Are you the next John Kennedy Toole?

Hello all,

I apologize for the time between blogs, but we have been quite busy wrapping up the editing of the book--a feat which I am pleased to announce is just about complete. There are a lot of happenings on this project behind-the-scenes and we look forward to sharing our message with you in many different ways once the book is released.

I wanted to post this blog because I recently read A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. I had often heard the incredible tale of the novel's birth...a novel that went on to win The Pulitzer Prize. But how close it came to never seeing the light of day.

John Kennedy Toole wrote the original manuscript for this novel in the 1960's, but unfortunately he passed away at the age of 32 and it was never published while he was alive. In 1976, a professor at Loyola, Walker Percy, busy teaching budding writers, began to get phone calls from a woman that he had never met. Her request was simple: she wanted Percy to read her son's novel. And when Percy wavered as to whether or not to acquiesce, she wouldn't take "no" for an answer, firmly stated that it was "a great novel," and even showed up in person to hand him the manuscript.

According to Percy, he hoped to indulge her by merely reading a few pages and offering some feedback; however, a strange thing happened. In Percy's words from the foreword to the book:

In this case I read on. And on. First with the sinking feeling that it was not bad enough to quit, then with a pickle of interest, then a growing excitement, and finally an incredulity: surely it was not possible that is was so good.

Percy eventually helped package the novel and upon its publication it received the highest literary distinction.

So the question for the day is this: are you the next John Kennedy Toole? My bet is that there are many of you out there, true talents, brilliant writers with the ability to captivate readers, and you are just waiting to be discovered. It's time to share your gift with the world.

Wishing all of you the best (and waiting to read your masterpieces),

Eric