Good news, everyone! (I love saying that. Dr. Farnsworth is so silly.)
Anyway, to get to the point, my sixth novel is now an audiobook, and you can listen to it on Audible. Veteran journalist Tim Curran is the narrator and I had a terrific time going through the book and making slight changes and sharing thoughts on understanding the characters to bring their voices to life. It's really been a great experience and Tim is an audiobook narrator whom I highly recommend.
On to the story, which you may know about by now, but I think I'll just share some of the press release below.
about Now I'm Here
A passionate story of the love between a Queen-inspired piano prodigy and a pumpkin farmer, author Jim Provenzano’s sixth novel, Now I’m Here has been adapted as an audiobook narrated by Tim Curran, with a November 15 release on Audible.
Now I’m Here is set in the small fictional town of Serene, Ohio, in the 1970s and ’80s. Two boys from different families – Joshua, with his stable middle-class home in town, and David, raised by his alcoholic and abusive father on their isolated farm – discover, then lose, then find each other again. Thirty years later, as the town’s history is slowly erased by fading memories and encroaching suburbia, their childhood friend, Eric Gottlund, tells the tale of their quiet heroism with poignancy and a sharp eye for detail.
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| Narrator Tim Curran |
Combining literature and music, the author blends historic and contemporary topics. In Now I’m Here, two Southern Ohio teenage boys, Joshua Evans (a piano prodigy) and David Koenig (a pumpkin farmer’s son) attend a Queen concert in 1978 on their first date. Their passionate affair grows into a life together full of farming and concerts in their barn.
Joshua’s brief fame as a musician includes an invitation to perform in a Los Angeles talent show. He also gains a bit of notoriety by performing unusual solo versions of pop songs at West Hollywood New Wave nightclubs of the early 1980s.
Fighting religious intolerance, “rehabilitation therapy,” the lure of fame, and the heartbreak of AIDS, the two boys grow into men before our eyes. Through their love of each other and of rock’n’roll, the English rock band Queen in particular, Joshua and David breathe life back into their home town, if only for a while.
Published review excerpts for Now I’m Here:
San Francisco Examiner
The British
rock group Queen –a touchstone of Provenzano’s adolescence– serves as muse,
role model and escape hatch for the rural Ohio teenagers at the center of Now I’m Here, a wrenching love story
that delves deep into the experience of growing up gay in heartland America
during the late 1970s.
The book and each of its chapters share titles, and themes, with Queen songs. The lyrical prose and fine-grained detail of his novel are a far cry from the jubilant bombast in the film’s trailer. Now I’m Here offers flipside of a biopic, focusing not on celebrities’ lives, but on the faraway lives of people they touched.
San Francisco Review of Books
“California author Jim Provenzano joins the great novelists who have written
important and lasting novels about men in love, and while he has won prizes for
his work it is now, with his publication of Now
I’m Here that he joins the ranks of the major authors who have had a
lasting imprint on our society and the LGBTIQ community.
“Words of admiration and appreciation fail the task of honoring this fine novel. Provenzano knows this period, the highs and lows of two men in love living in a world that simply could not or refused to understand their love. The only entry point into the glow of this novel is by reading it at least once – and probably more. It is a masterwork of the highest order.”
Edge Media Network
“Joshua and David, the
brave couple brought to life in Jim Provenzano’s captivating, unforgettable
novel, Now I’m Here, manage to
experience a quintessential epic romance albeit in just a few short years. Were
it not for the admiring (and admittedly jealous) eye of their friend, Eric
Gottlund, who meticulously narrates this heartbreaking, breathtaking story, the
saga of Joshua and David could have easily gone unnoticed.
“This storytelling method effectively and passionately conveys the lengthy, turbulent evolution of their compelling, inspiring and uplifting relationship. The love story of Joshua and David reminds the reader how to appreciate the extraordinary in the ordinary. Professionally speaking, neither of these men achieves fame or accomplishes anything especially newsworthy, but what they share emotionally is nothing short of remarkable. Some books you read for laughter, intrigue, debate or information. Now I’m Here makes you feel.”
Out in Print
“I’ve always marveled at the contradiction of hundreds
of thousands of mostly straight sports fans stomping their feet and clapping to
‘We Will Rock You’ as done by Queen, probably the gayest rock band in history
with the gayest front man ever. But whatever chord Queen struck, it resonates
to this day with both fans and authors. In his newest novel, Now I’m
Here, Jim Provenzano uses his knowledge as a fan and his skill as
an author to tell the story of two small-town Ohio boys.
“Joshua Lee Evans had a musical gift from the beginning, and was fortunate enough to have parents who encouraged him to use those talents. David Koenig lived on a pumpkin farm and had a hateful, alcoholic father whose wife left him because of his temper and bad habits. It was love at first fight. But the maturation of those feelings was a long road, punctuated by music lessons and farm work. When it finally came together, however, the boys knew what magic it was. A stupid school streaking stunt (popular during the late ’70s and ’80s, when this takes place) puts David in a ‘rehabilitation’ camp for wayward youth courtesy of his father as Joshua leaves town for the big time after graduation, a cover version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in his back pocket. They will come together again, rest assured, but even reunions are fraught with frailty in this sweeping, epic romance.
“This story will confound your expectations. If you’re looking for a Happy Ever After, however, forget it. And that’s fine with me. Life does not always have happy endings, and sometimes we have to work to find meaning when our characters are given a less-than-optimal finish.
“All this would mean nothing in the hands of a lesser writer, but Provenzano has honed his craft and takes you on this dizzying ride with the able assurance of a pro. His rendering of the mid-‘70s is deadly accurate, and will bring a smile of remembrance to your face if you were coming of age then. He never missteps or falls short of the mark emotionally, either. The characters are all organic, built and embroidered on with well-chosen detail.
“So, even if you’re not exactly a Queen fan (and why not, I wonder?), you’ll enjoy this supremely well-plotted and populated romance. Highly recommended.”