UNDERBURN

A former Hollywood actress-turned real estate agent who has streamlined her life according to the principles of Marie Kondo, is forced to take in her troubled son and his younger boyfriend, a featured extra on a teen soap opera with a loyal Instagram following, when a wild fire destroys their Los Angeles home.

Iris Flynn is an acerbic, self-sufficient seventy-three year old widow with a minor Hollywood career in her past and some streamlined kitchen cabinets inspired by Marie Kondo. Her composed and simplified existence is disrupted when her son Frank lands on her doorstep after his rental home is destroyed in a wildfire, the latest in a string of personal setbacks. He arrives with Logan, his young and handsome boyfriend in tow, a featured extra on a teen soap opera with a loyal Instagram following. When Iris receives some unexpected news from her estranged family in Maine, she convinces Frank and Logan to travel with her to the potato farm from where she made a quick getaway fifty years earlier, unleashing a funny and poignant family saga about secrets, forgiveness and the fluctuating map of the human heart. Bill Gaythwaite's short fiction has appeared in Subtropics, Chicago Quarterly Review, Puerto Del Sol, december, Solstice, and many other publications. Bill's work can also be found in the anthologies Mudville Diaries: A Book of Baseball Memories and Hashtag Queer: LGBTQ+ Creative Anthology, vols. 1 and 2. Bill has worked at Columbia University since 2006, where he was on the staff of the Committee on Asia and the Middle East. He is currently the Assistant Director of Special Populations at Columbia Law School. Bill grew up in Boston and raised his son in New York City and its suburbs. An avid swimmer, movie aficionado and football fan, he lives in New Jersey with his partner, Tom. He has been writing stories since he was six years old. Underburn is Bill's debut novel.