Dan Fitzgerald – författare

THE TEACHER begins with young BRIAN DESMOND teaching math at Newtown High School in Queens, New York despite a learning disability -- he cannot write legibly. He paid for his college education by fixing clocks, is fiercely independent, and aches for the respect of his sister and father, who treat him as dumb. A new principal comes to Newtown High with a wife, a lovely daughter and problems which threaten Brians teaching career. Martin Bernhard, a wealthy member of the Board of Education, tries to rescue Brians teaching job. In return he asks Brian to help him understand his dynamic daughter Julia, a concert violinist. Briefly barred from active hobbies, Brian accompanies a friend to a little theater audition which leads to involvement with actors, directors and agents in Queens, Westchester and Manhattan. As these various activities overlap, a crisis in Brians family clouds his perspective. He ignores local beauty Sheila Murray, and when she decides its time to look elsewhere Brian is forced to realign all of his priorities.

THE THIRD SON, a family novel, features Lieutenant Barry Kernahans promise to care for Sarah, the 6-year-old daughter of his commanding officer, Charlie Abercrombie, who is killed in a night raid in Afghanistan. Wounded in the same raid and discharged as a hero, 23-year-old Barry goes to Abercrombies home in Raleigh, N.C. to check his options as Abercrombies beneficiary, only to find the situation complicated and frustrating. Middle son in a family of five children, Barry left home in Queens, New York at the age of 18 to enlist in the Army. Due to service in Japan and Afghanistan he has not been home since enlisting. Now, he must live in Raleigh, find a nanny to care for Sarah, and marry in haste to adopt the young girl. Aware he knows nothing about women, and because his proposed bride is targeted by an obsessed killer, Barry asks each member of his Bayside family for their advice before he takes action. Everyones perspective is different. The final choice is his alone.

Since the 1950s, Powers have been imposing their will on the world with little resistance besides self-imposed ethics. But now, that epoch is set into a tailspin thanks to Charlie, a mere mortal who commands deference from near-gods. Oh, and he’ll need a date for the prom, too.

Drowning in grief over the death of his father and more literally underneath the boxes and bags that corral his mother’s obsession, Mark Brunson struggles just to tread water. Weighed down by high school hierarchy and a beautiful, yet vindictive ex-girlfriend Mark desperately needs a life raft. Instead, he is gifted Lester - the white trash, rodent-faced next-door neighbor who threatens to expose Mark’s hidden sin. One Big Mess follows Mark during his first week of tenth grade on his journey from outcast to icon culminating in a fist fight at “the pit” and a redemption made muddy by outmoded institutions and biased convictions.