National release set for local author’s novel

National release set for local author’s novel

Mahoning Valley native Michael Dempsey’s first novel, “Necroplis,” is set for national release Monday by Night Shade Books. The retro-futuristic tale takes the reader from the death of NYPD detective Paul Donner to his “rebirth” 50 years later through a process that reactivates his DNA, and his ensuing investigation of his own death.

Fellow futuristic author David Walton likens the book to “a cross between Robert Parker’s Spenser novels and “The Matrix.” Necropolis “combines a terrifying future with the one man who has the guts, brains, and relentlessness to bring it all crashing down,” Walton writes in his review.

Dempsey is an actor, playwright and theater director who wrote for network TV in the ’90s, including the hit series “Cybill” starring Cybill Shepherd. He has performed in New York, Los Angeles, Louisville, Cleveland and other venues, and currently lives in Ohio with his family, where he continues to perform here, and in Canton and Cleveland.

Cuban authors to read at YSU, downtown

YOUNGSTOWN

Two Cuban authors, Raul Hernandez Ortego and Nestor Cabrera Quesada, will visit Youngstown this month and give readings of their work.

Hernandez has authored 11 books of poetry and fiction and has been recognized with national awards in Cuba for his children’s writings.

Cabrera is a poet, editor and translator, having translated work from more than six countries, including the U.S.

The first reading will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday at McDonough Museum of Modern Art on Wick Avenue on the Youngstown State University campus. The second will be at 7 p.m. Friday at the Lemon Grove Caf , downtown.

Both readings will be bilingual, free and open to the public. They are made possible through the Ohio Arts Council, the Rayen Foundation and YSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

The poets also will offer workshops for students at East High School and Early College as part of the ongoing Mahoning Valley Diversity Outreach Program.

For more information, call the YSU Poetry Center at 330-941-1650.

Schaffert book-signing at Barnes & Noble

BOARDMAN

Youngstown native Eric Schaffert will be signing his book, “Blind Faith, Blind Ambition: A Vision for Success” from 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 23 at Barnes & Noble in Shops at Boardman Park.

Schaffert, who was blinded in one eye in a freak baseball accident when he was 10, is a graduate of Youngstown’s Woodrow Wilson High School and Youngstown State University.

His book details the events in his life beginning with that childhood accident, and the people who drove him to reach success in the world of sales, and what changed his perception of success and how to attain it.

Schaffert now works for Pfizer, mentoring upcoming sales people.

Courtney Love to ‘set the record straight’

NEW YORK

Courtney Love is ready to spill.

The hard-living rock star and actress known for her band Hole and for her brief marriage to Kurt Cobain has a book deal with William Morrow.

Morrow is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. It announced Thursday that Love will “set the record straight.”

Her memoir will address life with Cobain, the Nirvana leader who died in 1994, her drug problems and her Hollywood career.

The memoir is currently untitled and is scheduled to come out next fall.

She’s among several musicians who recently agreed to write memoirs. Those include Neil Young, Pete Townshend, Carole King and Gregg Allman.

Book says Payton abused drugs

LAKE FOREST, Ill.

According to a new book, Chicago Bears star Walter Payton abused painkillers in retirement and became suicidal.

In “Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton,” author Jeff Pearlman says the Hall of Fame running back used a cocktail of Tylenol and Vicodin in retirement, kept tanks of nitrous oxide in his garage and even obtained Ritalin from a friend whose son was prescribed pills. Pearlman writes that Payton drew the suspicion of pharmacists and a warning from the police after visiting several drugstores to have a dentist’s prescription for morphine filled.

Payton’s longtime agent, Bud Holmes, is quoted as saying, “Walter was pounding his body with medication.”

The book goes on sale Oct. 4. An excerpt appears in last week’s Sports Illustrated.

From staff/wire reports