Books by Alec Clayton
People have asked "What are your books about?" These
are my books, so far, in capsule and in order of publication. As of this writing there are three more novels in the works. For more information on the books visit Mud Flat Press.
FICTION
Until
the Dawn – A legendary artist vanishes at the
height of his career – Red Warner, an artist from a small town in Mississippi,
makes it big in New York and then vanishes following a wild party in his SoHo
loft. To discover what happened and why, a childhood friend immerses himself in
their shared history in a search that carries him back to his Mississippi home
and a secluded fishing camp on the coastal bayous. Along the way we learn how a
small town football player coming of age in the time between World War II and
the sixties became a leading artist of his time and about the secret that has
haunted him since he left the South.
Imprudent Zeal - From Mississippi to New York to Seattle, from the 1940s
to the close of the twentieth century, five characters who come of age at
different times and in different parts of the country are thrown together
through happenstance in this saga of modern life.
The Wives of Marty Winters - Gay
rights activist Selena Winters is shot in the head while giving a speech at a
Seattle Pride celebration. She is rushed to the hospital where a blood clot is
removed from her brain. She slips into a coma. Selena’s husband, Marty, and
family members gather to wait and see if she will ever regain consciousness.
Family conversations lead back to old
conflicts and memories of Marty’s first wife, Maria in the 1960’s.
Freedom
Trilogy Book 1: The Backside of Nowhere - a drama
of family conflict set in a fictional town near the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Popular
movie star David Lawrence has not spoken to his father in more than twenty
years. When the old man has a heart attack while driving drunk and careens off
the top of a parking garage, David leaves his girlfriend and frequent co-star
Jasmine Jones to go home to the little bayou town of Freedom to be with his
family while the old man hovers near death. While there, he falls in love with
his old high school sweetheart, confronts a lifelong enemy (the local sheriff),
and discovers that his beautiful adopted sister, Melissa, is not who he thinks
she is.
Freedom Trilogy Book 2: Return
to Freedom - the day of the hurricane that wiped out
the little bayou village of Freedom, Mississippi. Malcolm Ashton’s wife and
children and Sonny Staples are scrambling to get out of town, while Beulah
Booker is riding out the storm with her boyfriend and other friends in the
Lawrence family home.
Readers
of The Backside of
Nowhere will remember Malcolm and Sonny as the teenage hoodlums who looted
an electronics store during a flash flood many years ago. They’re grown up now.
All of these characters and more end up living in the
same condo overlooking the bay, and the ways in which their lives intersect are
as stormy as the hurricane from which they are still recovering.
Freedom Trilogy Book 3: Visual
Liberties - Molly Ashton is now a college student
majoring in art. She is trying hard to grow up, find her way in the world, but
it seems she does nothing but make bad choices … until she makes friends with
Francis Gossing. Francis is Molly’s only friend in college. He is socially
awkward but an artistic genius, and he is haunted by a frightening vision of
his mother and a man with a gun. He can’t tell if the vision he’s obsessed with
is a memory or a nightmare from long ago.
“It’s a great conclusion
to Alec Clayton’s Freedom Trilogy. There are artists, lusty art students, horny
professors, ordinary people in extraordinary situations, resonant passions.
What’s not to like?” – Larry Johnson, author or Veins.
Reunion at the Wetside - Romance
blossoms at Barney’s Pub between Alex, a left-wing Democrat, and Jim, a
Libertarian-leaning Republican – old friends from half a century ago. Meantime,
someone is killing off all the old drag queens, and Jim may be the only person
who can catch the killer.
“The writer is clever and
cutting-edge in tone, and the characters kept me hungry for their lives.”
Holly Hunt – amazon.com review
Tupelo - A tale told from beyond the grave by Kevin Lumpkin,
youngest of a set of identical twins, Tupelo is the story of a small town in an
era of reluctant change. as seen through the eyes of a white boy born to
privilege who comes of age in the time of Freedom Riders, lunch counter
sit-ins, civil rights marches and demonstrations.
“Alec Clayton is a true original, delivering
his readers a fraught and powerful story of family and community laboring
through the past decades of change in the South. Tupelo is a haunting and
personal tale, reminiscent of the best of Pat Conroy. Highly recommended!” –
Ned Hayes, author of The Eagle Tree.
“As much as I have enjoyed his other novels, I have to
say this one may be his best. Perhaps it is the consistent through-line, the
tight plot provided by his focus on the twins, Kevin and Evan, and their
differing lives and behaviors: One grows gradually into the bigotry so
prevalent around him, one becomes that dreaded southern phenomenon, a liberal.”
– Jack Butler, author of Jujitsu for Christ and Living in Little Rock
with Miss Little Rock.
This
is Me, Debbi, David – Debbi Mason is a self-declared
loudmouth, fun loving, rabble rousing, perverse woman. David Parker says he has
always been something of a nebbish little mama’s boy who never took a chance on
anything in his entire life. When Debbi breaks up with David and runs off with
a man she thinks can provide wealth and security, Debbi and David each embark
on adventures that are, in turn, romantic, funny, enlightening and
scary—adventures that take them from the French Quarter in New Orleans, to
Dallas, and to New York City’s East Village. And into their own hearts.
“Alec Clayton at his best. He
presents the reader with two lead protagonists, each with a compelling account
of the year after their break-up. Major dramatic questions emerge early on: 1.
how will the beautiful and exotic Debbi survive a violent situation and why
can’t she seem to escape her Texas entrapment; 2. will David be able to follow
his bliss amid the bizarre, quirky, sometimes evil, sometimes lovable
characters who give him a lift along his journey to New York; and 3. will Debbi
and David ever meet up again? Try as you might to anticipate the answers, I
predict you will be surprised. Truly a great read. Expertly crafted!” –
Morrison Phelps, author of Bluebird Song.
NONFICTION
What
is What the Heck is a Frame-Pedestal Aesthetic? - Alec
Clayton’s 1970 graduate thesis at East Tennessee State University with the
academic-sounding title, A Ground for the New Art: An
Alternative to the Frame-Pedestal Aesthetic, analyzed what
many at the time called the new art. This
book is that thesis with a new title and updated materials. It is an examination
of the multitude of new art forms that exploded on the scene in the 1960s, from
Pop to Happenings to Color Field Painting to Earth Art to Photo-Realism to mail
art and more.
“Alec
Clayton’s refusal to hold an exhibition for his Master of Art degree from East
Tennessee State University was a ground-breaking event in 1970. Now fifty-years
later with a rich career as an artist, art critic, and novelist, Clayton
revisits his master’s thesis, What
the Heck is a Frame-Pedestal Aesthetic?, a critical
essay about the contributions that Cage, Duchamp, Johnson, Kaprow, Pollock,
Warhol, and others made to move art forward through the use of new concepts,
experiences, formats, materials, and spaces for art. I especially enjoyed
learning about his collaboration in a mail art piece with Richard C. and Ray
Johnson.” – Jennifer Olson Gallery Director and Art Historian Tacoma Community
College.
As If Art Matters: Modern and post modern art reviews and
commentary - A look at the essential elements
that lift the best of fine visual art above the mundane, including reviews
ranging from Vincent van Gogh to the New York School to contemporary video,
film and installation artists such as Bill Viola and Sandy Skoglund, plus
reviews of many artists in the Pacific Northwest who are recognized regionally
but do not enjoy the wider acclaim they richly deserve.
“His interpretation reveals a
breadth of knowledge that he generously shares without pretension, illuminating
the art, the artists, and exhibits with a point of view that reveals his
interest and curiosity in an honest and clear voice.” – Amy McBride, Public
Arts Administrator
