Buford Buggler, a crotchety cargo pilot, and his co-pilot-slash-partner Monkey, the last of a race of hyper-intelligent chimpanzees, smuggle all manner of contraband--illicit pharmaceuticals, mystical totems, prototype drones-- aboard Buford’s beloved twin electromag-engine cargo plane the Jezzebelle. If you’ve got the credits, they’ve got the cargo space. No questions asked.
I’m Mike Spitalieri. I’m a writer. I’m also a comic-book lover, pet-parent, cartoon junkie, overgrown kid. I’ve been writing stories all my life. I’ve parlayed this into various writing jobs during the years, journalism, publishing, IT communications. I still work a day-job, but I desperately want to give these two characters a shot at taking the world by storm.
The first novella, tentatively titled Love Soars Eternal, is fully completed. It has gone through a number of rewrites and should just need a copyedit from the fine folks here at InkShares. I’ve completed two other novellas, but they are still in the process of being edited. There are also four more story arcs I’ve outlined and need to write. The more preorders I get the more time I can apportion to writing.
Buford & Monkey have run amok inside my head for years. I’ve developed different vehicles for them--comic books, podcasts, radio dramas--but none of those did them justice. I’ve finally decided to publish these lovable rascals’ adventures as short novellas.
I love adventure whether it be in the form of comic books, Saturday morning cartoons, novels or video games. But what I noticed was that all of these media seem flooded with dour, post-apocalyptic, gloomy fiction. I love that stuff too, but I wanted to start pulling in the other direction with some good old fashioned adventure, the kind of fun that we all enjoyed as kids. Just a crazy story about a man and his monkey.
Each novella includes One job and One story. I’m starting off with e-books to keep the production costs low. I also have some art work I’m going to use, but the more pre-orders I get, the more art I can commission, which I think adds tremendously to the story.
Buford’s estranged ex-wife Cora returns to Copa Island after many years. She needs a favor from the old man. A job, in fact. And an important one. Will Buford put aside his petty resentment for the woman who left him so long ago? Well, probably not, but he needs the credits so he’ll do it anyway. And will Cora run away at the sight of a strange talking primate? Who knows?