Seal Cove Ephemera

by Scott W Clemens | Nov 2, 2019 | Author's Blog

I finished writing The Seal Cove Theoretical Society in June. I say “finished,” because I had deemed it finished. Since then, seven beta readers have weighed in with their comments, and forty-some agents have declined to read it based on my query letter (more on that in the next blog post). So, I solicited another friend, editor, and author in her own right to give me guidance. Her first suggestion was that I get rid of the “asides,” chapters that have nothing to do with the main storyline, in which I present myself as a character by addressing the audience. Of the seven beta readers, one thought the asides were the best part of the book. The other six found them distracting. So perhaps the book is not finished after all and would benefit from some judicious slicing here and there. To that end, I’m excizing those chapters, one of which I give to you now:

The Bogarts and the Andersons

I wouldn’t want to give the impression that life in Seal Cove is always idyllic. Far from it. Sometimes it resembles a soap opera. Take, for example, the tale of the Bogarts and Andersons. Pete Bogart and Dale Anderson worked for the same high-tech company in Silicon Valley. They lived on the same street in San Carlos, commuted to work together, got together on weekends to barbecue, watched football during football season, and baseball during baseball season. Their wives, Barbara Bogart and Caroline Anderson, were chummy and the couples often got together to play bridge or gin rummy. Their kids, Pamela Bogart and Greg Anderson had known each other from the age of three.

The problem was that Pete’s wife, Barbara Bogart, had her heart set on living on the coast, and in time the Bogarts moved to a quiet street in Seal Cove heights. From the deck on the back of the house the Bogarts had a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean edged with the dark green of cypress on the bluffs. 

At work Pete Bogart touted the pleasures of living by the sea, and eventually, the Andersons moved to Seal Cove and settled into a house within hailing distance of their old friends. Soon they were hanging out on the deck every day after work, sharing cocktails, and falling into their comfortable old routines on the weekend. When the kids were eleven, they began spending their vacations camping side by side in the redwoods, sitting around a campfire drinking wine, and twice caravanning up the coast to Mendocino and Oregon. 

So it should come as no surprise that such close friends might come to love one another, after a fashion. It all fell apart one weekend in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, when Pete Bogart and Caroline Anderson and the kids, who were sixteen by this time, went on a hike. Dale and Barbara pleaded fatigue and stayed behind to tend the camp. As it transpired, Caroline sprained her ankle. Pete had to carry her piggyback back to the camp, where they discovered Dale and Barbara conjoined in a sleeping bag. Horrified, the cuckolded spouses insisted that they pack up and go back home. For liberal people they had parochial views about marriage. 

Back home, Caroline and Pete got together to commiserate and console one another, as wronged spouses might do, and one thing led to another, as things often do. 

The Bogarts and Andersons divorced. Barbara Bogart became Mrs. Anderson, Caroline Anderson became Mrs. Bogart, and Pamela and Greg became step-siblings, and moved in with Caroline and Pete at the beginning of their senior year of high school. Whether out of anger and spite, or by dint of mutual attraction, the children soon began emulating their parents, coupling like a pair of bunnies. It wasn’t long before the adults got wind of this and all hell broke loose. The parents were aghast. Greg was sent down the street to live with Dale and Barbara, and Pamela was grounded and kept under strict surveillance, which did nothing to abate the youngsters’ concupiscent inclinations. 

Determined to keep the children apart, the newly constituted Bogarts moved to Foster City. In the long run it was a vain move, as the kids had a different agenda. Unbeknownst to their parents, after spending their senior year of high school apart, they both applied to and were accepted to U.C. Riverside, where they secretly continued their torrid affair, and where they are now seniors.

The other inhabitants of Seal Cove were never the wiser for this little drama. Which just goes to show that the stage isn’t nearly as important as the players. 

Banned by Amazon

by Scott W Clemens | Sep 20, 2019 | Author's Blog

I love it! My review of The Institute was banned by Amazon, because it used offensive language in a paragraph where I was complaining about King’s pathological obsession with shit. That’s just too funny.

