'he & She,' By Author Wayne Clark, Named As One Of 55 Best Self-Published Books 2015 By IndieReader

'he & She' is a powerful and penetrating look into male midlife crisis

Canadian Indie author Wayne Clark's novel, 'he & She' has been named as one of the best self-published books for 2015 by IndieReader. 'he & She' is an in-depth, fictional exploration of the subject of male midlife crisis.

In 'he & She', Clark gives readers a penetrating look into midlife crisis. A searing vision of the future, foretelling only pain, regret and failure, compels one man to make a last-ditch attempt to feel truly alive one more time, even if it kills him. His journey takes him down paths riddled with obsession, fantasy, alcoholism and BDSM, all wrapped in a smothering cloak of loneliness and desperation. Yet an image he finds by accident on the Internet triggers a tiny glimmer of the hope that compels him to take just one more shot at life.

“One of my daughters put this honor in perspective.  IndieReader’s list of the best indie books of 2015 included 55 books, eight of them in my category of Literary Fiction. To be among them is special enough, but became even more so when my daughter reminded me of how many ebooks are out there. I don’t know the figures for last year but I read that almost half a million were published in 2013 alone. That’s a lot of competition.”

'he & She' also took a 5-Star Silver Medal in the Readers' Favorite International Awards. In addition, Clark was chosen as a Finalist in the 2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards for general fiction, and as a winner in the 2015 Great Writers You Should Be Reading Awards.

A number of critics have praised the award-winning novel. BlueInk Review called it “… a stylish piece of literary fiction… intellectually engaging throughout. A finely drawn portrait of desire in its fall and winter seasons." A review on the IndieReader site stated that 'he & She' is, "A remarkable investigation of a man attempting to save himself from stagnation."

Wayne Clark is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at mtl1642@videotron.ca. 'he & She' is available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions and in all other digital versions at all major online retailers. More information is available at his website at http://www.wayne-clark.com.

About Wayne Clark:

Award-winning author Wayne Clark was born in 1946 in Ottawa, Ont., but has called Montreal home since 1968. Woven through that time frame in no particular order have been interludes in Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, Germany, Holland and Mexico.

By far the biggest slice in a pie chart of his career would be labeled journalism, including newspapers and magazines, as a reporter, editor and freelance writer. The other, smaller slices of the pie would also represent words in one form or another, in advertising as a copywriter and as a freelance translator. However, unquantifiable in a pie chart would be the slivers and shreds of time stolen over the years to write fiction.

Contact:

Wayne Clark
http://www.wayne-clark.com
mtl1642@videotron.ca

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Wayne Clark, Author Of 'he & She,' Named As Finalist In 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading Awards

Clark was chosen from a field of hundreds of authors through a public voting process. 'he & She' is a powerful and penetrating look into male midlife crisis

Canadian author Wayne Clark has been named as a finalist in the '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading' book awards. 'he & She' is an in-depth, fictional exploration of the subject of male midlife crisis.

In 'he & She', Clark gives readers a penetrating look into midlife crisis. A searing vision of the future, foretelling only pain, regret and failure, compels one man to make a last-ditch attempt to feel truly alive one more time, even if it kills him. His journey takes him down paths riddled with obsession, fantasy, alcoholism and BDSM, all wrapped in a smothering cloak of loneliness and desperation. Yet an image he finds by accident on the Internet triggers a tiny glimmer of the hope that compels him to take just one more shot at life.

“It’s putting it mildly to say I was absolutely delighted the morning I was informed I’d been recognized by the Authors Show,” Clark said. “I’ve won other awards but there’s no denying that for an author there’s something especially gratifying about being given a place under the umbrella of 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading.”

“My book deals with the problem of midlife crisis, albeit in a rather unorthodox way,” Clark says. “But as our population ages the problem is growing and it is my hope that people reading 'he & She' will be prompted to look more closely at their own inner lives to discover what is really important to them before going off the deep end as my protagonist nearly does. I'm hoping this award from the Authors Show will help.”

