A Novel Novel

Daybreak: Arthur Lee Wray wakes up his computer clicks on the word processing icon and composes the first sentence of the first paragraph of what will be his first novel The Wayward Bookmen. Arthur is unaware however that his laptop is infected by alien spyware contrlled by an extraterrestial agent. Utilizing its extraodinary reconnasissance capabilities the cyber stowaway becomes a chronicler of Mr. Wray's maiden literary efforts. The Wayward Bookmen (a novel within The Novel) begins in rural Alabama during the mid-sixties. The narrative follows the bizarre adventures and ill-fated ends of three disparate book collectors: Theodora O. Boob an eccentric book thief Dr. Julius Snell an emeritus Professor of Library Science and Chester Johnson a retired sanitation worker. The alien's journal A Tale of a Tale not only reports on the the novice novelist's trials and tribulations in completing and publishing his manuscript during nine months of 2001 but also records his vexing relatonships with a host of women; these include among others Sarah the widowed mother; Inez the beautiful ex-wife; Zoe the lesbian literary agent; Lo joy the sensual nymph and Sherry his strawberry-blond muse.