Obama presidency may mellow out need for novel on broken American Dream

Jan. 22, 2009 - PRLog -- Two days ago when watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama, American novelist D.L. Shiloh was working on his second novel. It's a modern tract about the American Dream titled “The Pilgrim Commuter.” An eclectic iTunes mix played in the background – Bob Seger, Green Day, Alice Cooper, and Rupert Holmes. As history was being made on TV, Shiloh thought something staggering for any wordsmith. “I may not need to write this new story.”

Taking his time to craft a book is a given for Shiloh, who took 17 years to write his first novel “Pookoo”, a sad satire about celebrity. The book, in free e-book PDF form, is slowly gaining a worldwide audience and has been downloaded by readers in 14 countries. As Shiloh began to break ground for "Pilgrim", he even imposed a deadline for 2009 to finish it, which can be tracked on his blog [http://dlshiloh.blogspot.com].

“I wonder with the new President (Barack Obama] being sworn in, if [this] new novel needs to be told. Before, I was feeling panic and despair over the economy and things. But with the [2008] election, a lot of fears subsided. There's a lot of hope. Obama visited our local college a few months before announcing his candidacy and you could tell he was worth making a run at office. It's a case of where the Man meets the Moment and his vision for a better America. What his administration could do is exciting."

As far as the deadline for the new novel, there are 342 days left. “The Pilgrim Commuter” is about the broken American Dream – and a painful look at mid-life crisis.

Meanwhile, “Pookoo” is doing well, reports Shiloh. The free e-book has been downloaded in 14 countries so far, and it claimed a spot for “Most Eye-Catching Cover” for the January 2009 contest, which the public can vote for at http://thenewcoveycoverawards.blogspot.com. The cover was done by graphic artist Peter Knipschield, whose work on Michael Jordan's book “For Love of the Game” earned Knipschield a spot in the book's acknowledgment section.

“It's great that “Pookoo” is getting an audience,” Shiloh said. “People ask me what part of it is true and I didn't expect that. They wonder if there is going to be a sequel. The one thing I know is that screenplays are in my future. I don't see any need to write a novel more than 250 pages long. The first novel has great sarcasm - the second, if it gets done, will be a change of pace with how things are now.”

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