Mahogany Slade

The only items of furniture in Jaye and Nick’s room were two beat-up dressers and two twin mattresses lying on the floor. Above one were posters of A Tribe Called Quest and Digital Underground. “That’s Nick’s,” Jaye said. She stooped to light a strawberry-scented candle on her dresser. “He’s the perfect roomie. He’s neat and […]

Janet managed with masterful ease to light a clove cigarette while never releasing my hand. I should have looked ridiculous next to her. I wore the same khakis, blue shirt, gray sweater, and wool jacket that had been perfectly acceptable for my IHOP breakfast with Heather. Yet whenever Janet smiled at me, I felt like […]

“We’ll order some Gumby’s, put on Check Your Head with a Congregation chaser, knock back some pony necks, smoke some very good grass, and chill for the night. Not necessarily in that order.” – Heather Aulds

Shortly after 1, I heard a knock that I recognized as the opening beats of the overture to the “Chicago” musical. I knew this because someone had left a cassette tape of the 1975 cast recording outside my door with an elegantly written note reading, ” ‘Nowadays’ is my favorite. Let me know which one […]

The rattling window pane and the slight crackling of the curtains, almost like a low flame, merged seamlessly with the first song’s dusting of drums and crisp trumpet solo, but soon there was a heartbreaking vocal: Janet started to cry; tears falling from her eyes like the warming ice on the trees. The first song […]

If your Valentine is digitally inclined or just enjoys a pleasant read, consider sending him or her the Kindle version of Mahogany Slade — available from now until February 14 for just $5. “Anyone who has been to college will identify with ‘Mahogany Slade,’ which wistfully evokes campus life and a time when everything was […]

I was on my 500th rereading of “The Great Gatsby” when I conceived this scene. Three hours later, I passed under the hanging metal globe bearing the words “The Grit” and spotted Eddie Munster sitting at a booth with a similarly dressed man of around fifty, who he introduced to me after an especially crushing […]

She pulled back the skin on her face with her palms, wiggled her fingers, and crossed her eyes. This stranger stated, “It’s like what John says in ‘All You Need Is Love.’” She was apparently on a first-name basis with the late musician. “Nothing matters in the end. It’s all a waste of time. Of […]

Yes, I love “Steam Heat” but my favorite number from The Pajama Game is “Hernando’s Hideaway,” which is also performed both on stage and screen by Carol Haney. Janet Tomalin alludes to the song when she calls Brad Carlton from an unnamed downtown Athens bar on Washington Street. “Hey, poopsie!” My mind quickly wrapped chains […]

I’d written previously about how I’d physically based the character Dana Weichman after the musician PJ Harvey. Once I had a visual anchor, I was able to flesh out the character more, and since Dana is distinctly unlikeable, “casting” one of my favorite people as her added a fun challenge. Dana first appears in Chapter […]

I came upon this clip on YouTube that reminds me of an offhand reference in the penultimate chapter of Mahogany Slade. Although I still went to class and to the Red & Black, from an emotionally functional standpoint, I was at best Bette Davis to Heather’s Joan Crawford. Brad Carlton refers to the 1962 movie […]

Heather had returned, more diminished than when she’d left. Andy was attempting to persuade Debbie to vote for A Clockwork Orange at the next Weekday meeting when she glanced up at Heather, who was barely a member of the conversation, and suggested that she join Cinematic Arts. “It’s not my thing,” Heather said dismissively. “Because […]

Somewhere in D.C. this past May, a car drove by playing Digital Underground’s “Same Song” and I decided to write it into the scene I was currently writing for Mahogany Slade. We found Heather in College Square, leaning against one of the black lampposts. Her posture implied that the glowing ball above her was self-generated. […]

I’ve received more requests for signed copies of Mahogany Slade despite my appallingly bad handwriting. You can get your own copy of my scribblings by ordering a copy here. Thanks for your support and interest.

