The Buzz Around Town
with Editor Kevin McManus
Image courtesy of DAVID A. EDMONDS “Personal Pronouns” is the first novel from local author David A. Edmonds. It’s available now.
I wasn’t sure what to think about David A. Edmonds when our paths first crossed.
Covering a community meeting on the topic of neighborhood blight a number of years back, Edmonds, an involved city resident, sat behind me as I jotted down notes.
“Ooh, that’s a good one! You should write that down,” Edmonds would continually lean toward me and humorously quip as conversations took place. “Did you get that?!”
I got a bit fed up toward the end of the evening meeting and eventually turned around to see who was yanking my chain.
“Excuse me, sir, where do you work? I’d like to stop by tomorrow and let you know you’re doing a really great job,” I sarcastically retorted.
“Well, I’m retired, so good luck with that!” Edmonds laughed.
He got me there.
Edmonds had been a high school teacher for 40 years, so I was no match for the steadfast wit he’d developed while dealing with smart-alek kids day in and day out.
I eventually became somewhat familiar with Edmonds through his work with the South Court Historic Neighborhood Association, specifically his involvement in the street’s annual Rockin’ the Court music festival.
His passion for local artistry was evident, so I naturally warmed up to him. I also found out he’s an author, one with a newly-available fictional novel, “Personal Pronouns,” his first.
Edmonds – who lives in Medina with his wife Marie – began by writing a series of shorts, “The Faculty Lounge Stories,” admittedly based on his own career as a high school mind-molder. He started writing after his first 20 years on the job. Now retired after another 20, he’s decided to get significantly deeper.
“Personal Pronouns,” features several of the characters he’d developed in the Lounge works, which detail the “goings-on inside the faculty lounge of a high school.”
“I’ve been a teacher all my life, so I guess it’s natural that I write about teachers,” Edmonds says. “(‘The Faculty Lounge Stories’) were easy to write since I spent a lot of my time there.”
“To me, the faculty lounge was the conversational center of the school, where people talked about what was important to them as teachers and as human beings.”
Although fiction – he stresses that any similarity between actual events and characters living or dead is coincidental – Edmonds says those short stories are clearly based on personal experiences. A number of the shorts can be found on his website, www.davidallenedmonds.com.
Similar to the Lounge Stories, the conspiracy-driven “Personal Pronouns” is deeply dark and mysterious, blurring the lines of good and evil, themes Edmonds likes to hang his hat on.
The story revolves around what is happening beneath the manicured surface of fictional Stradford, Ohio.
Character Joe Lehrer recounts the death of his wife, Cathy, in an automobile accident as “Personal Pronouns” opens.
Unknown to Joe, Cathy died as retaliation by the city’s power brokers for the embarrassment he caused them during a recent teachers’ strike.
Joe manages to tamp down his emotions and return to work, but the suspicious death of a student compels him to take a closer look. Joe’s investigation reveals corruption in city hall, the school board, even the governor’s mansion. He discovers that quiet, suburban Stradford has a secret worth killing for – a child prostitution ring organized by elected members of the government.
The heart of “Personal Pronouns” recounts Joe’s struggle to reorder his life following his wife’s death. Joe’s take-charge, know-it-all personality serves him well as a teacher, but also makes him hard and intractable, Edmonds says.
Joe’s life becomes out of control and he doesn’t know how to face his guilt because he was driving the car when she died. Over the course of the book, with the support of his friends and his faith, Joe does succeed in bringing his life closer to normalcy.
What he doesn’t anticipate, though, is having to compromise his personal values in order to do it.
“The uniqueness of ‘Personal Pronouns’ is the blending of the narrative strands,” Edmonds stated in a press release. “The good and the evil that are Stradford co-exist in a place that is as recognizable as the latest news cycle. The characters don’t represent a theme. They are human beings. They don’t have all the answers and some of them don’t even know the question.”
“Personal Pronouns” was self-published in March 2017 by Edmonds’ Medina-based Snowbelt Publishing Ltd. Both the print version and the eBook are available at Amazon.com. Paperback is $15.99; digital is $2.99. It can also be found at The Book Store on West Washington Street in Medina.
