Almost Perfect

by Larry J. Dunlap

Almost Perfect has been unpublished and entirely rewritten as Part II of ENCHANTED, Things We Lost in the Night.

The band returns to its Midwestern roots in Indiana to perform friends and family for the first time since leaving home three years earlier. Larry must try to resolve the emotional storms from the past with his present and future. When the band returns to California and Las Vegas, Stark Naked and the Car Thieves' reputation continues to grow. Though the hit record they were supposed to have fails to materialize, big opportunities are on the horizon. But there's a big surprise for Larry in his personal life.

150 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 21, 2017

About the author

Larry J. Dunlap is the author of the recently completed THINGS WE LOST IN THE NIGHT, A Memoir of Love and Music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves in two volumes: NIGHT PEOPLE: Book 1, followed by ENCHANTED: Book 2.

"Though I'd always wanted to be a creative writer from my youth, my writing career didn't begin until late in life as a pencil-for-hire, technical and training writer for Fortune 50 companies in the 1990s. In the 1970s, the years following my memoir project, I spent most of the decade working in Hollywood as a personal manager, publisher, and Sunset Boulevard recording studio owner/operator. While actually seeking a way out of the music business in the 1980s, I developed a love affair with early computer gaming that led me to co-found The Games Network, Inc., the first all-digital broadcasting cable network, followed by several years in video and film production and post-production.

My favorite project has been imagining a galactic empire as a backdrop for an online game system. In the mid-2000s, I designed what I considered to be an innovative gameplay and delivery system and gathered together a highly talented art and programming team to develop a breakthrough graphical multiplayer online strategy game called IMPERIAL WARS. Since I didn't have the resources initially to develop the game, it gave me a lot of time to work on a history of the empire and develop ideas and concepts for a trilogy based on a specific time in this history. For my latest project I have begun work on the first volume, working-name, IMPERIA, and roughing out the two following books. I've been a huge science-fiction fan since the golden age of sci-fi in the late 1950s and early 60s. It's hard not to be intimidated by the incredible authors in this genre between then and now but I'm excited by the challenge.

At various moments over the years, I have published short stories, been a rock music review columnist for a California lifestyle magazine, and authored and drawn a published music-based cartoon strip named Frets. I author fiction and creative non-fiction project from a wonderful little hideaway near the ocean in Southern California where I count my blessings and share my life with my wife Laurie and our pet Chilidog."

Find out more at http://larryjdunlap.com

Below I'd like to invite you to read the first seven chapters of the two books of Things We Lost in the Night, a fast-moving romance-filled ROMANCE-FILLED memoir of a young singer and his friends search for success in the 1960s music business of California and Las Vegas in an easy to read online format in the link below.


Here are the first seven chapters of NIGHT PEOPLE FREE at the link below:
https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin...

and here are the first seven chapters of ENCHANTED FREE at this link:
https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin...

Reviews

[Kristi Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The journey of Stark Naked and the Car Theives, as told through bandleader Larry Dunlap, has been a fantastic read for any music lover and/ or flower child of the 60's. After reading this third installment, what I've found most striking is the absolute honesty in which the story of this band, it's members, and its music is told- no rose-colored glasses, no smoke and mirrors, just what seems to be straight-up, sometimes gut wrenching truths. If I sat down with pencil in hand with the challenge of telling my own story, I don't know if I could be as transparent as this book comes across. Just know that when you reach the end of Almost Perfect, you'll be eager to pack your bags and head to Vegas!