Fiction to chronicle the end of the age

Award-Winning Author Jeffrey Allen mays

Jeffrey Allen Mays headshot

About Jeffrey

Jeffrey Allen Mays is an award-winning writer, speaker, and teacher. He is the author of the 2014 novel The Former Hero and other stories, essays, and poems. He lives and teaches in Austin Texas.

COMING THIS SUMMER!

A sweeping new chronicle of the old, old story like you never imagined

It’s the mid-20th century. The syndicate known as “The Priesthood” rules the city.

A popular political leader has been executed earlier that day, the one they called “The Mystic.” His rag-tag crew of followers is now in hiding from the authorities at a tavern, The Salty Trawler.

Mafioso Nicodemus Holloway met The Mystic a few months back. He hasn’t been the same since. Now, in the wake of his death, he seeks out the hippies and harlots of his entourage to find out more about him.

The followers tell incredible stories of their murdered leader and the people he transformed—the heroin-addicted harlot, the insane gun fetishist, the young lady healed of a humiliating 12-year menstrual affliction.

What will happen to the entourage now that he’s dead? Nick renounces his old gang and risks everything to help them avoid detection, to smuggle away Shayne Lazarus who has a price on his head, and to get back to his sweetheart and the son.

Englewood Review of Books

“Jeffrey Allen Mays has…written a philosophical masterpiece that really makes readers think about what it means to be a true hero in his debut novel: The Former Hero…through the pain and the suffering Mays’ story conveys, he could not be closer to the truth.” – Alicia Smock

San Francisco Book Review

“This book has many fantastic qualities. Jeffrey Allen Mays weaves in mythology, religious allegories and rich characters to create a vivid and intriguing novel. His ambition works in his favor to create a philosophical novel that delves deep into the idea of what being a hero means….The characters are impressively complex…”  – by Maggie Marshall.

Review by Greg Lamb, author of A Dangerous Element and The People in Between

“Jeffrey Mays showed me what is in the art of the possible with his debut novel, The Former Hero. I hadn’t read anything as good in the genre of experimental literature since the early ’70s when Ishmael Reed wow’ed me with The Last Days of Louisiana Red

Portland Book Review

“…an ambitious and philosophical novel that looks at the concept of a “hero” while following three protagonists are caught in an overwhelmingly corrupt city… characters are well developed. For readers looking for a bit more depth to their novels, this book might be just up your alley.” – by Whitney Smyth

Musings

Abstract painting of women running
Now, Allie! NOW!

Now, Allie! NOW!

“It’s time to go, Allie,” said Jack. He stood beyond the boarding gate looking at her; she had not yet followed him on board. “Where is this thing going?” “Away from here.” The steel platform on which she stood was...

A quick one

A quick one

This is a writing exercise written in response to the prompt of the photo above. I have modified the description of the item in the picture for the purposes of the story. “David! Would you come here...