mother. Felipe-Antonio learns more than he ever wanted to know about his family and their history. Tragedy, though, continued to cast its shadow over the family driving them apart and leaving Felipe-Antonio with fewer good choices.
PUBLICATION STATUS:
I have a very rough draft completed but it will take a couple of months to get to it. This is a very fun and exciting work.
SAMPLE
If it is possible for silence to increase, it did. Don Francisco Adalberto had entered the room. His hair was greased back. He had shaved. He wore a new suit and a diamond pin in his tie. He smelled of expensive cologne. He moved awkwardly, every motion a portrayal of the nervousness he felt. Was the pope of Rome visiting? it was only his youngest son! Jose Gerardo joined his family but said nothing. He joined Juan Carlos on the sofa and watched their father. In fact, all eyes were on him. He had stared at the portrait that hung over the fireplace. Then he did something that would be the talk of the family for much time to come. He walked over to the piano. He lifted the keyguard and struck a few of the keys. His sons watched in something akin to horror. The piano had been there since long before the birth of Paquito. No one had ever seen him touch it. Paquito remembered the pain of the keyguard he subconsciously reacted by rubbing the fingers that had been broken. Jose Gerardo couldn’t stop blinking. Juan Carlos stared with mouth agate. Marta wanted to be anywhere but in this room. Suddenly El Amo became aware of their attention.
“They did a fine job tuning the piano. You can’t trust workers these days. It is necessary, always, to check.” He was speaking quickly to cover his embarrassment. “Music was a thing for children and women. Men had no time for such niceties. The world was a hard place; only hard men could hope to survive and provide for their family.” All this and more to the old man had drilled in their heads. And now by a single, small gesture, he had shocked them into rethinking. What is it about Felipe Antonio that could make this hard man act so out of character? they had all expected the piano to be sold or thrown out when their mother died. It was no secret that he hated the piano. What was that on his face when he struck those keys? Was it sorrow? hope? fear? fear. How would he even know if the piano was tuned properly?
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