Green’s latest tale keeps a local twist

By Joyce Bonesteel
Posted Thursday, May 1, 2008

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By Joyce Bonesteel
VIEW Contributor
OREGON TWP — Drugs, sex and murder saturate the pages of Casino Thunderbird, a new novel by homegrown author William Wallace Green, known here as Wally Green.

Crime solvers Barbara and Bobby Foster, an imaginary couple inspired by the writer’s brother- and sister-in-law, are tracking down a serial killer in the North Branch Potawatomi Reservation, set in the heavily forested state game area. The murder weapon is an atlatl, an ancient stone point handcrafted by prehistoric natives and mounted on wood like a spear.

Familiar landmarks and historical facts anchor this tale of fiction. Local readers will recognize road names, county departments, the granite drinking fountain in front of the historic courthouse and the Marguerite deAngeli Library.

People’s names are different in the book. Kenny Abernathy is the county sheriff. The prosecutor is Harrington Devine and the foul-mouthed $25,000-a-year president of the Lapeer County “Hysterical” Society is Mary Jane Lindquist, a psychotic who still wears poodle skirts and a beehive hairdo.

This novel is not meant for preachers and prudes. Many of the paragraphs are sexually explicit. As a movie it would be rated R.

Green said his favorite part of writing Casino Thunderbird was turning North Branch into an Indian reservation. This book is the second part of a “Murder in Lapeer” trilogy. It follows Red Moon Rising a dramatic story of lead character Bobby Foster losing his seat on the Michigan Supreme Court and selling himself as a gigolo to wealthy women, including his beautiful therapist, at Red Moon Bed and Breakfast.

The resort was inspired by Red Wing Bed and Breakfast, Green’s real-life ancestral home secluded on pristine McKeen Lake. The actual site and history are repeated in the novel.

Green’s first three books were self-published. In other words, he paid money out of his own pocket to get them in print. Now he’s writing fiction and getting compensated for his work. PublishAmerica of Baltimore is covering the trilogy expenses and sending him royalties. Green is reluctant to share details, but pleased with the results.

“The success of Red Moon Rising has changed my life forever, in terms of getting a writing career that is economically beneficial off the ground,” he said. “In terms of my writing full-time as a livelihood, I’m fulfilling my dream as a nationally known writer. It is starting to be a financially successful enterprise.”

Green said he works 70 hours a week. Half of his time is dedicated to writing, the rest is spent promoting his books. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, the last leg of the trilogy, is more than half done.

A contract gives PublishAmerica the national publication rights, and international rights for seven years. Both books are available at www.amazon.com and www.bn.com (Barnes & Noble). Copies are sold at The Book Shelf, 359 W. Nepessing St. in Lapeer. The author will autograph his novels at a free event May 3 at the Lapeer Train Station.

Book signing Saturday
LAPEER — The national debut of Casino Thunderbird, a sizzling novel by William Wallace Green of Oregon Township, is set for 7 p.m. this Saturday at the Lapeer Train Station, 73 Howard St. Everyone is welcome.
Refreshments will be served.

Author Wally Green will sign books and tell a true story of his mother bringing him to this same depot, when he was six, to meet a World War II troop train and send a relative off to war.

The station is mentioned in Casino Thunderbird and his first book of a murder trilogy, Red Moon Rising.

After the book signing Green will perform Life After Death, his popular one-man show. Carol Pariseau, his neighbor and publicist, plans to help out at the event. So will Marji and Alan Peet. She is owner of The Book Shelf and one of Green’s biggest supporters.

Lois Keel of Shelby Township, an impersonator of Green’s grandmother, Liberetta Green, will tell a short story of Liberetta’s parents running an Underground Railroad station in Utica during the Civil War. The family had a springhouse near the Clinton River, and a cave was dug in a hill to hide runaway slaves. When Green met Keel by happenstance, he learned that a school in her area was named after his grandmother. — Joyce Bonesteel