'he & She' also took a 5-Star Silver Medal in the Readers' Favorite International Awards. In addition, Clark was chosen as a Finalist in the 2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards for general fiction.

A number of critics have praised the award-winning novel. BlueInk Review called it “… a stylish piece of literary fiction… intellectually engaging throughout. A finely drawn portrait of desire in its fall and winter seasons." A review on the IndieReader site stated that 'he & She' is, "A remarkable investigation of a man attempting to save himself from stagnation."

Winners in the '50 Great Writers' awards are determined by public vote. Members of the public are invited to read about the contestants and to vote for their favorite by visiting http://www.wnbnetworkwest.com/WnbAuthorsShow50Writers2015-Finalists.html.

Wayne Clark is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at mtl1642@videotron.ca. 'he & She' is available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions and in all other digital versions at all major online retailers. More information is available at his website at http://www.wayne-clark.com.

About Wayne Clark:

Award-winning author Wayne Clark was born in 1946 in Ottawa, Ont., but has called Montreal home since 1968. Woven through that time frame in no particular order have been interludes in Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, Germany, Holland and Mexico.

By far the biggest slice in a pie chart of his career would be labeled journalism, including newspapers and magazines, as a reporter, editor and freelance writer. The other, smaller slices of the pie would also represent words in one form or another, in advertising as a copywriter and as a freelance translator. However, unquantifiable in a pie chart would be the slivers and shreds of time stolen over the years to write fiction.

Contact:

Wayne Clark
http://www.wayne-clark.com
mtl1642@videotron.ca

Leia Mais…

Best Summer Reads 2015: The Year Of The Midlife Crisis

'Summerlong' has been recognized as the Summer 2015 blockbuster. Wayne Clark's novel 'he & She' has been named as one of 16 best summer reads by IndieReader. Both center on the subject of midlife crisis

Exactly 50 years after the coining of the term “midlife crisis” readers might be excused for wondering whether this is the year of the midlife crisis novel. Two novels, one by its title and the other by virtue of having been named one of the 16 best summer reads of  2015, have done belly flops into the normally placid summer reading pool. The former is ‘Summerlong’ by Dean Bakopoulos, and the latter, ‘he & She’ by Wayne Clark. The two authors take approaches as different as summer and winter but their characters are motivated by nearly identical fears and presentiments about the course of their lives.

The summer blockbuster ‘Summerlong’ was described by Ron Charles, editor of the Washington Post’s Book World, as a story for adults about adults going wild one summer in the tiny town of Grinnell, Iowa. Its main characters, a deeply indebted real estate agent named Don, who is haunted by the ghost of an alcoholic father, and his wife Claire, a writer originally from Manhattan who hasn’t written in a decade, or, more precisely, since having had her promising career supplanted by all-consuming motherhood. Charles describes them as always teetering between despair and bliss.

A review of ‘Summerlong’ by Ellen Emry Heltzel in the Seattle Times is entitled: “Too Hot to Handle in a Midwestern Summer”.

Both main characters, Don and Claire, are around 40, perhaps younger than most people who walk into a spotless glass window called midlife crisis. Heltzel, in her review, points out that in terms of marriage we often talk about the Seven-Year Itch. In Claire’s case, the “get-me-outa-here” moment doesn’t occur until Year 15. Midlife crisis doesn’t have a schedule.

From Don’s point of view, according to a New York Times review by Jennifer B. McDonald his “long, mostly happy” marriage is in a state of putrefaction.

In Clark’s ‘he & She’, the middle-aged protagonist, Kit, realizes through an alcohol haze that the soul that once wanted to translate great literature and play great music has evaporated somewhere along the way. He doesn’t have a marriage to blame it on, just himself. Like Claire in ‘Summerlong’, Kit is all but friendless.

