Media Kit


This page is for the media, booksellers, or anyone looking for
Ted M. Alexander's information in a quick, easy-to-print format.

 

Short Synopsis

1960s high school senior, DJ Elders becomes involved with an older woman and discovers that while murder intrudes, sex always binds.

Medium Synopsis

President John Kennedy is dead. Vietnam looms on the horizon. But days are long and time is cheap in Hardscrabble, a sleepy Long Island town reluctant to awaken. DJ Elders, a high school senior, finds himself stumbling through the no-man’s-land between adolescence and adulthood. Suddenly a striking beauty with a hot body and mysterious background shows up. DJ notices. She smiles. He falls. And tragedy leads to homicide as the once-tranquil town of Hardscrabble blows up around him.
In a heartbreaking and humorous testament to the enduring power of friendship and youth, The Fall of Summer is a bittersweet glance back to a simpler time, when the Beatles had just hit American shores, the Yankees couldn’t lose a pennant, and life’s promise was still within reach.

Long Synopsis

DJ Elders is a high school senior residing in the small Long Island town of Hardscrabble during the 1960s. He lives with his sister, Patty, and alcoholic father, a district judge who presides over the fractured household. Along with his best friend, Ike O’Reilly, DJ is on the verge of becoming an adult, and while subconsciously mourning the loss of his childhood, at the same time is overwhelmed with the rollercoaster ride of a relationship with an unstable girlfriend.
As DJ tiptoes through a life experience of mixed signals and broken promises, he becomes involved with two women who immediately begin to alter his life—Greta Van Velsor, a refined woman in her late fifties, whose brother owns the local coffee shop where DJ assembles the Sunday morning newspapers, and Carlyn Canova, a twenty-eight-year-old department store manager where he works on Saturdays. Greta provides a cultural overview and emotional stability, while Carlyn, a toxic beauty, offers mystery, intrigue and primitive lust.
DJ’s life comes into sharp focus when he gradually realizes that the clues in the murder of a New York City police officer are strikingly similar to a recent shocking homicide in Hardscrabble. Detectives can’t figure a link between the two crimes, but DJ manages to solve the puzzle which immediately places him in the crosshairs. He doesn’t realize that his life is in jeopardy—a bad miscalculation—until he finds himself running wildly through neighborhood streets attempting to escape the clutches of the suspected killer.

Five points of interest about The Fall of Summer:

  1. The Fall of Summer was the third title.
  2. The name Elders was taken from a movie crawl.
  3. The author lost several classmates in the Vietnam War.
  4. The novel was written on and off over a period of ten years.
  5. Greta was originally considered to be a male character.

Interview Questions for Ted Alexander

  1. How did you arrive at the title The Fall of Summer?
  2. Would you give me a brief summary of the book?
  3. Was your main character, DJ Elders, anyone in particular or is he totally fictional?
  4. The 1960s were a mixed bag—bittersweet as you describe them.
       How do you remember those days?
  5. Were you targeting the Baby Boomers with your novel?
  6. What can the reader learn from The Fall of Summer?
  7. Do you have any formula for successfully finishing a novel?
  8. Who’s your favorite author?
  9. Where can the book be purchased?

Bio for Ted Alexander

Ted Alexander is an American novelist and columnist for the Asheville Citizen-Times. His first novel, The Fall of Summer was released in October, 2014.
Ted Alexander grew up in Vermont and Long Island, New York. He won a Shubert creative writing fellowship, completed his Masters Degree, then joined a rock band and toured America for five years. He later worked as an account supervisor and media director for two Manhattan advertising agencies, followed by a career in publishing. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
His second novel, After and Before is scheduled for publication in the first quarter of 2015.