A Note About Content

Two Over Easy All Day Long is a story of tragedy and personal transformation or, as Tony says: “redemption at Sunnyside Up.”

But redemption is only possible for those who are, at least temporarily, lost.

I love Tony, Nancy, Leesa, Walt, Nareen, and Scooter as if they were real friends (oddball friends with a colorful vocabulary, but friends nonetheless), and of course real people sometimes say and do things that are offensive. I’ve tried to be a faithful medium for their stories, and to afford them grace in spite of their most intransigent flaws.

What follows is a summary of the content that some may find offensive, the kind of note you might find in an IMDb parental warning about Good Will Hunting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, or O Brother Where Art Thou? This is probably wholly unnecessary for most readers, but since some of my readers are familiar with my history in education and my stories for children, I felt a bit of a heads up was in order.

So here goes.

There is profanity, sex, and violence.

The protagonists experience and are sometimes the perpetrators of racism, misogyny, cruelty, LGBTQ slurs, and our country’s obsession with using immigrants to perform our most miserable jobs and then claiming “they” are ruining America.

Two characters die, one character is kidnapped, and one character leaves a trail of pregnant underage girls.

There is a lawyer who exemplifies the worst of corporate lawyering, and there is a nod to the ineffectiveness of our justice system in actually providing justice.

An important aside: when I was practicing law, I met and worked with lawyers and support staff who were simply amazing human beings, people of integrity and compassion who took their roles in our justice system very seriously. The attorney in Two Over Easy All Day Long bears no resemblance to most of the lawyers I worked with or have known over the course of my career. And yes, our justice system is deeply, painfully imperfect, but I continue to believe it is preferable to vigilantism or a system in which the government brings charges and the accused has no access to a vigorous defense by which he or she or they may be found innocent.

Perhaps most importantly of all, the story starts with heart-wrenching tragedy, tragedy which was entirely preventable, if only the already-wealthy had prioritized safety over profit.

And yet the publisher describes Two Over Easy All Day Long as “a wise and witty tribute to human complexity and fragility and strength,” and Stephanie Barbé Hammer (friend and author of the marvelous magical realism novels Pretend Plumber and Journey to Merveilleux City) says the novel has “a surprising dose of sweetness.”

Which begs the question: What is Two Over Easy All Day Long?

A murder mystery?

A tale of restorative justice?

A story of personal transformation?

A comedic exploration of what happens when we are forced to set aside assumptions and actually walk in another’s shoes (particularly the well-worn shoes of a diner-owner who “never had two nickels to rub together”)?

Ultimately, you’ll have to decide for yourself.

And when you do, drop me a line and let me know your thoughts!

Sharilaneauthor@gmail.com