Morehead

San Francisco in the late 1970's, and early 1980's.
It was a time of sexual, evolutionary, and
political change with both glorious and
nearly catastrophic consequences.
It was also a great time to be a
straight young man in a
gay old city.

It was a time for Morehead.

Morehead is now available in Print, Kindle and Audio Book. Look for it on amazon.com, and other fine online retailers and bookstores everywhere.





Morehead,  a new novel by Jeffrey Hickey

Available today at Amazon.com in print. Kindle version out soon.

And then:

An abridged audiobook

 Starring

Joseph Rende as Dave Morehead and all the guys in Chapter 2

Lauren Pizzi as almost all the  women

Jeffrey Hickey as everyone else

Morehead just got it's first major publication review--Five Stars out of Five Stars from Foreword Clarion Review:

Foreword Clarion Review
FICTION: GENERAL
Morehead
Jeffrey Hickey
CreateSpace
978-1-4701-5261-1
Five Stars (out of Five)

College student Dave Morehead is a “straight young man living in a gay old city” in Jeffrey Hickey’s candid coming-of-age story. Set in the 1970s and 1980s, Morehead follows the education of a twenty-one-year-old man who arrives at San Francisco State University with only one real goal: to seduce women. Dave Morehead’s college experiences challenge this singlemindedness and broaden his perspective immensely.

Hickey presents Dave’s story in the first person but avoids the exclusive use of journallike musings that would become tedious after a few hundred pages. Instead, he illuminates
Dave’s thoughts in a variety of formats that keep the reader engaged and entertained. Class assignments reveal Dave’s friendships and a 1970s culture that revolves around record albums and sound systems. His journal entries include not only self-reflection but also transcripts of intimate conversations that shine light on the other characters.

Some of the vignettes are poignant, illustrating the turbulent times. Dave’s visits to the flamboyant Castro District and his quiet talks with gay men in the early days of the AIDS crisis show his growth as a compassionate person. Other scenes are simply hilarious, such as the “Work in the Eighties” chapters. Here, Hickey drops readers into a day in the life of Dave at work. We find him at a movie concession stand, a car dealership, and in a series of temporary jobs, all of which he handles with varying levels of competence and a constant sense of humor.

The language used by Dave and his compatriots is often crude, with frequent profanities and references to sex. The swearing doesn’t feel gratuitous, however. Instead, it paints a realistic picture of the way guys might talk to each other. Additionally, the frankness allows Dave to ask a lot of questions, and get a lot of answers, about the burgeoning gay culture he finds himself living in.

Hickey provides fertile ground for character growth as Dave gets to know people who are very different from him. Initially naïve about homosexuality, Dave finishes his college years by writing a play about the struggles of the first Gay Games as they fought the US Olympic Committee over the use of the word “Olympic.” The script of the play is included and exhibits Dave’s signature sarcasm and humor.

Previous works by Hickey include multimedia productions like Bats and Bones, which combines stories and music; Wages Creek, a children’s book; and The Coach’s Son, a sports novel. Hickey’s versatility and comfort with diverse formats are revealed in the blend of styles he brings together in Morehead to take Dave from boorish freshman to promising young adult.

Sheila M. Trask

MOREHEAD

Synopsis

By Jeffrey Hickey

Dave Morehead is like most men. He wants to get laid. In the late 1970’s in San Francisco, at the height of the sexual revolution, this does not pose much of a problem for a handsome young college student in his early 20’s. But despite his narrow perspective, Dave cannot help but be drawn into the social, sexual and political upheaval of his time.

Dave encounters people of varying sexual orientations, and while he remains staunchly and defiantly heterosexual throughout the story, he soon realizes there is much more to life than his sexual needs.

San Francisco is teeming with diversity, and an evolving political base that forever changes the landscape of what had always been a progressive city. Harvey Milk, Halloween in the Castro, college classes where heterosexuals are in the minority, the first Gay Games, and spiritual cults comprise just part of the terrain Dave must traverse in order to get from where he was, to what he will become.

Along the way, he is challenged, assaulted, forced to defend himself, and rely on an expanding and surprising variety of friends. He is put into situations most straight men would find challenging at best, if not repugnant.

At the same time, a mysterious “gay cancer” is beginning to afflict his new friends and the community at large.  Dave has to grow up, and he has to make choices. Will he be there for his friends, or will he let them go?

Morehead is a coming of age story in the first person. It is told from the perspective of journals, classroom assignments, and transcribed audio recordings. It comically, bluntly and poignantly tells the tale of a straight young man living in a gay old city.

Morehead will also resonate in the world today; especially pertaining to straight/gay relations, because Dave Morehead is like most men.