Though I've been told that my novel Skol is the best of my books, you would never guess that from its sales. My other novel, The Birdcatcher, has had many readers over the years, and the first edition of The Shyness Guide was once selling well enough that I was threatening to break even financially. Meanwhile, Skol has had no following at all. … Continue reading My Lost Book – Skol
Rescuing Jude
Have you read Thomas Hardy's 1895 novel, Jude the Obscure? If you haven't, it's the story of Jude Fawley, a shy, intelligent, sensitive boy, then man, who is too shy, intelligent and sensitive to fit into a callous, indifferent and hypocritical world. Jude is working class, but he longs to become a Greek and Latin scholar … Continue reading Rescuing Jude
Steppenwolf vs Herman Hesse
In my 2009 essay For Madmen Only (now a page on this site), I presented my idea that the ending of Herman Hesse's novel Steppenwolf isn't at the end of the book, but at the beginning. For several years that was a page on the previous Alan Conrad/Shy Highway website where it received more visits than the rest … Continue reading Steppenwolf vs Herman Hesse
Rescuing Fiction
When I had my previous website, The Loner's Highway, it was accompanied by a secondary blog known as The Society for the Protection of Fictional Characters, or, in short, the SPFC. I liked that name, and the acronym, but the acronym presented a problem. A web search found that SPFC includes: São Paol FC, a football/soccer … Continue reading Rescuing Fiction
Alan Conrad 