Before I started my FLINTLOCKS AT DAWN journey, I toyed with making history in a different way. The result was THE YEAR COFFEE WAS ILLEGAL, a fast-paced and funny political satire set in an alternate version of 1992. In it, a coffee-fueled killing spree on Rodeo Drive and radical DECAF activists have caused the U.S. government to do the unthinkable: ban coffee. I make up most of the wackiness — like the Middle Eastern prince with a "Bill and Ted" fixation and an army of rebels led by the widow of Colombian coffee icon Juan Valdez. But some of the craziest stuff is real, like how the government killed tipplers during Prohibition by making industrial alcohol even more lethal.
You can get a taste of this seriocomic combination in "Bad Brew: An Excerpt from THE YEAR COFFEE WAS ILLEGAL," recently published online by The Write Launch. So sip and enjoy.