The Novel: The Premise and A List of Characters

Update: Monday May 11, 2009

The premise: the end of the reign of the yuppie.

Before the dot.com collapse of 2001 and the global meltdown of 2008, there was the crash of 1987, the granddaddy of them all. Risk, Return, and the Indigo Autumn is the historical novel set in that period.

In these, the go-go days of August 1987, everyone in booming Ashton Township, Pennsylvania, is 'in the money' and damned happy about it...except Mason Bricker. He's a thirty-one year old stockbroker with a bad attitude, not willing or able to be a good yuppie and celebrate the good times. Stocks have been hitting new highs , so Mason, in an iconoclastic fit, announces his intention to short the Dow Jones Industrial Average, setting himself up to profit as the market falls from the precipice on which he says it perches.

The characters:

Mason Bricker: The protagonist. The story is first person present tense Mason, so you will discover it as he uncovers it. Mason would rather jump from a cliff than fall for the same drivel his stockbroker peers believe. He therefore doesn't have many clients, and his commissions leave a lot to be desired, but he seems to exist.
Nicole: The older mom in the black one-piece by the pool to whom Mason gives an impromptu stock market class.
Wylie McInally: Mason's tall, lean best friend and alter-ego. Wylie is the ultra-prosperous stockbroker to the rich and famous of the Pittsburgh area. Admired by everyone, Wylie's biggest hardship he endures is that Geri, his tall, lean realtor wife, gets the Mercedes 450SL while he's stuck with the Jaguar.
Ronnie Miller: The chief investment strategist for the investment firm of Fuller Busher. Ronnie is a hillbilly in pinstripes, having sold the Northeast ruling class that he is a folksy Buddah whose impenetrable optimism commands (or, according to Mason, warps) his market analysis.
John Findlay: The resident manager of the Ashton Township office of Fuller Busher. John is the quintessential successful company man, and therefore the absolute scourge of Mason.
Christine Smith: Mason's walk-into-a-parking-meter gorgeous high-priced prostitute...for five years.
Joan Kissinger, PhD: Mason's mercurial walk-into-the-next-parking-meter gorgeous ex-wife...for five years.
Ally Fenz: The extremely cute Fuller Busher sales assistant to Wylie and Mason; and Mason's friend and confidant.
Father Michael Burton: Mason's priest and long-time friend and old college teammate.
Diane Gilson, PhD: Mason's therapist.
Plus...others.