FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – LOCAL AUTHOR NEWS

Retired UC English Instructor Gets “Revinge” After 32 Years

When it comes to verbal miscues, retired Adjunct Associate Professor Mark Louis Lehman has seen just about everything. After spending 32 years at the University of Cincinnati teaching reluctant freshmen to write clear, plain, correct English, that is. “You wouldn’t believe some of the things my students write,” says Lehman. “Drug attic. Com and since. Taking friends for granite. A full-proof investment. Balled head. Easlier. An uphauling mess. There are hundreds more—and these are from college students.”

Lehman jotted down his favorite whoppers, and over the years amassed a thick folder of them. He thought about assembling them into a pamphlet, but then got a better idea. “I decided to invent a character and write a story for which I could use some of the best of these linguistic inventions. Then I got carried away and started making up more of my own. It’s sort of addictive, once you get going on them.”

The result, after a year of fooling around at his computer, is a short novel—Lehman modestly describes it as a “novelette”—entitled “Mocky’s Revinge,” with the first (of many more) misspellings right in the title. The novel uses a unique device to explain the misspellings: it’s supposedly written by an 8-year-old girl, who tells the story, in her own words, of her adventures during the summer of 1985 in her home town of Georgetown, Ohio, fifty miles east of Cincinnati. (In the book the name is changed to Granton, Ohio.) The story centers on the girl’s growing friendship with her Uncle Mocky, a French teacher who’s returned home after many years away to reconcile with his dying father. Lehman’s familiarity with Georgetown and its people comes from his many visits with his wife’s family, who reside in the Brown County town.

“Once I got going, the characters and story took on a life of their own,” says Lehman. What began as a picturesque, country-folk comedy became darker and more complex, as the little girl has to confront prejudice against her uncle, and deal with her mother’s sleazy and mean-spirited boyfriend, as well as the death of her grandfather. The story has a bittersweet resolution, as Uncle Mocky gets a surprising “revinge” with help from his niece.

Cincinnatians might note scenes set in some familiar locales. Uncle Mocky takes his niece sightseeing, and they go to Union Terminal, and spend a day at King’s Island. There’s also an excursion to the gorge at Yellow Springs, Ohio, and to Seven Caves, in the eastern part of the state.

“Mocky’s Revinge” has been enthusiastically praised by readers and critics. The highly-respected periodical Kirkus Reviews, which covers new publications for librarians, described it in the October 15 issue: “A folksy debut poignantly and humorously renders the vernacular of small-town Ohio… It may be slender, but this short ‘novelette’ conveys a full-fleshed humanity, thanks to the author’s savory use of language.”

The novel is now available at local bookstores and Amazon.com and local bookstores.

For more information, contact:
Amanda Lykins, manager,
Little Possum Press
(513) 631-4692
littlepossumpr@aol.com