Red Asphalt

by Scott Cherney, Cherney, Scott

TRAFFIC CAN BE MURDER... See that car in your rear-view mirror? The driver wants to kill you. Don’t take it personally. You just happen to be in the way. In RED ASPHALT, the operator of the vehicle in question is a troubled medical courier in a triple threat cage match with his two biggest adversaries-everyday life and himself. His marriage to the woman he believed to be his soul mate is rapidly evaporating before his eyes. The book he’s been working on for over a decade is slipping through his fingers as he struggles to complete it. As these pressures grow, he compensates by conjuring up outrageous road rage scenarios in the multiplex of his mind. As his life, job and dreams simultaneously implode, his wild fantasies begin to literally bleed over into reality. Now with a gun in one hand and a steering wheel in the other, this distant runner-up in the human race feels empowered for the very first time. At least our boy’s finally found a purpose in life.

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 28, 2008

About the author

Born to be alive in Stockton, California, Scott Cherney has worn many hats in his life and times, among them a cowboy hat as a stunt performer on the streets of the Pollardville Ghost Town, a western amusement park that housed leftover sets from the William Wyler film THE BIG COUNTRY. He then ventured to the Palace Showboat Dinner Theater becoming a triple threat actor/writer/director of their melodrama/vaudeville stage productions in the process including LIFE IS A CABARET and CALIFORNIA FOLLIES.

Cherney was an award winning actor with roles in such shows as ANGRY HOUSEWIVES,SYLVIA and MOVE OVER, MRS. MARKHAM. His film credits consist of appearances in UNDER ARREST, OMEGA COP and BACKSTAGE PASS.

In 1986, Scott was the winner of the one and only San Joaquin County Stand-Up Comedy Competition. He spent time as an on-air film critic for KUOP-FM and even inside a giant raccoon suit as a radio station mascot.

Scott’s first book, the non-fiction memoir IN THE DARK: A LIFE AND TIMES IN A MOVIE THEATER, was published in 2003. This was followed by a collection of original comedy sketches entitled NOW THAT’S FUNNY!, his first novel, RED ASPHALT, the travel journal, PLEASE HOLD THUMBS: A NOT-SO-ROUND TRIP TO SOUTH AFRICA and his latest, SONG OF THE CANYON KID, a western comedy romance. As a playwright, his works include the melodramas SONG OF THE CANYON KID, THE LEGEND OF THE ROGUE and LA RUE'S RETURN (with Edward Thorpe). Recently, he added two interactive murder mysteries to his resume-DEAD TUESDAY and MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER.


He currently lives near Portland, Oregon with his wife, Laurie.

Reviews

[Thomas Amo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading by the DMV. Scott Cherney's "Red Asphalt" kicks major butt! I have read this book at least 4 times. Not only is it thought provoking and suspenseful. But it's downright damn funny at times! You identify with literally every situation that comes up in the book. Calvin Wheeler, may be an anti-hero, but if you give this book a read, you will learn there is a little bit of Calvin in every one of us who drives a car.

Awesome book!

[Arielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a very unique and unusual perspective to it of a man who combines fantasy and reality to the point that both he and the reader are sometimes confused as to what is actually happening. After a while it appears that reality takes over, but it does so at the permission of fantasy. Some parts were funny, some I could relate to, however the ending sort of left me hanging. A book with lots of facets, that's for sure.