Don’t miss today’s well-crafted Literary Fiction, today’s feature is The Unabridged Songwriter by John M. McNamara. 
A Little About The Unabridged Songwriter:
Duncan Chase is an imperfect storm. His fiftieth birthday looms, prompting reflection along several fronts. Gold-record winning songwriter. Widower, whose wife committed suicide twenty-five years earlier, wracking him with guilt and rage. Estranged son of an academic with expectations he could never meet. An agoraphobic due to panic attacks and anxiety for which he only recently sought treatment.
Wednesday nights he auditions new compositions at the local pub to gauge audience reaction. When a young woman at an open mic night at the pub impresses him with her talent and beauty, he considers collaboration, one of many changes he entertains since beginning medication for his anxiety. The collaboration with the young singer/songwriter unfolds easily and Duncan imagines intimacy beyond the mere creative. Years of living alone in self-imposed isolation leave him ill-equipped to read people with certainty and although her reality falls short of his expectations, he gains a greater sense of purpose for the encounter.
About the Author:
John M. McNamara’s short fiction has been published in Crosscurrents, Old Hickory Review, the Piedmont Literary Review, the Minotaur, Snapdragon, Four Quarters, FlashFiction, Quick Fiction, Bear River Review, Inside Running and Chicago Literati. In the summer of 1999, he was awarded a professional artist residency at the OxBow Summer Arts Program for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Saugatuck, Michigan. He is the author of: Madonna; The Dreams of Teddy Schreck; Harmony House; A Final Reflection; A Life Without Grace; and Hunter’s War, A Novella, and Selected Short Stories. All are available from Amazon.com. The National Association of Book Entrepreneurs chose his novel, The Dreams of Teddy Schreck, as the winner in the “Novel” category of the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award Winners for Fall 2013.
If you haven’t grabbed today’s well-crafted literary fiction, The Unabridged Songwriter, do it now.