In his desperation, Kit all but invents a solution, latching onto an image of a young woman he finds while aimlessly browsing the Internet. She turns out to be a dominatrix. He has never met a dominatrix in his life, nor considered seeing one. But in his befuddlement he convinces himself against all logic that she will be his salvation, and the pursuit begins.

‘Summerlong’ comes to an end with Don and Claire in a booze-fueled night with other partners at a lake near their little town. The Times described the lot of them as “libidinous, delusional and increasingly intoxicated.” Though the Times calls the tale a “muddle of fantasy and emotional baggage,” the characters are seeking the same resurrection as Kit sitting alone in his apartment on a hot and humid Manhattan night. They all want to taste life again.

“Because there’s so much talk about midlife crisis these days,” says ‘he & She’ author Wayne Cark, “it seems people are coming out of the woodwork to point out that it’s not a physical or chemical illness. Of course it isn’t. It’s just what happens to many people when they’re getting on in years and they realize they’ve allowed their life to become something they can no longer identify with. The realization that time is getting shorter, whether you’re 40 or 60, makes the realization all the more desperate.”

A review of ‘he & She’ by IndieReader summed up the last-ditch, mad search for meaning as: “A remarkable investigation of a man attempting to save himself from stagnation.”

“I’m not a psychologist,” says Clark, “but I’d lay odds that people, regardless of age, who have someone or something to feel passionate about don’t get snared by midlife crisis.”

Wayne Clark is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at clarkw@videotron.ca. 'he & She is available at Amazon and other book retailers. More information, including a blog post on the subject of the 'summer of midlife crisis' , is available at Clark's website at http://www.wayne-clark.com.

About Wayne Clark:

Award-winning author Wayne Clark was born in 1946 in Ottawa, Ont., but has called Montreal home since 1968. Woven through that time frame in no particular order have been interludes in Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, Germany, Holland and Mexico.

By far the biggest slice in a pie chart of his career would be labelled journalism, including newspapers and magazines, as a reporter, editor and freelance writer. The other, smaller slices of the pie would also represent words in one form or another, in advertising as a copywriter and as a freelance translator. However, unquantifiable in a pie chart would be the slivers and shreds of time stolen over the years to write fiction.

Contact:

Wayne Clark
clarkw@videotron.ca
http://www.wayne-clark.com

Leia Mais…

'he & She' By Author Wayne Clark Named To 'Best Summer Reads' List By IndieReader

'he & She' is a powerful and penetrating look into male midlife crisis

Canadian author Wayne Clark has announced that 'he & She', a riveting work of fiction about male midlife crisis, has been added to the '16 Indie Summer Reads' list by IndieReader. 'he & She' is an in-depth, fictional exploration of the subject of male midlife crisis.

In 'he & She', Wayne Clark gives readers a powerful and penetrating look into midlife crisis. A searing vision of the future, foretelling only pain, regret and failure, compels one man to make a last-ditch attempt to feel truly alive one more time, even if it kills him. His journey takes him down paths riddled with obsession, fantasy, alcoholism and BDSM, all wrapped in a smothering cloak of loneliness and desperation. Yet an image he finds by accident on the Internet triggers a tiny glimmer of the hope that compels him to take just one more shot at life.

"I am pleased," Clark said. "An endorsement from IndieReader is always an honor."

The review on the IndieReader site stated that 'he & She' is "A remarkable investigation of a man attempting to save himself from stagnation."

A number of critics have praised the award-winning novel. BlueInk Review called it “… a stylish piece of literary fiction… intellectually engaging throughout. A finely drawn portrait of desire in its fall and winter seasons."

'he & She' also took a 5-Star Silver Medal in Readers' Favorite International Awards.

“My novel," Clark continued, "is literary fiction. It’s about a man getting to a point where most of his life is gone and what he sees around him is emptiness. Relationships are all but absent, as are goals, passions and libido. He asks if this is all there is to life, and panics. He ends up going on a journey he could never have imagined."

Clark added that the subject of male midlife crisis is timely not just because it’s being talked about more and more as our population ages but also because the term midlife crisis itself is turning 50. It was coined in 1965 by a Canadian psychoanalyst.

