What dark secrets are hidden among the sagging floors and broken windows of an old New England resort? Vincent Rhodes aims to find out. Vincent Rhodes, an artist whose family fortune has been lost in the Great Depression, receives four rambling letters from his brother, Theo, who went missing during the Great War in Europe. Though postmarked April 1933, from Claremont, New Hampshire, the letters are dated 1918, the year Theo disappeared. Vincent leaves his Brooklyn flat to find him. Based on clues from the letters, Vincent tracks Theo to his last-known location: a decaying New England health resort known to locals as the Sulphur Cure. There he meets Helen Sage-Brown, the last descendant of the original owners. Though Vincent is convinced his brother was at this strange complex, Miss Sage-Brown insists that she has never seen him. As Vincent digs deeper into the lives of the eccentric residents in search of answers, he finds there is more to this place than sagging floors and broken windows. He discovers that the people inhabiting the old grounds have as many secrets as he does, and that his life will change forever once those secrets come to light.
Author
When Barry’s first collection of stories was read aloud by his second grade teacher, the author hid. As the years flew by, he wrote more, hid less (not really), and branched out to Super 8 films and cassette tape recorders. Barry’s audience—consisting solely of friends and family—were both amused and bemused. Since those childhood days, Barry has earned degrees in English and French from the State University of New York College at Brockport, and a Master of Arts in Writing from the Johns Hopkins University. Tinseltown, a Finalist in the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, is Barry’s first novel. His novel The Celestial won the Gold Medal in the 2012 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards and was a Finalist in the 25th Annual Lambda Literary Awards. Reunion, a collection of linked stories, was a Finalist in the 2012 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards. His work has appeared in SNReview, Perspectives, Time Pilot, Liquid Ohio, Nocturnal Lyric, Midnight Times, Gival Press’s ArLiJo, and Polari Journal. His stories, novels and teleplays have won awards, including a 2008 Pushcart Prize nomination; 3rd Place in the 2010 Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA) literary contest and finalist status in the 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2013 PNWA contests; 3rd Place in the 79th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition and a winning entry in the 2013 WILDSound Screenplay competition. When not embroiled in his own writing, Barry sips wine, nibbles on chocolate, and watches films and TV—both the classic and the cheesy. (Mmm…cheese!) http://barrybrennessel.com/
