Cashtown Corners

Cashtown Corners (Book Cover)

Crafthaus Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has recently optioned the novel “People Live Still In Cashtown Corners” by Canada’s own Tony Burgess.

The book tells the story of Bob Clark, who owns and operates a gas station, the only business in Cashtown Corners.  Bob has never been comfortable around people and he often has a hard time tolerating many of them.  One day, Bob sets himself off on a murderous path that, try as he might, he can’t seem to undo.

Told from a haunting first-person perspective of a mind in rapid decline, “People Live Still In Cashtown Corners” is a fascinating character study of a person trying to cope with situations for which he is just not emotionally or mentally equipped to handle.

The novel caught Jeff Boulton’s attention with its raw intensity and unique perspective.  “The violence in the book was shocking, as intended, but I couldn’t stop turning the pages. It was Bob’s struggle to compartmentalize his horrible acts in order to leave them in the past that was so compelling. Tony wrote a thought process for Bob that is so far from what readers are used to hearing associated with murderers.  The story sat with me long after I finished reading it.”

Excerpt

“It is what it is. That’s her car out there and, well, that’s her right there.”

Jeremy looks at the woman again. There’s a few flies dipping in and out of the back of her skull.

“What happened to her?”

I feel a little uncomfortable. I wasn’t really planning to lay it all out like this.

“Well, I hate to say this but I killed her.”

Jeremy nods slowly. He’s starting to take this in and I’m relieved.

“Don’t ask me why. Anything I say is just gonna sound ridiculous.”

I rub my hand in my hair. I want to appear frustrated.

“Things just got out of control.”

The challenge in adapting this story for the screen will be how to visually represent the ongoing, first-person narrative flow of Bob’s mental processes.

About Tony Burgess

Tony Burgess is a novelist and screenwriter whose best-known work is arguably the 1998 novel “Pontypool Changes Everything” and his screenplay for the motion picture adaptation of that same novel, Pontypool (2008), directed by Bruce McDonald.  Tony’s print oeuvre also includes The Hellmouths Of Bewdley, Caesarea, The n-Body Problem, Ravenna Gets, and Idaho Winter. While his screenplays include Dreamland, also directed by Bruce McDonald and released in Canada this year.

Check out Tony’s profile on IMDb and on GoodReads.

For some insight on the novel, check out this interview with Tony in “Bookends: Episode 1” —