Can you tell us a little bit about your book? When did it come out? Where can we get it?
Polonio Pass is
concerned with Tom, his wife Mary, his first love Nina and her husband Art. The
40th reunion of Tom and Nina’s high school creates a spark to the
past the starts as a mild flame over the Internet and then ignites with
consequences when the two meet after 30 some years. The title comes from the geographical place
in California where the icon of their early lives, and metaphor for their
spectacular flame out as lovers, James Dean, was killed in an auto accident in
1955. It stands as a landmark never traveled to in their lives until they again
meet. The book’s chapters read like the hands played in solitaire, some
chapters matching and some not, but played over again to another rhythm and
different cards, from the past to the present.
It’s about those
first people we meet who help shape us, or breaks us, and the trajectories we
take as a result, and the people we meet and stay with after that first
meteoric burn.
Polonio Pass will
be out in mid to late March. It will be available from Aignos Publishing at Amazon (distributed by Ingram) and available in softcover and then
e-book.
Is there anything that
prompted your latest book? Something that inspired you?
I took a road trip
with a guy from Virginia to Pittsburgh to see the Raiders play and he explained
to me that at his high school reunion he met his old sweetheart and had talked
to her at length on Facebook, planned on leaving his wife and daughter, and
marrying her, as she was the love of his life. And he did. I was also looking
down the barrel of my own 40th reunion and decided to weave a story
from the threads of his own and engage some of the pieces of my youth in
Southern California.
So, when did you know you
wanted to write? Or has it always been a pastime of yours?
I had always
written pieces, vignettes, and short stories…but never published until
recently with a collection of poetry in two different anthologies from Savant
Publishing’s annual offering; Fifty-Eight Stones from 2012 and Bellwether
Messages from the 2013 Anthology. I also had a poem come out in Lost Tower,
a UK publication this month. The anthology is The Black Rose of
Winter, love poems of a dark or bitter
nature. Some redemptive, some not. The poem deals directly with 'Polonio Pass'
and is titled 'Reunion'. I am currently working on a second novel.
Do you have any favorite authors?
I
do. Somerset Maugham, Raymond Chandler, and
Yukio Mishima are at the forefront.
Do you write in a specific place? Time of day?
I write at my PC
station or as I sit in bed, freehand. It was helpful to sit at my PC and listen
to a lot of 60’s and 70’s music to propel me back into Tom and Nina’s lives,
when they were together, and some slack key for when Tom and his wife Mary
lived in O’ahu. No specific time of day, but I am alone during the early part of
the day, so that has worked for me.
Are there any words you'd like to impart to fellow writers? Any advice?
Are there any words you'd like to impart to fellow writers? Any advice?
That’s hard to do.
I mean, everyone writes in his or her own styles, places, surroundings, moods
and even weather; I couldn’t feel comfortable imparting any of my so-called
wisdom. Just keep pursuing your own
truths and what you need to say.
Thanks. That actually is good advice.
Here is the blurb for Polonio Pass.
2009: A 40th High
School reunion marks more than a passing of time for Tom Kelleher as he
seeks rejuvenation and answers in facing the question of his own mortality.
In Nina, who owns the early chapter of Tom's life, he thinks he
might have found an answer. After standing in her own personal
fires, Nina Hassel, whose brilliance and beauty mirror her self-destructive
and self-doubting nihilism, looks to the reunion to reconnect with him across
time in the millennial age of instant time-travel; one which is far
more technological and socially networked than the one in which they
first discovered one another.
As the reunion nears
and their respective spouses stand unknowingly by, Tom and Nina use their past
with its conflicts and entanglements to write and re-write their lives together
and apart. Together, they spontaneously road trip to an iconic monument to lost
youth, discover their narrative, and evolve a new trajectory at the place where
James Dean transitioned into eternity, Polonio Pass.
Here is an excerpt.
Nina
and he were discussing Brian Jones and the news of him being found tits up in
his pool. It was already July 1969, and they were out of school and just
killing the days at the beach or listening to music at night and hanging at
some parties. Jones was their favorite musician, and his image lent itself to
what they sought in their heroes at that age. The news was also disturbing as
it sent a warning and a reality bite of what happened when you were careless.
They lay across her bed, under the fan in her above garage loft. Nina had a
full poster of Jones walking through the Monterrey Pop festival on her bedroom
wall. And as they both lay across her bed, they looked at it upside down. Tom
had always told her she looked like Jones's old girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg.
"Well.he's gonna be immortalized like Dean and Buddy Holly. None of
these guys have died a natural death," Tom stated. "No Jones, no
Stones.what the heck is 'death by misadventure'.?"
"Yup. He was so beautiful.but in that picture of him with his shirt
open he was getting fat.the one with that derby?" she said. "Mick was
looking at his gut like 'hey Brian.pregnant?'"
"So who's next?"
They spent
awhile throwing out names of those who might go at any time or could certainly
use a little help. "Keith Richard can't be far behind," Tom weighed
in. "None of the Beatles.they'll live forever," Nina said.
"Ginger Baker for sure."
Tom rolled over and started running his finger across her exposed stomach
as he lay propped up on one elbow, looking at her finely shaped inny. It
was tickling her and she started to giggle and push his hand away." You'll
always be immortal for me, Neens.always."
She took his hand and placed it inside her shorts, opening her legs,
"Yes?" she smiled. "Make love to me, mortal." And he
obeyed.
He smiled remembering that day and then in review of those they had
picked out to die, and how woefully off they were, and gave a chuckle. He
leaned over and reaching out, with fingertips pulled the Dean card off the
bulletin board and brought it to bear. He and Nina listened to the Eagles too,
and he thought of their song James Dean. He remembered the lyrics out of
nowhere, not having even thought of the song or heard it in years and he
sang/talked it.'along came a Spyder, picked up a rider.' He realized he'd never
driven a Porsche in his life.
He
never got to Cholame with Nina. The closest they ever got was the motel on
coast Highway just outside Trancas. That seemed like a million miles from
Cholame and the Polonio Pass. And it's fifty-four years this year since he
died. Wow! Feeling old here, he muttered and left his office to get some coffee
at the small mess they had in the lounge in his department.
Author Bio
Doc Krinberg grew up in California,
living in the northern, central and southern parts of the state. After he took
early leave of high school and failing to find true finery, he honed his skills
as a strip club barker, cab driver and Teamster before a career as a US Navy
hardhat diver that took him to both North and South Poles, Europe, the
Caribbean, Japan, the Maritimes, East Africa and the Persian Gulf. Having a
doctorate in education, he has taught traditional and online for various
universities. He is married and has four children.
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