John Portrait

 

Just like my main character Kelly Hayes, I was born in New York and moved to Connecticut at the start of high school, graduating after a series of stints at various schools. I then attended a semester here or a year there at several  New England universities, struggling with the normalcy of traditional conventions.

But it’s high school that left lasting impressions. As with all of us, these were formative years, learning about myself and others, exploring what life is about, pushing the boundaries society puts on us, and learning where I fit, or DIDN’T FIT, in the grand scheme of American society. 

It is these four riotous years which have served as the basis for Leech Mob- taking artistic license to the limit with the wild parties, the high school pranks, the underground music scene, brushes with the law and, of course, the brawls! The characters are a conglomeration of the fascinating people who passed through my life at the time.

I wanted to write a book that young people would have fun reading. As a kid, I loved books, but was turned off to reading during high school because the novels were totally irrelevant to my life. So I decided to start with the important social issues of growing up––with a bunch of crazy and often painful stories from my teen years that I wove into a fictionalized text. 

I want the youth to know that I love them and I wrote this book for them. Hopefully, they will benefit from the experiences of Kelly Hayes.

Begin the journey here.