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Dear Reader by Mark Connelly


Dear Reader…

Have you ever felt like a loser?  Ever see your dreams evaporate?  Are you amused, angered, frustrated by the talking heads you see on cable news pontificating and posing with smug righteousness?  Ever identified with Larry David?

Wanna-be’s is a comic sendup of our politically-correct-multicultural- selfie society.  Winfield Payton is a thirty-seven-year-old English instructor and wanna-be screenwriter.  Urged by his Century 21 girlfriend to “go condo,” Winfield needs cash.  He accepts a job offer from a college friend and becomes the only white employee in a black savings and loan.  As the token white, he poses as a Mafioso to intimidate skittish investors and woos a wealthy cougar to keep the firm afloat.  Figure-skating between the worlds of white and black, Jew and Gentile, gay and straight, male and female, Yuppie and militant, Payton flies higher and higher until the inevitable crash….

Payton bumbles and stumbles through a series of politically-incorrect misadventures – from dating a soccer mom with a taste for bondage to attending a Halloween party in a black gay bar.  Along the way he meets Dr. Veraswami, a Nigerian exponent of “liberation capitalism,” and Father Moses, a formidable black alderman who throws Oreo cookies at African American sell-outs.      

A writer only knows if a book works when readers connect with it.  Readers get their best insights into new titles by word of mouth, so it’s worth quoting the first review a reader posted on Amazon:
           
What can I say about Winfield Payton...is he the most unlucky pasty or most unlikely fall guy...what a schmuck...I laughed so hard at this,for this guy....with this guy....every character described in this book will immediately remind you of a real life joker in the in the 24 hour news cycle on all of the Major networks and cable television channels regurgitating skewed facts benefiting them and lining their pockets....it's hip and fresh writing which could easily become a HBO series....or Starz..maybe..anyway get this book....this book is not for the faint of heart..or PC sensitive readers...

Check out the first chapter on Amazon.  I think you will find Winfield Payton a character who will amuse you, delight you, disgust you, but never bore you.
 

About the Author

Mark Connelly was born in Philadelphia and grew up in New Jersey.  He received a BA in English from Carroll College in Wisconsin and an MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  His books include The Diminished Self: Orwell and the Loss of Freedom, Orwell and Gissing, Deadly Closets:  The Fiction of Charles Jackson, and The IRA on Film and Television.  His fiction has appeared in The Ledge, Indiana Review, Cream City Review, Milwaukee Magazine, and Home Planet News.  In 2014 he received an Editor’s Choice Award in The Carve’s Raymond Carver Short Story Contest; in 2015 he received Third Place in Red Savina Review’s Albert Camus Prize for Short Fiction. His novella Fifteen Minutes received the Clay Reynolds Novella Prize and was published by Texas Review Press in 2005. 
Mark’s latest book is the literary fiction/humor/satire, Wanna-be’s.
Connect with Mark on Facebook and Twitter.
About the Book:

Title: WANNA-BE’S
Author: Mark Connelly
Publisher: Mark Connelly Productions
Pages: 188
Genre: Literary Fiction/Humor/Satire
With his new girlfriend – a soccer mom with a taste for bondage – urging him to “go condo,” failed screenwriter Winfield Payton needs cash. Accepting a job offer from a college friend, he becomes the lone white employee of a black S&L. As the firm’s token white, he poses as a Mafioso to intimidate skittish investors and woos a wealthy cougar to keep the firm afloat. Figure-skating between the worlds of white and black, gay and straight, male and female, Jew and Gentile, Yuppie and militant, Payton flies higher and higher until the inevitable crash. . .

Praise for Wanna-be’s:

This book right here! What can I say about Winfield Payton...is he the most unlucky pasty or most unlikely fall guy...what a schmuck...I laughed so hard at this,for this guy....with this guy....every character described in this book will immediately remind you of a real life joker in the in the 24 hour news cycle on all of the Major networks and cable television channels regurgitating skewed facts benefiting them and lining their pockets....it's hip and fresh writing which could easily become a HBO series....or Starz..maybe..anyway get this book....I laughed so hard...almost popping my recent stitches from surgery...Mr. Connelly...thanks for making my recuperation fun...this book is not for the faint of heart..or PC sensitive readers...

-- Lynda Garcia Review

For More Information

  • Wanna-be’s is available at Amazon.
Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads

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