Mayhem, Murder and the PTA by Dave Cravens

Book Details:
Book Title:  Mayhem, Murder and the PTA by Dave Cravens
Category:  Adult Fiction, 434 pages
Genre:  Mystery / Thriller
Publisher:  Amazon
Release date:   May 20, 2019
Format available for review:  print, ebook (mobi, gifted Kindle copy, ePub, PDF)
Will send print books out:  USA & Canada
Tour dates: August 19 to September 13, 2019
Content Rating:  R (Rated R mostly for language. There are adult topics of conversation, a brief scene depicting two adults having consensual sex that becomes interrupted, a murder, and several themes that touch upon drug use, adultery, pedophilia and human trafficking.)

Book Description:
Parker Monroe is a tough-talking investigative reporter used to writing headlines, not being the subject of them. When a key source vanishes on a politically toxic story, this single mother of three finds herself at the center of a media storm and out of a job. Ready to reset, Parker moves her family back to the rural town where she grew up. But a gossip-filled PTA, a tyrannical school principal and a gruesome murder make adjusting to the "simple life" anything but. Parker Monroe is about to chase the story of her lifetime...

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The Art of Swearing…

By Dave Craven

One of the most controversial aspects of my new novel, Mayhem Murder and the PTA, is the foul mouth of its lead character, Parker Monroe. Much to the chagrin of her mother and three kids, Parker exercises little restraint in her daily conversations with others. Even when she does feign politeness, the reader is often treated to what Parker is truly thinking and it is rarely PG. I’ve received a lot of praise for Parker’s language as well as a lot of grief. Some readers are turned off by Parker’s choice of words, dismissing them as crude and needless. I couldn’t disagree more. There can be real purpose and an art to swearing as longs as it springs from a genuine place and is embedded into the DNA of the character.

Parker is a fish out of water adjusting to her new reality as a single parent after being fired from her job as a hardnosed journalist. For Parker, swearing comes as easily as breathing. Her mouth is both super power and kryptonite that she struggles to control when dealing with public school officials who insist on more appropriate etiquette. Swearing is a part of her story.

This isn’t to say that swearing can’t be crude or needless—we see examples of it every day. Teens experiment with cursing to sound cool or appear more adult, but rarely pull it off. Many rappers drop f-bombs like it was the first Gulf War yet most of it sounds forced and artificial. They’re going off a playbook, a recipe, that isn’t truly theirs, hoping to get more downloads as they rally against the norm. They’re too often right.

Compare all of that to a prolific curser and a great actor, Samuel L. Jackson. That crazy mother-f—ker got famous saying “mother-f—ker” and could probably trademark the whole mother-f—king word. (See what I did there?) There is something in Sam’s delivery that just works. Melissa McCarthy can swear with the best of them. Her swearing often conveys the pinnacle of frustration, the ultimate “you gotta be sh—ting me!” that every one of us have felt from time to time. Of course, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool is the king of sarcasm, interweaving curse words with blistering burns of pop culture and obscure references to notorious bathrooms in Minneapolis. (You know the ones.)

Swearing, when done right, is powerful, poignant and cathartic. It can be a release of whatever is bottled up inside. It can be a huge middle finger to situations beyond our control. I’ve read of studies that claim using expletives can increase a person’s strength by nearly ten percent. It also allows for a higher tolerance of pain.

Am I advocating that everyone should start swearing all the time? No. I think life would become incredibly boring if that were the case. We need to promote language as an art. All words are simply made up symbols and sounds to express otherwise intangible ideas or feelings. Words can only hold the power we bestow upon them. I may choose to use “crude” ones now and then – but they will never, ever be “needless.”

Meet the author:

As a child, Dave Cravens planned to grow up to be a superhero, the first person to capture Bigfoot and Nessie on film, pilot experimental aircraft out of Area 51, develop cold fusion, and star and direct in his own blockbuster action movies so he could retire at the ripe age of twenty-five and raid tombs the rest of his life. Instead, he got a degree in journalism, which he hasn’t used at all other than to justify his incredibly insightful and valid complaints about the state of journalism. During his twenty-two years in the video game business, he’s written for award winning franchises, directed TV commercials and movies, sprained his ankles numerous times in ultimate frisbee games and published three original novels.

Connect with the author:   Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook