FINDERS KEEPERS is not your typical story, which was my point from the very beginning. As an agent said of my work, it is strange and ambitious ... and fun. It started out with my wanting to put to paper a bizarre, and in many ways, life changing experience I had, and it wound up morphing into a hybrid tale that is part road trip, part cosmic lunacy.

The short version is this:

FINDERS KEEPERS is loosely based on a backpacking trip I took through Europe with a friend of mine from New Zealand, set against a quest for a glass jar that contains the Universe's DNA.

Here's a Bit More:

On a  backpacking trip through Europe, Jason Medley and Theo Barnes stumble through hash bars and hangovers; religious zealots and stalkers; food poisoning and thunderstorms; cute girls, overnight trains, fever-pitch hallucinations--and the spectre of adult repsonsbility!

And Here's a Slightly Extended Description:

Newlyweds and low-level galaxy designers Donald and Danielle accidentally knock a jar of the Universe's DNA into the newly forming Earth, leaving their fate—and that of the Milky Way—in dire straights.

Fast forward to modern day Earth, where Wannabe-English teacher Jason Medley is stuck in that netherworld between college and a career, until he reluctantly quits his go-nowhere waiter job on Long Island, and backpacks across Europe. There he meets Theo Barnes, an adventurous New Zealander who has already stumbled upon the hallucination-inducing jar—that won't open—unaware of what's inside.

As the new friends stumble from city to city, trying to outrun their impending adult responsibilities, they encounter Lilly, a young, sultry painter with a haunted past and a habit for finding trouble. Meanwhile, Earth's banished galaxy designer and her talking brown Labrador, the newlyweds with a famous friend, and a drag queen with a dream each have their own designs for Theo's jar, initiating a chase around the globe--and putting loyalties to the test.

Traversing Europe, New Zealand and the backbone of Eternity, FINDERS KEEPERS is a buddy story that not only tackles friendship, sex, commitment and desire, but also God, reincarnation—and what really happened to the dinosaurs!

FINDERS KEEPERS is a buddy story at heart, so its main thrust is the relationship between the two main characters, Jason Medley and Theo Karnes, two guys, both in their early 20s, but from opposite parts of the globe--the New York city suburbs and Auckland, New Zealand--and with very different attitudes about their places in the world and what the future might hold in store for them.

From the very beginning I decided that I was going to write FINDERS KEEPERS in a way that was fun for me, and trust that the fun would translate to the page, regardless of what conventional storytelling might dictate. There's more than 100 chapters, but they're all really short, which keeps things moving along; I use flashbacks throughout; switch between present day Earth as we know it, and Eternity (as I've decided it); and swap back and forth between characters.

Some of what happens in FINDERS KEEPERS is a loose retelling of the places I went and people I met. Others are complete fabrications. And the scenes in Eternity ... well, you can decide for yourself if you think that's what's really going on up there. And even though I wrote FINDERS KEEPERS as a goofy adventure, with some fantastical moments and a little bit of light sci-fi, to me it's about figuring out what--and who--is most important to you, and what you will do to honor that.

FINDERS KEEPERS was always meant to be a novel that took some chances. It was meant to explore both the big questions about life and the little ones, and most of all, be a lot of fun. I had a great time with it. I hope you do to.

Russ

p.s. ... For more, check out the back cover description--and sample chapters from FINDERS KEEPERS--in the SAMPLE CHAPTERS section under the main menu.