More than a Fourth Novel

Walt Loves the Bearcat is much more than just a fourth novel for me.

Walt Loves the Bearcat is my breakthrough, my masterpiece, the culmination of my literary talents, endeavors, breath and growth. To date.

Walt Loves the Bearcat is my greatest achievement, during which I went to hell and back, poured out my heart and soul, examined my life like never before, wrote well over 1,500 pages of text and notes, came to terms with the events of my youth, hibernated from the world for months on end, lost my mind, got it back, finished a 700-page novel I had been dreaming of for 21 years, then died a little death.

"A lot of Walt Loves the Bearcat was written by the kid in me."

Walt Loves the Bearcat is the novel where I felt like a master of storytelling and the words that create them, where I exercised the rules, then broke the rules whenever it suited me, like a good and confident master of his craft. I was in the zone like never before.


Walt Loves the Bearcat is a story I conceived of while deliriously ill and on sick-leave from college in 1984.

Walt Loves the Bearcat was inspired by the writers I read during my illness, John Irving, James Kirkwood, Anton Myrer, and by the kinds of stories that have always fascinated my creative soul: what if; parallel universes; time bending, reality shifting, dreamscapes.

Walt Loves the Bearcat is my ode to football and cheerleading, and the fantasy romance between the quarterback and the cheerleader. With a twist.

Walt Loves the Bearcat is a love story about a white quarterback and black male cheerleader. That's the twist.

Walt Loves the Bearcat is the epic sports novel that dares to dream of the first pro athlete to come out while in the prime of his career.

Walt Loves the Bearcat is the adventure-filled odyssey where serious issues like homophobia, racism and AIDS exist right alongside fantastical characters like Hail Larry, Evil Announcer Guy and the Emergency Wife.

Walt Loves the Bearcat believes anything is possible, even flying football stadiums!

A lot of Walt Loves the Bearcat was written by the kid in me.

I first imagined creating Walt Loves the Bearcat in 1984.

Walt Loves the Bearcat became a dream come true in 2005.

Walt Loves the Bearcat became a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Best Romance in 2006.

Walt Loves the Bearcat is much more than just a fourth novel.

Walt Loves the Bearcat is available wherever books are sold, like here at amazon.

Walt Loves the Bearcat deserves to be an epic major motion picture that changes the world.

The world should believe anything is possible.

The world should believe in flying football stadiums ...

... something tugged at the shoulder of the author, waking him from his blurry dreams.

He lifted his head off the plane's window and sat upright, realizing the tug had come from the flight attendant.

Landing soon, mouthed the flight attendant before disappearing.

The author righted himself and tried to wake up. The dream had been intoxicating. He wanted more of it. He tried to fall asleep again and re-dream the dream ...

"Those are the very words of author Randy Boyd," said a fresh-faced kid standing in front of the class. "After all these hundreds of years, that's one of the few pieces of writing about Walt Loves the Bearcat by the author that has actually been verified as his actual words."

The rest of the class listened with slight indifference, as if skeptical of this latest claim about one of the titans of literary history.

"Everybody's got a Randy Boyd story," chirped a dark-hair girl in the front row, followed by laughter from the rest of the class (Lit Theory 403: Elements of Randy Boyd's Writings).

"This one happens to be true," insisted Pete, the student at the podium. "These are the author's actual words he wrote on something called a 'blog,' whatever that was, a couple of hundred years ago. He titled it, More than a Fourth Novel."

"And these were his personal feeling about Walt Loves the Bearcat?" asked the professor from his desk. "Before the book ever took off and became part of our culture? So much so that, hundreds of years later, it's part of our world here in the present, like Wizards of Ozzie and Shakeyspear. And Hairy Potter?"

"Amazing, I know," said Pete at the podium. "I have to pee."

"I have to pee, to pee, have to pee," said a little boy in the exit row, bringing the author back to the plane, mind, body and soul. Fully awake now, he rose from the right passenger seat and joined the other passengers.

For now, he'd had enough of these spontaneous dream sequences.