From Williamsburg to Brighton Beach, the streets of Brooklyn have given life to as many novels as there are brownstones. Among the latest is the story of a young textbook salesman who can’t get past the chapter in his life when his actions may have led to the death of a high school classmate.
In 2014, the first-time novelist faces challenges and choices. Some of them are age-old concerns, while others are new to this digital age. New York native Richard Fulco earned his MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College and is the founder and editor of the online music magazine Riffraf. His first novel, There Is No End to This Slope, arrived this spring. Fulco tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally that in the years he worked on the manuscript, he avoided thinking about the final product.
“The best advice that I received was from my friend Peter Melman, author of Landsman, who said, ‘Finish the book. Just finish the book.’ So all these thoughts of where I was going to publish, how I was going to publish, who was going to publish – I just kind of suppressed all of that and committed to the work itself.”
After much effort, Fulco and his book wound up with fledgling publisher Wampus Multimedia, which started in the music business and have since added books to their repertoire. “I’ve always been interested in collaborating, as a musician and as a playwright,” Fulco says. “And I’ve never really found the collaboration that I was looking for until I met Mark Doyon at Wampus Multimedia.”
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