BUFFALO, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, May 1, 2023\/EINPresswire.com<\/a>\/ — Known as The Queen City, The City of Lights, The City of No Illusions, The Nickel City, and The City of Good Neighbors, Forbes Magazine in 2010 named Buffalo, NY as the 10th best city to raise a family. Buffalo features world class architecture, renowned sports teams, notable individuals, and is the birthplace of the chicken wing. One of the most interesting facts about Buffalo is that it\u2019s a city of art, featuring over fifty art galleries and having connections to dozens of writers from all genres. Authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, A.R. Gurney, and Mark Twain all have ties to Western New York. Our guest, Stephen Eoannou, hopes to contribute to this rich literary heritage as well.<\/p>\n Stephen Eoannou is a short story author and novelist that derives his inspiration from the history and landmarks in Buffalo, NY. Eoannou is announcing his upcoming novel Yesteryear, which will be released this October. According to Eoannou, \u201cYesteryear is a fictional imagining of how Fran Striker came up with the idea for The Lone Ranger, and why he sold the rights for ten dollars.\u201d He adds, that \u201cit\u2019s based on a true story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat attracted me to this story was that I never knew that the creator of The Lone Ranger was from Buffalo where I\u2019m from,\u201d explains Eoannou. \u201cNot only that, he was a neighborhood guy. Not a lot of people know about him because when Striker sold the rights for ten dollars, he kept writing for the show. The person that he sold it to, George Trendle, started claiming in interviews that he was the one who created The Lone Ranger and the lie stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFran Striker was part of either the best deal or worst deal in entertainment history when he sold the rights to The Lone Ranger for ten dollars,\u201d according to Eoannou. \u201cHe sold the rights because of the Great Depression. Not only did Striker have a young family with two children to support, but he also had about a dozen members of his extended family to support who\u2019d lost everything in the stock market crash. Trendle offered Striker a contract with a nice salary and job security. Striker took the safe bet and signed the contract and the rights away. Of course, The Ranger went on to become a cultural phenomenon and cash cow. Striker never complained nor confronted Trendle about the lie. He handled the situation with grace. In 1954, Trendle sold the rights for over three million dollars, which was a record at the time. Striker and his heirs never saw any of that money, except a small bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBesides Fran Striker, there are characters in the book that are based on people who lived in Buffalo at that time. John L. Barrett was a radio actor for WEBR and that\u2019s where The Lone Ranger premiered on radio as a test pilot with Barrett playing The Ranger. Ultimately the actual radio series would be broadcast from Detroit. Jimmy Slattery, who was the former light heavyweight champion of the world, was from South Buffalo and was a contemporary of Striker\u2019s. Stefano Magaddino, who ran the Mob in Buffalo for decades, is also in the novel. I\u2019m mixing characters based on real life people and characters of my own imagination to create a novel that is part historic, part noir, and part light comedy. It was fun to write, and I hope it will be fun to read.\u201d<\/p>\n Fran Striker ultimately did receive recognition from the city of Buffalo for his contributions. He is in the Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Also, on Washington Street in Buffalo, by the Central Library, also known as \u2018Lit City\u2019, is a banner recognizing Striker, along with many other writers connected to Buffalo. Striker\u2019s banner is by The Brisbane Building, where Woolworth\u2019s was once located and where Striker worked before becoming a writer.<\/p>\n The Lone Ranger celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.