In 1980, Alan Cancelino had a metric ton of darkroom recovery silver when the price went to fifty bucks an ounce. That's right. A metric ton. He sold it, quit the darkroom, and put a blues band together. Then he launched a legendary kilos-of-cocaine bender, fueled by a white-knuckle 2200% ROI import free-for-all, and had the DEA cursing his name for half a decade. In the end the law had its way, tossing Al to the federal system for 8-24, but not before he spent his 1989 summer months with beach sun and fun while on the run, and not before one of the DEA's contract snitches penned a book touting Alan as a prize takedown with deep ties to the NYC mob, earning him instant celebrity status within the walls of every pen that awaited him. "Cons love true-crime novels," says Al. Makes sense. Eight years later, he emerged whole, refreshed, supper waiting for him on the table, and full of more incredible stories than anyone. Anyone that ain't lying, that is. If you're a slow luck, out of work, Internet micro-fiction acrobat, who's looking to swing into the world of for-real published books, and this guy's been your friend for 30 years, what do you do? You do what I did. You freestyle 108,000 words about the drama of writing up those years of his for public consumption, and you cut him in for 50% of the take. After all, he's obviously got all the luck, and while 50/50 with him's not a sure thing, there are worse plans being hatched out there. Black Flies In The Backyard With Snowshoes is the true story of a late bloomer who tosses the Hail Mary pass of a lifetime, teaching himself to write his old pal's incredible adventure as a real time memoir about learning how to write such a book. It's an irreverent buddy film romp, with the whole thing sieved through two very different 1st hand perspectives. So, does this whole book plan work? If someone ever buys the damn thing from a real store, then yeah, it worked.
