Check out this Dirge Magazine interview with reporter and author Mark LaFlamme. In it, he is perfectly at ease talking about the correlations between his novel and the real world campaign of Gov. Frank Cotton. This just a week after he told me, in low tones of great trepidation, he could not discuss it at all.As we say in the journalism profession: this just fries my ass. I think it goes without saying that LaFlamme owes me an explanation.
Dirt was released in September. Was this a promotional move to coincide with the presidential election?
I was taking my sweet time getting ”Dirt” to market. Richard Hoy from Splinter Press took a look at the manuscript and decided the timing was too serendipitous. He wanted to get it out there while everyone is still talking about Obama, McCain and Cotton. The book wasn’t written to be timed with the campaign. But it might have been hurried to the bookshelves for obvious reasons.
The book is about the campaign of Gov. Frank Cotton. But it is a work of fiction. How does that make sense?
Dirt is about Frank Cotton, the candidate you see every night on the evening news. It is about his family, his past, his fight for the White House. It’s unusual, I admit. Some would say it’s reckless. It is a work of fiction about a real man.
So, are you telling the world that Frank Cotton’s son Calvin dug up his dead wife and that the Cotton team is trying to cover that up?
Calvin Cotton in my novel dug up his dead wife, yes. Frank Cotton in my novel was desperate to find them and to hide the atrocity from the world, yes. In my novel all of that happens. In the real world? That’s not something I can say with certainty. It’s not my job to do so.
One Comment
You know what, Mr. Nilan? You need to go to the grave of Bethany Cotton and leave flowers and A LONG APOLOGY. You have accomplished NOTHING over recent weeks but to add to the MISERY OF THE COTTON FAMILY. You should be ashamed. We weren’t happy about the BOOK BEING PUBLISHED, but you have made a BAD SITUATION WORSE. Congratulations.