Classic Books Used Books owner and operator Eric Maywar is up to something that doesn’t seem like a classic book: a digital one with a few online twists.
“Running Flat” is the coverless and paperless 75-chapter web novel that combines original story telling, visual art, music, poetry, and “web functionality to do things impossible to do on the printed page,” says Maywar, who runs the used book shop on Lafayette Street in downtown Trenton and is the author of the electronic saga.
“If books can be digital, why not do new and interesting things only possible in digital format?” the book seller- turned author asks rhetorically. He adds that when characters walk into a club where a band is playing, “readers can literally hear the same music through the website that the characters can hear in the story. When the characters are at an open mic, readers can hear the same poetry written and read by Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa” — a Trenton resident and arts supporter.
Another Trenton artist participating in “Running Flat” is photographer and painter Tamara Ramos Torres, who created a series of images. Texas-based freelance artist Bethany Sellers was commissioned to create the illustrations. And Philadelphia band Blue Method plays the music.
The story, set in the capital city and using familiar locales, is fueled by several young characters struggling with love, grief, and danger: Jess Foley, a woman who “hasn’t given up on love, even if it has given up on her” and “refuses to be a secondary character in everybody else’s story;” Jack Baldwin, a young man who “has given up and is planning a graceful self-destruction;” and Maya Hill, who is trying to escape her life working for a man and his team before it kills her.
The title is also Trenton. “Runflat tires are tires made by Trenton manufacturer Hutchinson, and they can handle all sorts of abuse and keep on going. It is a metaphor for some of the characters who go through all sorts of things in their lives (loss of their wife, loss of love, and fear for their lives) but somehow keep on rolling,” notes Maywar.
Maywar isn’t new to writing. He has an MFA in writing from Western Michigan State University, where he studied with award-winning writers Stu Dybek and Jaime Gordon. He says he was inspired to create the story after having a discussion about reading books by Kindle. He also recalls how 19th-century novelist Charles Dickens released chapters of his novels through magazine installments and decided to make “Running Flat” available by subscription, releasing new installments by E-mail and updating the novel’s website.
One of the twists in the book is how it is approached by the reader, who decides how to read the story. “Each chapter will be sortable by character and plotline,” Maywar says. “So if you want to read only the parts of the story that have Amadeo D’Onofrio, the man who once beat a man to death with a bag of doorknobs, you can click on his name and read just about him. If you want to read only the story about two people falling in love, you can click on that and read just that part of the novel. If you want to read the whole thing, in chronological order, of course you can do that too.”
Another twist is that Maywar digitally raised $5,218 for the book through a Kickstarter campaign that attracted 79 backers who pledged amounts from $5 to $75.
Maywar — who in addition to running the bookstore during lunch hours and weekends is a fulltime member of the City of Trenton’s division of housing and economic development — moved a former bookshop he operated in New Hope to Trenton in 2005.
Formerly of Michigan where his father was a sociology professor, Maywar, his wife, Donna, and two children, Nia and Noah, are regular presences at the Trenton bookstore’s readings, weekend Scrabble tournaments, and other events organized around “Running Flat.”
Curious readers can access the first seven chapters free at www.runningflatnovel.com. The subscription rate for the novel is $10 and made through PayPal.
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