Robert Smallwood's novel and love song to New Orleans, Jackson Squared is a wild, hilarious tale of a man who makes it to New Orleans to pursue his artistic dreams but gets entangled in a series of mysterious voodoo murders instead; both as a part of New Orleans Trilogy or as a separate book.
AVAILABLE NOW!! A MYSTERY.....................A NEW ORLEANS TRILOGY...
JACKSON SQUARED excerpt is HERE! ............. Robert's newest book available at Amazon.
You may also purchase JACKSON SQUARED at Amazon as well at LULU or simply by clicking on the book's cover above.
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In RFS own words: Why I dedicated this novel to:
Tuba Fats and Ruthie the Duck Girl
I lived in New Orleans for over 20 years before moving to the French Quarter. Almost immediately I began writing this book. Each day I ventured out into Jackson Square to relax and listen to the makeshift bands playing old-time New Orleans music, while a variety of street performers entertained. Time seemed irrelevant as I whiled away hours and days mingling with artists, musicians, tarot readers and passersby.
Tuba Fats led the ragtag group of traditional jazz musicians who played daily in Jackson Square. Even after his final painful surgery, he came out dutifully and led the group on blazingly hot, humid summer afternoons. One time the band members were quarrelling and Tuba just stood up and said, “Now, ya wouldn’t wanna get an ass-whuppin’ over that, would ya?” And the dispute was resolved.
Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen
Tuba Fats was a gentle giant of a man and he had traveled the world to cheering audiences but he always had the time to talk. We talked about life and we talked about death, and then just a year after I met him he was gone. My biggest regret was not picking up my drumsticks and sitting in on a few songs with him. He always extended an open invitation.
Although Ruthie the Duck Girl had been a New Orleans icon for years, and I had heard many stories about her French Quarter escapades, I met her only one time. I bought her a beer at a bar just off Jackson Square and we talked a bit, and then I told her about the book I was writing and that she was in it. She smiled broadly and asked for another beer. I would’ve liked to re-write the ending of her life; she never married and she spent her last years in a nursing home uptown. But the New Orleans community never forgot her.
Miss Ruthie, the Duck Girl
So this book is for Ruthie and Tuba Fats, and all the people who make Jackson Square the unique and delightful place it is and always will be. And this book is my love song to New Orleans.
I wrote and rewrote until the book became a true reflection of my writing voice, and only the necessary elements remained. My hope is for the reader to be entertained, to laugh out loud at times, and also perhaps to be stimulated to think critically.
This book took some doing to get done!
I started writing Jackson Squared in January 2002, when I knew nothing about writing fiction, and I thought I had it done after six weeks. I remember celebrating that day! After seven more years of editing, thinking, resting, researching, editing and and re-writing, it's now ready.
I continued to write the book during the most tumultuous and treacherous decade of my life, (after a divorce and while raising a teenager as a single parent--no small task!); and after a near-fatal seizure and (false) terminal brain cancer diagnosis, followed by a long recovery; then two friends read an early draft and dropped dead of heart attacks before commenting on the manuscript--and then three more friends passed away that year, only in their late-forties; in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, destroying the city I love and forcing me to fight for survival while my friends and family were scattered; then an abrupt move to Mexico where I found myself in the middle of a violent drug war where the federales patrol the streets in paramilitary gear, armed to the teeth; then within days of returning from Cuba, a near-fatal appendicitis, causing me to literally crawl across the border from Mexico to hitch a ride to a U.S. hospital for emergency surgery, followed by a month of serious infection and 30-pound weight loss; and finally, a pandemic swine flu scare.
Of course, beyond these cataclysmic events, there were the usual problems, delays and frustrations with designing the cover, laying out the text, checking and double-checking the edits, computers freezing and hard drives crashing, and, of course, the challenges of writing and re-writing.
So here it is, and hopefully you will enjoy the result of the toil and joy I put into this work!
What will readers like about this book?
I believe some readers will whip through the book enjoying its little jokes and mockery, its low-humor and sheer fun. They will laugh out loud at the Mardi Gras scenes and giggle at the drinking and sex scenes. Locals, and those who have lived in the Big Easy for any length of time will smile at the small inside jokes and nuances that only New Orleanians will understand. Still others will pause to ponder some of the deeper religious questions that are raised, and will enjoy the high humor and lofty theories that are posited through the characters. And some readers will take the book very seriously and conduct their own research to verify or challenge the Biblical questions the book raises, and the questioning of organized religion.
So I have written it in a way that to allows readers of all levels to enjoy the story and characters in their own way. A great compliment any reader could give is to tell their friends about the book, but an even greater compliment would be for readers to want to read the book more than once, and to appreciate the work on multiple levels.
Enjoy!
