BLOOMINGTON, Ind., July 29, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- In 1997, attorney Hutton Hayes took a leave of absence from his company in order to finish a novel he'd set aside 13 years earlier. Since then, he has completed four novels, a book of poetry and a short work of nonfiction that explores spiritual forms of psychotherapy.
"This leave of absence turned into early retirement," Hayes said. "I plan to continue writing as long as possible and have no plans to return to the practice of law."
One of Hayes strengths as a novelist is to write books with both literary and mainstream appeal.
For example, Hayes wrote Keegan's Folly (available from 1stBooks) as a contemporary comedy of manners. However, the novel also explores the many possibilities of gay love as seen through the eyes of its protagonist, Keegan Kane, a young writer who lives and works in New York City. The financially successful author of two best-selling novels, Keegan's problems begin and extend beyond his lover's many infidelities. He finds himself young, healthy, wealthy and miserably unhappy. His life seems to be unraveling.
Relying on short, clipped dialogue, Keegan's Folly is spiced with gay camp and wit. Although it borders on farce as a comedy of manners, the novel offers entertainment with meat to it.
In addition to Keegan's Folly, Hayes' most recent novel Talbott Street (also available from 1stBooks) explores the workings of human memory and the contemporary meanings of HIV through the plot of a love triangle and a man dying of AIDS. The single symbol weaving this novel's intricate elements together is Talbott Street, which refers to an Indianapolis ghetto bar, a residential street address in London, the macabre scene of a senseless murder and an untitled series of mysterious paintings.
"The rewards of writing have been many," Hayes said. "Happiness, for one. I'm poorer than I once was and live more nearly the bohemian life as a result. But I could never have been this happy had I stayed in the corporate world. Writing is in my soul."
Hayes was born in Indianapolis, Ind., and raised in Monroeville, Ala. (home of Harper Lee and the setting for To Kill a Mockingbird), where the literary bug bit him at an early age. He is currently working on a novel about the South and a sequel to Keegan's Folly.
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