About this item
Jack Bell has an unusual giftor curse, depending on your point of view. And hes not the only one. In Utopia, Iowa, anything can happen.For the most part, aspiring screenwriter Jack Bell is just your typical Midwestern kid. Hes got a crush on his hot best friend, Ash. Hes coping with a sudden frostiness between his once crazy-in-love parents. Hes debating where to go to college next yearor whether to go at all. But then theres his gift or curse Jack can see dead people, just like the kid in The Sixth Sense. Lately, the ghosts are more distracting than usual, demanding that Jack get to the bottom of their mysterious deathsall while avoiding the straitlaced Detective Bloodsmith, who doesnt believe in gifts or curses and cant help wondering why Jack keeps turning up at crime scenes.
About the Author
A lot of people think writers just write about themselves. They do and they don't. For me writing is a mix of imagination and memory.
My latest novel, UTOPIA, IOWA, is fantastical realism (this may be a made up term) that has elements of fantasy and realism, which both exist in my life. I live in a unique town whose motto is Keep Austin Weird. Utopia, Iowa, is also a unique place and has a motto, too: Where people are strange and there are stranger things than people. I was born in Iowa but the town of Utopia comes from my imagination. Good thing too: witches, a banshee, ghosts and other creatures wander in and out of that town.
I am not an alien though my novel, ALIEN INVASION & OTHER INCONVENIENCES, certainly has a lot about aliens in it. I've never experienced an alien invasion either, but aliens take over the world in ten seconds in ALIEN INVASION & OTHER INCONVENIENCES. They're back in the sequel: HOMICIDAL ALIENS & OTHER DISAPPOINTMENTS.
MY ROAD TRIP TO THE PRETTY GIRL CAPITAL OF THE WORLD is about a boy who runs away from home in search of his birth parents. I am adopted. I never looked for my birth parents but I explored that desire in this novel.
My second novel, WONDERS OF THE WORLD, was about street kids. I've never been a street kid, but I did hitchhike all over America and parts of Mexico and Europe when I was younger. I met a lot of interesting people and learned a lot. I got an education that was much cheaper and more scenic than the one I got in college. I do have a couple of degrees, a B.A. and an M.F.A. in Writing, and I teach writing at ACC, so I will say I learned some skills in college, too.
When it comes to fiction my motto might be the same as Austin's: Keep It Weird.