Contact me
As always, I look forward to hearing from you and will gladly accept news tips at kmcmanus@thepostnewspapers.com.
Make it a great week, Medina.
Covering a community meeting on the topic of neighborhood blight a number of years back, Edmonds, an involved city resident, sat behind me as I jotted down notes.
“Ooh, that’s a good one! You should write that down,” Edmonds would continually lean toward me and humorously quip as conversations took place. “Did you get that?!”
I got a bit fed up toward the end of the evening meeting and eventually turned around to see who was yanking my chain.
“Excuse me, sir, where do you work? I’d like to stop by tomorrow and let you know you’re doing a really great job,” I sarcastically retorted.
“Well, I’m retired, so good luck with that!” Edmonds laughed.
He got me there.
Edmonds had been a high school teacher for 40 years, so I was no match for the steadfast wit he’d developed while dealing with smart-alek kids day in and day out.
I eventually became somewhat familiar with Edmonds through his work with the South Court Historic Neighborhood Association, specifically his involvement in the street’s annual Rockin’ the Court music festival.
His passion for local artistry was evident, so I naturally warmed up to him. I also found out he’s an author, one with a newly-available fictional novel, “Personal Pronouns,” his first.
Edmonds – who lives in Medina with his wife Marie – began by writing a series of shorts, “The Faculty Lounge Stories,” admittedly based on his own career as a high school mind-molder. He started writing after his first 20 years on the job. Now retired after another 20, he’s decided to get significantly deeper.
“Personal Pronouns,” features several of the characters he’d developed in the Lounge works, which detail the “goings-on inside the faculty lounge of a high school.”
“I’ve been a teacher all my life, so I guess it’s natural that I write about teachers,” Edmonds says. “(‘The Faculty Lounge Stories’) were easy to write since I spent a lot of my time there.”
“To me, the faculty lounge was the conversational center of the school, where people talked about what was important to them as teachers and as human beings.”
Although fiction – he stresses that any similarity between actual events and characters living or dead is coincidental – Edmonds says those short stories are clearly based on personal experiences. A number of the shorts can be found on his website, www.davidallenedmonds.com.
Similar to the Lounge Stories, the conspiracy-driven “Personal Pronouns” is deeply dark and mysterious, blurring the lines of good and evil, themes Edmonds likes to hang his hat on.
The story revolves around what is happening beneath the manicured surface of fictional Stradford, Ohio.
Character Joe Lehrer recounts the death of his wife, Cathy, in an automobile accident as “Personal Pronouns” opens.
Unknown to Joe, Cathy died as retaliation by the city’s power brokers for the embarrassment he caused them during a recent teachers’ strike.
Joe manages to tamp down his emotions and return to work, but the suspicious death of a student compels him to take a closer look. Joe’s investigation reveals corruption in city hall, the school board, even the governor’s mansion. He discovers that quiet, suburban Stradford has a secret worth killing for – a child prostitution ring organized by elected members of the government.
The heart of “Personal Pronouns” recounts Joe’s struggle to reorder his life following his wife’s death. Joe’s take-charge, know-it-all personality serves him well as a teacher, but also makes him hard and intractable, Edmonds says.
Joe’s life becomes out of control and he doesn’t know how to face his guilt because he was driving the car when she died. Over the course of the book, with the support of his friends and his faith, Joe does succeed in bringing his life closer to normalcy.
What he doesn’t anticipate, though, is having to compromise his personal values in order to do it.
“The uniqueness of ‘Personal Pronouns’ is the blending of the narrative strands,” Edmonds stated in a press release. “The good and the evil that are Stradford co-exist in a place that is as recognizable as the latest news cycle. The characters don’t represent a theme. They are human beings. They don’t have all the answers and some of them don’t even know the question.”
“Personal Pronouns” was self-published in March 2017 by Edmonds’ Medina-based Snowbelt Publishing Ltd. Both the print version and the eBook are available at Amazon.com. Paperback is $15.99; digital is $2.99. It can also be found at The Book Store on West Washington Street in Medina.
Contact me
As always, I look forward to hearing from you and will gladly accept news tips at kmcmanus@thepostnewspapers.com.
Make it a great week, Medina.