Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, August 23, 2017, 8:53 p.m.

The Clinton Chronicle was kind enough to run this today:

Just five months after the release of Lightning in a Bottle, Barrie Jarman is back in a sequel. Life Gets Complicated takes Barrie into the top level of FASCAR.

Monte Dutton’s seventh novel is the first linked to another.

At the age of nineteen, Barrie has grown up in a hurry. He is poised at the edge of stock car racing stardom. He’s making ten times as much money as a year ago. He has a top-flight ride with a top-flight team in the top flight of the sport. He is exactly where he wants to be.

At the end of Barrie’s frantic first year, he parties with his girlfriend, Angela Hughston; his best friend, her brother Errol; his new pilot, Rafe Trujillo; his teammate, veteran Jay Higbe; his estranged father, Big Jim; and a boozing old relic from the sport’s past. He befriends a pro football player at a Las Vegas awards ceremony. Life is good, and Barrie’s no angel.

Uncle Charlie, his friend, companion, confidante and source of perspective, quietly tries to keep Barrie headed in the right direction.

Barrie confronts the distinct possibility that he is a corruptive influence on those around him. He has little doubt about his own capacity to straighten up. He’s worried about Errol, though, who’s getting more bad influence on the side. Errol doesn’t know that Barrie is in a position to help him. Barrie doesn’t know if Errol is ready for a chance to join the Jerry McCarley Enterprises driver lineup.

Then there’s the interracial romance, which isn’t a big deal to Barrie’s generation but is to some FASCAR fans.

When Barrie gets down to business, when he puts on his firesuit and climbs into Number 59, all seems well again. He puts his new Ford Fusion on the front row for the sport’s biggest race. Then he receives a crushing blow … literally.

Barrie has more riding on the upcoming races than those outside his circle of friends know. He has to race. He can’t call the cops. He can’t let FASCAR, the ruling body, know how badly he’s injured. He drops out of sight. While he receives treatment in a condo on the beach, a fake excuse for his absence is circulated. Other excuses show up in a gossip sheet that has targeted him for some reason.

Obviously, Barrie has enemies.

Pain steels his resolve. Like the icons he grew up idolizing, Barrie does what it takes.

To purchase Life Gets Complicated in paperback:

https://www.createspace.com/7475752

The Amazon link:

FICTION BY MONTE DUT TON

The Audacity of Dope (2011)

The Intangibles (2013)

Crazy of Natural Causes (2015)

Forgive Us Our Trespasses (2016)

Longer Songs: A Collection of Short Stories (2016)

Cowboys Come Home (2016)

Lightning in a Bottle (2017)

Life Gets Complicated (2017)

Lightning in a Bottle, Life Gets Complicated, and Cowboys Come Home are on sale in uptown Clinton at both Emma Jane’s and L&L Office Supply. 

AUTHOR Q&A

Why so soon with the sequel?

“I guess it’s that old saying, or joke, or whatever. It was in me, and it had to come out.

“I never wrote a series before – this is the second ‘Barrie Jarman Adventure’ – because, by the time I got through with my first five novels, I didn’t want to write about the characters anymore.

“Barrie fascinates me. I spent twenty years writing about stock car racing. Maybe he’s a sportswriter’s wildest dream. He’s not particularly educated, but he’s highly intelligent. He’s mischievous because you can’t expect a kid who likes to race cars at breakneck speeds not to have a twinkle in his eye.”

What about the timing?

“It’s mainly a coincidence, but Life Gets Complicated does coincide with a total eclipse of the sun. If there’s something cosmic there, I hope it’s positive.

“It’s good to get it out in time for the Southern 500, my favorite race at my favorite track. NASCAR’s playoffs will begin soon.

“The timing is mainly the time. This is how long it took to get it finished. I rely on writing for a living. I need the righteous bucks. That’s powerful motivation.”

What is the significance of Barrie Jarman?

“He’s really good. He’s really interesting. He is a bridge between what racing wants and what racing needs. He’s determined. He’s ambitious. He races hurt.

“Racing requires lightning-fast reactions. Barrie makes those in every aspect of his life. He never considered the ramifications of having an African American girlfriend until after he fell in love with Angela Hughston. He doesn’t care whether the fans like it or not. He thinks they have a right to think whatever they want. Like him.

“Auto racing is in decline. Its fan base is aging. Barrie is a bridge between the working-class heroes of the past and the broadening diversity of the future. He has a soul that he doesn’t hide. NASCAR could use the hero that FASCAR has. I did all I could by inventing Barrie and FASCAR.”

Is Barrie based on a real person?

“No. He’s a composite of athletes I’ve observed. I spent twenty years around race drivers. These days, I do my share of free-lance writing about high school and college athletes. I’d say Barrie has no more in common with a racer than he does a … shortstop. I think he’s more typical of his generation than his sport.”

How do you expect the book to be received?

“The customer reviews of Lightning in a Bottle are the highest (currently 4.9 on a scale of 5) of any of my novels. I don’t see any reason why readers won’t like the Barrie Jarman of Life Gets Complicated any less.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Monte Dutton has lived most of his life in Clinton, South Carolina. He graduated from Furman University with a B.A. in political science and history.

For two decades, Dutton wrote about NASCAR as a newspaper reporter and columnist. He wrote At Speed, a collection of columns; Rebel with a Cause: A Season with NASCAR Star Tony Stewart; Postcards from Pit Road, an account of the 2002 season; Jeff Gordon: The Racer; and edited Taking Stock: Life in NASCAR’s Fast Lane.

Dutton’s first book, 1986’s Pride of Clinton, was a history of high school football in his hometown. His last non-fiction work was 2006’s True to the Roots: Americana Music Revealed.

He still dabbles in sportswriting, writing a weekly NASCAR column at competitionplus.com. He also writes frequently about local sports in blogs and stories.

Life Gets Complicated is Dutton’s seventh novel.

If you’d like me to mail you a signed copy of Life Gets Complicated, or any of my other novels, you can find my address and instructions at montedutton.com. (montedutton.com/blog/merchandise)

I’ve written seven novels and a collection of short stories. I’ve also written a number of books about sports, mostly about NASCAR. You can find most of them here.

The Kindle versions of my books, where available, can be found above. Links below are to print editions.

Lightning in a Bottle is the story of Barrie Jarman, the hope of stock car racing’s future. Barrie, a 18-year-old from Spartanburg, South Carolina, is both typical of his generation and a throwback to the sport’s glory days.

Cowboys Come Home is a modern western. Two World War II heroes come home from the Pacific to Texas.

I’ve written a crime novel about the corrosive effects of patronage and the rise and fall of a powerful politician and his dysfunctional family, Forgive Us Our Trespasses.

I’ve written about what happens to a football coach when he loses everything, Crazy of Natural Causes. It’s a fable of life’s absurdity.

I’ve written a tale of the Sixties in the South, centered on school integration and a high school football team, The Intangibles.

I’ve written a rollicking yarn about the feds trying to track down and manipulate a national hero who just happens to be a pot-smoking songwriter, The Audacity of Dope.

I’ve written a collection of 11 short stories, all derived from songs I wrote, Longer Songs.

Signed copies of Lightning in a Bottle are on sale at Emma Jane’s (see ad above). Signed copies of all my fiction are also on sale at L&L Office Supply in uptown Clinton, South Carolina.

Follow me on Twitter @montedutton, @hmdutton (about writing), and/or @wastedpilgrim (more opinionated and irreverent). I’m on Facebook (Monte.Dutton), Instagram (TUG50), and Google-Plus (MonteDuttonWriter).