Ethan Thomas has everything a person could want -- at twenty-five, he is the author of a nationally bestselling cult novel that has just been turned into a major motion picture. He has millions of dollars in the bank, can count rock stars and famous actors as his personal friends, and appears regularly on talk shows and the covers of popular magazines.

Then why is it that he can't get a word written of his new novel?

Afterglow is the ambitious novel about fame and its reprecussions from Jason Pettus, the author of the sleeper hit Dreaming of Laura Ingalls. Based loosely on the plot of the Siddhartha legend, the book sweeps from the wind-torn skyscrapers of Chicago to the farmlands of southern Missouri, out to the slick veneer of Los Angeles nightlife. Along the way, as Ethan struggles with his writing block and what it means about himself, Pettus comments on the nature of fame, the adult ramifications of being a child prodigy, and the emotional differences not only between smalltown and big-city living, but the cultural differences between the east coast, west coast and the midwest. Afterglow is not the usual self-referential novel; it is a statement about humanity, emotions and the struggle for peace itself, and it will hit you in a way that you never expected a book about writers ever could.

Read an excerpt:

Opening scene of the book

Ethan gets interviewed

Ethan meets a new friend

Ethan's first Hollywood party

Ethan, Julie and Ted at Spago

Ethan tries cocaine for the first time

Copyright 1998, Jason Pettus. All rights reserved.