“So, uh, what kind of movies do you like?” “That’s a rather personal question, don’t you think?” Andy didn’t see why, so Janet pressed her hand to her heart and answered, “I absolutely adore ‘Victor/Victoria.’ It makes me so happy.” “Really? You like that?” He frowned. “I respect your opinion and all, but I think […]

“Big Spender” from Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity is the song Janet Tomalin dances to when she shocks the oh-so-hip crowd at Heather Aulds’s Halloween party and plays the original cast recording Brad had just given her as a birthday present. The song is arguably the most recognizable* one from the show. My friend Erin is […]

(Heather) shuffled off into her bedroom and returned ten minutes later wearing ragged blue jean shorts that were higher, more revealing, and overall more effective than Andy’s. Competing with the shorts for attention was a white T-shirt with a crude drawing of a ten-gallon hat and the inscription Never Trust a Cowboy — Bono ’92. […]

If you’re on Goodreads, you can enter to win one of two autographed copies of Mahogany Slade. Who doesn’t like free things? Especially when they’ve been signed? Goodreads Book Giveaway Mahogany Slade by Stephen Robinson Giveaway ends September 24, 2012. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win

In Pulp Fiction, Butch (Bruce Willis) comments that he’s “American… our names don’t mean shit.” This is probably true of a certain class of people, myself included, for whom their surnames have no real history. As a kid, I found this isolating and dispiriting. I couldn’t name any Robinsons who had done grand things and […]

Amber Grant and Molly Sherman, friends of Tom Cody from Mahogany Slade, are physical “cameos” from Northwest musicians Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein from the band Sleater-Kinney, whose drummer was at one point Janet Weiss, so I couldn’t resist the additional Rocky Horror reference. The silver buttons on Molly’s denim jacket jangled when she rushed […]

Just like the college students it depicts, Mahogany Slade is released into a terrifying world next week. However, you can preorder copies through this site until the official launch, which I will sign and send off to your place of residence. I will also number them as I sign them, and the ninth, fourteenth, and […]

Sage Adderley at Sage’s Blog Tours shares her generous thoughts on Mahogany Slade. I enjoyed each quirky character, but Brad’s close friend Heather Aulds spoke to me the most. She radiates spunk, confidence, while also demonstrating moments of vulnerability. I’m pleased that preview readers are enjoying Heather as much as I enjoyed writing her. “Rebirth […]

Jaye Goetz, who plays a pivotal role in Mahogany Slade, is physically based on a friend of mine. It’s a bit of 90210 casting because Jaye is 20 during the book, and my descriptions of her are based on my friend when she was in her mid-to-late 20s. Some people who have read the book […]

 We cut through what I thought was a park—the proscenium overrun with grass and the chorus line of trees waving its branches in the wind—but the crop of ragged tombstones growing from the lawn identified it as a cemetery, which Janet called “Ye Olde Athens Cemetery.” I thought it best not to subject the dead, […]

From Chapter 2 of “Mahogany Slade”; Brad and Janet exchange numbers on an Orbit bus at the University of Georgia. She removed from her purse a leather-bound address book, the kind a lawyer might use. Thumbing through the pages, she stopped at the one dated exactly a week ago. “Here’s what I wrote about you.” […]

The area of downtown Athens spanning west to Pulaski and north to where Dougherty curves into Prince was no larger than a few square blocks, but its presence in the collective imaginations of musicians—either current, soon to be, or never will but nonetheless hopeful—and their devo­tees loomed larger than Sanford Stadium. Although more traditional students, […]

Janet faced the front door, staring intently at the falling rain and softly singing “Night in Tunisia.” The rain splattering against the French windows, the ticking clock in the empty lobby, the tip-tap of her polka-dot heels with red soles…they all provided a fitting musical accompaniment. Sensing my presence, perhaps from my awed reflection in […]

We had dinner again at the Waffle House, and Janet ordered pecan pie and hash browns, which she ate concurrently. Afterward, we sat out on a bench by the quad. The mugginess hadn’t left with the sun, and it felt like the crispness of fall might never arrive. But as sultry as the evening was, […]

I did not have a specific physical model for Heather Aulds, but I knew I wanted to distinguish her from Janet Tomalin, so she would be more “solid” and less ethereal. She would also represent the comforting power of antiquity. From Brad Carlton’s first encounter with her: “Looming over me was hair the color and […]

“The bright, caramel-apple face looking at me was a spectacle of symmetry: Every feature assembled perfectly but not in any fixed or routine way, so you were compelled to return to it, to see if there was anything you’d missed in the frivolous seconds you squandered blinking. Floating on this oasis was a pair of […]

When I first saw this photo of Charlayne Hunter, as she was known when she enrolled at the University of Georgia, it lodged in my mind and eventually became the foundation on which I built Janet Tomalin. Although, Miss Tomalin would never wear bobby socks, the pose is very much her. Ms. Hunter-Gault had long […]

