Author Biff Mitchell’s novel, Heavy Load, may be the start of a new genre of fiction: the laundromance. Heavy Load, originally published in Australia, is now a self-published book available at eBookAd
March 16, 2005 (Press Release) --
“Heavy Load was inspired by a laundromat,” said Mr. Mitchell. "I spent hours sitting in a laundromat watching my clothes spin around in the dryer.”
“I began taking a notebook to the laundromat. I studied the people based on their laundry. I listened to the sounds of the laundromat; studied the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the machines…every inch of the building, and filled four notebooks.”
“For back stories, I used the notes from my six years of bartending. Drunken customers told me their stories. At the end of each night, I went home and made pages of notes.”
“Heavy Load is based on observation and listening. “That’s what gives it the sometimes seamy feel that Deborah Fisher in Tregolwyn Reviews describes as ‘the unfashionable idea that ordinary, everyday life is worth observing’"
Depicting everyday life is one of the six elements of a laundromance. “You can’t hide the stains and dirt on your laundry. The laundromat sees it all, which leads us into the second element of a laundromance: it must be narrated by the laundromat.”
Heavy Load is in fact narrated by the Washing Green Laundromat, “the biggest, coolest, most-up-to-date, user-friendly, human/machine integrated, full service laundromat in town.”
“I used a sentientlaundromat as the narrator because a laundromat is a place where people have to wait, where people think and daydream. The laundromat can delve into the lives of its customers. It’s the perfect storyteller.”
“There must be an element of romance. In Heavy Load, the romance is a triangle of interest between two men and a woman. They eye each other. They think about each other as the laundromat explores their past lives. They watch for opportunities with each other, but they never speak a word to each other. That would break the triangle and cut the story short. And that’s why one of the elements of a laundromat is that none of the romantically involved characters are allowed to speak to each other. Not a word.”
According to Mr. Mitchell, a laundromance must include at least one laundry tip. “But there’s plenty of tips in Heavy Load,” he said. “I spent hours cruising the Web for tips and information on laundry. I found some really cool stuff on the Tide site, and I found entire lists of laundry tips written by people who use laundromats. I even discovered the secret of the missing sock. It’s in the first chapter.”
The last element of a laundromance is the theme: “things get dirty, things get clean…”
“A laundromat is very much a place of regeneration. There’s something optimistic and uplifting about having newly cleaned clothing. There’s even a reflective element in the cycles of washing and drying, the folding and sorting. Then, you wear the clothing and it gets dirty. Just like life, it’s an endless cycle.”
Heavy Load is available in ebook format at eBookAd (http://www.ebookad.com/eb.php3?ebookid=20070).
Biff Mitchell is the author of the cyber thriller The War Bug, available from Double Dragon Publishing in ebook format and coming to bookstores this June in paperback. For more about the works of Biff Mitchell visit: www.biffmitchell.com
“I began taking a notebook to the laundromat. I studied the people based on their laundry. I listened to the sounds of the laundromat; studied the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the machines…every inch of the building, and filled four notebooks.”
“For back stories, I used the notes from my six years of bartending. Drunken customers told me their stories. At the end of each night, I went home and made pages of notes.”
“Heavy Load is based on observation and listening. “That’s what gives it the sometimes seamy feel that Deborah Fisher in Tregolwyn Reviews describes as ‘the unfashionable idea that ordinary, everyday life is worth observing’"
Depicting everyday life is one of the six elements of a laundromance. “You can’t hide the stains and dirt on your laundry. The laundromat sees it all, which leads us into the second element of a laundromance: it must be narrated by the laundromat.”
Heavy Load is in fact narrated by the Washing Green Laundromat, “the biggest, coolest, most-up-to-date, user-friendly, human/machine integrated, full service laundromat in town.”
“I used a sentientlaundromat as the narrator because a laundromat is a place where people have to wait, where people think and daydream. The laundromat can delve into the lives of its customers. It’s the perfect storyteller.”
“There must be an element of romance. In Heavy Load, the romance is a triangle of interest between two men and a woman. They eye each other. They think about each other as the laundromat explores their past lives. They watch for opportunities with each other, but they never speak a word to each other. That would break the triangle and cut the story short. And that’s why one of the elements of a laundromat is that none of the romantically involved characters are allowed to speak to each other. Not a word.”
According to Mr. Mitchell, a laundromance must include at least one laundry tip. “But there’s plenty of tips in Heavy Load,” he said. “I spent hours cruising the Web for tips and information on laundry. I found some really cool stuff on the Tide site, and I found entire lists of laundry tips written by people who use laundromats. I even discovered the secret of the missing sock. It’s in the first chapter.”
The last element of a laundromance is the theme: “things get dirty, things get clean…”
“A laundromat is very much a place of regeneration. There’s something optimistic and uplifting about having newly cleaned clothing. There’s even a reflective element in the cycles of washing and drying, the folding and sorting. Then, you wear the clothing and it gets dirty. Just like life, it’s an endless cycle.”
Heavy Load is available in ebook format at eBookAd (http://www.ebookad.com/eb.php3?ebookid=20070).
Biff Mitchell is the author of the cyber thriller The War Bug, available from Double Dragon Publishing in ebook format and coming to bookstores this June in paperback. For more about the works of Biff Mitchell visit: www.biffmitchell.com
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