March 13, 2008
UW Parking guide writes mystery and calls it, what else, ‘Secluded Parking’
When a guy who works for UW Parking Services decides to write a novel, it’s not surprising that he’d choose a title like Secluded Parking. But Brent Curtis’ book doesn’t take place on campus parking lots, though it is set mostly in Seattle and it does have some relationship to parking.
The book is a mystery starring journalist-turned-recluse Dylan Massey, who is torn from his quiet life on the Olympic Peninsula to solve the disappearance of a young girl in Seattle. It turns out the missing girl worked for a parking service involved in a scandal that Massey once wrote about.
Secluded Parking was a semifinalist in Amazon.com’s recent Breakthrough Novel Contest, and though it didn’t make the finals, Curtis said he learned a lot from the experience.
“The reviews show up instantly, so it was really cool,” he said. “It was good feedback.”
The contest worked like this: Novelists sent the complete manuscript of their novels to Amazon last fall, with the first 5,000 being accepted. Amazon contracted with Publisher’s Weekly to read all of the manuscripts and choose up to 1,000 semifinalists. Each semifinalist got a brief review from the magazine, and a 5,000-word excerpt from his or her novel was posted on Amazon’s Web site, where it could be reviewed by some of Amazon’s “top reviewers” (about 500 people who are reviewing all the time) and others. Editors from Penguin Publishing then chose the 10 finalists, whose names were revealed this week. The winner, to be announced April 7, will be chosen by Amazon customers and will receive a publishing contract from Penguin, along with a $25,000 advance against royalties.
Curtis’ book excerpt received good reviews, averaging 4.8 out of 5: “Curtis powers more action and seeds for contemplation about Dylan’s past and the consequences of his aiding Jess in nine pages than most novelists accomplish in a finished book,” said one. “This is an action-packed excerpt that will catch and hold your attention until the last tantalizingly unfinished sentence,” said another.
Amazon has now removed the semifinalist excerpts and reviews from its Web site, but Curtis has his own Web site, on which both are posted: www.secludedparking.com. (he goes by B. Billy Curtis as the book’s author because there is another published writer named Brent Curtis). Having his book before the public is pretty heady stuff for a guy who spends his days greeting campus visitors at parking gatehouses, but Curtis said writing has always been his true calling. He studied English at the University, and Secluded Parking is actually his second book.
“No one will ever read the first one, which I wrote as an undergraduate” Curtis said. “I was floundering around, not really knowing what I was doing.”
He’s been taking writing courses since then, and participates in two online critique groups with writers all over the country. He says he tries to write for a couple of hours every day, and can sometimes squeeze in a little editing between customers at the parking gate.
His first book was a literary novel, but Curtis grew up reading mystery classics — from the Hardy Boys to Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle — so it was natural that he try his hand at a whodunit. And since his original college major was journalism, he decided to make his protagonist a journalist rather than a police officer or a private investigator.
There’s a reason, too, why his character Dylan Massey starts out as a back-to-the-lander on the Olympic Peninsula. “My wife and I bought some land out on the Olympic Peninsula several years ago and had these great plans of moving over there and setting up a solar system and living off the grid,” Curtis said “The reality of it was, that’s a lot of hard work. We ended up selling the land, but it’s a direction my life could have taken and didn’t. So I did it fictionally instead.”
Curtis said he’s already nearly completed a sequel to Secluded Parking, which features the same lead character but is not about parking. “I’m actually more excited about the second book than the first,” he said. “I hope to make this a series.”
Still, his first goal is to get Secluded Parking published. Amazon.com has offered participants in the contest a chance to self-publish their books using the company’s print-on-demand service, but Curtis wants to exhaust the possibilities of traditional publishing before going that route. He’s had several agents ask to see the complete manuscript, though none has signed on as yet.
“I definitely feel confident that I will find a publisher,” he said, “after the success I had with my reviews. I’m really glad I entered the contest.”