Wayne Clark is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at mtl1642@videotron.ca. 'he & She' is available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions and in all other digital versions at all major online retailers. More information is available at his website at http://www.wayne-clark.com.

About Wayne Clark:

Award-winning author Wayne Clark was born in 1946 in Ottawa, Ont., but has called Montreal home since 1968. Woven through that time frame in no particular order have been interludes in Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, Germany, Holland and Mexico.

By far the biggest slice in a pie chart of his career would be labelled journalism, including newspapers and magazines, as a reporter, editor and freelance writer. The other, smaller slices of the pie would also represent words in one form or another, in advertising as a copywriter and as a freelance translator. However, unquantifiable in a pie chart would be the slivers and shreds of time stolen over the years to write fiction.

Contact:

Wayne Clark
http://www.wayne-clark.com
mtl1642@videotron.ca

Leia Mais…

Wayne Clark, Author Of 'He & She', Takes 5 Star Silver Medal In Readers' Favorite International Awards

'he & She' is a powerful and penetrating look into male midlife crisis

Canadian author Wayne Clark has announced that 'he & She', a riveting work of fiction about male midlife crisis, has been awarded a 5-Star Silver Medal in the Readers' Favorite International Awards. 'he & She' is an in-depth, fictional exploration of the subject of male midlife crisis.

Male midlife crisis takes many forms. For some men it means simple low-level mid life depression. For others, a midlife crisis can be an agonizing experience, causing men to take sudden, dramatic steps that can change not just the life of one person, but many including spouses, children and other family members. Consequences can be separation, divorce, job loss and, in extreme cases, suicide. In the end, men in midlife crisis all ask the same question: What does a man do when nothing tastes good anymore?

In 'he & She', Wayne Clark gives readers a powerful and penetrating look into midlife crisis. A searing vision of the future, foretelling only pain, regret and failure, compels one man to make a last-ditch attempt to feel truly alive one more time, even if it kills him. His journey takes him down paths riddled with obsession, fantasy, alcoholism and BDSM, all wrapped in a smothering cloak of loneliness and desperation. Yet an image he finds by accident on the Internet triggers a tiny glimmer of the hope that compels him to take just one more shot at life.

"I am pleased," Clark said. "To have my book chosen from among thousands of entries from around the world was quite an honor."

“My novel," Clark continued, "is literary fiction. Much of it takes place in the main character’s head, which I believe is where people live most of their lives. It’s basically about a man getting to a point where most of his life is gone and what he sees around him is emptiness. Relationships are all but absent, as are goals, passions and libido. He asks if this is all there is to life, and panics. He ends up going on a journey he could never have imagined, in which he compulsively and blindly pursues an image he sees one night on the Internet, a young woman who turns out to be a dominatrix, a woman who ends up awakening in him an alter-ego of sorts."

Critics have praised the award-winning novel. BlueInk Review called it “… a stylish piece of literary fiction… intellectually engaging throughout. A finely drawn portrait of desire in its fall and winter seasons."

Wayne Clark is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at mtl1642@videotron.ca. 'he & She' is available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions and in all other digital versions at all major online retailers. More information is available at his website at http://www.wayne-clark.com.

About Wayne Clark:

Award-winning author Wayne Clark was born in 1946 in Ottawa, Ont., but has called Montreal home since 1968. Woven through that time frame in no particular order have been interludes in Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, Germany, Holland and Mexico.

By far the biggest slice in a pie chart of his career would be labelled journalism, including newspapers and magazines, as a reporter, editor and freelance writer. The other, smaller slices of the pie would also represent words in one form or another, in advertising as a copywriter and as a freelance translator. However, unquantifiable in a pie chart would be the slivers and shreds of time stolen over the years to write fiction.

Contact:

Wayne Clark
http://www.wayne-clark.com
mtl1642@videotron.ca

Leia Mais…