We carried brown paper bags, dripping grease on Broad Street, to the North Campus lawn where we picnicked on burritos and chips and salsa under shivering stars. “It’s so damn cold,” Andy complained. “Have you noticed how cold it’s getting?” “You do realize you’re from Illinois, right?” Heather lay on her back, her entwined fingers […]

Heather Aulds called me the first week of March and said if I had no other plans, I should “shake my rump” with her at Gina Sloane’s “bash” that coming Saturday. The previous “bash” with Heather’s “alternateen” friends that I’d attended had not made me eager for another. However, over the phone, I sensed something […]

Eyes that had grown accustomed to the face of Manhattan devoured the quirky imperfections of downtown Athens. The multicolored Federal-style and Greek Revival buildings fit together like pieces from unrelated puzzles that a precocious child had creatively combined; it thrilled Janet like a finely detailed musical set piece. She marveled at a three-story house on […]

“The movers came yesterday and took everything I couldn’t put in my bags. Now, all I have to do is show up at the airport tomorrow.” Her fingers took great interest for the next few minutes in the small burn on the back of my hand — the only visible scar from my childhood. “Everyone […]

Later at Rocky’s, (Janet) leaned back in our booth and began to giggle uncontrollably. “Oh sweetie, you’ve made such a mess!” I glanced down and saw a sloppy trail of marina on the front of my blue shirt. “That means seven weeks bad luck or six more years of winter… or something like that.” She […]

When I heard Hang Me Up to Dry at Liberty Bar in Seattle a few months ago, it helped define for me Dana Weichman from Mahogany Slade. So much so that I wound up expanding her role considerably (and eventually modeling her physically after one of my favorite musicians). Cold War Kids released the song […]

I relished our Rocky’s brunches because there was a clockwork certainty that I’d see her every Sunday; the rest of the week, I’d never know when she might appear at my door or tap me on the shoulder as I browsed through albums at Wuxtry. After she’d shared with me the seventh floor of the […]

“She’s your top priority, B. You follow the first and only commandment of Janet Tomalin: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods but her.’ You even blew off Jaye’s party just because you saw her at The Grill.” “Drop it, Razinski!” “Is this an intervention?” I asked heatedly. “If that’s what it takes. Don’t you see? […]

Snow fell overnight the first weekend of Winter Quarter, a prank of nature on a north Georgia town. When I looked out my window on Saturday morning, the Myers quad was covered in a white icing that stuck to my now very off-white sneakers as I walked downtown. The addition of a crewneck sweater and […]

Miss Miller had advised me to write for the college paper and build a collection of clips unrelated to obituaries. A couple weeks had passed and I’d made no efforts in that direction, but it also occurred to me that after working at the Greenville News almost as long as I’d been alive, Miss Miller […]

(Janet) hugged my pillow, lying so still I thought she’d dozed off to the lullaby of rain against the window, and when she spoke again, it sounded as if she were talking in her sleep. “What is…?”Rather than provide a word — a mundane formation of letters, she bounded off the bed and threw out […]

The Shoebox was an aspirational name for the club, which was tiny, narrow, and dank. Janet’s Bordeaux court shoes were probably not the best choice for a venue without seating, and she’d occasionally take turns standing on one foot while slipping the other out of its patent leather casing. Dana Weichman and Tom Cody were […]

…Heather had discovered I’d never been camping (“I’d expect that from a Yankee,” she’d said, “but not from one of my own.”) and decided to rectify this horrific lapse in my cultural experience as a tribute to my upcoming birthday. So, Friday afternoon, the four of us drove down to the Skidaway Island State Park […]

I’d seen Heather Aulds exactly twice since the first day of class. Both meetings began with a shouted “Carlton!” and took place outside a building on North Campus. In each instance, I was heading south to either Myers or Bolton and Heather’s destination was eventually somewhere downtown. The first time was the last week of […]

We stood out on (Heather’s) balcony for a while, wrapped in sweaters against the cold, as Sugar’s Copper Blue blasted from her stereo. Heather had put on a plastic hockey mask with a hole cut into the mouth wide enough to let her drink Guinness through a straw. “It’s almost civilized tonight,” she said. “The […]

On Sunday morning, when students congregated in the many white churches along Lumpkin, I sat at my desk in Myers and reviewed my journalism, political science, and history notes. I’d read them all fully and already committed their contents to memory, so like any other devotional text, they provided no new insights. Shortly after 1, […]