Performed by Val Cole.
Get to know the writer:
What is your novel about?
Fortunate Son is the story of a future president lost in time. It is 1969. The Vietnam war is raging and a young G.W Bush decides the best place to be is in the National Guard.
Later, some would wonder as to his where-a-bouts during this period. This book answers the question . He was lost in time. A little “R and “R” , a party at Yale, a shortcut through the Physics lab and George gets sent back in time to 1787.
What is a future president to do? Seek help from the only expert in electricity at the time, Benjamin Franklin. The journey to visit Franklin is fraught with danger for anyone let alone the future president from the future. With Ben Franklins help George
attempts to return to his own time before he becomes AWOL from the National Guard, without derailing the writing of the U.S. Constitution and hopefully without getting George killed.
Full Synopsis: Synopsis: “Fortunate Son”
It was 1969. The summer of love had shot its wad and the Vietnam War was in full swing. It was not a good time to be in the military but George W Bush had put himself in a pretty good position to avoid any of that messy war stuff. With a little help from a powerful friend in politics, his Dad, he wangled a position in the National Guard.
Though the guard was treating him nicely, he still needed a little “R and R”, which is precisely why he headed to the campus of Yale University to party with his frat brothers from Delta Kappa Epsilon. As a brother and former fraternity president, he knew they would welcome him with open arms and more importantly open containers.
The party was a blast. Too bad he tried to take a shortcut through the Physics lab. That darned science complicates everything. An experiment in electromagnetism, a case of room zooms and a few hours later he finds himself lost in the year 1787. What is a future president to do? Seek help from the only expert in electricity at the time, Benjamin Franklin.
The journey to meet Franklin is fraught with danger. George has to rely on cunning and good luck, mostly good luck, to survive his encounters with highwaymen, local militia and a lesbian pirate. Fortunately for George he gets help from some folks he meets along the way and the physics students responsible for kicking off his little adventure. Discovering that their experiment had misplaced someone in time has the students concerned. When they find out whom the lost soul is they get serious and start pulling all-nighters to save George from time and visa versa. After many cheeseburgers, several cases of Yoo-Hoo and some choice pot, they manage to accidentally recruit help from 1787 when an unassuming farmer from the past is brought to the Yale campus of 1969.
George’s luck holds out and he manages to make it to Philadelphia to meet up with Ben Franklin. But it takes more than luck to convince Franklin that his story is not the fantastic imaginings of a mad man. It takes all of George’s charm plus the magic twinkle in his eye to convince Franklin that his predicament is real and his help is required. It doesn’t hurt that the constitutional convention of 1787 is just around the corner and the more Franklin leans about George, the more he is convinced that getting George the hell out of town would be a good idea.
Franklin agrees to help George get back to 1969 America. Unfortunately, George has created enemies along the way and they become intent on ending George’s time anywhere. The chase back to 1969 is on with George’s future and that of the country in the balance. When all seems lost and George’s timeline appears to be at an end, the Physics students manage to stay straight enough to solve their technical problems and bring George back to 1969.
Safely back from the past he escapes military justice and a charge of AWOL through cunning and, um, who am I kidding he concocts a story that he was working a political campaign for one of his dads buddies and surprisingly the Guard buys it.
The experience leaves George Bush a changed man. His black and white view of the world has changed into a nice shade of grey, his heart has grown softer and he ponders what he will be when he grows up.
What genres would you say this novel is in?
Fiction/Satire/Fantasy
How would you describe this story in two words?
Temporal Escapade.
What movie have you seen the most in your life?
Tough to answer accurately…….Blazing Saddles ?
How long have you been working on this story?
Eleven years.
Do you have an all-time favorite novel?
Candide by Voltair.
What motivated you to write this story?
The need to laugh at the political landscape
If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?
Ben Franklin.
Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Tilting at social windmills.
What influenced you to enter your novel to get performed?
The need to bring laughter to a wider audience.
Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
Believe in your journey, look at detours as educational, keep your eye on your destination.
*****
Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com
Casting: Sean Ballantyne
Editor: John Johnson
WILDsound Writing Festival 