Sneakers

By Angus Brownfield

Kermit O’Doyle, a paraplegic, works as an analyst on the China desk of the CIA’s Economic Analysis Unit. He’s tasked with discovering why the Chinese are flooding the US with designer hi-tops that sell for less than canvas sneakers. Everyone wants them and soon they’re outselling America’s top brands. But violence follows the shoes onto the playgrounds across America. Moreover, Kermit and the paraplegics he plays wheelchair basketball with are beset with unusual nervous reactions since switching to the Chinese sneakers. Is there a connection? If so, how to react to China’s ominous economic attack.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Angus Brownfield
• Release date: Dec 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311815095

Angus Brownfield

Write what you know. I know me and I'm talking to you, reader, in the first person, not the anonymous third person, because when I write I write about me and the world that thrives around me. I wrote decent poetry in college, I couldn’t get the hang of short stories. I finished my first novel so many years ago writers were still sending their works to publishers instead of agents. My first novel was rejected by everyone I sent it to. The most useful rejection, by a Miss Kelly at Little, Brown, said something like this: “You write beautifully, but you don’t know how to tell a story.” Since then I've concentrated on learning to tell a good story. The writing isn’t quite so beautiful but it will do. Life intervened. Like the typical Berkeley graduate, I went through five careers and three marriages. Since the last I've been writing like there’s no tomorrow. I have turned out twelve novels, a smattering of short stories and a little poetry. My latest novel is the third in a series about a man who is not my alter ego, he’s pure fiction, but everyone he interacts with, including the women, are me. My title for this trilogy is The Libertine. Writers who have influenced me include Thomas Mann, Elmore Leonard, Albert Camus, Graham Greene, Kurt Vonnegut and Willa Cather. I don’t write like any of them, but I wish I did. I'm currently gearing up to pay attention to marketing. Archery isn’t complete if there’s no target. I've neglected readers because I've been compulsive about putting words down on paper. Today the balance shifts.

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SNEAKERS

a short story

by Angus Brownfield

SMASHWORDS EDITION

***

Published By

Angus Brownfield on Smashwords

Copyright © 2014 by Angus Brownfield

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Sneakers

You won’t find me on the CIA organization chart. I’m just an Associate Economic Analyst, a grunt, not an executive, and there are many many of us. We work