Monday, May 31, 2004

The book proposal, edited, with name changes indicated

(What follows is the only existing version of the book proposal that I initially sent to Michael. During the writing of the book, I changed Story (chapter) titles and descriptions, and altered the names of characters. What is shown is final versions of names followed by earlier versions in parentheses. Contents are copyright 2004 by Tony Simmons.)


Proposal for
“Welcome to the Dawning of a New Century”
A Novel
By Tony Simmons


“Century” is a collection of short stories and essays that will read like a novel, or perhaps it’s a novel told in snippets, segments that stand alone, leading to a climax that will hopefully make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
We find ourselves in Century, Florida, in the first
week of April 2001 – establishing first its environs and its people, a geographic location named for an era of time, all of which are running threadbare.

Century, founded as a lumber town in April 1901, is in final preparations for its centennial Sawmill Day celebration.
We meet the denizens through their stories:

– Retired teacher Rose Brown, 88, who lies dying in
Century Hospital while her guilt-ridden granddaughter, Mary Anne, 37, crochets patterns and creates a new philosophy of super-string theories, time and space, and destiny.

– Wally Wendt (Wally McCurdy/McCauley/Moroney), 39, manager of the Piggly Wiggly grocery store, raised in a strict
Southern Baptist family, steeped in Bible verses and theology, and wallowing in sin with any woman (or underage girl) that comes his way. “Century” is, in many ways, Wally’s story, as all of these lives will intersect with his, for better or worse.

– Kenny Earl Hooper (Jimmy Earl Schwoerer/Owens), 38, Piggly Wiggly butcher and local celebrity, who loses more than just the piece of his right thumb in a meat cutting accident. He loses his center as well, and things begin to veer off course for all those around him.

– Peggy Hooper (Schwoerer/Owens), 36, Jimmy’s wife and Mayor Fite’s (Flannigan’s) mistress, whose employment means the kiss of death for any establishment unlucky enough to hire her. She has recently and for no known reason decided to become
both a Vegan and a Sweet Potato Queen.

– Wanda Johnson, 16, a cashier at the Pig, who does more than just clean house for Wally, and whose multiple liaisons will lead to the madness that takes over where the tragedies of Sawmill Day leave off.

– Century High School science teacher Gil Weise, who sees the future opening like visions all around him. “Stories,” he calls them, as they are like fictions that he can’t rewrite. His torment is to see where lives will go and be unable to change their courses – or can he?

– The aforementioned Mayor Sheldon D. Fite (Franklin
D. Flannigan), the only mayor any living soul can recall having run the town, though there were two others. Fite is also the president of the Century Historical Society and organizer of the
Sawmill Day festival, where so much will come to a head – not least of which is the war between the Red Hat Society, led by his wife, Pamela, and the Sweet Potato Queens, led by Peggy.

– School counselor Max Humiston, the boyfriend of Wanda’s mother, Willodeen, he whose lusts for flesh and blood spark the finale of the tale, tying together the strings of Fate of all those frayed lives around him.

– In addition, various and sundry supporting characters who have significant parts to play, nonetheless.

The title comes from an actual set of road signs situated at the northern and southern boundaries of the town, just off the right of way of U.S. Highway 29. I envision a photo cover of the view from the road on the northern town limits: The headstone-like sign in the foreground, “Welcome to the Dawning of a
New Century,” with the Piggly Wiggly store, slightly out of focus, in the background.

Although this is still a work in progress, I know where I’m going with it. Some of the minor details in the completed stories may have to be altered to fit the geometry of the tale as it unfolds (call it “backward engineering”), but I don’t foresee any bumps in the road. This is a machine that knows its destination, now, though the path may have to be altered along the way.

All of these fictions will be followed by an author’s note that explains numerous realities behind them, as well as chronological impossibilities used for dramatic effect in the story. For instance, Century Hospital was not still open in 2001; by that time it had been closed for a decade and was in use as a Food
Stamp office. Likewise, the Sawmill Day depicted in the climax was more nearly that of 1991, which I covered as a stringer for the Pensacola News-Journal, reporting on both the celebration and the injuries that resulted when a horse stampeded through the crowd after the parade.

In addition, occasional interludes will occur as we delve into a piece of local history for the sake of context; essays about the aging town and how things move and change until they find their places, flourish for a season, and pass. These will be similar in nature and length to my columns for the paper, perhaps even best if presented as columns from “The Dispatch,”
which is my name for the (nonexistent) town paper.

Here’s the basic plan, by chapter and story title:

(Dispatch No. 1: Turning Back Time)

Saturday, March 30, 2001
1: A Tangled Skein
2: Welcome to the Dawning of a New Century

Sunday, April 1, 2001
3: Love and Loss at the Sign of the Pig

(Dispatch No. 2: The Real Thing)

Monday, April 2, 2001
4: The Shape of Things
5: The Great Physician
6: Legend of the Blackcats

(Dispatch No. 3: What It is is This)

Tuesday, April 3, 2001
7: The Tempest
8: The Unkindest Cut
9: By Any Other Name

(Dispatch No. 4: Home of the Blackcats)

Wednesday, April 4, 2001
10: Number One with a Bullet
11: A Clean Sweep
12: Take Me to the River

(Dispatch No. 5: Faith of Our Fathers)

Thursday, April 5
13: Thursdays at the Curl Up & Dye
14: A Wakening

Friday, April 6

15: The Centennial Man

(Dispatch No. 7: Why Here and Not Somewhere Else)

Saturday, April 7, 2001
16: The Fourth Horseman
17: Depositions in a Civil Disturbance

Sunday, April 8, 2001
18: End of a Century

19: Author’s Note

20: Postscript I: Constant Vigilance
21: Post script II: It’s Always Midnight on Mars, a
story by Jack Riley

22: About the Author

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