nostalgic romance

Juxtapositions from the Good Vibe Lounge – Volume One: The Paradise We Create

by
JUXTAPOSITION: The act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side, often to compare or contrast or… to create an interesting effect.

Set in Central New Jersey, the Good Vibe Trilogy is a coming-of-age story following the lives of two young people raised in diverse yet dysfunctional environments during the late 1970s. When their lives connect, it impacts the destinies of their friends and family over a forty-year span.

Volume One, The Paradise We Create, introduces Andrew ‘Drew’ Reubens. As a teen, he is a girl-crazy, self-involved kid at the center of a clique of performing arts geeks. One of the many females in his sphere is unfiltered and misunderstood Alyona ‘Yoyo’ Zalenkov, being raised in a rural cult environment with warped family values.

The result of their unlikely relationship is represented in the modern-day events of the story, as Andrew hosts a celebration at his Central Jersey establishment, The Good Vibe Lounge. When the younger generation of his family expresses a desire to understand more about their back story, Andrew pivots, between modern times and 1977, his climactic senior year of High School to weave the story of Drew and Yoyo… and a collection of characterful events and relationships along the way.

With the help of some of his oldest friends, Andrew takes a tour of the often comedic, sometimes tragic.. but all-so-typical journey of adolescents faced with the transition to life as adults in the real world.

The Good Vibe saga is a forty-year history of characters who navigate thru the wonders, challenges, and destiny of human interplay. Along the way, they take on these dynamics, with juxtaposed tales of adolescent frivolity, dysfunctional family, enduring friendship, the depth of romance and sensuous love, criminal behavior, deception, success, failure, the thrill of knowledge, personal progression, and… a good dose of recovering from regrets.

And ultimately seeking to balance ‘what might have been’ with everything happening at the place where reality meets up with all of it… for a reason.

Meet Kaycee Evans

Diversity has been the center of Kaycee Evan’s life. His experiences have spanned from being a Musician, Composer, Actor, and Teacher to working as a Social Services Professional and in the Hospitality Industry. In the late 1980s, after transitioning to life in the Sunshine State, Kaycee became an activist for local anti-censorship organizations and a public speaker on social justice and homeless issues. He has authored three stage plays, ‘On the Air,’ ‘Frostproof Blues,’ and ‘But.. Who’s Counting’, the latter serving as the inspiration to author the stories of the Good Vibe Trilogy, his first offering as a novelist.

Born at the tail-end of the Baby Boomers, Kaycee is a Father and Grandfather who has always been amused and taken pride in his diverse interests.

“I can wake up to Jazz, walk the dogs, argue politics, analyze science fiction movies, scream at my Fantasy Football lineup, create a new cocktail and enjoy a bawdy Broadway Musical all in the same day.”

Forever 1982: A Sweet Romance Across Time

by

To some, home is not a place but a time.

For every child of the 1980s who’s ever said, “I want to go back.”

A nostalgic romance with a spiritual bent.

Michael “Mickey” Collins is a Generation X writer lost in a Generation Z world. He graduated from high school in 1982 and joined the Marines. A year later, he was severely burned by a terrorist bombing in Lebanon. Now, he pines for the past. Specifically, for 1982, his “last good year.”

Upon moving back to his childhood home, he receives a mysterious letter addressed to him and postmarked more than forty years ago. It’s a response from a young woman named Laura Harlech to a pen pal request he’d placed in a magazine more than four decades prior.

For literary inspiration, he writes a mock response that gets mailed by an overly conscientious mailman. But much to Mickey’s shock, he receives a reply. The logic defying reality sinks in that he has a pen pal across time. Mickey and Laura begin corresponding. Friendly banter turns into something deeper. For the first time in his life, Mickey finds himself in love. But love is hard when you have to go back to the past to realize your future. Can Mickey and Laura overcome the ultimate long distance relationship?

Chock full of 80s nostalgia—the music, the television, the movies, the fads, the events and personalities—this short but very sweet novel about love letters is itself a love letter to the greatest decade of all-time. No, it won’t change your life. But it will take you back to the time before life changed. So, dust off your VCR, put on your painter’s cap, and stick a Styx tape in your Walkman…and prepare to enter a world where it’s Forever 1982.

Meet Arthur Archambeau

Know me through my writing. It’s all in there. My life story is in my stories. And I’m not a “brand.” Brands are for bread and soda, not people. I write the kinds of stories that I myself would want to read. I don’t write to a formula or to “the market.” If you’re looking for those types of stories, look elsewhere. There are literally millions of writers putting out those kinds of books. But if you’re looking for something different and unlike anything else you’ve ever read, something honest and real, I invite you to give my books a try.