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CONOVER, NC - Mainland Press has announced the release of North Carolina resident Wille Thompson's humorous first novel 'Scratch Golfer.'
Scratch Golfer tells the story of advertising account executive Webster Daniels and his search to score a round of even par, in effect to become a 'scratch golfer.' However, his efforts are both aided and complicated by close friends, professional enemies and ultimately by the suspiciously helpful head pro at his local course, Aristotle Mann.
"The inspiration was the short story 'The Devil and Daniel Webster,' by Stephen Benet," said Thompson, "which you may remember from junior high English. But there are a few twists and turns along the way to a substantially different ending.
"Golf is funny. At least the way I play it," laughed Thompson. "I crafted the book so that other people would find it, and the business world, funny as well."
While the book starts out with a smattering of golf slang, Thompson has aided non-golfers with comic footnotes along the way to explain terms such as 'nassau' and 'snake,' both of which are names of golf wagers. "The average foursome probably has more gambling action than an Indian casino," notes Thompson. "And the book comes down to a rather substantial bet. It's just after the 16th hole that our hero finds that the game, $20 million in business and his soul are on the line.
"I drew a lot on local color for the detail of the book. Many of the holes described in the final golf match are taken from the fairways and greens of several Piedmont-area golf courses." Many of the locales, from uptown Charlotte to the suburban sprawl of Lake Norman, will be recognizable to local readers.
Thompson was the co-writer of the two Hickory-area comedy shows in 1988 and 1989. He keeps the comedic part of his brain pulsing with regular contributions to the Comic Curmudgeon website (www.joshreads.com) and his own take on the doings of Charlotte (www.thecharlottedisturber.com).
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The book had been rattling around in Thompson's head for about four years. He would write out plot details and character sketches in between assignments for his company, Industrial Strength Marketing, also in Newton. "Then last summer, I had a dry spell work-wise and found myself writing out a page or six a day,' said the author. "At the end of three months, I had 224 pages of what I thought was pretty good stuff."
Thompson showed the manuscript to friends who read it and agreed. On the off-chance, Thompson showed it to Gavin Sinclair of Mainland Press, who read it and agreed to stand as publisher. Mainland Press is also the publisher of "The Management Secrets of T. John Dick," by local author Augustus Gump, which chronicled the exploits of the world's worst boss, and climbed to #5 on the Amazon.com sales list in 2004. The book was recently optioned for a movie.
Right now, Thompson is preparing for a spring book tour at golfing locales in North and South Carolina. "I've gotten a few copies into the hands of the blog community and they've been all pretty positive," said Thompson.
The book is now available at Barnes&Noble, at selected independent booksellers and at Amazon.com. Signed copies are available at the publisher (www.mainlandpress.com).
About Mainland Press
Mainland Press publishes humor with literary flair. Whether it's a novel, a story collection or non-fiction with a high chuckle factor, we put our name to only the best new writers of comedy and the classics of humorous writing from throughout the English-speaking world.
Contact: mainlandpress@foolsparadise.net.
828-325-4977
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