"The 41st Sermon" is now live on Smashwords and Amazon. Again, Michael Irvin has come up with wonderful cover art.In Dec. of 1989 I sent the first three chapters of a novel I had written to Walker Percy. Shortly after, I received his handwritten response on my cover letter: “Randy: It reads well — I’d be glad to look at rest, but must tell you I’ve had to give up finding agent or publisher for unpublished writers — I’d be doing nothing else. Everybody in South is writing a novel – Best, W.P.” I sent the MS to him and waited and waited and then in May the following year woke up one morning to read his obituary in the paper.
"The 41st Sermon" is about an Episcopalian priest in mid-life and mid-faith crisis. He gets involved in a phony kidnap plot with his sexy blond parishioner, the result is a supercharged novel of sex, payback for decades-old double-dealing, and despair, which only God can cure. Satan's complications are never easy; God's grace is never free.
Here's the book cover and then the Percy note:
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ReplyDeleteThis post is one of the most viewed posts on my blog. But no one has left a comment and the book is one of the least downloaded of my works. Is it because it is self-published? I'd really appreciate some feedback. I thought there would be SOME curiosity about the novel that prompted Percy's comment.
ReplyDeleteRandy; quite interesting. I enjoy southern writing and have read your "Saltness of Time" as well as Percy's "Moviegoer" and "Thanatos Syndrome".
ReplyDeleteI will add "The 41st Sermon" to my TBR list!
Thank you, Jody!
DeleteJust finished the 41st Sermon and I found it a compelling read. I gave it 4 stars. You had such a motely crew of flawed individuls so I found it reassuring and uplifting that redemption is a possibility for us all. Good writing. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWow, thank you, Rosalie. Last sentences are particularly important to me and I like the one in The 41st Sermon. Seems to sum everything up.
ReplyDeleteI thought that was funny and telling, where Percy says that everyone in the south is writing a novel. Now, of course, that would be the North, West, East and South. I by the way had a very similar experience with another famous Southern writer. But I won't go into it. Good luck with your novel.
ReplyDeleteThanks, callingcrow (love that moniker).
ReplyDelete