Up to Your Ass in Brass

I am editing a nonfiction collection of my father’s written work.  As a beloved professor of political science at Drew University in New Jersey for over thirty years, my father’s books illuminate the unequal dispensation of justice in this nation.  His predictions are timely and his prescriptions endure, urgently.  Soon, you'll be able to help get this book published.

Up to Your Ass in Brass: the Greatest Hits of Dr. Paul B. Wice is an omnibus comprised of synopses for each of his eleven books, assorted sunny literary diversions, as well as the complete manuscript of his never-before published final book, White Flight: D.C. in the Rearview.

I have been chipping away at this project over the last decade, always prioritizing my own writing (as he would have warmly insisted).  However, with the ten-year anniversary of his death in November, and his namesake grandson beginning to talk, this project has now become my full-time priority.  My father taught me to how to read, and now I am an author in my own right.  This book will cement his professional legacy, a bridge enabling him to communicate directly with future generations through his writing. 

His final book, White Flight, is about growing up in Washington D.C. as it transformed overnight from a white city into a black city.  It is a blend of eyewitness memoir and investigative scholarship, human in scale but with implications for our entire society.  He died before it could be published. On his deathbed, he gave me his blessing to finish the book.

In addition to that complete manuscript, I will include a synopsis for each of his previously published books, some of which are still being assigned in universities today.  A born teacher, he plainly explains all the parts of the legal system, focusing especially on the human side of justice.   His incisive study of the famous “Hurricane” Carter case earned him the New Jersey Author Award for 2001, slicing through Hollywood’s fabrications to reveal the real disease at the heart of the American justice system. 

These chapters will be interspersed with collections of anecdotes and articles, such as his essay about being the recipient of a heart transplant, satirical letters written to the New York Times, as well as remembrances by friends and family.  These are all gathered under the title “A Plethora of Shibboleths,” a line of his which hints at my dad’s puckish wit.

The first draft is completed.  I am working on the second draft.  At its conclusion, the manuscript will be ready for publication at 100,000 words (50% White Flight, 25% synopses, 25% shibboleths).