carl posey works

Randall, a talented but disenchanted editor at Dawn Books, the moribund limb of the Dawn Magazine media empire, has arrived at a pivotal moment in his professional life. On the one hand is the possibility of his becoming series editor of Conspiracy!, a job for which Randall, now middle-aged, would have run naked through the streets.

On the other hand, there is the disturbing possibility that Randall will come up empty, or, worse, be sent to work on one of the other Dawn Books series: YOU Do It! (DIY home repair), Brother Against Brother (Civil War), Life of the Nile (ancient Egypt), Green Thumb (gardening), or Glory of Africa (called “the black thing” by its editor). To Randall, editorial oblivion.

His fate hangs by a thread, which could be severed at any moment by a hostile focus group or the whims of Billy Bass, Dawn Books’ editor-of-editors, or Dawn’s corporate overlords in New York.

Shot@Dawn follows the arc of Randall’s destiny through this world of editors, writers, researchers, and what Randall calls the Whores of Marketing—a world of wit and talent, office sex, hard labor in good company, courage, cowardice, and editorial caprice. It is a noir comedy that any veteran of the direct-mail publishing game will recognize—and, perhaps, shed a tear or, more likely, laugh aloud.