John W MacIlroy

From Not Exactly Rocket Scientists II: The Totally Unnecessary Sequel"Of the thousands of choices I've had to make in my life, one of the most important was deciding not to dig up Lenny Bruce." From the Schill story "Where's Los Angeles?"In this sequel to Not Exactly Rocket Scientists and Other Stories, three lifelong friends, all eventual graduates of the University of Virginia, rush headlong into the chaos of the mid-sixties. The headwinds would be fickle and strong, but they make it through the frothy nonsense of the Aquarian Age with an unshakable faith in friendship, a healthy sense of the ridiculous, a lot of luck, and over twenty new "mostly true" stories. You will encounter old friends and meet new ones too: guys named Squeak and Snatcher from a house called Delta, a character named Rasputin from a university named Virginia, a curse named McFarland, and even a proverb from Turkey. And you will travel from a naked beach in Denmark to a bar above Lake Cayuga, with stops along the way from the Alamo to Tijuana, although you will not actually visit the grave of Lenny Bruce. But you will share a little rye whiskey with Jerry Lee Lewis, attend the trial of a rascally mouse, and learn how to make a martini properly. So buckle up and come along for the ride."The fraternity brothers in the 1978 film Animal House would love this rip-roaringly funny collection. You will nod approvingly at the lessons of friendship, the value of mentors with a sense of humor, and the lasting influence and love of place, concluding that this road trip was well worth the time." --Landis Wade, author of Deadly Declarations and host of Charlotte Readers Podcast "This is a marvelous set of tales of a different time in America...equal parts daring, naive, foolish, and ambitious. With results usually unplanned, but often hilarious, you're sure to chuckle at many, and laugh long and out loud at many more." --R. M. Burgess, author of six novels including the successful Roxy Reid series "You think it's easy, making people laugh out loud with the written word? Think about it: most of the humor you've read makes you smile, feel amused, bemused, charmed, entertained. Not Exactly Rocket Scientists II makes you erupt in laughter. Out-loud, no-holds-barred yukking it up. The kind of laughter that makes people in the other room call out, "What in the world's going on in there?" The three authors have raised self-effacing humor to a masterpiece level. I'm telling you, buy Not Exactly Rocket Scientists II ..." --Barry Dickson, author of Maybe Today

From Not Exactly Rocket Scientists II: The Totally Unnecessary Sequel"Of the thousands of choices I've had to make in my life, one of the most important was deciding not to dig up Lenny Bruce." From the Schill story "Where's Los Angeles?"In this sequel to Not Exactly Rocket Scientists and Other Stories, three lifelong friends, all eventual graduates of the University of Virginia, rush headlong into the chaos of the mid-sixties. The headwinds would be fickle and strong, but they make it through the frothy nonsense of the Aquarian Age with an unshakable faith in friendship, a healthy sense of the ridiculous, a lot of luck, and over twenty new "mostly true" stories. You will encounter old friends and meet new ones too: guys named Squeak and Snatcher from a house called Delta, a character named Rasputin from a university named Virginia, a curse named McFarland, and even a proverb from Turkey. And you will travel from a naked beach in Denmark to a bar above Lake Cayuga, with stops along the way from the Alamo to Tijuana, although you will not actually visit the grave of Lenny Bruce. But you will share a little rye whiskey with Jerry Lee Lewis, attend the trial of a rascally mouse, and learn how to make a martini properly. So buckle up and come along for the ride."The fraternity brothers in the 1978 film Animal House would love this rip-roaringly funny collection. You will nod approvingly at the lessons of friendship, the value of mentors with a sense of humor, and the lasting influence and love of place, concluding that this road trip was well worth the time." --Landis Wade, author of Deadly Declarations and host of Charlotte Readers Podcast "This is a marvelous set of tales of a different time in America...equal parts daring, naive, foolish, and ambitious. With results usually unplanned, but often hilarious, you're sure to chuckle at many, and laugh long and out loud at many more." --R. M. Burgess, author of six novels including the successful Roxy Reid series "You think it's easy, making people laugh out loud with the written word? Think about it: most of the humor you've read makes you smile, feel amused, bemused, charmed, entertained. Not Exactly Rocket Scientists II makes you erupt in laughter. Out-loud, no-holds-barred yukking it up. The kind of laughter that makes people in the other room call out, "What in the world's going on in there?" The three authors have raised self-effacing humor to a masterpiece level. I'm telling you, buy Not Exactly Rocket Scientists II ..." --Barry Dickson, author of Maybe Today

"Fasten your seatbelt. You are about to be transported by a master storyteller . . ." - Jayne Adams, author of For All the Right Seasons In this debut collection of short stories, John W. MacIlroy delights in teasing the moment when everything changes, when the reader suddenly and completely knows the heart of each character and the fullness of the human experience. That slip may be gentle, air-brushed with a sly and lighthearted wink in stories like "The Closer," "Customer Service," and "McAllister's Asterisk." Or it may creep in after a slow roll, then slash across the final pages in bold strokes in stories like the award-winning "Duke's" and "Three Buses, Waiting." And in others, like "The Painting" and "The Man Inside," things unseen - whispered in the shadows and along the margins - suddenly explode in surprising ways, burrowing deep into the reader's soul. In the tradition of writers like Richard Ford, Christopher Tilghman and T.D. Johnston, these stories find in place an essential element of a good story. We find ourselves in a forgotten New England factory town; in a midwestern colonial along a street lined with tall oaks, middling ambitions and short mailboxes; and in a tired cemetery along the Mississippi where the hushed voices of the buried dance among the live oaks. And in the way of the Southern writer, these, and the other full-bodied stories in the collection, embrace the harsh gravitational pull of the past. And where they land - well, as the writer Jayne Adams warns, "Buckle up. You're in for a ride . . .""MacIlroy weaves these riches together with the skill of a born storyteller gifted with a poet's eye." - Douglas Campbell, winner of the Able Muse Write Prize