Revisit the 1980s!
Book 3 of the Manfred Schmidt Series
Manny's still got something to prove.
Follow our hero as he:
- Returns to Boston for graduate school
- Tests personal and legal boundaries
- Begins an on-again and off-again romance
- Travels out West once more for adventure
- Moves to politically act
- Pursues a doctorate in fits and starts
Yet Jimmy Carter's loss in the 1980 presidential election still haunts him.
Sweet Dreams Are Made of This continues the story of Manfred Schmidt and is set between 1980 and 1984. The emerging adulthood of the angst-filled American hero begins in Keene, New Hampshire where he moves to restart college. He quickly makes friends and throws himself into intriguing activities and experiences, trying to make up for what he imagined he missed when he dropped out of college two years previously. With anticipation and trepidation, he enters manhood, determined to balance his desire with his ambition.
In search of adventure, Manfred travels out west with a friend, ending up in California where he visits relatives and an old high school friend he met in Ireland. Back in New Hampshire, he finds romance and also rekindles his commitment with the Democratic Party by volunteering with Gary Hart's insurgent 1984 presidential campaign. The book ends in Boston, where Manfred has moved back to for graduate school.
Even though idealism is still the driving focus of his life, his experiences begin to shape the decisions he makes for his future. Still, he won't allow what is happening to himself and to American politics to overwhelm the power of his dreams.
Yet a disturbing vision he saw in the fall of 1980 still haunts him.
Deacon Blues
June 2024 marked the 52nd anniversary of the Watergate break-in. Less than two years later, President Nixon resigned in disgrace and the nation felt exhausted and disgusted at the details of the scandal. One-term Georgia governor Jimmy Carter would soon declare his bid for the presidency and miraculously get elected in 1976. America was full of hope for renewal.
My book, Deacon Blues, transports you back to that remarkable seven year period between 1973 and 1980 as seen by an angst-filled American adolescent. A child of divorce, the protagonist Manfred Schmidt craves for belonging and respect and takes on Jimmy Carter as his hero. The tale begins in Bethesda, Maryland where Manfred lives with his journalist dad and older brother. Just before his senior year of high school, Manfred moves to Ireland where he follows the ups and downs of Carter from Europe. He starts college in Boston but drops out and moves to New Hampshire to live with his brother. It is there where he finds himself and decides to devote himself to working for Carter's re-election campaign.
Deacon Blues is a coming-of-age story about idealism, adventure, naiveite, hope and the power of dreaming.
