Guest Author Stephen Masse... & Contest

Today I welcome Stephen Wagner to Book Junkie! I have to say I absolutely adored this book! You can read my review HERE! Who doesn't need a little kidnapping during Christmas to put you in the spirit! Stephen is from my neck of the woods (Boston), so I was thrilled with the opportunity to read A Jolly Good Fellow and I wasn't disappointed in this ever so clever, witty & masterfully written book about one lonely man, his plot to kidnap a politicians kid, and an even lonelier kid who just wants to be loved.

Winner of the Silver Medal in the 2008 Independent Publisher Book AwardsBest Fiction -- U. S. Northeast Region

Honorable Mention in the 2008 New England Book Festival for Best Books of the Holiday Season -- fiction

Who is Duncan Wagner?And why is he in that Santa Claus suit?

Meet Duncan Wagner, unwittingly the most improper Bostonian of the day – on top of being a kidnapper, he makes his money by posing as a charity Santa Claus and keeping the donations.

In my book, A Jolly Good Fellow, Wagner narrates his reasons for the Santa Claus gig:

It’s a pretty good cash thing, this is my third year doing it. I have a real fancy Santa Claus outfit, the kind with a wig that covers your whole head, none of that cheapie Santa stuff that shows all your whiskers and hair through it. With that outfit and a beggar pot on the street and ringing my bell, not even a world-class detective would know the difference between me and the real Santa Claus. I never once got asked to show my I. D. card, which I have a fake one of anyhow. Out on the street is a good way to get that old Christmas feeling. “Money for the needy,” I says, ring the bell like crazy, make eighty or a hundred bucks a day. And I’m the
needy, I get the money.

The image most people have of Santa Claus would appear to be a sharp contrast to the self-pitying and revenge-seeking Duncan Wagner. But in A Jolly Good Fellow, all is not as it seems. Of all the ways to make money, Wagner settles on the charity Santa Claus because deep inside, he wishes he could be so easily loved, so popular, so kind and so generous. And yet page after page, he seems to show all those qualities whether he’s in or out of the Santa suit.

The first draft of A Jolly Good Fellow was written in a state of prolonged grief many years ago, and the story evolved through countless rewrites as Boston and the world changed radically. But one thing that never changes is Santa Claus, the earthly representation of Saint Nicholas. Duncan Wagner prays, and has a statue of Saint Joseph on his kitchen counter – a figure one would find in any manger scene. Bereft of love and angry at the world, Wagner actually behaves in ways parallel to both saints when it comes to his conduct with Gabriel. Dressing as Santa Claus isn’t as frivolous or mercenary as it may seem at first. Wagner wants to be the good guy.

Synopsis: "One snowy morning in mid-December, Duncan Wagner gets into his car for another attempt at kidnapping the eleven-year-old son of his most despised enemy, State Representative Win Booker. When he drives into the wealthy Boston suburb, he is surprised to find the boy hitchhiking.
So begins Wagner's quest for revenge as he finds himself face to face with a real boy, and without a clue about how to run a kidnapping. Wagner, a self-styled charity Santa Claus, comes to realize that eleven-year-old Gabriel Booker is truly a runaway, much more curious than scared. Gabriel has no idea who Duncan Wagner is -- or could be"

***GIVEAWAY***

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*open to all, winner picked 12/23*