Here is the review in full:

Classic King

This isn’t my favorite King, but if page-turning suspense counts for something, it’s very good. King is, after all, a master storyteller. I just had to keep turning the pages. Some of his books are better at evoking small-town life, family dynamics, multifaceted relationships, or just plain creepiness, but in terms of getting the reader to root for the protagonist, Luke, and making the situation as dire as possible, he succeeds admirably with The Institute.

But The Institute also exposes King’s current weaknesses. His editors must be reluctant to cut anything, which leads to some irritating repetition. There are numerous instances where Luke’s inner monologue is presented by an omniscient narrator who qualifies and retracts as he blathers on. It might sound something like this: “The old woman reminded him of a quiet and kindly grandmother, or maybe not a grandmother, more like a nosy neighbor who keeps her mouth shut and her ears wide open in order to glean information. After all, you didn’t learn anything new by talking.” That’s my sentence, not his, but it serves as an example. Half of that sentence is extraneous, and this reader found passages like it, annoying enough to break the flow of the narrative.

One of King’s hallmarks has been a knowledge of cultural touchstones, and how to use them to give a story an immediacy and context. Television shows, music, and historical events are referenced, to ground the narrative in culturally shared experiences, and place the action firmly in a particular decade. Unfortunately, many of his references are no longer relevant or accessible to a younger generation, at whom the book seems to be targeted.

Lastly, if I were his editor, I’d cut some of the scatological references. It’s damn near a pathological obsession, and it gets awfully old when you know it’s coming, as surely it must if it’s a Stephen King novel. I’m not a prude, and a well-placed shit or piss is not going to shock me, but the constant shit sandwiches, crapped pants, wet crotches, and peed beds are just irritating at this point. Or maybe that’s just me.

Nonetheless, here King takes on some big themes — the powerless versus the powerful; injustice; the dangerous mindset of the zealot; the need to question authority. He might have mined these themes in a novel about a Nazi extermination camp, and I’m sure he’d make it terrifying, but by setting it in the U.S. in the present day, he gives himself the latitude to explore our contemporary moral vacuum, the constant struggle of good versus evil, logic versus magical thinking, and the responsibility that comes with real freedom. Kudos to King.

Seal Cove Review

by Scott W Clemens | Sep 13, 2019 | Author's Blog

I’ve had a devil of a time finding beta readers for my new novel. You, dear reader, are invited to request a copy, just join my Advance Team on the homepage of this website. I think it’s difficult for most writers to judge their own work. One day I’ll reread a scene and think “how marvelous!” A week later I’ll read the same passage and think, “what drivel.”

To get an unbiased review from a professional reviewer, I submitted the manuscript to the BookLife Prize (a prize awarded by Publishers Weekly to an indie book or unpublished novel). In giving feedback, the BookLife Prize reviewer had this to say:

BookLife Prize – 2019

The Seal Cove Theoretical Society

Plot/Idea: 9 out of 10

Originality: 8 out of 10

Prose: 7 out of 10

Character/Execution: 9 out of 10

Overall: 8.25 out of 10

Assessment:

Plot: The interlocking stories made the book loom large while highlighting the deep connections between the individual characters who reside in the distinctive community of Seal Cove. In a narrative somewhat reminiscent of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, even diversionary chapters reflecting on the history and intricacies of the small town, ultimately inform the overarching narrative.

Prose/Style: The author writes in clean, concise, and warm prose that evokes the spirit of the quietly eccentric community.

Originality: Clemens succeeds in establishing a unique setting for these interconnected stories, which ultimately act as patchwork pieces in a broader tapestry.

Character Development: Clemens’s care and reverence for his characters is apparent throughout. Each individual is provided with genuine closure that also resonates within the narrative whole.

END OF REVIEW.

I’m encouraged by the reviewer’s reaction. It could be more enthusiastic, but overall I think the review is fair. Nonetheless, it would be helpful to know how a general reader would respond to this book. You may even suggest how to make it even better. To share your insights before the novel is published, please make your request for a review copy by filling out the contact form on the homepage.