It Was Written to Promote the School, Or So I Thought

In the Fall of 2011, when I released my novel about Southern Illinois University, I had naïve hopes that it could be used to promote the school.  Carbondale campus chancellor Rita Cheng graciously accepted the book while she was visiting the alumni tent during homecoming.

But as she was leaving, she turned to me and said, “But it’s not about SIU right now.”  This went over my head.

Six years later, a member of Southern Illinois University Press told me that the novel should be considered an alumni book, and not a promotion for the university.  The story took place during the Spring of 1971.  “After all,” she said, “The character drops pills, and washes them down with vodka, then passes-out under a canoe on Campus Lake.”

So what’s the problem?

The novel features: One riot, a street party that almost turned into a riot-where  the main character and his roommate, were  thrown into the Carbondale City jail-and  a  tornado.  You see in 1971 SIU was a wild place.  It was so wild that it was called The Berkley of the Midwest.   And that moniker wasn’t made in a good way.  So, I did my best to write a story about what I knew, and that was SIU when I was a student there in the early 70’s.

But now it’s time to write a new novel about what is happening now at SIU.  The school, and society face challenges of a different sort from the Roaring 70’s.  Now the university is suffering from both a  lack of funding and students, and the southern Illinois region continues to be depressed.

During the next episode, I’ll display the bare bones of what I have figured-out for the new novel so far.  If these bones were part of Sue, the tyrannosaurus rex at the Field Museum in Chicago, she would need a crutch.  But one has to start somewhere.