The Ghosts of Melrose
This was my first novel. It was actually very loosely based on a man I knew growing up. He was the only non-Catholic in an all Catholic town. It was supposed to be about how he found love late in life, and how any group of people will always find a way to have an odd man out, or an entire family. In this case it just happened to be based on religion, but the intent was more about human nature.
The end result was I had Catholics from that town claiming I was anti-Irish Catholic. The other result was that every single one them wanted to read the book to see what a bastard I was. I also found out later that it upset some people about how they thought they had been portrayed in the book. The fact is that everyone in the book was fictional. Every single character.
Even still, aging residents would look in the phone book and find my parent's number, who were all too willing to give my cell number ot anyone who called. I had some amazing conversations, like from the older gentleman who called only tell me that he remebered vividly the fight scene I had portrayed and how there actually been more participants than I had reported.
The book was hastily written, poorly formatted, and produced before I realized my own desperate need for an editor. There are misused words, misspelled words, and punctuation is a disaster. For several years after I hated even seeing copies of it. I don't sell them directly, but if you are one of the numerous people who have requested a copy over the years since I stopped selling it, here is the link...
https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Melrose-Novel-Buzz-Malone/dp/1461058627/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+ghosts+of+melrose&qid=1574270994&s=videogames&sr=8-2
The Lynching of Hiram Wilson, Chariton, Iowa 1870
Directly after I had written Ghosts, someone came to me with the bright idea of writing a story about Chariton, Iowa (my own hometown). They thought it would be cool if I could have it out by the 4th of July. I agreed and set to it.
The problem was I only had about 45 days to write it, edit it, and click the print button to have it back in time to sell. Huge mistake. The other problem was that the good people of the town who had asked me to do it had no idea I would reach back in time through the actual newspaper archives of the town and make up a fictional account of the time they had lynched a 19 year old kid from Missouri in broad daylight on the town square.
This book may even be worse than the first one in terms of editing. I only had an extremely brief window to proof read it, and then not even all of it. Just awful and I refuse to stock it anymore. But again, people ask for it.
In another bizarre twist of fate, the book the town fathers hated for dredging up their less than stellar past, turned out to be something of a godsend. In the years that followed, a plaque was erected on the site where Hiram Wilson had gunned down the sheriff. Hiram Wilson's grave was officially marked, and the tourism and historic societies teamed up to create a full-on tour of the locations where things happened, historic re-enactments, and all of the associated grave sites around the county. Bus tours would come to our little town for the sole purpose of taking this tour and the entire thing became a feature of tourism brochures. Go figure.
Here is the link to Lynching in all of its awful unedited glory...
https://www.amazon.com/Lynching-Hiram-Wilson-Chariton-Iowa/dp/1463563345/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+lynching+of+hiram+wilson&qid=1574271756&sr=8-1
Silence of Centerville
I had never spent much time in Centerville, Iowa before I wrote books. But I spent a lot of time there selling them, and the people of Centerville became huge supporters of my work. At that time, I knew three shoe repairmen in Southern Iowa who were deaf. That had seemed like such a coincidence that I eventually had to ask one of them how that came to be.
My favorite, Tommy, was from Chariton, and always had a smile for everyone, and candy for kids who wandered into his shop. What I discovered was that back before the 1960's if you were deaf they considered you mentally handicapped and families were supposed to load you up and ship you off to the deaf school to learn one of two or three trades if you were a boy. If you were a girl you learned homemaking skills and were strongly encouraged to marry the first hearing man who would have you.
As sad as those prospects were, it got me to thinking. What if a family had loved their child too much to send them away? What if they weren't sent to the school for the deaf? What would have happened to them then?
From that, and while in Centerville, surrounded by beautiful victorian homes, Frank Schantz was born. This book became wildly popular for a locally based historical fiction and I developed pockets of fans wherever retirees migrated carrying copies of it along with them. It was successful enough for me to finally afford to hire an editor. What I now sell is the professionally edited version.
Silence earned me the ultimate compliment that any fiction writer can receive when people from the town informed me that visitors had came from other places with the only purpose for their visit being to learn more about Frank Schantz and where he lived. Some people will see what they want to see, no matter what you tell them. It is all a fiction, but if you can tell it true enough and imagine the characters well enough inside of your head as a writer, they will still believe.
Here is the link to Silence of Centerville. Signed editions of these are available directly from me, but unlike Amazon, I do charge shipping.
https://www.amazon.com/Silence-Centerville-Buzz-Malone/dp/1466437588/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1574273092&sr=8-1
Losing Meadowbrook
This wasn't even supposed to be a book. This entire thing came about watching old men banter with each other and flirt with the nurses in the waiting room of a VA Hospital. Nothing they said was meant to be funny, but it was.
At the time I was experimenting with writing styles and I wanted to write a story where instead of a narrative, there was all action all the time, except without any action. It was more or less practice, but as the characters began to develop the whole thing took on a life of its own and before I knew it I had a massive 130,000 word manuscript sitting in front of me.
My proper English editor at the time said I had to "either cut it until it bleeds to get it down to size, or leave it as is and hope to be considered a modern James Joyce." I am not a big reader of James Joyce, but I think she was trying to tell me there was too much inaction and detail. So, I trimmed it until it bled, and the result is what I believe to be a pretty entertaining story about a bunch of old men plotting and escaping from a nursing home.
This one is also available directly from me or on Amazon...
https://www.amazon.com/Losing-Meadow-Brook-Buzz-Malone/dp/1544093691/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Losing+Meadow+brook&qid=1574273273&sr=8-1
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