About this eBook
Welcome to Wellington, New York, where the hills and the seemingly quaint village conceal lives of love, lust, adultery, tragedy and small wars.
A trophy wife undergoes a shocking transformation. A medical doctor attracts his own destruction. A local bachelor steals a dog and has an epiphany. A town Casanova goes on a personal odyssey to make amends. And a Manhattan book editor reveals what it's like to be a first-time visitor to this rarefied world of wealth, horses and equestriennes.
High Thread-Count Dirty Laundry...
To this exquisitely written novel, Chris Orcutt brings his meticulous craft and his talent for writing in multifarious voices and styles, all while exposing a world of massive estates, rolling green hills, hilltoppers, townies, celebrities, hopes, dreams, sex, and the fleeting promises of love...
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"In the rarified town of Wellington, N.Y., the 'absurdly wealthy' ride horses, live well, and turn to the community's less affluent for diversion and recreation. Journalist turned novelist Orcutt (the Dakota Stevens series) gives nine Wellington residents--plus one visitor--each their own chapter in this novel.... Insulated by their wealth, these idle rich knowingly embrace the all-too-foreseeable consequences of their actions, revealing a town where selfishness is a way of life." — Publishers Weekly, Booklife
"Welcome to Wellington, New York, where, in this loose novel, readers can eavesdrop on the lives of the uber-rich and those who cater to them. Think of a very, very upscale Winesburg, Ohio--with no inhabitant nearly so innocent as young George Willard. Or think John Cheever, for this is certainly Cheever country." — Kirkus Reviews
"Chris Orcutt's ten short interwoven stories are widely varied in style, offering rich and descriptive language....The stories offer a lightness and fluidity in writing....Orcutt pays tribute to his literary muses often mentioning his inspiration through his literate characters.... (5 stars; IR approved)" — IndieReader
"May I add that there's also humor, delight and fun? This is a portrait of a town and its denizens--its schools, its diner and hardware store, its hair salon ... as you read it, you are there (hey, maybe you really are there!). In short, this book is full of surprises and is totally fun to read." — Ann La Farge, The Hudson Valley News
"He is so exquisite in his writing that I couldn't wait to finish....I cannot tell you the joy it gives me to read literature that is so well defined. The prose is exemplary." — Pam Stack, Authors on the Air Global Radio Network
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About the author
Chris Orcutt has written professionally for 30 years as a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, playwright and speechwriter. In college he initially studied forensic chemistry and later graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in philosophy. For a time after college, Chris taught high school U.S. history and college writing, and as a newspaper reporter he received a New York Press Association award.
Chris is the author of the critically acclaimed Dakota Stevens Mystery Series. The first novel in the series, A Real Piece of Work, was an Amazon bestseller. His non-genre fiction, including the novel One Hundred Miles from Manhattan and the short story collection The Man, The Myth, The Legend, has received critical acclaim from a host of professional reviewers: Publishers Weekly, Chronogram, Hudson Valley News, IndieReader, and Kirkus Reviews. In addition to his published novels, well over two dozen of his short stories have been published in literary journals.
In his free time away from the writing desk, Chris enjoys cross country skiing, hiking, mountain climbing, golf, tennis, swimming, chess and classic films.
Throughout his career as a novelist, Orcutt has written with one guiding principle: "I write books that I would want to read," he says. "When I'm reading a novel, I'm always looking for surprises--the plot twist, the beautiful scene, the quirky character, the memorable line of dialogue, or the gorgeous, picturesque sentence. So those are the things that I give to my readers."
For more about Chris or his Dakota Stevens Mysteries Series, visit orcutt.net OR dakotapi.com.
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Like a samurai sword-maker who forges, folds and hammers a length of steel until it becomes both a perfect weapon and a piece of art, Chris Orcutt invests thousands of hours in every one of his novels--writing, researching, rewriting, and editing--to make them the very best they can be.
While other authors might focus on book marketing and self-promotion, Orcutt is constantly honing his storytelling craft and his facility with language. Beyond compelling "page-turning" plots, Orcutt strives to give readers an immersive literary experience that will stick with them: great lines of dialogue, words they've never heard before, beautiful descriptions, apt metaphors, funny zingers and gorgeous sentences.
Indeed, Orcutt's writing credo is a quote by Ernest Hemingway: "It is your object to convey everything to the reader so that he remembers it not as a story he had read, but as something that happened to himself. That is the true test of writing." An old-school novelist who writes his first drafts with a Palomino Blackwing 602 pencil or one of his many vintage typewriters, Orcutt believes in hard work over talent, substance over hype, rising every day at 5 a.m., making coffee, and pressing on with his latest work in progress.
By buying a Chris Orcutt novel, you are supporting a writer who has made, and continues to make, writing his life's work.
