Author Event: Peter McDade

Page 158 Books is excited author Peter McDade discuss his latest novel, King Cal--out April 16th. Many novels set in the world of rock music depict stardom, debauchery and deceit. King Cal instead focuses on the creative process, the devotion required to choose an uncertain life in music, the inspiration for songwriting, the challenge of making the rent while doing it. In the course of one ordinary day, Atlanta fast food worker Calvin loses his girlfriend, his band and his best friend. Suddenly, everything he had planned to spend the rest of his life doing seems to have flown away. Told with insight, sensitivity and respect for music-makers, King Cal is a coming-of-age novel about a determined young man who starts with little, aims to earn a little more and has to decide whether success, or even clinging to his dream, is worth the sacrifice.

Peter McDade spent fifteen years traveling the highways of America as the drummer in the rock bands Uncle Green and 3 lb. Thrill, releasing a half-dozen albums on various major and independent labels. Raised in New Jersey, he now lives with his family in Atlanta, where he teaches at Clark Atlanta University. King Cal is his third novel.