I'm Joe Eliseon, author of "D.P.W.: A Devilish Political Fantasy," and "The Seamless Web: A Legal Comedy," among other things. You can find both D.P.W. and The Seamless Web on Kindle. Seamless Web is available either as a single volume or, for those who prefer me in smaller sips, serialized in four parts. (The single edition is a better bargain.) I may get around to splitting up D.P.W., too, one of these days, but don't hold your breath.
As for biographical data, I grew up outside of Boston, Mass. (I like the solemnity of the old abbreviation better than the sterile "MA" forced on us late in the '60s. I believe the introduction of zip codes heralded the fall of civilization.) I remember going to college. Then things went blank. I woke up one day in an office far above Park Avenue in Manhattan, NYC. I looked up at the wall behind my head. There was my name, in Latin, scrawled across a diploma. I was a lawyer!
I swear, I didn't mean it. I don't know how it happened.
OK, so I'm exaggerating a little.
Anyway, you've got to make the best of things. When you come right down to it, being a lawyer isn't that much different from writing fiction. Never one for half-measures, I decided to go all in and become a novelist.
So, I wrote "The Seamless Web," a picaresque comic novel based on my experiences as a New York lawyer. OK, so I exaggerated a little there, too. But not as much as you might think. If you want to go to law school, you might do well to read SW first. Then, again, you might not. Ignorance, as they say, is bliss.
"D.P.W.," my second novel, is a prolonged parable about power and politics. It's the tale of a low-level municipal employee who gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar and becomes the target of a federal investigation into political corruption. Determined not to roll over, he tries to protect himself by becoming the best and biggest crook he can be. Things get out of hand when he acquires a mysterious mentor who develops his unsuspected natural talent for politics.
Then there's my "Snarkey & Putts, Paranormal Attorneys-At-Law" series. Most books about lawyers are thrillers or mysteries. If you've ever practiced law, you are painfully aware that thrills and mysteries are in short supply. To think that they are the stuff of legal work is to indulge in fantasy. Therefore, it occurred to me that I should bite the bullet and write fantasy. Novels about the paranormal are popular; books about paranormal detectives are everywhere. I asked myself, "Why should detectives have all the fun?" After all, ace detective Paul Drake wouldn't have gone anywhere without Perry Mason.
That's how "Snarkey & Putts" was born. The team starts off in a novella about a fake séance gone awry, "The Case of the Undead Arbitrator." In their second adventure, the novel-length "The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter," the boys deal with copyright infringement from beyond the grave, Third, the legal duo tackles "The Case of the Canine's Curse," a weird mixture of gypsy curses, werewolves and eminent domain." For their fourth outing, "The Case of the Unchained Immigrant," Snarkey and Putts meet the legal challenge presented by an illegal alien who's also a murderous mythological monster. Finally, Snarkey and Putts bring some Christmas cheer to their practice in their fifth sortie into the unknown, "The Xmas Files." I've given the series a rest for a bit, but the ideas are percolating. Snarkey and Putts will return.
Currently, I'm working on a mélange of dreamy childhood memories and gritty, coming-of-age drama flavored with a touch of fantasy, "Mr. Lake." Imagine Mario Puzo writing an entire season of "Leave It to Beaver."
If you want to check out free samples of my writing, you can use the "Look Inside" feature on my Amazon book pages or, even better...
Visit my website at http://joeeliseonauthor.com/, where I've posted more than a dozen free stories. That'll get you started.
You might also consider shelling out a mere $0.99 to read my short story collection, "Five Minutes More and Other Stories." I'd appreciate it and you'll enjoy it.
You can follow me on Twitter, my favorite social media, at "@JoeEliseon." I'm also on Facebook and Goodreads but, I've got to admit, I don't have the time to pay them much attention.
But I'm more than willing to take the time to pay you some attention. You can email me at joe.eliseon@gmail.com. I answer.
Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to hearing from you.
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