Quest For The Mace- A Novel - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: May 23, 2006

Quest For The Mace- A Novel

Date: May 23, 2006

Hotlink = go here.

Date: May 23, 2006

the link is:

lulu.com/content/303149

Could someone that knows how just make it where we could click on this site?

Date: May 23, 2006

Thanks, Googler's Third Cousin.

Date: May 23, 2006

Googler's Third Cousin wrote:

Hotlink = go here.

Read the preview. I think we need to see that there is fiction all around us.

Date: May 23, 2006

I don't know if this is a hoax or if it is legitimate. In either case, Chapter One is the funniest dang thing I have ever read. Don't go to bed tonight without reading it. To access the first chapter click "PREVIEW THIS BOOK"

Date: May 23, 2006

I had to laugh when I read that the top of the president's desk is made of polymer. The name of the former president - Austin K. Lucent - is also clever. Parts of the opening chapter made me wonder if the author is none other than our own beloved Off the Plantation. I look forward to reading more. Kudos to the author.

Date: May 23, 2006

Book Worm wrote:

I don't know if this is a hoax or if it is legitimate. In either case, Chapter One is the funniest dang thing I have ever read. Don't go to bed tonight without reading it. To access the first chapter click "PREVIEW THIS BOOK"

I LOVE THIS!!!!

MORE PLEASE!!

Date: May 23, 2006

Surely the Hattiesburg American might be interested in reviewing this novel, or at least writing an article about its existence. I can imagine this becoming the talk of the town.

Has anyone yet ordered a copy to know if it is indeed a completed novel rather than simply a work in progress?

Has anyone yet contacted Hollywood about selling the movie rights?

Date: May 23, 2006

I hope this book appears on many english course reading lists, beginning Fall 2006. Make it happen!

Date: May 23, 2006

suggest wrote:

I hope this book appears on many english course reading lists, beginning Fall 2006. Make it happen!

Yes indeedy! Just make sure the campus bookstore has a large supply of Cliffsnotes for students who don't have the time or inclination to read the entire book.

Date: May 24, 2006

Just downloaded the whole thing--piece o' cake. Hope the author gets review copies spread around to the media--is it time for 60 Minutes?

Date: May 24, 2006

proto-Luddite wrote:

Just downloaded the whole thing--piece o' cake. Hope the author gets review copies spread around to the media--is it time for 60 Minutes?

I'm on page 52. It's a real page-turner.

Date: May 24, 2006

suggest wrote:

I hope this book appears on many english course reading lists, beginning Fall 2006. Make it happen!

This would be a very bad idea. Manipulating course reading lists is an inappropriate response. Encouraging students to read such works is fine, but requiring this particular book would be questionable judgment at best.

Date: May 24, 2006

I just finished the first chapter and it's wonderful....full of wit and laugh out loud humor. I didn't see a picture of the author on the back cover page..... T. Manly I salute you whoever you are!

No Quarter!

Date: May 24, 2006

Nice to see you here, LFR.

Date: May 24, 2006

Can anyone who has read the whole thing provide a brief plot synopsis? I'm especially curious to know how it ends.

Date: May 24, 2006

suggest wrote:
I hope this book appears on many english course reading lists, beginning Fall 2006. Make it happen!

To which CoBster in Residence replied:<
This would be a very bad idea. Manipulating course reading lists is an inappropriate response. Encouraging students to read such works is fine, but requiring this particular book would be questionable judgment at best.

I agree. Theron Manly isn't Jonathan Swift, though the satiric tradition of speaking humorous truth to power has a long and respected tradition.

Date: May 24, 2006

Let Freedom Ring wrote:

I just finished the first chapter and it's wonderful....full of wit and laugh out loud humor. I didn't see a picture of the author on the back cover page..... T. Manly I salute you whoever you are!
No Quarter!

Hey Stephen, just break down and buy it. The above memtioned site gives you all the info that you need to break loose from some of those hard earned state dollars.

And, if you are interested in knowing the ending...download and read.

Fiction can take many turns, as can real life.

Date: May 24, 2006

I just placed my order after reading (and giggling) through the first chapter. Let the publications begin!!!

Date: May 24, 2006

An informant tells me that about half-way through the novel, the character based on Shelby is kidnapped by space aliens, but three chapters later they return him to earth because even THEY can't deal with him.

Date: May 24, 2006

Emma wrote:

I just placed my order after reading (and giggling) through the first chapter. Let the publications begin!!!

My guess is that following this very humorous and not-so-subtle account of the goings on around here, a more serious endeavor will follow. Let the pubications begin!!! Exit 13 revisited?

Date: May 24, 2006

Is it true that the love interest of the fictional President is a femme fatale named Natalie Drest?

Date: May 25, 2006

I am really getting a laugh out of Quest. I can't put it down. However, I was not at USM long enough to really know much about the history of USM or to know the people and events that are clearly NOT represented or satirized in the novel in any way.

It would be really helpful to this ignorant and imagination-bereft reader if there were a purely fictional glossary that somehow hypothetically associated the entirely fictional and wholly nonrepresentative-of-anyone-living-or-dead characters in Quest with some living people who might in some purely coincidental way be similar to the fictional characters. Could such a thread be started?

I know that some characters are easier to associate than others, but many are not so easy.

Thanks for any help,

DG

Date: May 25, 2006

I've read only the preview on the LuLu site, but this is not a very well written book. I hear you guys say its funny, but the prose sure is awkward in that first chapter.

Date: May 25, 2006

Far away alum wrote:

I've read only the preview on the LuLu site, but this is not a very well written book. I hear you guys say its funny, but the prose sure is awkward in that first chapter.

Considering that this is apparently the author's one and only attempt at a novel, I think the writing isn't bad from the one chapter I've read. Highlights of that chapter include the following:

* The description of the telephone call to Bobby Joe Roper.

* The reference to the polymer-topped desk.

* Timothy's imperious manner in dealing with his son's assistant.

* The description of Timothy as "the most driven faculty member that had ever donned a tassel."

True, the opening chapter is long on exposition and on introducing characters and plot elements, but that's often the case in popular fiction. I look forward to reading the rest of the book, and, like another poster above, I would appreciate any analysis.

Date: May 25, 2006

His mom's name is Lamar; his son's, Forrest.

Date: May 25, 2006

Emma wrote:

His mom's name is Lamar; his son's, Forrest.

Can you explain the significance of this for those of us who are not in the know?

Date: May 25, 2006

It's just another way to weave in the geographical area since Hattiesburg spills into both Forrest and Lamar counties.

Date: May 26, 2006

As I said last July on the Pulp Fiction thread...."it is coming."

It is here and is an interesting read.