Charles Patterson

My first novel--Last Rites--was written and rewritten in the late 1970s and early 80s and then was put away in the closet after two agents tried unsuccessfully to get it published. Twenty years later it was resurrected from oblivion, and after some more rewriting and revising it finally got into print.

This new/old novel is about Tom Reed, who grows up in a church family and follows his father’s footsteps into the ministry only to realize he made a big mistake.

As the young rector of a dying parish in a remote part of the state he conducts lots of funerals, gives sermons that nobody listens to, and hears the confessions of the parish's compulsive penitent.

After a series of run-ins with the laymen who govern the church about issues such as flying the American flag on the front lawn and letting the youth group use the church for a rock concert, Tom feels increasingly dissatisfied. However, he puts off taking any steps that would upset his father, who is in a nursing home.

Tom’s struggle to free himself from the influence of his family and church reaches its climax in New York City in a series of "last rites" that are moving, irreverent, entertaining, and very readable. It's a story that's never been told before.

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My next novel--a sequel, sort of--is My Weekend in Hell. It's about the same Tom Reed, who after he leaves the church goes to Hell literally (as Dante did 700 years before him). However, the world he finds there is very different from anything Dante could ever have imagined.

After his deceased Dante teacher, Father Edward, contacts him in New York, Tom goes to Tuscany in Italy where tradition has it that Dante made his descent into the Inferno. There Tom goes down a tunnel into the Underworld where he joins his host, his former teacher, and two female Dante scholars from California.

After a "Dante tour" Tom leaves the group to visit his father in a "Purgatory precinct" (Heaven has been shut down and Purgatory divided up and scattered through the Underworld). Tom becomes upset when he finds out his father is soon going to be terminated.

He returns to Headquarters in time to visit the Greek caucus (famous people who have been summoned from the dead for a "weekend conference"). He then attends the staff meeting presided over by Tanya, the Underworld's CEO, where he learns about plans for a new, improved Hell that will attract human visitors.

Tom is taken to a private meeting with Hashem (God), who now lives in a remote corner of the Underworld. On Tom's way back Satan's henchmen capture him and he joins his colleague Rachel in captivity until their release.

Quite an adventure for a weekend!

While Last Rites covers the first 30 years of Tom Reed's life, My Weekend in Hell takes place in 30 hours.

My second novel will be published in 2009.