Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Republicans don’t trust women.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

You are here: Home / Authors In Our Midst / Bud Gundy – The Story of Darcy O’Brien!

Bud Gundy – The Story of Darcy O’Brien!

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Our author today for Authors in Our Midst is Bud Gundy, whose book was just released today. Let’s give a warm welcome to Bud!

If you are an Author or an Artist who is interested in having your work featured, just let me know.

Bud Gundy – The Story of Darcy O'Brien!

“Gundy’s writing has a you-are-there vividness that perfectly complements his bigger than life characters and the sweeping story he tells.” – Felice Picano, author, editor, and co-founder of The Violet Quill.

If you live in Northern California and you recognize my name, right about now you’re reaching to turn off the radio or TV. Yes, I’m that Bud Gundy who asks you to support KQED public radio and TV during the pledge drives!

I’m also a writer and I’m thrilled to announce my novel, Inherit the Lightning, has been released by Bold Strokes Books as of this morning, and is available on their website until May 13 when it goes on sale everywhere.

The story follows Darcy O’Brien, who is searching for a mysterious person claiming ownership of a long-rumored, immense family fortune he and his sisters are about to inherit. A gay man in his mid-30’s, desperate for cash, and with a dead-end career, Darcy is determined to do whatever is needed to secure the inheritance for his family.

The search takes amazing turns as Darcy learns the truth about Cooper Tiller, his great grandfather who amassed the newly revealed fortune. Although Coop died decades before Darcy was born, his astonishing example proves far more valuable than money. It reveals a family secret hidden for 70 years, a much older truth about Coop himself, and it transforms Darcy’s life.

When I started writing this story more than two years ago, I had a much different trajectory in mind until a friend, taken with the description of the family mansion Cooper Tiller commissioned in 1920, insisted I tell the backstory of the house. I tried every imaginable angle, even the people who float by on a variety of boats over the decades (the house overlooks Lake Erie just outside of Cleveland).

None of it worked, and in desperation I wrote a character sketch of Cooper Tiller, who was never supposed to appear in the story beyond old family photos. I made it difficult on myself by deciding Coop was born into a poor farm family in 1880 and he became extremely wealthy as the owner of a coal mine (and yes, I deal with the toxic effects of coal). But how does a penniless farm boy from central Ohio come to live in coal country and own land? How do you find coal and build a mine?

Coop’s story swept me away, and I knew I had to make him a central character.

Coop and Darcy connect in a myriad of ways, including their understanding of animals, an abiding sense of their own unworthiness when it comes to love, as well as a startling resemblance. And in the end, a piece of advice handed down from Coop himself provides the final push Darcy needs to take a chance on love with a man he’s had his eye on for years.

I had an enormous amount of fun researching and writing this family saga, and I carefully calibrated the mystery to match the revelation. I even stumbled into a connection to a screen legend from Hollywood’s golden age, and I couldn’t resist a brief scene when Coop meets a toddler whose name you are certain to recognize!

My previous works published by Bold Strokes Books include Somewhere Over Lorain Road, a family story and murder mystery that was shortlisted for a 2019 Lambda Literary Award. Another, Accidental Prophet, is a sort of sequel to my self-published novel Elf Gift, and while it appears to be supernatural, it is actually a science fiction story, with the secret revealed in the as-yet unwritten third and final installment.

Bold Strokes Books is one of the world’s largest independent LGBTQ+ publishing companies, producing a diverse collection of LGBTQ+ general and genre fiction, including romance, mystery/intrigue, crime, erotica, speculative fiction (science fiction/fantasy/horror), general fiction, and, through the Soliloquy imprint, young adult fiction. Since its inception in 2004, the company’s mission has remained unchanged: to bring quality queer fiction to readers worldwide and to support an international group of authors in developing their craft and reaching an ever-growing community of readers via print, digital, and audio formats.

I love hearing from readers through my website at www.budgundy.com.

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    Bud, please let us know when you get here in case people have questions for you.

    Programming note:

    Medium Cool with BG will be back next week at the usual time.

  3. 3.

    WaterGirl

    @Bud Gundy: Welcome!

    My sister started writing a book about one thing and got so engrossed in one particular chapter that she changed course and made the whole book about what was supposed to be Chapter 7.

  4. 4.

    BGinCHI

    This looks great, Bud.

    Research on a novel always leads you partly where you want to go and inevitably down new paths.

    Anything historic you stumbled onto that was like a gift?

  6. 6.

    Bud Gundy

    @BGinCHI: Thanks for asking…Coop’s whole story turned out to be a gift. I had a flat, two dimensional vision of him until I started writing his story and couldn’t stop. It made me realize how crucial a backstory can be, and how writers need to understand the whole personality of every character.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    @Bud Gundy: She always thought the original book would be her second book, but she never wrote it.  But she fell in love with the chapter 7 story, so you’re right, she was happy.

  9. 9.

    Almost Retired

    On my first read through of your post, I (erroneously?) assumed that Cooper Tiller was a real historical figure?  Is that the case, or is the character and the house entirely fictional?  I googled Cooper Tiller, and all I came up with is a high end garden implement (maybe there’s another story there).  The book looks fascinating.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    So Bold Strokes Books publishes stories with LGBTQ+ characters.  I was going to ask whether they care about the orientation of the writer, or whether it’s just the characters they care about.  But instead I think I’ll ask if you think a straight person can write good LGBTQ+ characters?  Or is that considered bad form to kind of co-opt that?

  12. 12.

    BGinCHI

    @Bud Gundy: So true. Characters come alive in so many unexpected ways. It never ceases to amaze me how some characters just won’t get out of the way and play their little part, but get bigger and bigger. Best laid plans……

  18. 18.

    Sure Lurkalot

    The story about how your originally marginal character came to life is fascinating! It’s so interesting (ok, frustrating I’m sure) when a writer’s first vision gets derailed by the direction of their own narrative. Has this happened in any of your previous works?

  21. 21.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Bud Gundy: Kind of ironic…how you want to know more about a character you created, and you have to create the more.

  24. 24.

    PaulB

    @WaterGirl: But instead I think I’ll ask if you think a straight person can write good LGBTQ+ characters?  Or is that considered bad form to kind of co-opt that?

    In the gay community, there’s a lot of discussion on this point, particularly since a large amount of gay fiction with male characters, particularly gay erotica, is written by straight women.

    Alas, quite a few of them don’t really get the, um, mechanics of sex between two men and so the stories are (unintentionally) often amusing rather than what the author was going for.

    Mr. Gundy, I noticed that one of your earlier books is available via Kindle Unlimited. Will you be making this latest one available there, as well?

  25. 25.

    PaulB

    At one extreme are the authors who create a detailed plot outline before they begin and then write the story to fit the outline with little or no deviation. At the other are the authors who just start with a vague idea and a character, and begin writing, letting the story go where it will. Which do you lean more toward? Or does it depend on the story and the character?

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