Racing September

by William DeSeta


Formats

Softcover
£14.05
Softcover
£14.05

Book Details

Language : English
Publication Date : 24/02/2000

Format : Softcover
Dimensions : 5x8
Page Count : 296
ISBN : 9781585003068

About the Book

In the lives of the fortunate, there is a period of time or a series of events that alters their perspective just enough for them realize the possibilities available in a world, almost without limits. For Danny Cerutti that time was the summer of 1953.

A fatal industrial accident leads to a job in a Greenwich Village bookstore, hanging out at The Whitehorse and a tour of the local party scene. His fortunes soar when he inherits 'The Indian,' a monster motorcycle, from an army bound cousin and it attracts delicate and dazzling, twenty-four-year old Kitty Harman. Their passionate affair ends abruptly with her departure for Hollywood but he has already fallen helplessly in love and, unwilling to forget her, he hitchhikes across the country.

The story is about Danny's journey, its humiliating culmination and his race to return to New York, but it's also the stories of those who help, hinder or otherwise become involved in his quest. His cousin Toni, who knew how to create a life if only she could lose a family, or Harry Bilowat, the hot shot New York lawyer who found happiness in Denver as a mailman with four kids. Strangers like Grace Kirby who almost made him forget why he was in L.A., or Brice Tarpits and Glenda Moonbeam who survived the rigors of the road on her body and his guile. People like Mark Shandler who thought Danny was his ticket to adventure or Bridget O'Riley the mysterious Asian party girl who helped him but couldn't be helped by him. It's about people like Curran, the anti-Semite jail guard who couldn't understand how the Jews didn't kill Christ but the Italians did, and Caroline Gilbert, who lost both her children but wouldn't let a stranger comfort her.

It's about a time that was different than now, but people who were very much the same.


About the Author

Bill DeSeta has been involved in the entertainment and communications worlds his entire life. Starting in summers during college, working in stock and various Off-Broadway shows he would eventually produce, direct or design over fifty plays or musicals in New York in addition to building two theaters and owning another. His theater career culminated in 1972 when he produced 'The Candyapple' on Broadway.

He abandoned theater for a while in the '60s to run The Bitter End, the hottest Folk venue in the nation and begin a career as a photographer, creating posters and album covers for many top artists. In the late '60s he opened a restaurant, The Tin Angel, and got into building renovation, designing stores, restaurants and galleries in what was soon to be known as SOHO.

In the early 70's he entered the world of fashion, designing Body Jewelry. His award winning creations were marketed under his own label and that of Anne Klien and in the mid-1970s he began designing sets and costumes for movies and in the ensuing years designed nearly twenty films for theatrical or network release as well as episodes of two TV series.

It was also in the mid-seventies that he began writing, first successfully for cable-TV and later for feature films. His screenplay for 'Perfect Timing' still appears late night on HBO. He currently has two screenplays and a series optioned to three separate studios and a second novel ready to make the rounds.

In his spare time he curates art exhibits and is working on a documentary film about 'The Craft of Art.'

He is married to casting director Donna DeSeta and they have one son, Cristian, an accomplished musician.