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FAQ’s and Not So FAQ’s

How ya doin’?

All right.

Who are you?

My name is Brad Mendenhall. I live in Shrewsbury, PA with a dog (Ash), two cats (Cole and Ripken) and The Missus.

Who is The Missus?

My wife of four years and the reason why I’m a happy person.

What’s her real name?

Not saying.

Isn’t her name listed in the acknowledgements of your book?

Yes. Buy the book if you want her name.

What’s up with this site?

First and foremost, this site is designed to promote the book Sex, Money, Good Grades and Other Things You Won’t Get in College (aka SMuGG). It is also a forum for me and my friends to shoot our mouths off.

Isn’t that pretentious?

A little.

Who is The Wrecking Crew?

The Wrecking Crew consists of the people who read what I write before I have it published. SMuGG would be a shell of itself without them. Most of them write for this site. I thought about calling them the Geppetto-ites, but that sounded stupid.

Stupider than The Wrecking Crew?

Yeah. Hard to believe, isn’t it?

Anyway, charter members of The Wrecking Crew are The Missus, Giz, Tim, and Shawn. They are the first ones to get what I write and give me the most input.

Carlos and Spinage (who doesn’t write for this site…yet) read what I write but aren’t big on critiquing.

KT wasn’t around for most of the writing of SMuGG, but will be relied on heavily for IG, if she’s willing.

How can I submit to be published on your site?

At this time, submissions are not being taken. Cosmic Geppetto may sponsor an on-site short fiction contest, but not for a while.

What’s with your book?

The term I’ve been tossing around for it is “A Collegiate Coming of Age Novel”. I guess you could consider it a reaction to the glamorization of the educational experience in Hollywood.

Huh?

Have you ever seen the movie The Skulls? It was about a cabal of rich, good-looking kids in college who run this complex organization with rites of passage and secret dungeons and stuff. I remember watching it and thinking, “Where’s the filthy frat house with beer pong and Pamela Anderson posters?”

Don’t get me wrong, it was an entertaining movie, just like The Chocolate War was a great book and “Beverly Hill 90210” was…a TV show. I just didn’t see my college experience represented. Hopefully, the readers of SMuGG will say to themselves, “Hey, I knew that guy,’ or, ‘I made equally bad choices in sexual partners,’ and so on.

So SMuGG should only be read by college graduates?

I hope the themes are universal enough that anyone can find it entertaining.

What’s up with all the sex stuff?

I walked a fine line with the content of SMuGG. I wanted the novel to be as honest as possible and a big part of that time in peoples’ lives is figuring themselves out sexually. It’s in school that a lot of people lose their virginity, establish their first extended physical relationship, discover they are gay, or confirm they are straight.

However, this isn’t a harlequin romance. These are normal kids: some awkward, some experienced, some fat, some kind of hairy, etc.

Yeah, but what about the stuff w/ Kash and…y’know?

Sigh. There was a love triangle between Kash and two other characters that had, in the past, been complicated. Some people found it salacious, but I thought it was tame compared to episodes of Real World or South of Nowhere (which is geared towards teens, for God’s sake).

When you shove a bunch of horny kids in their late teens and early twenties into the same area, things will occasionally get weird. Trust me, I saw examples (way too many examples) of this when I went to school.

Where did you go to college?

Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania.

How similar is Lock Haven to the school in SMuGG?

There are cosmetic similarities, but that’s about it.

What about the people? Is there really a Kash, Wanda, Joshua, etc.?

The short answer is no. It is a work of fiction. However, a lot of the people and situations presented were inspired by real life experiences.

Your experiences?

A lot of people, especially my wife and mother, want to know how much of what happens in this book happened to me. To be honest, very little. College for me was great, but wouldn’t make much of a novel. I dated some incredible women, developed friendships I believe will last the rest of my life, and got a good education. Very little occurred that could be considered dramatic.

So, you’re not Kenny?

Although the story of me choosing to go to LHU in some ways mirrors Kenny going to Crenshaw, he is not my stand-in.

