Hi and welcome to Centervillebooks.com, an online bookstore featuring exhaustively-edited indie books. What we are doing here is creating our own genres. (Or at least going where not so many have gone before.)
Our first attempt, our initial offering, The Denouement, is Christian theology/mythology told as Epic Fantasy and judging from the reception we've received from fans of those two genres, we don't fit either, which is kind of both good and bad. It's good because we've succeeded at our genre-creating mission and bad because we haven't had much luck
convincing fans of either genre to have a look at us.
Their loss, not ours.
We told a friend of ours, a sword and sorcery aficionado, about The Denouement and after we explained to him what it was about, he agreed to read it but said, before he started, that it'd be boring and we were like, how can you say it's boring, based on what it's about? Come on, man, say you don't have any interest in reading it, say it's a foolish idea, say it's not real sword and sorcery (or Christian fiction, either,) but don't say it's boring, at least not until you've read it.
I mean, nothing is inherently boring, right? Put a great idea into the hands of a lousy writer and you'll get a lousy book. Put a lousy idea into the hands of a great writer (and we're not calling ourselves great, or lousy,) and you'll get a great book. Or at least something readable.
But enough with the grousing. We asked for it.
Our second offering is Bobby Slater's World. It's the summer of 64 and Bobby Slater is a thirteen-year-old boy whose crush, an Indian girl, is afflicted by a deadly curse. Bobby will fight to save his girl. Sounds like basic YA paranormal, eh? Uh, not quite. It's not written for kids, although they have responded positively. We call it paranormal boomer fiction, written for boomers like ourselves, the nearing/gone beyond 60 crowd. We don't think paranormal boomer fiction is its own genre, yet. We don't see it anywhere, but with ninety million boomers out there, shouldn't we have our own fiction genre?
Our third offering, Lottie Barrett Lives Again, is more paranormal boomer fiction, another thirteen-year-old 1960s Bobby falling for a girl who's afflicted by a curse. This Bobby's girl has been dead a hundred years and has come back to life. She's a zombie but she's no ax-murderer; she’s just a peculiar kid who wants to be a teenager, something she missed the first time. What else she wants is Bobby Clyde, cutest boy in the freshman class and Bobby is smitten or are his feelings for her illusory, a witch's spell on him? And what’s Bobby going to do when it’s time for Lottie to go back up onto the hill? Bobby is determined to go with her. Lottie doesn’t think he should go but she doesn’t think she could live (or die) without him. Only Bobby’s mom and big sister can save him and before they can save him, they have to convince themselves it really is true and there isn’t much time.
Just as Bobby Slater's World is about long ago summers, Lottie Barrett Lives Again is about old-time Halloweens and Thanksgivings and Christmases. And what both books are really about is small town, 1960s America.
And you know, with two 1960s Bobbys, we've decided to go for yet a third 60s Bobby book, make it a series, if not exactly a trilogy, and with only the vaguest idea what the final book will look like -- call it Bobby 3 for now, starring a couple of 1960s thirteen-year-old boys, one named Bobby, one named, oh, Dan, or Mike or something. The boys are best friends and Little League teammates chasing the local league's home run record, kind of an M and M boys thing. Bobby falls for a thirteen-year-old maiden (that's what they called them, back when the girl lived the first time; yes, we're in the presence of yet another teenage zombie girl.) The maiden was sent to a sacrificial death over the waterfall behind the Little League park. She's back now, the boys see her, watching their ballgames from the decrepit wooden bleachers behind right field.
And after that? Well, after that we expect we'll be inventing yet another genre. We just don't know yet what it will be.
Anyway, there's plenty here about our books, so take a look, we'll appreciate it.
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