Authorpreneur Dashboard – Deborah Mazzotta Prum
Fatty in the Back Seat
Teens
Fifteen-year-old Cuss Brewster is not a criminal. Well, maybe a slight criminal in the state of New York where he accidentally burns down his neighbor’s barn. It’s not his first fire-related mishap, so a judge tells Cuss, “Behave for the next six months, or you’ll go to jail.” But for Cuss, behaving is a lot harder than it seems. Trouble hounds him. He rescues children from a church fire, only to be accused of starting the fire. Two weeks before his probation hearing, Cuss confuses the brake and gas pedals on a vintage Porsche and crashes the car through garage doors. Cuss can almost taste prison food….
Book Bubbles from Fatty in the Back Seat
One Bad Decision Leads to Another
Poor Cuss can't seem to help himself. He's on probation and is supposed to behave, but he crashes Mom's boyfriend's Porsche, then he breaks a bay window at a client's house on the job. His solution: hitchhike from Florida to New York in the pouring rain--and on the way, steal a small statute from a church for good luck. Here's how I came up with the idea for this scene: years ago I worked at a mental institution with teenaged wards of the state.Most of them were not mentally ill, but just had nowhere else to go. Many of them had learning issues and poor impulse control. When I listened to their life stories, unfortunately, the theme seemed to be making one bad decision which led to another. Fortunately for Cuss, some folks show up in his life and guide him toward better decision making.
The Image that Inspired Fatty in the Back Seat
Years ago, a small boy with a violin came to the front door of my grandmother's house in Florida. I'm not exactly sure why he came to the door, but I believe he wanted to play his violin in her backyard in order to attract his bird which had escaped. I'm not too sure about the details because I was a child myself when it happened. I carried the image of the boy and the violin with me for years. Then, when I pictured Cuss, a teen who just moved from New York to live in Florida with his mother, I thought of him in an empty house. I wanted to have someone come to the door and all of a sudden, the image of Amadeus and his violin came to mind. Both Amadeus and Cuss share the emotion of grieving over losses. So that's how I decided I wanted to start this book.