Do you write for a living?

No, I do it for fun and a little (very little) money on the side. In real life, I work for a wireless tech company.

Who?

Not saying.

How come?

I might want to bitch about work on the site and I don’t want to be sued or fired.

Is it that bad?

No, it is a good place to work, but everyone needs to bitch.

Who are your influences?

Writers: Michael Chabon, Dave Barry, Max Barry, Christopher Buckley, and Nick Hornby.

Musicians: Lloyd Cole, Marshall Crenshaw, Chris Whitley, and Mathew Sweet.

Movies and TV: Kevin Smith and Joss Whedon.

Comic Books: Frank Miller and Brian Michael Bendis.

Comics? Are you some sort of Fanboy?

Yeah. I grew up on comics. My favorite character was Spider-Man. For the most part, I’ve drifted away from them in the last year or so.

How come?

That could be a blog on its own. Maybe I’ll go into it another day.

Have you ever thought of writing comics?

Not really. Writing takes up a lot of time I don’t have, so I focus on projects I have passion for or I feel need to be done. If I ever become independently wealthy and no longer have to work for a living, I’d think about it.

What’s next?

Dunno. There’s an idea for a play that’s bounced around in my head for years that might see light of day.

No more novels?

There will be more. I have two roughly plotted in my head. One is a sort of sequel to SMuGG that takes place in the world of small time music. It’ll feature another cameo by Cosmic Geppetto.

The other novel is a little harder to explain at this point. All I can say now is it’ll be told from a first person perspective with a more linear storyline.

Update! Since first posting this FAQ, the two ideas for novels have merged into one. I’ve begun work and you can see how I’m progressing here.

Are we going to see more of Kenny and the other characters from SMuGG?

You mean aside from Cosmic Geppetto? I don’t think so, but never say never. Obviously, I have an affinity for these kids, yet I think their story has been told.

Update! Turns out I’m a big fat liar. Evangeline Sweet (aka Evil Evie) will be a featured player IG. She might give an offhand update on what other SMuGG-people are up to.

That reminds me, what’s up with Cosmic Geppetto?

They are an alternatard band (long story) that appears in SMuGG. The name was inspired by a line in “Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grille,” a show I was in a few years back. The frontman for the group is jarf, who really exists and was one of my closest friends in college.

Is Real Life jarf like SMuGG jarf?

A little. The physical description is pretty much on, but I try not to let reality get in the way of the story. Real Life jarf lives in Philadelphia with his girlfriend of many years.

In your acknowledgements, you mentioned characters and story ideas created with Carlos Taylor. Will they ever be printed?

Maybe. That stuff belongs more to Carlos than me. The story is there, but needs some work.

You talk a lot about doing theatre. Would I have seen you in anything?

Anything is possible. I did a bunch of shows in high school and college, but took a break after graduating from Lock Haven. I got back into it when I moved to Baltimore. I was involved in community theatre productions of “Incident at Vichi,” “Peter Pandemonium,” “Scrooge,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Blue Room,” “Come Back, Little Sheba,” and “Afterlife.” My favorite was “Daisy” and the most popular was “Blue Room.”

Why do you spell theatre with an ‘re’ at the end?

According to my friends, it’s because I’m obnoxious.

Are you still involved?

No, married life and work don’t leave me much time.

Do you ever think of getting back into it?

Not right now, but never say never.

Why do you always say “never say never”?

Because I don’t want to paint myself into a corner. Right now, doing another novel set in Crenshaw University seems derivative and pointless. A few years from now, I might come up with a great story that I’ll be dying to tell. Then, I either pass up the chance because I said I’d never do a sequel, or I do the book and look like I ran out of ideas and decided to rehash what I’ve done before.

How can you have a FAQ for a book that hasn’t been released yet?

You’re a clever one. Even though SMuGG hasn’t been released yet, quite a few people have read it and above is the bulk of what those good folk have asked. Other stuff is cool bits of trivia I threw in.

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