Deacon Blues

Flawed Hero

June 2025 marked the 53rd anniversary of the Watergate break-in. Less than two years later, President Nixon resigned in disgrace and the nation felt exhausted and disgusted at the details of the scandal. One-term Georgia governor Jimmy Carter would soon declare his bid for the presidency and miraculously get elected in 1976. America was full of hope for renewal.

My book, Deacon Blues, transports you back to that remarkable seven year period between 1973 and 1980 as seen by an angst-filled American adolescent. A child of divorce, the protagonist Manfred Schmidt craves for belonging and respect and takes on Jimmy Carter as his hero. The tale begins in Bethesda, Maryland where Manfred lives with his journalist dad and older brother. Just before his senior year of high school, Manfred moves to Ireland where he follows the ups and downs of Carter from Europe. He starts college in Boston but drops out and moves to New Hampshire to live with his brother. It is there where he finds himself and decides to devote himself to working for Carter's re-election campaign.

Deacon Blues is a coming-of-age story about idealism, adventure, naiveite, hope and the power of dreaming.

Deacon Blues is the first book of the Manfred Schmidt tetralogy. Book Two is Sweet Dreams Are Made of This, Book 3 is Road To Nowhere and Book 4 is Losing My Religion.