Who Is Donald Jeffries?

I’m the guy who wrote The Unreals, a sci-fi/fantasy novel published in 2007.  You may also have seen some of my posts about the JFK assassination, on The Education Forum (Spartacus UK) or JFK Lancer. See the following links, if you want to search for my various ramblings on the subject:  

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=126  

 http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=3 

I’m what some would call a “conspiracy nut.” But I’m pretty tame, and place a high premium on politeness.  Most people think I’m nice. 

Presently, I’m trying to market my second novel, titled Front Row at the Loony Bin. It’s completely different from The Unreals. Written in what I hope is a genuine woman’s voice, it straddles the line between memoir and horror/ fantasy. Broadly, I guess it falls under the category of women’s fiction, but so far the publishing world doesn’t seem enticed by it. It doesn’t have a niche, a conventional genre that can be neatly categorized. I remain commited to it, however, and optimistic that someone in the industry will recognize its brilliance and originality. 

I’ve also been working on a non-fiction book about the Natalee Holloway case for the past year, in conjunction with Dan and Kelly Young, who have been to Aruba five times and know most of the people involved.  We did have a well known and respected literary agent for this one, but after the murder in Peru happened, she lost interest and rescinded our agreement. Since our thesis is that Joran Van der Sloot is innocent, we have a hard sell. So far, no one is biting but I think that eventually the huge public interest this subject still draws will result in our book being published.  A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by Professor James Fetzer, on his The Real Deal radio show, about the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. The archived program can be accessed at his web site, http://radiofetzer.blogspot.com/ 

In addition to this, I’ve completed two children’s stories. One of them, Midnight School, now has illustrations by the talented young artist Jack Murphy. Jack put together a nice PowerPoint presentation of the story, but again so far no agent or publisher has been overwhelmed by it. It’s even harder to get a children’s book pubished than a fictional or non-fictional work for adults. In fact, it’s pretty difficult to even get anyone to look at it. But I’m confident that it has merit, and will find its way into the right hands someday soon.

Recently, I joined a great writer’s group, The League of Extraordinary Authors.  We’re putting together an anthology of stories, with a horror theme and set in the Washington, D.C. area. I’ve written a few short stories already, which turned out surprisingly well. With my penchant for adjectives and detailed characterization, I didn’t think I’d be able to master this arduous craft, but I keep getting inspired to write more of them.

Hopefully I will write pretty regularly on this blog. I’m easily distracted and can have trouble focusing on one thing at a time. We’ll see. I intend to chronicle literary successes and failures, but ultimately my patented rants will probably dominate the entries here. If you’ve read The Unreals, or my JFK posts, or my imdb movie reviews, or Amazon book reviews, then you know I’m opinionated.  Maybe I just love to pontificate.  At any rate, I’ll try to make it entertaining.