<\/p>\n \u201cMuscle Cars consists of seventeen short stories about seventeen guys making bad decisions,\u201d summarizes Eoannou. \u201cEveryone thinks that Muscle Cars is ONLY about muscle cars but is actually the title of the lead story. It was also my thesis when I received my MFA from the Queens University of Charlotte. I\u2019d been writing for over twenty-five years without much success \u2013 I wasn\u2019t getting published. Muscle Cars was the breakthrough book that opened the door for the books that followed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRook is based on the true story of a man name Al Nussbaum,\u201d Eoannou said. \u201cAl was a Buffalo guy, grew up on the East Side, and married his high school sweetheart. He was a small businessman and would often tell his wife that he needed to go out of town on business. However, Al\u2019s real business was robbing banks. He robbed about a half-dozen banks on the East Coast before his wife and the FBI found out. He was also an avid chess player and was quoted as saying, \u2018Robbing banks was like chess with cash prizes\u2019 because he loved the challenge and strategy behind it all. Eventually, he was caught and went to prison. While in prison, he became a writer. When he was paroled in the mid-seventies, he went to Hollywood and wrote for television. He won an award from the Mystery Writers of America and in an interview, Al said that writing was fine but he\u2019d rather be robbing banks. He was unrepentant to the end. Nussbaum was an interesting person that made it to the top of the Most Wanted List.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGrowing up, I liked William Kennedy and how he made Albany, NY his turf to explore. Richard Russo did the same with Upstate New York in his early work. I\u2019m trying to do the same thing with Buffalo,\u201d Eoannou said. \u201cBuffalo is the turf that I\u2019m exploring.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJohn Irving was also influential,\u201d adds Eoannou. \u201cWhen I was in high school, The Hotel New Hampshire came out, it was serialized in Rolling Stone. My sister and I used to fight over it when it was delivered to see who\u2019d read it first. When I finished that book, I wanted to write like him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI left in 1986 to go to grad school at Miami of Ohio,\u201d continues Stephen. \u201cI then taught at Ball State University in Muncie, IN and the College of Charleston in South Carolina. I was gone for about fifteen years, and then moved back to Buffalo in 2001.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2025, I will be releasing a new book titled After Pearl,\u201d Eoannou said. \u201cI refer to this as my \u201cpandemic novel\u201d as I started writing this before the lockdown and finished writing it two years later. I wrote it to escape the pandemic. It\u2019s a historical novel set in Buffalo in 1942 after the events of Pearl Harbor. It\u2019s purely a work of fiction and is not based on any historical facts or historical people. It\u2019s about an alcoholic detective who wakes on the floor of his hotel room after a five-day bender. He takes inventory and discovers that two shots have been fired from his gun but he can\u2019t remember anything. There\u2019s also a missing singer involved that was last seen with the detective, and he\u2019s the prime suspect in her disappearance.\u201d<\/p>\n Eoannou has also won many awards for his work. Yesteryear was awarded the 2021 Eyelands International Book Award for an unpublished historical novel. Bookshelf also declared Yesteryear as a \u201cMust Read for 2023\u201d. Muscle Cars was a Literary Awards Program Winner from the Santa Fe Writing Project (SFWP). Two individual stories from Muscle Cars also won awards \u2013 \u201cSwimming Naked\u201d was awarded an Honor Certificate from The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, while an adaption of \u201cSlip Kid\u201d won the Best Short Screenplay Award at the 36th Starz Denver Film Festival. Eoannou\u2019s upcoming book, After Pearl, was a 2022 Claymore Award finalist.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took me almost thirty years to get published,\u201d concludes Eoannou. \u201cThere was no reason to continue, except the need to write. I kept getting up early. I kept writing. I kept submitting and getting rejected, but I didn\u2019t quit. I never gave up, and I am proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Close Up Radio will feature Stephen Eoannou in an interview with Jim Masters on Wednesday May 3rd at 11am Eastern<\/p>\n Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio<\/a><\/p>\n If you have any questions for our guest, please call (347) 996-3389<\/p>\n For more information, please visit https:\/\/www.sgeoannou.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n You may also pre-order his book Yesteryear at the following online retailers You may also pre-order a signed copy of Yesteryear on Talking Leaves Books<\/a><\/p>\n Lou Ceparano <\/p>\n
\nAmazon https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1951631196<\/a>
\nBarnes & Noble https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/yesteryear-stephen-g-eoannou\/1142946812<\/a>
\nBookshop.org https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/yesteryear-stephen-g-eoannou\/19670696<\/a><\/p>\n
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